How can one be so Dumb?

Scoring  above 90% & less than 33% in all subjects is both amazing and shocking to me.
As a Principal when I go through the answers sheets of all subjects of students of both bright and slow learners I always get impressed as well as disappointed and shocked.
Impressed to see students scoring above 90% marks and disappointed to see students scoring less than 40% and shocked to notice students scoring even less than 33%.  Few even score less than 10 and 5 or even 0 !
I often wonder that how one could score above 90% as well as below 33%.
Upto some extent we can comprehend the reasons behind students doing well and scoring above 90%.  Like their intelligence, parental / teachers, guidance, good books, resources available online.
But scoring less than 33% and 10% is beyond my comprehension.
How can one be so dumb?

“Teacher is the most ignored part in India’s private Educational Sector.”

Guru Brahma Guru Vishnu
Guru Devo Maheshwaraha
Guru saakshaat ParaBrahma
Tasmai Sri Guruve Namaha
This means,
Guru is the Creator (Brahma)
Guru is the Preserver (Vishnu)
Guru is the Destroyer (Maheshwara)
Guru is the absolute (Singular) Lord Himself.

Salutations to that Guru.

A teacher in India is still looked upon with utmost respect by the parents and students as far as his knowledge, integrity and talent is concerned but unfortunately his knowledge, integrity and talent doesn’t get the same respect from the people who are running the Educational shows in the country under the private sector.

Big schools, small schools irrespective of the brands under which they are functioning / prospering inspite of spending huge amount for developing their 3 star, 5 star rated infrastructures, don’t pay their teachers what they deserve.

Boards, like CBSE & ICSE, have it in their affiliation bye-laws that the salaries paid to the staff need to be at least at par with the states in which the schools are located. But, this is seldom followed by any of the schools across the nation.  During the time of inspections all papers related to the salaries, including acquaintance roll, salary slips, bank documents are made available to the inspectors assigned by the Boards which show that proper salaries are being paid to all staff members but the ground realities remains dismal.






More than the rules the ethics of school promoters needs to be changed in order to enable the teachers to get their dues. This doesn’t seem to be happening.  Couple of my ex-colleagues who always stood by great idealism when they were teachers have ventured into establishing great learning institutes which get categorized under K schools are also not doing justice with their staff as far as their salaries are concerned.

Hence, I have formed a negative opinion about the fact that the situation will ever stand a chance to improve. It’s high time that the Indian Govt. needs to take cognizance  of the prevailing situation and bring about a revolutionary change in the field of education at all levels, i.e., schools, undergraduate institutes and post graduate institutes.  The sooner it is done the better it will be for the country.

When Government / PSUs can run various schools, JNVs, BHUs, IITs, IIMs, AFMCs, AIIMs kind of educational bodies then with their forevision and good intentions can change the prevailing circumstances and save not only the parents from being cheated by the so called Educational Mafia but also help to provide to the students of the country nothing but the best that is available and also raise the standards of the teachers who are treated to be higher than the God,

“Guru Govind dou Khadhe Ka Ke Lagu Pai
Balehari Guru Apne, Gobind Diyo Batay.”

Both Guru and God stand before me, whose feet do I touch first ? I bow down to my Guru first because without him I would have never been able to recognize God.


S.S. Thaper
Principal
Delhi Public School Nigahi

6.10.2017-6:00 pm

Blue Whale Game!

What’s wrong in asking a Question to students of Class IX regarding ‘BWG’ ?
Is it possible to both highlight an issue and also to keep the same issue wrapped under covers and treat it as a taboo ? Well the school administration, Principals and teachers are exactly being asked to do this as far as the ‘Blue Whale Game’ is concerned.
The very idea of highlighting the harmful effects of ‘BWG’ in schools was itself debatable.
We all know child’s psychology.  Whatever we tell the child not to do he gets more interested in it and his natural curiosity tempts him to explore the same.  Inspite of this the educationists, political leaders, bureaucrats and media decided to highlight ‘BWG’ among the school and college students of our country.
In order to raise awareness among students regarding any leader(s) of the past ; cleanliness; disaster; pollution; road safety; water conservation; empowerment of women etc., social issue, normal activities that we take the students through are : Debates, Extempores, Speeches,  Declamations, Drawing / Painting competitions, Essay writing competitions, Skits, Plays, Road Side Plays etc.
If we can make children do all these activities for raising awareness then one fails to understand what can be wrong with one of the teachers asking a question to Class IX students in the term based exam of a school in Chattisgarh wherein the students w ere asked to write a 50 words conversation between two friends on the topic ‘BWG’ ?

S.S. Thaper
20.09.2017

Unruly at Home But Disciplined in School

“Class III Boy” “Unruly at Home but Disciplined in School”
Couple of weeks before a mother of Class III student came down to meet me. Her grievance was that her son remained unruly at home.  He refuses to carry tiffin to this school frequently because of which she has to come to the school to deliver it to him.  He also removes his school uniform just before leaving the home and runs around the house without clothes and refuses to come to school.  She also said that he threatens them that he will commit suicide by jumping from the roof of their house.
On hearing her grievances I immediately summoned the boy to my chamber.  I had presumed that he would be a pretty strong character and will be a robust boy with a notorious appearance.  But was surprised to see a meekish boy entering my chamber.  He was pretty thin.  He looked very disciplined.  He wished me and didn’t show any signs of anger on seeing his mother in my room.  I made him sit comfortably on a chair beside his mother and asked him, “How are you ?” to which he answered ‘I’m good sir’, and smiled at me. I asked him, “Why didn’t you eat your breakfast and why didn’t you carry your tiffin to school for which your mother had to come to school ? See how much she loves you.” He replied by saying, “I was not hungry so I didn’t take my breakfast and I’m sorry for not having brought my tiffin.”
I was surprised to note his frank nature and also his confidence.  I also noticed that he was unable to articulate words properly and was also stammering but this short coming was not bothering him at all.
I then dared to venture into the difficult zone and asked him, “Tell me my boy, do you threaten your parents that you will commit suicide by jumping from top of your house ?” He just smiled at me and felt embarrassed. Then I counseled him by saying, “Suppose if you jump off what will happen you know? Either you will break your bones or you will die. Who will be at a loss ?”  To this he promptly replied by saying, “My loss sir”: I said, ‘Good you understand this.  Your parents will cry over your death for a week or two or maximum for a month.  Ultimately you will be at a loss.  So never try to get these weird ideas into your head ever and be sincere.”
He said, “Yes sir, I’m sorry for this.”

During this time his mother was observing the proceedings and I could see that she was much relaxed.
I told the boy, “See I’m going to ask your mother to keep informing me about your behavior at home on regular basis.”
He smiled and said, “Ok sir.”  Then I sent him to his class.
Now-a-days he makes eye contacts with me during assemblies and when I look at him he smiles back in assurance.
Mother also conveys over phone that he is behaving well at home.
Sukhwant Singh Thaper
Principal
DPS School Nigahi

“Ghalle aave Nanaka Sadhe uthi jai”.

Nanak says ‘Once the call comes from the Almighty one gets up and departs.’

We all know that death is an inevitable truth.

Yet when someone passes away we mourn for him.

We constantly remain in fear of death whether we are old or young or sick or healthy.

Death due to old age and sickness is painful but still acceptable.  But when death strikes someone at a very young age or due to any untoward incident like an accident or at the war front or murder it becomes very painful and unacceptable.

Yesterday I came across two such deaths which has disturbed the peace of my mind.  One was that of a policeman (Mr. Mishra) at Waidhan.  He was only 35 years old. While crossing the school of Excellence near Chunkumari Stadium he suffered a stroke and when he was taken to the Govt. Hospital which is situated around 200 meters from the spot he was declared dead by the Doctors.

Second death news that disturbed me was that of an old sevadhar (volunteer) at one of the most religious places of the world, i.e.,    ‘The Golden Temple’.  Day before Bhai Charanjit Singh fell in to the couldron in which ‘chasni’ (water mixed with sugar) was being boiled for preparing ‘kheer’ (a sweet dish) for the free kitchen.  He was rushed to the hospital with 80%burns but ultimately he succumbed to death last evening.

I got to see the pics. of both Mr. Mishra and S. Charanjeet Singh.  Mr. Mishra was lying on the stretcher and his face looked so peaceful as if he was having a little nap and will wake up soon.  There were no signs on his face of severe stroke that took away his life so suddenly.  His face neither reflected pain nor fear.  He was lying there as if he would wake up at one call of his child or wife.

The disturbing factor of S. Charanjeet Singh’s death is the fact that he met with the fatal accident of falling into the cauldron of boiling water with sugar at a place which is known for having blessed innumerable people both in the past and present. It is a place which has miraculously cured people of their ailments like blindness, cancer and lameness.  How trouble can befall on an and old person who had been working in the place for so long ?

I know such places can’t become foolproof from death but still being the mortal that we are these doubts come to our minds.

May the Lord bless the souls of both Mr. Mishra and S. Charanjeet Singh and provide us with more understanding.

S.S. Thaper

06/07/2017

NCERT Vs Private Publishers

NCERT Vs Private Publishers

“This article is NOT written to favour Private Publishers.”

We often read in the newspapers and on social sites that schools are implementing text books other than NCERT for making a good earning out of them. Socially active men and women make the accusation that the schools want to earn commissions from the Private Publishers so they go in for their text books.  Few of them have even claimed that Private Publishers provide discount ranging from 50% to 60% upon the printed prizes.  It would be a great idea if anyone of these socially active people join hands and open up their outlets and make these books available to the parents every year by extending 40% to 50% discount on printed rates directly to the parents. (And thereby still make a profit of 20% to 10% for themselves.)

We need to come out of these narrow accusations of earning profits through commissions, by selling Private Publishers text books etc., by the school Principals and Sponsors and look at the issue in a broader perspective as to the relevance or irrelevance of implementing text books published by Private Publishers.

The following are a few advantages & disadvantages of NCERT & Private Publishers books :

NCERT Advantages        -              ·         They are written by panel of expert subject teachers. ·         They are precise. ·         They are available at very low cost. ·         They are light in weight & hence easy to carry. Disadvantages   - ·         Their preciseness creates problem for the slow learners. ·         They contain very less illustrations and samples and exercises. ·         Availability has always been an issue for the past 2 to 3 decades. Hope, according to the new provisions made by CBSE things will improve in the coming years. Private Publishers Text Books Advantages -     ·         They are also written by expert subject teachers. ·         They are full of illustrations, samples, exercises, which prove to be both helpful to the slow learners as well as challenging for the bright ones. ·         They are readily available. Disadvantages – ·         They are heavy in weight and difficult to carry. ·         Due to more number of pages their cost is high.

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Implementation of only NCERT books has been experimented by various schools which had resulted into the following situations :

a)      Books were not available in the market till August and lot many children had to get the Xerox copies which proved to be a great disadvantage and led to a situation of becoming penny wise but pound foolish.

b)      Inspite of the school following NCERT books it is seen that children inarbitarily buy Private Publishers text books from the market which results into variety of text books.

c)      Teachers also tend to give questions and assignments from various other resources and thereby utilize huge amount of stationery for doing so.

By keeping the above factors schools implement Private Publishers text books which helps students in understanding the concepts better and thereby succeed in their pursuits of higher studies. 

Private Schools are able to start their new session from 1^st of April with all the required text books.

Sukhwant Singh Thaper

 28th Feb 2017

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It’s really not possible to satisfy everyone.

A day before Intra Class Competition was successfully organized in the school for the PPW (Classes Nursery to I) students.  There were 30 participants from Class Nursery to I who took part in it.

Most of their parents had also turned up to witness the performance.

All Judges were from the senior wing.  The weather remained good and the whole competition went off as per the plan.  Almost all the participants performed to their best.  Not a single participant got stuck in between.  They all completed their performance with full confidence.  Of course, there were few who were unable to speak into the microphone as good as others did.  But Judges never took a note of the factor while judging PPW students for after all they were aware of the fact that the kids were making use of the microphone for the first time in their time lives.

On the basis of combined judgment the prizes were given away to the top three performers among 10 participants for each class.

After half an hour or so one of the parents of the participants came over to my office to meet me. They expressed their dissatisfaction regarding the judgment as their ward had not got the prize.  They genuinely asked me as to what answer they should give to their ward’s question that why he hasn’t got the prize and they also asked for tips regarding how to enable their ward to enhance his level of performance so that he could win prizes.

I tried to convince them by putting across the following points :

a)     All Judges were form the senior wing and were not knowing the participants.  So chances of any partiality were not there.

b)    There were four Judges whose marks were added to Judge the performance.  So chance of subjectivity was reduced.

c)     Along with enabling the little ones to participate in such competition we also need to guide our children to face defeat gracefully.

d)    There can be no guarantee given by anyone that a participant will win a competition.

They tried next to point out that the third prize holder’s performance was not up to the mark.  For this again I had to point out that there were four Judges and they as parents should avoid such feelings that the judges were biased.

Father appeared to be more logical and understanding   and was soft in his approach but unfortunately I was not able to convince the mother regarding my views as much as I would have loved to.

Hope in future they have better experiences with us.

13^th August 2016