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TOI : PUNE: The state education department’s proposed code of conduct for secondary school teachers that seeks restrictions even on investment options and choice of partners has raised the hackles of the teaching fraternity.

Around 300 principals and teachers here will meet in Alandi on May 4 to discuss the controversial code, which appears to be an outright violation of the fundamental rights of a citizen.

“The proposed code is a violation of basic human rights,” says Pune District Principals’ Association vice-chairperson S.B. Mundhe. Besides putting curbs on their sources of investments, the proposal seeks restrictions on the businesses of the family members of teachers, adds he.

For instance, if a family member of a teacher is in the insurance business, the same would have to be notified to the deputy director of education (DDE). Details of those family members who are insured would also have to be reported to the DDE.

The proposal not only aims at bringing limitations on the professional life of a teacher or principal, but also interferes with their personal lives. Unimaginable restrictions on whom a teacher can and cannot marry are part of the code. A teacher should not marry a divorced person if his/her partner is alive.

Any teacher who decides to marry such a person would need the permission of the school management, says the proposal. What’s more, if a teacher marries a foreigner, he/she will have to report it to the management! A ‘gift’, says the proposal, means a treat from friends, free travel or a stay at someone’s house. Hence, a teacher will not be able to accept a gift worth more than Rs 500 and won’t be allowed to exchange gifts with relatives or friends.

To further curb the creative freedom of teachers, a ban on writing and editing books has been proposed.
“The autocratic behaviour of…More

TOI : The focus of the advertisement is clearly on a pair of shapely mini-clad legs seductively poised against the wall. You could be forgiven for thinking it’s an ad for the new bedroom farce in town.

Turns out ‘Signal’ is a play about two engineering students desperately trying to land a girlfriend in their final semester at college? But despite the cheeky ad, comic genre and seemingly pedestrian premise, the play gains significance for more reasons than one.

First, it underlines a seldom discussed campus trend — the average Indian collegian (not just your average affluent, liberated dude or gal) is under unprecedented peer pressure today to get a girlfriend or boyfriend in life. Somewhere down the line, success with the opposite sex seems to have become as much of a social imperative on campus as academic success.

Second, the play is written and produced by folks who until recently were collegians, with money they’ve won at inter-collegiate theatre contests.

Third, they have taken on the mainstream entertainment format, instead of the ‘experimental’ or ‘amateur’ avenue.

And lastly, the play dares to revive the legacy of clean, intelligent comedy in Marathi — once celebrated by the genius of P.L. Deshpande and others, and now largely smothered by the combined curse of the slapstick, the puerile and the plain uninspired.

Scripting this effort is Amit Joshi a year-2000 engineering graduate from city-based PICT, who works as a programmer with Yahoo! in the US. He scanned the manuscript of ‘Signal’ (which was in Devnagari script) and emailed it to the rest of the gang in Pune in February and two months down the line, the play is out.

The money came from the awards ‘Square One’ (the team’s earlier effort as students of city-based PVG College of engineering and technology) had won at intercollegiate contests in 2005.
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TOI : PUNE: Should the engineering colleges in the state operate in two shifts to bridge the demand-supply gap for qualified skill sets? The private unaided institutions here have favoured such an idea in the wake of the state government’s plan to introduce double shifts for polytechnic institutes from 2008-09.

The institutions have incorporated the idea as one of their recommendations in a document that is to be forwarded to the state government in a week’s time. The idea was spelt out in presence of state minister for higher and technical education Dilip Walse-Patil during a meeting held on Thursday to commemorate 25 years of the government’s decision to allow private institutions in higher and technical education.

Pune accounts for over 35 of the 180-odd engineering colleges in the state. The annual intake of students in engineering courses in the state is expected to touch the 60,000-seat mark in the academic year 2008-09. If things work out as proposed by the private institutions, the intake figures would take a quantum jump. Although, there are reservations about how the institutions would match such growth of intake with the key support system, i.e. qualified faculties.

Citing surveys by leading global agencies, Vishwakarma Institute of Technology (VIT) principal Hemant Abhyankar told the meeting that by 2012, the availability of jobs for engineers in the country would have been pegged at 12 lakh per annum.

Against this, technical institutions were rolling out five lakh engineers each year. Barely 25 per cent of these five lakh graduates were described as employable, he said. “The situation calls for apt responses to bridge the gap between the projected requirement of human capital and the existing roll-out of the same by the institutions,” Abhyankar said.

Operating engineering colleges in two shifts can be a solution, he said and pointed out that the government had already decided to introduce two…More

TOI : PUNE: If the entrance examinations of the city-based Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) are any indicator, the country’s second-ranking medical college is simply not attracting enough aspirants. The number of admission-seekers has dipped from 95,000 last year to 87,000 this year. And, over the last four years, the total drop in the number of aspirants has been around 30,000.

The college conducts its entrance examination on the first Sunday of May every year. According to AFMC chief spokesman Lt. Col. Abhijit Rudra, the fall in the number of students opting for the medical profession is a general trend and the AFMC is no exception. “Around 1.15 lakh students had appeared for the exam four years back. Since then, there has been a steady decline with the figure being 1.03 lakh in 2006. This year, it is around 87, 000,” he said.

Asked about the reasons for this persistent decline, a senior officer said, “In the army medical institute, field survival is tough as it involves hard work. The absence of a family atmosphere in the Services makes it even harder for the medicos. Students nowadays are opting for fields like information technology (IT) and management studies.”

However, Maj. Gen. G. Rajagopal denied that the reduced number of applicants had in any way hampered the quality of students taken. He said that since the college’s intake was just 130, the number of aspirants was still very high and quality would not be compromised on.

Founded in 1948, the AFMC is celebrating its diamond jubilee this year. It conducts MBBS and post-graduate courses in medicine and nursing. Last year, the college was rated second-best in the country by the Medical Council of India.

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TOI : PUNE: What qualifies as the perfect marriage gift? Jewellery, dress, diamonds or a luxurious car? None of the above, feels Savitri Mane, who has decided to give her niece the most ‘precious’ gift of all — a portable toilet.

Katraj-resident Savitri’s niece Raksha is marrying a youth from Bhor this week. When Raksha’s parents noticed that the groom’s house does not have a toilet, they decided to gift the bride one.

“It has become a trend nowadays to buy portable toilets as gifts. The demand is on the rise this season.

Parents, whose daughters are marrying rural youths, have added a portable toilet to their list of gifts offered to the groom,” said Ramdas Mane of Mane Industries in Bhosari. His firm has received orders for more than 1,000 toilets in the past few days. “Already, we have provided 2,500 toilets in 200 villages in Pune, Satara and Kolhapur,” he said. Many other small firms are in the portable toilet business and share Mane’s experience.

“Girls these days refuse to accept a groom whose house does not have a toilet. Even low-income families in city have toilets. But, even some rich families in villages feel that a toilet is unnecessary,” said Ramesh Sonawane, who has gifted his daughter one. These toilets cost between Rs 7,000 and Rs 12,000, depending on the quality.
These toilets come with readymade RCC walls and a sceptic tank which could be carried easily. While the tank is ideally placed by digging a hole, it takes hardly two hours to fix the walls.

“Basically, girls from urban areas are not willing to marry into rural families. A girl from the police lines in Pune was married in Sangli and had to suffer a lot because there was no toilet facility,” said Pratima Joshi of Shelter Associates. She added that city girls make sure that…More