National Seminar on Improving School and Higher Education ( 20. February, 2010 )

Department of Philosophy, Dev Samaj College for Women, organized a national seminar on the theme “Improving School and Higher Education”. The session was chaired by college Principal, Dr. Madhu Prashar. The participants which included Mr. Anirudh Gupta, C.E.O., D.C.M. Group of Schools, Ferozepur, S. Manjeet Singh, District Education Officer (Secondry) Faridkot, Mr. Param Veer Sharma, Principal, Government –In- Service, Training Centre, Ferozepur, Dr. Satinder Singh, Lecturer in Commerce, Government Girls, Senior Secondary School, Ferozepur, Dr. Ivy Sebastian, Francis Newton Hospital, Ferozepur, Mr. Pushpak Maini, Teacher, S.D. School, Ferozepur, Mrs. Nitima Maini, Lecturer, Government –In- Service Training Centre, Ferozepur and Bhawna, Poonam and Ambuj Sharma, Head, Department of Philosophy shared their views with the faculity and around one hundred fifty students of the campus.

In the first session Dr. Madhu Prashar highlighted the need to have an interdisciplinary dialogue among the school and higher education for the planning of the quality education. Dr. Ambuj Sharma while highlighting the report of Yashpal Committee on higher education emphasized on the need to have dialogue between school and college teachers so that both can learn fresh perspectives from the challenges and problems faced by both. Anirudh Gupta highlighted the recent reports of the government’s education policies. He found the Sarva Sikhias Abhiyan as a dynamic policy towards education but also shared concern for more grants to employ teachers in school and college sector on permanent basis. He said that education and its future lies in the hands of teachers and administration so there need to be more communication and concern. Dr. Satinder Singh brought the conditions of Government schools at the floor and held the corruption in education department responsible for it. Dr. Ivy Sebastian presented a well researched paper on the condition of higher and school education. She demanded more quality seminars for teachers and also asked the government to provide jobs for teachers. Manjit Singh in his presentation acknowledged that most of the students in Punjab rely on government institutions so an attitude to work has to develop among the teachers. Monika and Poonam criticized the contractual teaching in schools and colleges and said that if the teachers are paid less then they would not do justice with the students and their jobs. They asked the Punjab government to reconsider the recent announcement for the post of secondary teachers on contract basis.