I was really looking forward for the seminar at Kishangarh since its in Rajasthan and I guess one of the few places that I have never been to. The two day seminar was on "Value Based Education" and I wasn't too happy with the paper I had prepared nevertheless the excitement was too much to put me down.
That was the scene before I left for Kishangarh on the night of 18th Oct. Today is the 23rd of Oct. and I just got back this morning at 6:00 am. Besides the seminar I had a blast since I got to visit the Dargah Sharif at Ajmer and the famous Pushkar where the Pushkar Fair takes place every year.This year too its scheduled for the 2nd week of November.
The seminar was a classic example of what usually happens in a seminar. The paper presenters are given 5 minutes to present their paper but once they start the presentation they are cut short or rather asked to stop hardly after 2 minutes. There were supposed to be 65 paper presentations per day for 2 days but on the first day hardly 12-15 people presented their papers and on the next day a meager 6-7 people. Inspite of that the time limit for each speaker was not exceeded to more than 2 minutes. Then, there were few speakers who inspite of being asked to stop went on and on without paying any heed. The seminar was on value based education and everyone had something to say about why there is a decline in values amongst youngsters and students today but I guess the ones who really need value based education were the participants themselves.To add to all this the people who came to attend the seminar were all from the field of education-teachers, educators, deans, principals and so on and so forth but the way they pushed and scoffed during lunch was a sight that could put anyone to shame. My friends and I stood and gaped at the wonderful behavior of the 'architects of India'.There was a mass exodus of people after lunch and there were just a handful that stayed back for the paper presentations. It appeared that the people had come only to get a free lunch.
The next day after the valedictory was even more astounding. There was a tsunami of people who came to collect their certificates for presenting the papers. What could not go unnoticed by anyone present there with even a little conscience was that how could there be so many people collecting the certificates when hardly 20 people presented their papers. The funniest part however was that there were people assigned to collect certificates for the entire groups of 15 to 20 people who weren't even present for the seminar.
An absolute sham of a seminar and really perturbing to see that these are the one who are responsible for molding the future citizens of India.This itself is the scene in a field that's considered to be one of the noblest and people are talking about Lok Pal and corruption issues.
This seminar was sponsored by UGC. It would be nice if they had some parameters to judge the quality of the seminar and not just look at the quantity that would be shown on a paper or a report that would be submitted at the end of the seminar.
Its difficult to bring a change alone but its better to start some where and my friends and I made it very clear to the organizers and people present at the seminar that values have to start from us. If we ourselves don't display any how can we expect our children to exhibit any at all. I know some people were hurt and miffed with us but hey we are not here to please anyone, we have a responsibility and I don't know about others but I got to be true with my profession."Stand up for anything that's wrong, stand up for what's just and even if you are the only one, stand up...someone might just take a cue"-Choden
That was the scene before I left for Kishangarh on the night of 18th Oct. Today is the 23rd of Oct. and I just got back this morning at 6:00 am. Besides the seminar I had a blast since I got to visit the Dargah Sharif at Ajmer and the famous Pushkar where the Pushkar Fair takes place every year.This year too its scheduled for the 2nd week of November.
The seminar was a classic example of what usually happens in a seminar. The paper presenters are given 5 minutes to present their paper but once they start the presentation they are cut short or rather asked to stop hardly after 2 minutes. There were supposed to be 65 paper presentations per day for 2 days but on the first day hardly 12-15 people presented their papers and on the next day a meager 6-7 people. Inspite of that the time limit for each speaker was not exceeded to more than 2 minutes. Then, there were few speakers who inspite of being asked to stop went on and on without paying any heed. The seminar was on value based education and everyone had something to say about why there is a decline in values amongst youngsters and students today but I guess the ones who really need value based education were the participants themselves.To add to all this the people who came to attend the seminar were all from the field of education-teachers, educators, deans, principals and so on and so forth but the way they pushed and scoffed during lunch was a sight that could put anyone to shame. My friends and I stood and gaped at the wonderful behavior of the 'architects of India'.There was a mass exodus of people after lunch and there were just a handful that stayed back for the paper presentations. It appeared that the people had come only to get a free lunch.
The next day after the valedictory was even more astounding. There was a tsunami of people who came to collect their certificates for presenting the papers. What could not go unnoticed by anyone present there with even a little conscience was that how could there be so many people collecting the certificates when hardly 20 people presented their papers. The funniest part however was that there were people assigned to collect certificates for the entire groups of 15 to 20 people who weren't even present for the seminar.
An absolute sham of a seminar and really perturbing to see that these are the one who are responsible for molding the future citizens of India.This itself is the scene in a field that's considered to be one of the noblest and people are talking about Lok Pal and corruption issues.
This seminar was sponsored by UGC. It would be nice if they had some parameters to judge the quality of the seminar and not just look at the quantity that would be shown on a paper or a report that would be submitted at the end of the seminar.
Its difficult to bring a change alone but its better to start some where and my friends and I made it very clear to the organizers and people present at the seminar that values have to start from us. If we ourselves don't display any how can we expect our children to exhibit any at all. I know some people were hurt and miffed with us but hey we are not here to please anyone, we have a responsibility and I don't know about others but I got to be true with my profession."Stand up for anything that's wrong, stand up for what's just and even if you are the only one, stand up...someone might just take a cue"-Choden
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