Children in reality shows

In a recent recommendation, The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has urged the governmant to ban children below 16 years of age from participating in reality shows.

The issue has been debated across various sections – schools, film and TV industry, parents, teachers and kids since June’ 08

iGovernment, a voluntary web platform that aims at good governance says this

Shinjini, a participant on a Bengali music reality show, suffered a breakdown and had to be hospitalised in June after she was severely rebuked by the judges for her performance.

Sometime ago, Bournvita Quiz contest fame Derek O’ Brien launched a campaign across 4500 schools in India to ban their students from participating in such shows. Some schools agreed and some didn’t.

Now the Government of India is mulling over this issue and will be out with a definite rule by the end of this month.

Meantime, some of the TV show producers and parents have suggested that the age limit could be 12 and not 16!

What do you think?

Have you ever participated in reality shows?
How was the experience, the shooting schedules, the behaviour of judges . . .?
Is it more fun than participating in school contests or the contests held in public?

Share your views here!

Comments

1. January 29, 2009 @ 9:50 pm, by Shrishti

   I think that these shows that exploit kids for our entertainment shoud be banned !

Nominations invited for Young Achiever Award

Do you know a kid in your neighbourhood who is an achiever despite a below ordinary or a disadvantaged background? You can show them to the world by passing on this info to the young achiever and do your bit for those children.

The Ma Foi Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd. is inviting nominations for Disha Award for young achievers, 2008.

The award aims at encouraging and recognising the young with disadvantaged backgrounds who have achieved excellence in academic and extra-curricular activities. The age limit is 10 to 16. The award carries a cash award of Rs.10,000 a citation and a trophy.

Applications should reach Ma Foi Foundation by September 30. For details contact 4358 2125.

Holiday on Sep. 15

Yes, it is a holiday today. A bonus holiday for the government employees, bankers, schools and many private institutions too.

It was declared last evening and The Hindu’s news update service put up the information at 7 pm yesterday.

How many of you spent an hour’s time (or more?) calling up your classmates and teachers to find out if it was really a holiday and how the day’s exam was going to be rescheduled, etc., etc.,?

When I saw the neighbour’s kid walking around with the telephone handset calling up friends I told him to check up his school’s website – he studies is a school which uses LCD panels instead of blackboards!
He did go to check up the website but could find nothing up there! He began his round of calling his friends from where he left 10 minutes ago!
I tried googling to help this boy out so that he could leave the phone out and get back to his books. I did not find even a single school in the city updating information on its website. Leave alone the day’s announcement, the info on the websites were at least a month old in many cases.
But I came across a surprise.
A school in Salem had updated their website with all the information a student needs to know of the surprise holiday declared on a Sunday. Clear information of what happens to the day’s Computer Science exams and what is up on Tuesday, after the holiday.
All this at the same time The Hindu published online – at 7.02pm!
The city schools do have an edge over the others in infrastructure, the technology, the resources and geeky teachers and students!
Did they come handy when those skills and technology could be used?

Comments

1. September 23, 2008 @ 8:33 am, by Sheba

   I wish my school did the same. It was a whole lot of confusion on 15th morning.

Schools, paint your buses yellow, says the state govt.

This is for the safety of children travelling by school buses, vans, autorickshaws and other contract vehicles.

The Tamil Nadu Govt. has issued a notification that the school buses in the state be painted in yellow. The vehicles should also have clearly written in bold letter ‘School bus’ or ‘College Bus’ in the front and rear top of the buses.

All the school and college vehicle should have a visual depiction to indicate that the vehicles transports school or college kids.

And for private and contract vehicles, the rule is that a board displaying ‘School Children’ should be placed. This is applicable for vans, contract vehicles, autorickshaws other than those run by the educational institutions.

So, does your school bus or autorickshaw carriy this board? I am sure schools will follow the rule.
And for the autorickshaws or vans, you can help them with a board painted by you, if you travel by it.

After all it is for your safety!

Comments

1. September 11, 2008 @ 10:57 am, by Vehicle

   In some States, school busdrivers must pass a background investigation to uncover any criminal record or history of mental problems. Vehicle

A Teachers’ Day gift

For the teachers who are always knowledge-thirsty want to know the best practices of teaching and keep themselves updated of the changes in education systems.
Here’s a gift for the teachers of India thoughtfully developed by Azim Premji Foundation with support from the National Knowledge Commission.

President Pratibha Patil launched a national portal – www.teachersofindia.org – on Sep. 5 on the occasion of Teachers Day.
The portal for teachers will offer a platform for sharing best practices and generating discussion in the teaching community, a release says.

Over the next few months the portal will offer content in several Indian languages along with English and will gradually provide access to students, parents, teacher educators also.
Currently the portal is available in Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada.

Your teacher can also contribute to this portal and participate in the discussions. If your teachers is one among those looking for knowledge everywhere, share this infor with him / her.
Your gift to the teacher – an little and useful information!

Power cuts and schools in Chennai

The power cuts are here to stay in Chennai.

One and half hour daily in the city limits and three hours in the suburbs. Newspapers and television channels talk on how it affects the industries, workplace and domestic life. Here is an article in today’s Times of India on the effect of power cuts in schools.

Yes, classes under the tree shades is an option now. But with the onset of monsoon in late September / October this would not be the best option.
Generators / inverters and other options are costlier, which means if the school installs them, there will be a hike in the school fee!
The schools with hi-tech facilities like plasma TVs and A/Cs in every classroom may not be able to do with alternate energy sources during the power cuts, as catering to high-consumptions is very difficult through gensets.

One of the teachers I know said, she would experience the power cut at home from 6 am to 7.30 am and leave at 7.30 am to reach the reach the school at 8 am. And there it is 7.30 to 9 am. With the humid weather and no breeze these days, she says she sweats for 3 hours in the morning and this drains her energy away for the whole day!

The same should be the experience of the students living in the same area!

So,what does your school do to manage the situation?
How do you manage your time to do your homework and complete your studies after coming home?
And what in your opinion can solve this problem?

One of my kutty friends suggested why not produce energy out of something which is available in plenty but remain useless. He suggested producing energy out of the noise produced by vehicles during the peak hours!

Hey, if you have any such crazy ideas, do share them here!

Comments

1. September 2, 2008 @ 5:10 pm, by Ramji

   Its too hot in the afternoons to be under a tree or in the open. So alternate source is the only solution. More innovators will be on the job now I guess