Soft Skills Program for Polytechnic Students

Nirmaan has conducted a Soft Skills Session on 19th Dec'09 to the polytechnic students of Pothakuchi Somasundara Sastry Trust. The trust gives coaching to the students of 9th, 10th clases from different government schools in Hyderabad. It also helps the students in completing the polytechnic.

Our volunteers have trained the students on Resume Writing, Group Discussion and handling HR interviews. We have conducted some mock GDs and gave valuable feedback. We also gave tips & tricks for various written tests like Aptitude, Verbal & Critical Reasoning.

 Supreme value of youth period is incalculable and indescribable.  Youth life is the most precious life.  Youth is the best time.  The way in which you utilize this period will decide the nature of coming years that lie ahead of you.  Your happiness, your success, your honor and your good name all depend upon the way in which you live now, in this present period. Remember this. This wonderful period of the first state of your life is related to you as the soft wet clay in the hands of the potter.  Skillfully the potter gives it the right and correct shapes and forms, which he intends to give.  Even so, you can wisely mould your life, your character, your physical health and strength, in short your entire nature in any way in which you make up your mind to do. And you must do this now.

In our grand culture they conceived of life in four stage-preliminary stage, development stage, flowering or blossoming stage and the culminating fruitful stage. These can be described as he preparatory period, the practising period for the satisfactory growth of the latter stage.  Yours is the stage of preliminary preparations for right and successful living.  Herein is its supreme value and great importance.  This is like the ploughing and sowing of seeds in the field by a farmer.  Now, you can easily understand, what is the significance and importance of this in connection with the harvest, which any one would wish to reap later on.  And also, it is like the laying of the foundation for an important building you wish to construct.  If this building is something very important to you, then you just think how much more important its proper foundation becomes in your view.  The strong and continued existence of the building depends certainly upon the foundation.  This is the stage you are now in.  Let your preparations be wise, correct and of such kind that will lead to your true welfare, supreme good and lasting satisfaction and happiness.  This must engage your active, enthusiastic attention throughout the period of your youth life.  Our culture refers to this stage as the Brahmacharya Ashram or Vidyarthi Jivan.  Here, you acquire knowledge of not only subjects like History, Geography, Mathematics, etc., but also about human nature, correct Vyavahara, science of Self- control, art of developing pure mind, Dharma, the duties of man and the proper relationship between you, your family, your society and the world."

All his teachings can be found in "The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda", in nine volumes, published from Adviata Asharma, Kolkata – 700014. Website www.advaitaashrama.org

Majority of Indians are the products of Government schools. These schools are a linchpin of the Indian educational system, accounting for 50-60% of Pre-Primary and Primary Schools and Secondary Schools. They have a great penetration into the very interiors of our country. We find them in hilly areas, unreachable islands, tribal areas and everywhere. In Karnataka alone we have 43,447 Government Primary Schools and 3,029 Government High Schools.

But, at a country level, still nearly 300 million people in the age group 7 years and above are illiterate in the country. 42 million children in the age-group 6-14 years, do not attend school. Only 47 out of 100 children enrolled in class I reach class VIII, putting the dropout rate at 52.79 per cent. Today, as many as two-thirds of those eligible for secondary and senior secondary education remain outside the school system. The gross enrolment rate for elementary education in 2003-04 was 85 percent, but for secondary education, the enrolment figure stood at 39 percent. In the state of Andhra Pradesh, Only two out of 10 children in Class I go on to Class X. In Karnataka alone, there are an estimated 2.5 million children who are not enrolled or dropped out from schools.

Such statistics are highly unacceptable for a country like India where majority of the children live. Children are its assets and it cannot achieve development unless its children are provided with good educational opportunities.
Systemic factors like lack of teachers (especially female), non-availability of teachers in remote rural, hilly and tribal areas, high teacher absenteeism, large scale teacher vacancies, inadequate school infrastructure, and inadequate allocation of resources on education to meet the expenditure, irregular classes, overcrowded classrooms, and traditional methods of rote learning – have diminished the quality of teaching and reduced interest among the students for education and thus resulted in all such statistics mentioned above.

So, there is a great need to bridge these gaps in order to achieve 100 % literacy and 0% drop outs till class X. Its not the responsibility of Government alone to do so. It’s the joint responsibility of Government and the citizens to improve the situation. The situation demands for a huge public private partnership. Philanthropists, NGOs, Universities and Corporate should adopt the schools to bridge the gaps that are mentioned and convert them to model school to achieve the mission “100 % literacy and 0% drop outs till class X”