Author: debansu

Online education is gaining momentum and ground. Massively Online Open Courses are changing the way education happen. This links are worth exploring :

http://www.udacity.com/

https://www.edx.org/

http://www.extension.harvard.edu/distance-education/online-course-offerings

https://www.coursera.org/

You just need a broadband Internet to self learn.

Now one may argue that this approach may not suite laboratory based subjects etc.. But in my opinion those things can be taken care of and are not the hard challenges. One of the fundamental problem is we are no more getting excellent teachers in many places. Our alma mater is no exception. This courses comes from the best teachers whose credentials are beyond question.

Can we plan something to exploit this opportunity ? For example there are courses like “Listening to the world Music” or the “The history of Internet” . There is no pre-requisite to participate in those. We can do a seminar in school introducing such a course and then give the students a challenge of completing the course. Whoever completes the course and comes up with the accomplishment certificate and is able to give a seminar in front of a panel is eligible to receive an award from the alumni association as “best advanced learner for the session …… “. The judges can be existing / ex-teachers and folks from the association who too have to undergo the material of the course ( otherwise how can they judge ).

This small window may open a whole new world to the students who strive to learn and learn but don’t know the right way.

Thoughts ?

-debansu

I have got contributions in terms of photo and writing to remember Subodh Babu. Adding them in one place here. I would expect others to comment on this post to keep your Shraddhanjali here :

Amit Paul writes :

Looking back, it’s just a few decades, when I walked into the class with that inexpressible joy of becoming “Secondary student”, no more waking up in the morning to attend the school. In her farewel speech the headmistress said – “you are now grown-up kids”.

Ranjan was our class monitor and while he was busy establishing his self-professed authority on the first day, a handsome bearded fellow entered the class. We were shy. We did not know how to react. And then the voice boomed – “I’m your class teacher; I will tell you a story today”. He walked over to the board and drew a few swans in just a few strokes on the just refurbished blackboard – the story continued for couple of weeks with perfectly interleaved pictures drawn on the board. We were in our adolescence with the spirit of intellectual enquiry, but we were so deeply dissolved, did not understand why the story needed to be over – the “Manos Sarovar Yatra”. After even 30 years or so I can’t forget those days, not sure of any better way starting our journey to secondary education.

The series of those unforgettable pictures started flashing back in more than hundred frames per second when that monitor Ranjan called me up saying Subodh Babu was no more. It’s a kind of pensiveness, a sense of loosing your nearest one. I was overwhelmed with grief. It is difficult to encounter a teacher who is so versatile, so perfect in his professional role.

It’s perhaps around a year and half back when one day Subodh Babu called me saying “I would be visiting Bangalore for Sahitya Sammelan; would be staying for one day after the Sammelan as a guest with you. I was so jubilant. That was the last and perhaps the first time he chatted with me about his goals in life. While that was much personal, I remember telling him about Kalidas Roy’s – “Chatrodal” – Sir was a little lost. We chatted for long, just before saying good night he said “My students have given me a lot, I wonder if I really created these gems, I wonder why they love me so much, I am proud of my students.”

Now as I write this, I realise it was he who was a rare gem in the system. The value he tried to imbibe in us was the value that stired him as a person and sustained him. “Balo Bir, Balo Unnato Mamo Sir” in his voice used to create spark in teens’ blood; an ideal teacher – who had affection for all of his students – a person who could infuse mammoth confidence by his actions. He was a fantastic narrator, a skillful organizer. Art, literature, sketch, oration, recitation were his precious stones attracting youth and pupils. Moreover his open hearted laugh and unhindered communication helped him touch many minds, hearts too. A rare mix of balanced personality.

Like many of us and Subodh Babu’s fellow followers I also don’t have words to express my gratitude to Sir for shaping our minds in those days.

Photo taken by Binoy Chakraborti at joint condolence meeting at school goes below

Photos taken by Suparnada

Friends ,
With the permission of school authority, the association could held its governing body meeting at school premises for the first time since our birth in May 2005 last Saturday ( 3rd July 2010 ) . This is a historic event for the association. Earlier we were able to host “Career Fair” a two day event inside the school followed by our first AGM back in 2005. Thanks to the school authority for the delayed allowance and hats off to my seniors who could convince the authority about our sincerity and clear will. Somehow I failed to do that . Anyway better late than never.
Suparnada has mailed my some photos of our school building. It clearly shows the bad state of maintenance. I’m placing those here for your review . The association will decide its further course of action on the ways we could help here . Please place your comment along with this post to build our e-consensus .

-debansu

Suparnada forwarded me these photographs . This is the first meeting of the new governing body of BNNVAA. Here they goes :

1.

2.

3.

Thanks all for responding to our call to help the cyclone Aila victims. I’m attaching a photo ( Once again taken from a device not meant for taking photos primarily ! ) of Dhrubada ( Dr. Dhrubajyoti Roy ) handing over our contribution of Rs. 20000/- to Bharat Sebashram Sangha. I shall attach more details later to this post since I lack info on date of hand over etc.