Kalimpong Rockvale to host education meet

Kalimpong: Academics from across the state and the Northeast will converge on this hill town on June 9 and 10.

Kalimpong will host the 10th annual general meeting and regional conference of the Association of Schools for ISC, Bengal chapter. The town is credited with remarkable performances by ICSE-affiliated schools in the board exams this year with cent per cent success.

The Rockvale Academy will host the meet.

Over 100 delegates, mostly heads of institutions of some 260 ICSE schools, will take up issues unique to their region. Holding the ICSE exams between November end and early December for the hills’ schools is one such.

“This is for the first time that the conference is being held outside Calcutta,” said Rockvale director Prakash M. Pradhan told The Telegraph.

Jetasanskritayan, a professor of economics in North Bengal University, will be the main speaker on the first day. Local MLA Gaulan Lepcha will inaugurate the meet theme for which is “Taking education to Himalayan heights”. An-hour long cultural event by the students of different schools will end proceedings on the first day.

The second day will witness the election of office-bearers for 2007-2008. Dates and venues for regional quiz and other competitions will also be decided on the day.

Given that the academic session of schools in the hills is from March to November, many educationists feel that by conducting the board exams in March, hill students tend to drift during the three-month winter break.

Notably, the ICSE exams were used to be held during November-December till 1982.

Last-minute cancellation of papers due to disturbances in some parts of the country is another problem.

“When such cancellation takes place, schools in the hills are greatly inconvenienced since almost all of them are boarding schools. We have a harrowing time re-doing the travelling tickets for our students returning home. We encountered such a problem this year due to the Nandigram violence,” said Pradhan.

Rockvale is ready for the occasion. Rooms are being done up. About eight to ten publishers are coming from Calcutta..

Source: The Telegraph