“The teachers of today need strictly to follow the dictum “Perform or perish” in the light of the ever increasing expectations of the society from the teaching fraternity at large engaged in the domain of higher education in the impending years,” quipped Prof Jaspal Singh Sandhu, Vice Chancellor Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. Prof Sandhu was addressing the joint session of the outgoing participants of the Short Term Course on Gender Sensitization & incoming participants of the Three Week Orientation Programme-109. About 50 participants pertaining to a wide spectrum of academic disciplines attended the session.Recognizing the fact that the fairer gender has made rapid inroads into, which were, few decades ago known as the male bastion only, he remarked that this fast changing trend in the society at all the levels makes it imperative to conduct such courses on the gender sensitization as both the genders rub shoulders with each other practically in every walk of life.Realizing the gravity of the situation, the University Grants Commission envisaged such courses for the teaching community as the teachers are the best messengers to disseminate amongst the younger generations, he continued.
Shedding light on the role of Orientation Programmes, he said that these courses need to be designed to contribute to the holistic development of the teachers & to make them more enlightened, more knowledgeable. The teachers need not confine themselves merely to the classroom teaching, but also to apprise themselves with the rules & regulations governing their professions as few amongst them have to take over the responsibility of the academic administrators as well in the times to come he concluded.Prof. Kuldeep Kaur, Punjab School of Economics, the Coordinator briefly summed up the contents of the short term course. Prof. Adarsh Pal Vig, Director of the centre shared the achievements of the university in diverse fields in a comparatively short span of about five decades. Exhorting the participants to make a virtue out of necessity, he said that these courses are meant not only for their professional furtherance, but also for academic furtherance. Earlier the chief guest was extended a formal welcome by Prof. Adarsh Pal Vig, Prof. Kuldeep Kaur & Dr Mohan Kumar. In the end Certificates were given away to the participants of the STC on Gender Sensitization. Dr. Mohan, Deputy Director proposed the vote of thanks