I attended a one-day training programme on the Cambridge certificate exam to be taken up by the II semester students in accordance with Anna University's decision on the curriculum for them. E-Bek to whom this has been outsourced arranged for the training. The resource person was Professor Robert Bellarmine, an expert in training trainers.

What a revelation the experience was! At 67 years of age, this professor retains his intuition for teaching and is able to sensitively understand the mood of the class, in this case, an 80 odd group of recalcitrant teachers, including me who has unreservedly accepted the challenge of the BEC module as trainer and examiner, unable to accept the change in the classroom.

I say this, because to most of us used to the regularity in teaching English - traditional, technical and communicative, the challenge to train students for an international certification was difficult. Teachers were apprehensive since they had no idea what exams they were preparing students for and what role they had to play in the present semester; they were in the dark about the certificate and the methodology of training students for the certificate course.

Though the whole training has come in late for all of us, Professor Bellarmine was outstanding as a trainer. His class did not have not one boring moment, as he took us through the various stages of preparing and training our students for BULATS, the certificate examination to be taken up by our second semester students. His impassive face cracks up into a smile when he notices his trainees enjoying the logic and mischief in his games, stories and activities. He is professional yet retains a humorous touch. He is so tuned to the intricacies of the trainees' responses that it was a joy to observe the manner in which he dealt with the questions, answers, ' worries and queries' (as he put it).

Now we can go ahead with our next batch of students with a sense of direction, purpose and particiaption.

As for the students, they love this pattern of examination. I also personally support this move by the University because the certificate examination has global acceptance and validity. It also assesses the level of language competence through well researched question papers in a manner that is much better than the subjective evaluation that is done in valuation camps.

However, several bottlenecks have to be removed to make it a more student friendly credit. If it can be done, nothing more revolutionary than this could come about in making students industry prepared from the communication and language skills perspective. From here, students can move on to other advanced certificates offered by Cambridge University. The opportunities are endless.

Everyone's getting busy with exams, practicals, internal assessments, bullying children into submission of records, revaluations, farewells and studies. It is as if the summer heat is catching up in academic work also. Salem is unbearably hot. I wish there were juice dispensers instead of water in the departments. And, oh, the external examiners for English Communication Skills Lab for the third years were taken aback by the seminar halls in the departments. The swanky furniture and air-conditioned halls really hit them hard. Tee..hee.. A strange silence has already fallen upon the corridors...senior students have taken seriously to their studies...the theory exams begin on May 3rd. Only the first years have their classes and they are a noisy lot..they are.
A student was remarking the other day that farewells give you a hard knock since you realise that your happy and carefree days are drawing to a close. They are well aware that hard and harsh realities of life await them. WIPRO has given the recruits CDs to prepare for the entry examination which has to be cleared by the recruits in order to be absorbed or confirmed. I understand their feelings. The days of pure living-for-oneself and friends will come to a gradual close and they will slowly become used to carving professional careers for themselves. I pray that our children go out into this world armed with intelligence and values.

I feel like jumping vigorously, shaking a leg or two, doing a jig and yipeeing to the open skies...Kamaraj, an old student of the college from the 1970 batch, based in Dubai was in college today and he has short listed 8 students - 1 from Mechanical, 6 from EEE and 1 from Civil.

My extreme reaction stems from the fact that these shortlisted children had been facing pangs of anxiety and dips in their self-esteem level,, cos they hadn't been selected due to some reason or the other by the corporate giants of India and here comes their saviour holding out his hands to his juniors, all becase he has implicit and unshakeable faith in the ability of a GCEian.

As the Principal, Dr. Ebenezer Jeyakumar remarked, ' Intha mathiri veri varanum...namma college paiyyan place aganum enra veri varanum ovoru old studentukkum- PSG placement intha mathiri thaan aguthu' (All old students must have this ferocious desire to see his college students placed in good jobs. PSG placements are largely due to loyalty to the alma mater and wholehearted effort by PSG alumni).

Kamaraj, God bless you and all the GCEian alumni who are taking efforts in their own ways to put GCE on the global map. You do not know how much joy you have put in an old woman's heart, since I have seen these children start their professional studies from really challenged backgrounds and seen them also rise to perfect their technical skills and communication skills. The world is still alright.

Just imagine...the English test for the first years was held in the auditorium to the full strength of 370 students. The superb audio system made it possible to play the CD for the listening task to the entire group. Anyways, am glad the task is over. And, I do think education is getting more sophisticated. The series test for the first years was an OMR based test.

As confessed earlier in one of the blogs, I am an inveterate GECOFEST lover. This year was scintillating too...SaravanaKumar, the dancer who made his mark even in his first year as a performer par excellence was the Arts Secretary and he had gone to great lengths to make it a memorable one. As has become the practice, the final years hosted the events and competitions and gave guest performances.

Our new audio system is awesome...the POPE speakers boom out the music and the speeches are crystal clear. It was a joy to listen to the system. There are now two speakers on the stage to enable speakers and performers on the dais to listen to the audio. (Once again, we can thank TEQIP and the Principal for all this).

The ear-piercing whistles, the guttural screams and mind blowing screeches , I am sure, are an eternal feature and as old as colleges all over the world, and though there were some attempts to silence the boys, I am glad to say, the noise added to the atmosphere. I mean, how can GECOFEST be GECOFEST without all these? And, I've always wondered from where their energy comes? The audience electrify the hall with their sense of participation. The Art Gallery put up some of my favourite paintings and pencil drawings from our artists. There's Gopi, Sowmiya Narayan, Murugan, Sherine and so many others who had so delicately and beautifully drawn and painted their pictures. The pots acquired a beauty of their own with the paintings on them. The Rangolis were a little disappointing.

Some of us teachers were glued to the seats from morning till evening except for the lunch breaks. Our children made us laugh so much that one was glad for the gift of students in a teacher's life.

All together, a very happy two-day affair.

What a month of celebrations and achievements! Tamil Mandram brought out 'Agaram', a Tamil Literary magazine commemorating the Golden Jubilee Year. A Professor of Tamil, from the Periyar University was the Chief Guest. He decided wisely to talk of love as a theme of poems, since that would engage the attention of students. He pointed out how some of the good poems in the magazine related to the theme of love and co-related them with Mu.Mehtha's poems. I was grinning to myself, 'cos there we were, talking to our first years in class about the wisdom of not engaging their attention in matters of the heart till they were about 27 years old and here they were being told that love seemed to be one of the chief areas of interest. More on that later.

Just the other day, a student, who is auditorily and orally challenged, approached me with the father and some friends. He had failed in English and two more papers and the parent wanted to know why he had failed and what could be done. I have observed this student ...he is so cheerful that he makes you give him a happy smile in return, is attentive and even tries to repsond orally when I forgetfully ask him a question or two. I told the parent that he needed his friends ' help in understanding the quantum of work done and work alloted in class and suggested that they request the Principal to allow him to take up a hostel room. Believe me, the Principal once again showed the generous side and not only allotted him a room, but also awarded him the SISCOL scholarship of Rs.20,000/. I was taken aback when I heard about this...understanding the need of a student and responding sympathetically makes a bureaucrat a good leader.

The Hostel Day of the Boys is celebrated as usual with grand preparations and co-ordinated team work from boys. The invitation was tastefully selelcted...the name of the Day even more so..it was "Lion's Den, 2008'. Oh, our boys really do have a way with words.

A scientist and Advisor, Dr.G.J.Samathanam, Dept. of S&T, Government of India, visited the college for a special faculty interaction meet. Dr.G.J.Samathanam elaborated on the funding agencies in India and enlightened the faculty on the various sources available for funds for projects, etc.

In the present scenario, I feel that the visit was timely and necessary. Time has come when government funding will soon dry up, leaving institutions to generate funds for their academic activities. Young teachers should learn to tap sources for research and projects. There are talks about six new technical affiliating universites and everything is in a state of flux in the six government colleges. Young teachers must be ready for every eventuality and be prepared to face academic reforms and challenges. They will have to shoulder the responsibility of identifying funding agencies and partners.

The Principal must be lauded for his foresight and vision in inviting Dr.G.J.Samathanam, even as he is preparing to lay down his mantle as principal this year. His dynamism is good for technical education.

Reproduced below is the report found in The Hindu Online of Dr.Samathanam's visit.

Online edition of India's National NewspaperMonday, Mar 03, 2008ePaper Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu Come up with cutting edge, competitive research proposals, academics told
Staff Reporter
Union Government keen on encouraging students with exceptional talent
Photo: E. Lakshmi Narayanan Sharing his views: Department of Science and Technology Advisor G.J. Samathanam addressing the faculty members of Government College of Engineering in Salem on Saturday. —
SALEM: Department of Science and Technology (DST) Advisor G.J. Samathanam called upon the academic community to come up with cutting edge and competitive research proposals.
Interacting with the faculty members of Government College of Engineering here on Saturday, Mr. Samathanam expressed serious concern over the lack of high-profile research proposals from the universities and colleges.
The academicians should have the vision to come up with proposals of great scientific importance, which would ensure knowledge addition.
Many academicians, he said, still approached DST just to seek travel grant for attending seminars abroad. We had a number of programmes to support them to carry out research. They should make full use of these programmes, he said.
Mr. Samathanam regretted that a majority of the projects submitted by the PhD and M. Tech students did not carry any significant value.
Faculty members should encourage PhD students with an orientation for research to do good projects and apply for funding to DST or other agencies.
Explaining various funding programmes of DST, Mr. Samathanam said the Union Government was very keen on catching students with exceptional talents at the young age and extending scholarships to them.
This would enable the country to get leaders to implement large research and development projects in the future.
Even PhD holders in chemical engineering from premier institutions too were going for jobs in software engineering. This would give a huge setback to core engineering fields in the near future. The department was hardly receiving research proposals in the field of mathematics.
While other countries were appreciating the mathematical knowledge of Indians, people here seemed to show very little interest in carrying out research in that field, he said.
College Principal A. Ebenezer Jeyakumar highlighted the achievements of the college in academic and research activities.

It has been a fantastic week of discoveries for me...I discovered my favourite author in Gokulam, a magazine for children which I read decades back .I also discovered truths about eyes as cues to the thought process. If I had not entered the world of blogging through this blog, I would never have discovered the immensely funny and satirically humorous J.Vasanthan, a retired Professor of American College who wrote the famous King Jayabalan stories.
As for the next discovery, it was through an In-House NLP Training Programme for the Faculty of GCE to Improve Professional Efficiency, convened by the Department of English on 28.2.2008. Mr.Aravinda Krishnan, a former GCEian and an active and well known HR trainer and consultant taught us techniques to effectively use visual, auditory and kinesthetic cues to become more acutely aware of the person on the other side trying to communicate with us. That was followed by a very interesting session on scanning eye movements to understand the reality of the thought process in the other person's mind. So, one learnt that the visual rememberance, visual construction, auditory remembrance, auditory construction, auditory internalisation and kinesthetic cues help us find where we stand in our unconscious thought processes. The tests we did under the guidance of Mr.Aravinda Krishnan were interesting and stimulating exercises.
And before I forget, on 26.2.08, there was a grand function to present the Memorial Awards for the years 2002,2003,2004 and 2005 to the college toppers and class toppers. It was called 'Achievements Award Ceremony, 2008'. Ms. Ramya was the overall college topper for 2002. Mmm..I wish I had brought the list of sixteen names to give you all the others' names.
It was a joy to see past students, and if they were not there, their parents, proudly receiving the awards. Dr. K. Arthanari, Managing Director, Sri Gokulam Hospital was the Guest of Honour. In addition to these academic awards, there were Accident Insurance Policies presented to 31 of our regular blood donors of GCE at Sri Gokulam Hospital.
I am so glad that the one precious gift that we can all give so freely, without having to think too deeply, was given by our students in selfless gestures of service. Believe me, as someone who had her brother given back to her through anoymous blood donors following a terrible accident that he had, I was touched to see that so many of our students had in some way given families some loved one, somewhere....through their blood donation.

I am feeling all feisty; I would love to shout, laugh and, if possible, hug this huge, wide world. Civil work has started on the language laboratory and it is a pleasure to see it taking shape under the Principal's personal monitoring. The guys at work said that they want to do the work perfectly, as the Principal, otherwise, demands that they tear down imperfect work and begin from scratch. The huge, cavernous room (which combines rooms 102 and 103 in the ground floor of the Admin block) has had its dividing wall torn down...the false ceiling is getting ready...beautiful peach pink tiles have been stacked...electrical fittings are getting ready...ooh...it is a wonderful feeling to see something taking shape under one's own eyes.

Brindha, our new guest lecturer, came storming into the department barely ten minutes after classes. A boy had given proxy attendance for his friend and this was noticed by her. She was enraged that such a thing had taken place, marked all boys absent and came back to the department. A few minutes later, the class rep came in and apologised for the same. I asked for the boy who had done this, since I didn't want to reprimand the rep for what his mates had done, though he could've just informed the teacher that there had been a mistake.

The boy came in and I braced myself for a good shout at him, when he just said, " I am sorry. I've done a wrong thing. I shall never repeat it'. My heart just melted, because here was someone who had done something wrong and had the grace to accept it without anybody prompting him to do it. The boy must surely have his heart in the right place, thought I. I just told him that giving proxy attendance might be fun in movies, but as engineers there are certain values and principles that we must stand for. After all, attendance shortage is something that a faculty advisor and the student can look into. I know the act of giving proxy is not a crime, but it is not right either. Were there tears in the boy's eyes? I suspect so, though I don't really know, but I do know that there are sometimes when a teacher cannot be harsh and when an apology given in goodness must be accepted without reservations. I may be looked on as an inept teacher, but I draw my line between strictness and acceptance of a person as he/she is.

It seems to be my week of guidance and counselling...there was a final year student who needed to just talk to me regarding his 27 paper- arrears. He wanted to quit his studies and take up a BPO job to stop being a burden on his parents. It was obvious from what he said that he did not have the support of his parents...mother unable to help her son as the father is a disciplinarian and threatens to wash his hands off his son if he doesnt mend his ways and studies well. What was I to tell him ... that parents need to support and accept a child's failures and give him his self-esteem or that children need to seek professional help when they notice that their life is getting derailed for one reason or the other.

My sympathies were with the student, since it was very clear that his will to fight had gone and if pressed to continue doing something which his heart was no longer in, he might just lose interest in life. After all, life is something more than studies and knowledge. The only thing I could tell him was that his parents must be informed by him about his results which he was dreading since that was atleast part of his duty as a son and that loved ones need to be told of failures as well as successes. Never mind the repurcussions which were bound to happen...All of last week I have been troubled by the thought that young people go through their life with their own problems of having to grow and take decisions, sometimes painful ones.

Department of Computer Science and Engineering held the inaugural function of the 2 day National Conference called Codeclave 8.1. Smt.Hema Gopal, Vice President, Banking, TCS was the chief guest. The Principal gave a rousing speech on the college and proudly informed the guest about TCS' role in recruiting 154 students this year.

Smt. Hema Gopal appreciated the enthusiasm of the college and promised more academic-industry interaction. The Proceedings of the conference were released by her. More importantly, TCS instituted the 'Best Project Award' for the final year students. Uthaya Kumar of the 2007 batch won the much coveted award. The citation read that in consonance with the policy of TCS to give back to the society what it has received, projects with vision and commitment to society would be assessed by reviewers and the short listed candidates interviewed and questioned extensively on their projects before deciding on the year's winner.
She then had an open house interaction with the audience.

Three questions were asked - one pertaining to how else codification is done by TCS other than codification of texts. The next question came from a student who wanted to know the R&D activities of TCS. The last one was from me. I wondered if TCS could've been TCS only because of a value system and asked her to explain the value system of the company. Hema answered that there is an ethical code of conduct signed by all employees and while the stress was on honesty, the most important value they cherished was one of loyalty. She attributed the negligible attrition rate in the company to this.

I wish all students were aware that along with their technical skills they would also have to train their hearts and go out to serve their employers with a strong value base. I consider the education of the heart to be as important as the education of the mind.

Teaching English as a language for engineers is not an easy task. Over the years, educators have evolved different methodologies, approaches and techniques.

A.J.Herbert considered an authority on 'Technical English' was once the guru for all teachers of technical English. It was then realised that in the purely technical context in which Herbert's exercises are based, young learners were finding it difficult to relate to the global demands for professionals strong in communication skills. Attention then moved on to 'Communicative English'.

Anna University, Chennai had a wonderful text from Oxford University Press which had a mix of all the four skills of communication - listening, speaking, reading and writing based on the context, the lessons and topics dealt with in the text. In the face of lack of adequate training to teachers of English who had to handle a fresh new challenge of teaching tasks that could not depend on examination oriented pattern of lessons or tasks, there has been dilution of standard in the handling of communicative tasks. Teachers began to depend on Dr.Sumant's exercise based worksheets in order to strengthen the students' grammar skills as they would help the student procure a pass, which seemed to be the only expectation of managements. If the syllabus was cleverly used to improve results, it seemed to be nobody's business. If the intention of the syllabus was to significantly improve the speaking or listening skills of students, that did not really happen.

Realising the need to improve the speaking skills of our engineering students, technology was then brought in. Language laboratories became the buzz word and language laboratories were established at immense costs in colleges. In the absence of adequate technical manpower and training from experts to teachers on how to scientifically and objectively use the technologies, there is no denying the fact that there have been searches for other methodologies.

Anna University, Coimbatore seems to have made a fresh attempt using the expertise of Cambridge University's proven record of ESOL training. Materials are specially developed for students of the Coimbatore zone of Anna University. For the past five days, training has been going on in Salem to orient the teachers to the teaching of the LSRW skills. The first session has focussed on the listening tasks. We have been taught how to use pre-listening and post-listening activities in order to move teaching towards a more student centric one. There is some clarity now in the minds of teachers as how the Cambridge materials ought to be completed in order to prepare students for a standardised ESOL examination to be conducted by Cambridge University.

Change is an indication of growth and language learning must constantly evolve and tailor itself to meet the global spurt in demand for technical manpower that is absolutely strong in communication skills.

College wears a deserted look since children have all gone away on Pongal holidays. The messes are closed and only the North-eastern students are there. Sometimes, I wonder why they are not invited over to their friends' homes. Could it be because they speak very heavily accented English? Could it be because of their food habits? Whatever, I really feel sorry that they are so far away from home and left to fend for themselves. However, they seem to be having good fun on their own.
There was a get together of the alumni of 1984 organised by Mrs. Vimala Rosaline of Civil Engineering at Hotel Star Holidays, Yercaud, last Saturday and Sunday. I believe there was a good turnout and everyone enjoyed the get together. Sometimes, it is nice to gather around a table or sit together and just chat about old times, I guess.
Sometime back, two or three weeks back, there was a Sanjay Kumarkayani of 1994 batch and I saw him proudly showing his friends who were with him, his name on the merit list of toppers displayed in the landing of the stircase from the main lounge in the admin block. Heard him tell the Principal that he was Vice President of Merryl and Lynch in US. Made one feel proud of the college.

Computer Science Department is organising the annual national conference and is very busy with preparations for it in the midst of TEQIP audit visits and meetings. A team of comperes came to the department seeking help in preparing themselves to be good MCs for the inaugural ceremony.
They need training in modulation, clarity and practised scripts. We do have some very good students, good at communication and at expressing themselves quite fluently. However, they let loose some awful mistakes when they say something spontaneously...we've heard them say, 'And now we invite our princiapl to give away the speech', or something like that and then the English teachers squirm a bit.
I always believe that when acting as master of ceremony, something that I love doing, there must be no mistakes. I still have scripts before me which I follow to the T... sometimes, I do adlib, but that comes with the confidence of maybe many many MC jobs...I would love to have my children have that technique with them when they take up an MCs job at formal functions. Of course, I love listening to them in informal contexts, such as GECOFEST or other fun days, when they comeout with some youthful and enthusiastic comments.
I love it that whenever there is an important department function, children descend in hordes and start cleaning up the space before the department and even come up with some instant plants and green cover. :))

When it rains, it pours! It looks like a cascade of proposals are being submitted by the college. Today, it was a proposal for new P.G.courses. I realise that introduction of new courses definitely means that GCE Salem is going to offer more students the benefit of technical education, but the preparatory paper work can be killing. On the other hand, it does look like proposals are my piece of cake. :))
The first years are under a lot of stress due to the exams that are going on...I hope that they stand the pressure well.
The ECE third years seem relaxed, cool and unperturbed by the placement activties. I told them that if they expected starting salaries that would effectively be the sum total of the earnings of their great grandparent, grandparent and parents put together, they would have to work for it. I believe that I have put the fear of God in their hearts....but, I do think that they will be preparing for it all secretely and quietly.
The rumour-mill has it that three more government colleges are to be started at Villupuram, Dindivanam and Panruti in the coming academic year.
Salem is ready with another engineering college called 'Narasus Sarathi Engineering College' near Omalur.
All this bodes well for the state of Tamil Nadu and if the quality of engineers coming out is ensured, then I think Tamil Nadu can offer to the world the best engineers possible.

Happy New Year to all our children. Funnily enough, one of the questions asked at my viva was whether the words 'children' and 'students' are interchangeable. I had replied that all adults retain a bit of the child and that students as adults retain that child in them and therefore it was not wrong to equate one with the other. The professor replied with a smile that it was a generalisation, a rather sweeping statement, too broad in its perspective. But, you know, for a teacher a student is always a child. Therefore, once again, Happy New Year to all.

A rather quiet beginning to the new year. Classes for the higher semesters are beginning tomorrow. We have Communications Skills Lab, a practical paper for 100 marks. I look forward to it.

Today, we had to send the internal marks and attendance details to Anna University, Coimbatore. This university does everything over the net. It is amazing how technology has revolutionised the way teaching and learning are carried out. Time was when the teacher would struggle over the percentages and marks and averages. Today, it is so easy, well maybe not too easy, since the entry of data is rather tedious and cumbersome. However, the fact remains that book-keeping is simple.

Proposals for increased intake are being prepared by the departments. This proposal if accepted should give more students the opportunity to study in government engineering colleges.

Directorate of Technical Education is nearing its golden jubilee. Plans are afoot to make it a memorable year since technical education in Tamil Nadu has gone a long way in offering to the country quality engineers from its very humble beginnings. Committees are being formed to celebrate the academic and co-curricular achievements in a big way. Any suggestions from our alumni would be welcomed since they are one of the major strengths of GCE. The alumni can perhaps think about a Golden Jubilee Alumni Scholarship for the first rank holder among the freshers admitted to various disciplines. Merit cum Means might also be considered. Was just thinking aloud.

The principal today congratulated the two of us - Dr.Senthilkumar/EEE and me for the doctorates. It felt a little funny to be called Dr.Chitra Lakshimi. It sounded like someone else. Perhaps, I have to learn to accept it. The thesis was on material design for a Value Education Programme for engineering students using the Harry Potter books. Four main elements of the thesis were establishing that the witches and wizards of HP are innovative, identifying the entertainment values, identifying the educative values and finally designing model lesson plans to imbibe values through discussions, reflection, introspection etc. The teacher is here only a facilitator, infact, there just to keep the ideas rolling in. I believe democracy in expressing one's ideas will clarify one's values.

The Alumni of GCE is an active force and everyone of them who has received so much in life due to GCE wishes to give back something to their alma mater. Right now, under the stewardship of Mr. Rajkumar, lecturer in Civil Engg, and Placement Officer, the alumni are frequently being invited to the college. I am aware that they have contributed to the knowledge bank of students by camping at the college for three or four days before their placement activities begin, that is sometime in February to give intensive mock interviews and to groom them for their group discussions. They have also installed the massive hoarding of the college name last year. Financially, I am not aware if they fund any scholarships. There are some students who really need financial assistance and if some kind of help comes from the alumni it should be good. Also, like in other campuses, students who are well placed in companies must come forward to take up campus recruitment. That will be an excellent way to spread the good news about the excellence of GCEians.

GCE is all washed in the rains. First year exams are on. Am back in college after my viva and convocation. Seems strange that the Dr. will be appended to my name. Mr.Senthil Kumar of EEE has also obtained his doctorate from Anna University. It was a proud moment for both of us. I must thank GCE for the opportunity I got to take up doctoral studies and to pursue it these past four and a half years. I thank all my students and colleagues who were so encouraging and always wished well for me.

Exams are on and the first year kids are getting a little jumpy and nervous. My class rep, Hari is falling sick more often and has lost his smile. He looks grumpy and annoyed most of the time...must be the books that he is catching up with. :)
My class co-rep, Krithika is immensely talented and has done such fantastic posters for the Creative Assignments. I am sure that this child has her talents in the world of design and advertisemnts. God bless her.
I too am losing sleep over the impending doctoral committee meeting this week to fix the date for my viva. Am catching up with the Harry Potter books once again. It is really surprising how these books still hold my interest even after reading so many times. I feel it may be because an adult reader is constantly looking for new truths to emerge from these readings. Why cannot reading books be made a compulsory term assignment for all the engineering students?
Ever since newspapers were made mandatory at the hostel, I find students are indeed showing improvement, as one of my Civil Engg, students Raja confessed. He admitted that reading the Deccan Chronicle and the Indian Express has made him speak more confidently.