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Thank you for your cover story ‘25 principals redefining school education’ (EW March). As the National Knowledge Commission has recently admitted, secondary education has suffered severe neglect in recent years during which primary and tertiary education have been given all the attention. Consequently if the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan programme to ensure that all children complete primary education succeeds even partially, the secondary school system which is bursting at the seams, will not be able to absorb the increased inflow.

Currently secondary schools country-wide can barely cope with 40 million children and the average teacher-pupil ratio is over 1:50. If even half of the 200 million children enrolled in primary schools in India at the start of every academic year make it to secondary school, the system will be completely swamped. That’s why Dr. P.M. Bhargava, deputy chairman of the Knowledge Commission has called for the construction of 400,000 secondary schools as a top national priority.

But mere creation of capacity is not enough. Secondary schools also need able leadership and higher standards of teaching-learning. To this end your cover story has provided valuable insights into challenges, opportunities and best practices in secondary education.

Parveen Mitra
Mumbai

In my profile of your cover story ‘25 principals redefining school education’ (EW March) you have committed a major blunder by referring to my husband and founder-director of Manav Sthali School as "the late Dr. V.K. Bhatnagar". This reference to my husband is absolutely incorrect.

You have to stop the release of the magazine immediately and rectify the mistake by printing something different on the word "late" on a red strip, or not send the copies anywhere.

You are to take the matter very seriously or I shall be forced to go to court against this. You are to inform me about the action taken from your end about this blunder.

Mamta V. Bhatnagar
Director & founder principal
Manav Sthali School
New Delhi

Unfortunately the March issue of EducationWorld was distributed prior to the receipt of this letter. We sincerely apologise for this inadvertent error and the pain and grief it has caused Mrs. Bhatnagar. We also wish Dr. Bhatnagar a long and prosperous innings in the cause of Indian education — Editor

I was surprised that your cover story featuring ‘25 Principals redefining school education’ (EW March) didn’t include even one principal from the government school sector. Most of the principals featured were from private elite schools with the exception of two who were from NGO run schools. As a retired principal of a government school I can assure you that there are several principals in the government sector who are doing great work against overwhelming odds. And unlike private school principals they receive little encouragement from the management or parents. Their unique stories in institution building would have been more endearing to readers than the profiles of principals from private schools which have it all.

I hope in the next issue, you’ll profile outstanding principals of government schools who brave government interference and parental indifference to build great institutions.

I am a regular reader of Education-World in which I read the special report ‘New maths learning fever sweeping India’ (EW February). The author Summiya Yasmeen deserves the gratitude of academic and student communities for this insightful feature, which I discussed extensively with my junior and senior students. After reading this article I was able to persuade our school management to upgrade our maths laboratory set up in July 2005.

I also asked the school librarian to provide photostat copies of the feature for distribution in the school. I believe it will spark renewed interest in maths learning in our school.

Vikram Singh
Rajendra Lohia Vidya Mandir
Hathras, Uttar Pradesh

Your editorial ‘Constructive response to Cauvery water tribunal award’ (EW March) is bang on target. After the tribunal announced its judgement I expected a bigger hue and cry than the one ‘created’ in Bangalore. I say this keeping in mind the kind of mass hysteria which swept Bangalore after the death of Kannada film star Dr. Rajkumar on April 12, 2006.

The people of Karnataka are peaceful, evident from the manner in which they have let every non-Kannadiga set shop in Bangalore. But the recent Cauvery protests leads one to believe that though their passions are dormant, it does not take much to inflame them. The political parties in the state are well aware of this and make the most of a situation like in the case of the pro-Saddam rally that turned violent on February 19. Incidents such as these serve the cause of selfish politicians who exploit lay citizens to build captive vote banks

There will always be some politician who wants to make the most of the situation. People should develop a sense of social responsibility by either being more constructively involved or electing better representatives who will argue their cause effectively.