I READ YOUR LETTER FROM the editor and cover story ‘Public education: PPP blueprint’ (EW July) with interest and completely agree with you.
There’s something fundamentally wrong with the philosophy of the RTE Act, 2009. Rather than focusing on upgrading government schools, the government is bent on passing the buck to educate India’s children to private schools. The problem is that private schools which admit students under the RTE quota are obliged to increase the fees payable by regular students, which means the government is burdening the already over-burdened middle class.
In this context, it’s heartening to note that a government school in Kozhikode has been radically transformed through a successful PPP (public-private partnership) initiative. This model is worth emulating.
Digressing, I saw the letter on this page (EW July) from Dr. Sahasrabuddhe, principal of College of Engineering, Pune. As a resident of Pune for many years, I can assure you this college has a redoubtable reputation. So, its low rank makes your India’s top non-IIT engineering colleges league table dubious.
Chandraprabha Venkatagiri
Pune
Words of appreciation
IT WAS A PLEASURE TO read the June and July issues of EducationWorld. Congratulations for producing an excellent cover story ‘North-east India’s academic renaissance’ (EW June). Having lived and worked in the geographically isolated north-east in the 1960s, it was rewarding to read of the great strides being taken to meet the educational needs of children living in this region.
Equally inspiring is your cover story, ‘Public education: PPP blueprint’ (EW July). This innovative public-private partnership which has transformed the Government Vocational Higher Secondary School, Nadakkavu, Kerala, is a model worth replicating countrywide for revival of India’s failing government schools.
I am equally impressed with the cover design and layout of the magazine which are appealing. Keep up the good work!
Sudhir Behl
Mumbai
Why students flee
RE YOUR SPECIAL REPORT ‘Why India’s brightest and best flee abroad’ (EW June), the primary reason why Indian students are heading to foreign universities is because of the reservation of substantial capacity in India’s too-few best professional education institutions for non-merit students drawn from scheduled castes, tribes and other backward castes/classes.
Reservations have made it very difficult for all except 98 percenters among merit students, to enter the best Central universities, IITs and IIMs.
This apart, the country’s stringent tax laws, harassment of small and medium enterprises, jobs scarcity, unremitting inflation, etc are forcing educated and intelligent people to leave India forever.
Life for students and professionals is very difficult in this country with even the most routine work requiring clearance by time-agnostic government departments infested with bribes-hungry bureaucrats.
Mahesh Kapasi
Delhi
Brilliant coverage
THANK YOU FOR EducationWorld which regularly highlights the latest in news and trends in education in which skills development plays an important role. EducationWorld has brought out this facet in a brilliant way in the cover story ‘North-east India’s academic renaissance’ (EW June).
Sudhir K. Sopory
Vice chancellor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi
Rankings dissatisfaction
THE ANNUAL EW India School Rankings 2014 are due next month. I have some suggestions to improve your league tables.
Firstly, number of respondents (200) is far too few for nationwide league tables. Secondly, the survey is perceptual and often at tremendous variance with ground realities. At least five of the Top 20 schools in your league tables have been visited/closely associated with the undersigned and my assessment does not even remotely tally with the rankings given.
At best, beyond a few nationally reputed schools, educationists based in the metros have little or limited knowledge of schools in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Therefore, I recommend the methodology be revisited for a combination of hard data, visits to schools, and region-wise analysis by educationists.
Lt. Col. Atmaran Sekhar
Principal, Atul Vidyalaya
Valsad
(The number of respondents who ranked well-known schools of various categories in the EW India School Rankings 2013 was 5,779 countrywide — Editor.)