Thanks for your cover story ‘Agriculture - primary education = mass farm suicides’ (EW June). Per hectare, agricultural productivity in India is half that of China and one-sixth of California. Although we have sun, soil and water in abundance, India’s farm productivity is very low because there’s hardly any application of science and technology. India has 95 agricultural and 15 agricultural engineering colleges. But hardly any of their graduates opt for agriculture as a profession. The reason: agriculture cannot afford their services.
Some years ago under the leadership of S. Viswanathan, editor-in-chief, Industrial Economist, an agricultural experiment was conducted on a farm about 20 miles from Chennai. Prof. Laxman of the University of California, Davis (an agricultural university), acted as a consultant. Extensive soil tests indicated that the soil needed zinc, magnesium, and potassium supplements apart from fertilizers. The farm land was tilled 15 inches deep as against the traditional six inches (the California norm is 24 inches), and fertilizer and supplements placed six inches below the upper soil. An innovative drip irrigation system was engineered to supply water to saplings which resulted in corn crop production of 3,100 kg/acre, against the earlier 700 kg/acre.
These experiments clearly drive home the lesson that science and technology must be applied to agriculture in India, and that we must encourage graduates with stipends and financial rewards to work in agriculture. Right now there’s a huge food shortage worldwide. With higher productivity and safe and proper storage of agricultural produce, India can become a major food exporter.
F.C. Kohli
MUMBAI
Reform government schools
The special report feature ‘RTE Act: 5 Years Later’ (EW June) accurately highlights the RTE implementation hurdles faced by school principals. The current mess and confusion over admitting poor neighbourhood children into private schools as per s.12 (1) (c) have justified these apprehensions.
It’s unfortunate that while state governments are obsessed with implementing s. 12 (1) (c) in private schools, they are doing little to improve infrastructure and learning standards in their own schools. The prime objective of the RTE Act was not to repair private schools or to appropriate government quotas within them, but to ensure the State provides free and compulsory education to every child. It’s a shame that all state governments have missed the Act’s stipulated deadlines for improving infrastructure facilities and upgrading teacher qualifications in publicly-funded schools.
Worse, no feelings of remorse and regret have been expressed by our education ministers or bureaucrats over these missed deadlines. The RTE Act is essentially a paper tiger to frighten private school managements.
Manohar Pandey
DELHI
Integration audit lacuna
Re your cover story ‘EW India University Rankings’ (EW May), is it fair to expect world-class graduates from our universities in just three or four years without critically examining 15 years of Indian schooling? I am not aware if any serious attempt has been made to conduct an integration audit between school and higher education. If you meet professors of India’s best colleges, you will hear them lamenting the rapidly falling quality of students entering institutions of higher education. I urge EducationWorld to conduct an integration audit in one of its forthcoming issues.
I also have a suggestion to improve your EW India University Rankings. In addition to the league tables, it will be helpful to readers if you included analytics, conclusions and interviews with some of the deans of the Top 200 national universities.
Mudit Mehrotra
Morena, MADHYA PRADESH
Vinod Mehta’s legacy
Your postscript ‘Good not great’ on journalist Vinod Mehta (EW April) was well written. Mehta’s legacy of fearless journalism will continue in the publications he helped shape during his career spanning four decades. He was blunt, witty and expressed his views without fear or favour.
He pushed the boundaries of the uneasy relationship between the State and media. He believed an individual can always stand his ground if he is fearless and to use his own phrase — always has his resignation letter ready in his pocket.
In particular, Mehta’s letters to the editor page became his trademark — he encouraged opinions of all shades, including those that went against the views of the newspapers and magazines he edited.
Mahesh Kumar
DELHI