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Shukla Bose
Founder-chief executive
Parikrma Humanity Foundation
Where would you place education on your national list of priorities?
Education has to be the number one priority of all countries, not just India. Any country that has social and economic vision has to pay attention to the development of human resources through good quality, values-based education.
How best to upgrade government schools?
We need to look at the quality and commitment of government officials in the education department. They should be passionate about education and not waste their bureaucratic powers on petty issues.
Thinker/philosopher you admire most.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy — he was a true reformer and liberal thinker.
Your favourite Nobel laureate.
My favourite Nobel laureate is Dag Hammarskjold who won the Nobel peace prize in 1961. I admire him for his amazing vision of a new world, his ability to think beyond boundaries of religion, country and self.
Your leadership style.
I don’t know if I have any particular style. I just believe that to achieve anything, we have to work together with a sense of ownership, responsibility and accountability.
Why have you chosen English-medium education for slum dwellers’ children?
I believe in equal opportunity for everyone, irrespective of the background they come from. Right now, access to equal opportunity is possible only with English language fluency. Therefore we have English not just as a subject, but as the medium of instruction in all our schools.
For or against the RTE Act mandating 25 percent reservation for underprivileged children in private schools?
RTE in principle is the best way to ensure that underprivileged children get an opportunity to go to schools otherwise reserved for the privileged. But like many other government policies, RTE is good as an idea but flawed in practice.
Should education outlay be doubled by cutting defence expenditure?
In our country, the education budget should be bigger than any other sectoral allocation.
How satisfied are you with the growth and development of Parikrma?
I think Parikrma is on the right track. Over the past nine years, we have been able to achieve what government schools haven’t achieved in three decades.
Pessimistic or optimistic about Indian education?
I feel good that of late, as a nation, we have begun taking the role of education more seriously. I am, however nervous to see a lot of investment taking place in the education space for purely commercial reasons. The rich-poor chasm in education should not widen.