I want to congratulate EducationWorld for the extraordinary cover story on the remarkable, pioneering work being done by Bunker Roy and his team in Tilonia (EW February). The promotion, nurturance and consolidation of the Barefoot College is ground-breaking stuff and is proof enough of how one individual’s passion and belief can start a revolution.
Your cover story covered this inspirational work in its entirety very well. I believe it can prove very useful to all schools — especially residential schools with extra-curricular SUPW (socially useful productive work) programmes. Committed barefoot professionals such as Nandan, Laxman, Teja, Ram Karan, Ram Niwas, Shehnaz, Bhurji and Bhanwar Jats of the world need to be given all support and encouragement.
The essence of the Barefoot College education and rural development model is to build the self-esteem, confidence and self-acceptance of each individual. This is the only way India will eventually reclaim its lost glory in the comity of nations.
Praveen Vasisht
Headmaster
Lawrence School, Sanawar
Curious omission
I read your cover story on Barefoot College, Tilonia with riveted interest (EW February). Bunker Roy and his team of barefoot managers have sparked a rural revolution which offers the hope of transforming rural India from an area of darkness into a hinterland of solar lighting and power.
However, while the college offers solar engineering, rainwater harvesting, dentistry, and 14 learning programmes, curiously it doesn’t seem to include agricultural productivity enhancement programmes. Is this by accident or design?
Kishore Mongia on e-mail
Balanced education call
Thanks for the in-depth special report ‘Wipro-EI Quality Education Study: Top metro schools aren’t great shakes’ (EW February).
Our top schools need to do a lot more to develop students into sensitive and caring individuals. The school syllabus needs to be reduced and an overdose of bookish knowledge avoided. Moral and values education should be included in school curriculums as well as sports and yoga. Outdoor field trips must also be compulsorily organised by schools for students. Marks can be awarded for each of the above activities.
At home parents must monitor students and stipulate fixed hours for watching TV, playing computer games and surfing the internet. A balance must be maintained between academics and extra-curricular activities and sports, and teachers and parents must help children strike the right balance to enable their holistic development.
Mahesh Kapasi
Delhi
Busted myths
Your special report ‘Top metro schools aren’t great shakes’ (EW February) is disturbing. In the popular imagination, private schools in the metros are highly respected and reputed for producing students who excel in academics and are socially aware and responsible. The results of the Wipro-EI Quality Education Study (QES) have busted both these myths.
Our top private school students may be excellent according to dumbed down standards of school education in India, but they fare poorly in international tests. That’s because they excel in mugging rather than problem solving.
But academic underperformance apart, it was disturbing to read about our school students’ social values and attitudes. It’s shocking that almost half of those assessed said it’s a waste of public resources to educate girl children. Obviously, our premier schools have failed miserably in correcting deep-seated social prejudices passed on to children by bigoted parents.
The QES report is a timely wake-up call not just to our top private school managements to shed complacency but also to our school examination boards who have created a culture of exam obsession and rote memorisation.
Sumana Sarkar
Kolkata
Blame exam boards
I think Summiya Yasmeen has been too harsh in her indictment of the country’s top private metro schools (EW February special report). Private schools are doing the best they can in a system where exam success is a national obsession. As long as the exam boards prepare question papers which test memorisation skills, private schools have no option but to encourage rote learning. And as Padmini Sriraman of the Hindu School, Chennai, says, rote learning is not entirely bad. Science definitions, formulae and poetry have to be learnt by heart.
We must be eternally grateful to the country’s private schools for producing students with acceptable quality English language, reading and numeracy skills. The managements of private schools are responsible for the Indian economy growing at 7 percent per annum. They cannot be blamed for prescribing archaic syllabuses and question papers prepared by exam boards.
Anil Deshpande
Mumbai
Similar experience
Your leisure and travel story ‘Sentimental safari’ (EW January) was moving. I say this because I too experienced arbitrary African socialism, which prompted us to head back home to our coffee plantation in Coorg.
Also let me thank EW for featuring Coorg Public School among the top 50 boarding schools of India.
Bollamma N.A
Vice principal, Coorg Public School
South Kodagu
New flavour
Just finished reading your leisure and travel piece ‘Sentimental safari’ (EW January). It’s quite an emotional account of ‘returning to roots’. Very well written.
Articles such as this add a compl-etely new flavour to EducationWorld and make it so much more interesting.
Amit Gupta
Noida