Your cover story on the Amity group of educational institutions made interesting reading (EW October). It seems Dr. Ashok Chauhan has cleverly used the netas in UP to get favourable legislation passed to overcome the road-blocks put in his path by obdurate babus.
It is also apparent from your story that the Chauhans have shown admirable project execution skills on a par with what Reliance has demonstrated in the case of Indian industry. That they have been able to establish so many institutions of massive scale in so short a period, speaks volumes for their vision and speed of action. In fact, going by what has been achieved in the space of just a few years and the grand plans for the future, Dr. Ashok Chauhan could well turn out to be the Dhirubhai Ambani of Indian education.
Vivek Shah
Ahmedabad
Charter schools caution
Thank you for the thought-provoking special report ‘The charter schools alternative’ (EW October). The challen-ges of educating India’s 450 million children are truly epic, and the situation requires radical new thinking on the lines of innovations such as charter schools and public private partnerships.
As Summiya Yasmeen says in her erudite report, charter schools as a phenomenon have grown exponentially in the West in the past decade, espec-ially in the US where the movement started. Within some groups of educationists, there is also growing concern over whether or not charter schools deliver the goods. The study you mention on page 64 concludes that only 17 percent of charter schools showed a marked improvement, while 83 percent reported no improvement or significant decreases in academic perfor-mance. Not great statistics by any means.
The United States may spend vast amounts on education but results are mixed and often disappointing, and schools across the country are in crisis.
Hence it’s advisable that the Indian government studies the US charter schools model thoroughly before adopting it.
Scott Thompson
Mumbai
Central zone omission
Here’s wishing all of you at EducationWorld Happy Diwali! I enjoy-ed reading the Septem-ber issue featuring the India’s Most Respected Schools Survey 2009. The survey is genuine and informative, and had some stunners and shockers as far as school rankings are concerned.
Apart from congratulating you and C fore for comprehensive research, I had another reason to e-mail you. I wonder if you are open to the idea of creating a Central zone in addition to the already existing zones?
If you’re not open to creating a Central zone, could you please then add the schools of Chhattisgarh to the list of surveyed schools? I was taken aback that not a single school from the state of Chhattisgarh was rated or ranked. To cover primary-secondaries in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, it would be a good idea for a Central zone to be formed.
I travel to Chhattisgarh every month and there are several high quality schools in the capital Raipur as also in Bhilai, Durg, Bilaspur, Rajnandgaon and also further in Korba and Raigarh districts. They fulfill all the criteria mentioned in your survey.
Please don’t be offended by my comments. My intent is to provide feedback to an editor who makes all of us so knowledgeable!
Sandesha Rayapa Garbiyal on e-mail
Overlooked institution
Your cover story ‘India’s Most Respected Schools’ (EW September), which rated and ranked schools on the basis of a survey conducted by the Delhi-based research agency C fore, came as a surprise. While I appreciate the gigantic endeavour undertaken, I believe a large number of schools doing considerable good work remain igno-red, unsung and ‘unrespected’ by such surveys.
Our school DPS, Indirapuram is one such institution which has been overlooked. The school was started with the intention of providing quality education and infrastructure to the populations of the satellite towns of Ghaziabad and Indirapuram. The school is in the able hands of principal Mrs. Meeta Rai, a recipient of the President’s Teachers’ Award for excellence, who believes that education is an experience promoting effective learning and rational thinking, to help create citizens who act in the larger interest of community, nation and humanity.
Your survey team is welcome in the school premises. We look forward to their visit.
Seema Kaur, Headmistress
Delhi Public School, Indirapuram
Uttar Pradesh
A recommendation
I have been reading EducationWorld for quite a while. I suggest you visit Akal Academy, Baru Sahib in Sirmaore, Himachal Pradesh. Please visit their website www.kalgidharsociety.org for details.
I have been visiting this school and have found it to be refreshingly different.
Gurbakhish Singh, Ph D
USA
Arbitrary survey
This has reference to your survey of India’s Most Respected Schools 2009 (EW September). You have given a lot of comparative tables and so on with rankings made by your magazine in a very arbitrary and perfunctory way without any reference to us. You had neither informed us, visited or seen our school nor taken any interviews from anyone, and not even cared to obtain any details of our school except for a questionnaire. Therefore the survey has come as a bolt from the blue.
It is seen in this survey that you have arbitrarily given our school 5th rank among international schools. We are not trying to proclaim ourselves as the best international school, nor do we need to do that, for we are neither in any need of blowing our own trumpet nor of seeking anyone’s recommendations. What has irked us is that your report was totally unsolicited and also highly one-sided and arbitrary in nature. The least you could have done was to say that you intend to do a survey and then visited our school and taken the details of our infrastructure and all other parameters that you have gone into while publishing the report. How could you know any of these details without even visiting the school and seeing the same?
The most peculiar aspect is that on page 92 of your cover story, you have ranked us higher in 2008 and lower in 2009! Is it possible that in one year, our school’s standards have sunk? To top all this you invited us to an awards function at Taj Mahal Hotel, Delhi as if we had commissioned you to do the ranking!
You are therefore guilty of harming our reputation with imaginary reports not based on facts, as the general public reading your magazine will be influenced by these reports. This is highly irregular, and cannot be viewed as objective reporting; nor can it be covered by the term “freedom of expression”. Therefore, your reports are obviously made with the ulterior motive of helping those you want to favour at a personal level.
Kindly note also that you have to publish the admission made by you that your reports are “perceptual and not factual” and that your statistics are not based on facts, and the publication should be made with an apology for involving us in your ranking without any prior intimation or inspection of our institution. If you do not comply with our reasonable demands, we have to seriously consider legal action against you.
P.C. Thomas
Principal
Good Shepherd International School, Ootacamund
Our cover story repeatedly states that the ratings and rankings are based on the perceptions of 2,066 knowledg-eable respondents comprising a mix of parents, principals, teachers and educationists. Moreover I believe that Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution has endowed all citizens with a fundamental right to comment on matters of public interest without reference to any individual or organisation — Editor
Words of praise
My sincere congratulations to you and the EW team for transforming a once almost regional magazine into a national, and slowly an international, monthly.
To delve into the quagmire of the subcontinent’s education system — and at times the lack of one — is an almost impossible feat. Our regional, state and national core curriculums are a labyrinth which EW has comprehended with commendable insight, setting aside the peripheral and concentrating on the bond that coheres Harvard University with an institute in Himachal Pradesh. You have been able to transcend the physical and stress the core issues that makes learning the fulcrum of any institute worthy to label itself an education centre.
My sincere good wishes to EW for the future.
Robbie Subba, Director
Himali Boarding School, Kurseong