Lackadaisical attitude

Thanks for the special report ‘Dismaying teacher shortage in Indian academia’ (EW October). My son attends a ‘five-star’ school in Bangalore and in the past four months has had three new maths teachers. This high attrition has affected not only his learning outcomes but has also diluted his interest in maths. When I paid up the exorbitant annual tuition fee of Rs.1 lakh, I was promised that a highly-qualified and well-trained faculty will deliver a 21st century education to my child. Well, the reality is far from this promise. The turnover of teachers is so high that now the school is hiring mediocre teachers to fill in. The result: student indiscipline and falling academic standards. But in all this mess, what surprises me is the lackadaisical attitude of these high-profile school managements. They don’t seem to understand that it’s the quality of faculty that defines a school, not swimming pools and gyms. Sharada Shetty Bangalore Unchecked and inaccurate Your assertions in your postscript column (EW September) about The International School Bangalore are unchecked and inaccurate. We have a vast number of applicants for student and staff positions and we offer residential packages for staff, which include accommodation, meals, children’s education, plus the attractive salaries you mention. Teaching the IGCSE and IB curricula in a seven-day-a-week boarding context is very demanding but the rewards are great and Dr. K.P. Gopalkrishna’s and Dr. Bindu Hari’s educational vision is humane, generous, incredibly successful and crystal clear. I would not have relocated from the UK with my wife and three small sons 15 months ago if that were not the case. I am very happy with my decision to join TISB: my children are studying in an excellent, happy and vibrant school, and I am among the finest group of colleagues I have ever worked with in my wide-ranging career, which includes teaching in five countries. TISB’s results speak for themselves. With Rs.11 crore in university scholarship money gained by our 119 class XII students last year and placements in best universities worldwide, with a superb system of pastoral care and dedicated, highly trained teachers, TISB is in a very enviable position in international education in India. It worries me to think that you are publishing unchecked assertions which are aimed to harm schools, their teachers and more wrongly, the children who go to them. I think the intention of your publication should be to inform the public accurately on educational matters. Oh, and one other small fact to correct: I’m American, not English! Dr. Mathew Sullivan Principal, The International School Bangalore It’s impossible for us to crosscheck our information since the TISB culture is never to return phone calls and/or letters. Perhaps you need to improve on your institutional life skills — Editor Student lawlessness I was aghast to read your cover story ‘Death of a professor: Fear and frustration in small-town India’s neglected colleges’ (EW October). Where is our country heading? The only answer to this question is “towards a state of total anarchy and lawlessness”. Whatever happened to the…