Constructive criticism
I read your detailed cover story ‘NEP 2020: Project implementation progress report’ (EW July) with great interest. It highlights the slow progress being made to implement the National Education Policy 2020, two years after it was presented to Parliament with great hope and expectation. This is further proof that overhauling India’s education system has never been a priority of the BJP government.
I also agree with the author that the Union education minister’s refusal to be interviewed is against the public interest. If the minister is too preoccupied to respond to individual queries given his many responsibilities, he owes the nation an obligation to update the public through periodic media briefings. Hope the learned minister reads your well-written story which offers constructive criticism.
Mahesh Goyal, Jodhpur
Better cover design
I am a regular reader of EducationWorld. I am pleased that your July cover is a departure from your routine covers. Its depiction of the education minister riding a bullock cart scores a bull’s eye for satire.
Also the yellow and black combination is fresh and attractive. I look forward to many more bright and cheerful covers.
Riddhima Sagar, Mumbai
Biased feature
Your cover story ‘Project implementation progress report’ (EW July) which runs into several pages fails to highlight several initiatives already launched by the government under NEP 2020. For instance, the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) and Academic Bank of Credits (ABC).
Your story seems to be more a platform for venting your anti-establishment vengeance and frustration at not having received any response from education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. A policy which seeks to completely overhaul Indian education from early childhood to university is bound to have teething problems.
Dr. Padmavathi R.,Bengaluru
Shocking mess
Congratulations on a well-researched Special Report ‘India’s mighty medical education mess’ (EW July) which beams a spotlight on India’s huge demand-supply imbalance in medical education, prompting an annual exodus of aspiring medicos to foreign countries. The government and Medical Council of India are solely responsible for this mess. It’s shocking that a country of over 1.45 billion people offers a mere 88,000 MBBS seats per year. No wonder our doctor-population ratio is one of the lowest worldwide.
The newly formed National Medical Commission must make its mission to liberalise medical education while ensuring teaching-learning standards are maintained. The onerous rules and regulations for private medical colleges to increase student intake capacity need to be rationalised to enable optimal capacity utilisation. It’s a shame that colleges built on huge acres of land with large teaching hospitals are permitted to admit only 100-200 MBBS undergrads annually.
Harinder Singh, Ludhiana
Words of praise
I glance through every issue of EducationWorld, reading selected pieces. But I never miss your editorials. When fear and terror are official weapons, when 50 percent of citizens have become sheep and goats, and perhaps 90 percent of media has turned into official mouthpiece out of greed and trepidation, you deserve congratulations for maintaining the free spirit, intellectual independence and basic values of your profession.
Your June editorial where you highlight the plethora of false writ petitions and complacency of the courts is an example. Judiciary was free India’s last hope. When they give public lectures, their lordships talk spiritedly about the need to safeguard democratic and constitutional values. But when the time comes for action, their commitment evaporates.
Your June cover story advising every educator to revisit J. Krishnamurti is also very timely. I was delighted to see him on your cover. He was indeed one of India’s very few original enlightened thinkers. Devoid of prejudices, pre-conceived notions, bias and ego, he was a really true and free spirit of our times. Education is not the only field he excelled in and India is not the only country in which he is known and respected. This extraordinary philosopher-educationist will remain relevant even after 500 years.
H.N. Dastur, Executive Secretary, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai
