Shameful callousness

I read your cover story ‘Why English-medium school admis-sions are a nightmare (EW August) with great interest. Youve pointed out the plain truth that right across the country, the demand is for English-medium schools, while the supply is of vernacular medium schools which state governments insist on shoving down the throats of an unw-illing public. Wearing the garb of great lovers of vernacular languages, politicians who make sure their children are in English-medium schools, insist upon the poor and vulnerable learning in regional languages and/or mother tongue.To impose vernacular education upon children of the poor without assuming any responsibility for their employment is callous and shameful, adding to the misery hypocritical politicians want to heap upon Indias poor. Public opinion is unanimous that education is the panacea for the widespread ills of poverty and hardship. But the subject of what type of education the poor require is glossed over. Education-World deserves public gratitude for boldly and unequivocally specifying what type of education the poor need for climbing out of the rut of poverty. Aslam Farooqi Hubli (Karnataka) Hasty initiative Your special report on the continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) scheme is well-written and researched (EW August). The varying perspectives of school principals and educationists confirm that even four years after it was introduced, there is huge confusion about implementation of CCE in schools. I attribute this to CBSEs hasty decision to implement it without consulting all stakeholders, especially teachers. This hurried initiative has been compounded by lack of an integrated and comprehensive teacher training policy. School teachers who for the past 50 years have been following the test/exam assessment system, need intensive training to switch to an evaluation scheme which focuses on both academic and co-curricular student achievement. No wonder that untrained teachers are fumbling and muddling through CCE. To put the system back on the rails, CBSE must mandate comprehensive teac-her training, and allow for continuous impro-vement of the CCE scheme to suit local conditions. Otherwise as you point out, CCE will further dilute academic standards and encourage grades inflation. Aruna Deshpande Mumbai IIHS clarification I write on behalf of IIHS with respect to the article ‘Urgent need for urban planners published on the Career Focus page (EW August). We have noticed a couple of errors in the article. First, the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) has been incorrectly mentioned as Indian Institute of Human Settlements. Also, the article incorrectly mentions IIHS as Indias first independently funded and managed inter-disciplinary national university for research and innovation. However, IIHS is Indias first prospective independently funded and managed inter-disciplinary national university for research and innovation that focuses on ongoing urban and development transformation. Please publish a corrigendum in your next issue. Pallavi Jha Gutenberg Communications Bangalore Sorry about these grave errors — Editor Brewing crisis Your Chennai correspondent Hema-latha Raghupathi has sounded a timely warning about imposition of the duty of providing mid-day meals to gover-nment primary school children upon teachers (Education News, EW August). Typically, the worlds largest mid-day…