Liberalise education
Your insightful cover story ‘Licence-permit-quota raj despair in K-12 education’ (EW July) was alarming. I couldn’t agree more with the authors who say that with opportunities for rents-seeking declining in industry, LPQ raj has migrated to K-12 education.
There is urgent need for the Central and state governments to liberalise and improve their ease-of-doing education processes and procedures, and meanwhile appoint bureaucrats with squeaky-clean records to head leadership positions in this critical ministry.
Saisha Chandra
Chennai
Time to move on
I am a regular reader of EW. Your latest cover story is on a subject — licence-permit-quota raj — which has been repeatedly analysed in your magazine. Given that the needle of public policy hasn’t moved an inch in so many years, there is little hope it will happen now. Let’s face it. LPQ raj is here to stay,
Perhaps it’s time to move on. Widen your education scope and explore other urgent issues such as nutrition deficiencies in school-going children, quality of mid-day meals, anganwadi education, out-of-school children, etc.
Keerthi Kadam
Thane
Develop horticulture processing
Your Special Report ‘Upskilling panic spreading countrywide’ (EW July) certainly made its point! That invention of new technologies has spread deep fear of redundancy among employees far and wide making reskilling/upskilling a necessity.
In particular, Dr. Alka Singh’s strong plea for development of the horticulture processing industry to avoid huge annual wastage needs to be urgently heeded. News that there is a sharp increase in applications for short-term courses in fertilizer, pesticide usage and green house management is very welcome. There is urgent need to improve India’s farm yields and skilling youth to integrate latest technologies with traditional farming is the best solution.
Brinda Sen
Kolkata
AI fears
Your Teacher-to-Teacher essay ‘Managing AI advantageously’ (EW July) highlights the potential of AI to improve teaching-learning processes. I agree with most of author Lawrence Fray’s views except for one.
Fray’s recommendation for teachers to utilise AI to produce lesson plans, worksheets and assessments is shocking. In my opinion, this will drive students to study only textbooks generated content, given that ChatGPT generates questions from the same limited content. The greater fear is that the rise of AI and ChatGPT usage may mark the end of conceptual learning for students and teachers’ creativity forever!
Sandhya Sule
Mumbai
Premature write-up
Your People on ‘Happiness evangelist’ Yogesh Kochhar sends a strong message of hope (EW July). Especially in times when Indian youth are glued to their mobile phones and social media. I hope the YOL app can help us retrieve our minds.
However, I believe your write-up would have been far more newsworthy had the pilot programmes been completed to give readers a clear indication of how effectively the app enhances the happiness quotient.
Sindhu Arya
Delhi
Words of appreciation
I am in receipt of the latest issue of EW highlighting other than Ivy League universities of America (EW May). Congratulations for ideating new features to enhance EW and increase its readership globally.
The prelude from the editor is always excellently written and the feature stories are aptly shortlisted. EducationWorld conveys a strong message to all readers that there should be no compromise when it comes to the education of children and youth. I appreciate your efforts to make the nation aware of the shortcomings of the education system and urgency to revitalise it.
As you have highlighted, more needs to be done to reach 21st century learning concepts to aspiring students and parents. The need of the hour is applications-oriented learning. Once again, we appreciate your zest to see the education sector revamped and enhanced so that our children receive the best learning opportunities and become contributors to the national and global economies.
We applaud all the good work being done by you and your team at EducationWorld. May God bless you!
Dr. A. F. Pinto
Chairman
Ryan International Group of Institutions, Mumbai
