Thanks for your hard-hitting cover story ‘3-prong assault on private schools’ (EW April). India’s high-performance private schools are indeed under siege! The indifference of the Central and state governments to the financial crisis confronting private — especially budget private school — promoters and managements is shocking and disgraceful. The Centre should have included private schools as MSMEs in its pandemic relief package qualifying them for bank loans, interest moratoriums and other benefits.

As you rightly say, the world over governments have provided generous grants and soft loans to schools and direct benefit transfers to poor households to maintain the nutrition and learning continuity of children. It’s time our callous politicians begin to acknowledge the role and contribution of private education in the national development effort.

Maria Gonsalves, Pune

Excellent suggestions

I was alarmed to read about the extent of learning loss suffered by India’s school-going children in your cover story (EW April). The nine recommendations for reviving post-pandemic school education by Sahle-Work Zewde, chairperson of the International Commission on the Futures of Education, are excellent. They should be urgently adopted by the Indian government.

Malia Bhattacharya, Delhi

Brilliant initiative

Your Special Report ‘CENTA TPO 2020: Growing enthusiasm for teacher development’ (EW April) is a timely celebration of private and government school teachers who have risen to the challenges of con[1]ducting online classes amid the raging Coronavirus pandemic. Teachers have indeed emerged as the heroes of the past few months by readily and enthusiastically stepping up to the challenge of providing remote virtual teaching to children.

Congratulations to CENTA for its brilliant Teaching Professionals Olympiad (TPO) initiative. All the award winning teachers have heaped praise on the test for evaluating teachers’ subject expertise as well as capability to manage classrooms and implement innovative pedagogies. I salute Ramya Venkatraman who sacrificed a lucrative corporate career to promote CENTA with the mission of providing the nation high-quality teachers.

Rimlee Das, Bengaluru

Entrepreneurial mindsets

I am in full agreement with Sarojini Rao, author of your Teacher-2-Teacher column (EW April) about the need to build entrepreneurial mindsets within children and youth. I run a small family business and I believe the distinguishing factor of any successful entrepreneur is her ability to communicate, solve problems, think creatively and build self-confidence and resilience.

Seema Suri, Gurugram

Inspiring young idealist

I am a regular reader of EW, especially your Young Achiever section. It was a delight to read about Radhika Ghetiya and her recent 12-medal haul for topping the B.Sc (Agriculture Hons) final exam of Anand Agricultural University. There’s hope for this country as long as there are young idealists like Radhika ready to serve in rural India and revolutionise agri-farming practices. Kudos Radhika!

Bihu Aggarwal, Ahmedabad

Doomed democracy

I enjoyed reading the brilliantly argued essay of Dr. Shiv Visvanathan about Prof. Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s exit from Ashoka University (EW April). Academic freedom is indeed under grave threat in India with the ruling dispensation clamping down on all dissent within universities — whether by faculty or students. But as Visvanathan highlights, dissent is normative in every university system. If faculty and students are not allowed to question, argue and dissent within universities, India’s democracy is doomed.

Suman Banerjee, Kolkata

Wrong photograph

YOU HAVE PRINTED the wrong photo of Saurabh Mundra (p.66) in your April special report on the CENTA TPO winners. I’m the winner of the middle school maths olympiad and was looking forward to being featured in your story. I had sent my correct photograph in all the sup[1]porting mails. I request you to rectify this error and use my correct photograph.

Saurabh Mundra on E-MAIL

We regret this error. Your photo is now featured on www.educationworld.in — Editor