Misrepresented facts

Your cover story (EW August) was well researched and on point regarding issues of the Barefoot College (BC) model of learning without formal degrees and the reasons cited why it may not work in India. These are revolutionary ideas based on a steadfast belief in the human spirit and honesty that have yielded extraordinary results. However, you have given Barefoot College International (BCI), an implementing agency of the parent organisation viz, Barefoot College, credibility by stating they have a shared history goes against the grain when legacies and IPR (intellectual property rights) are stolen and misused. There are so many errors in your write-up on former BC chief executive Megan Fallone and facts have been misrepresented. It would have been expected that some research was done on Fallone’s actual background and why she and a bunch of others were expelled from BC. Perhaps further research would have thrown up the fact that an implementing agency has no right to any history, legacy or brand when its services have been terminated. Giving so much space to Fallone on the same platform as the founder of Barefoot College, is to discredit him and the people who built this 50-year-old enterprise through huge sacrifice and high values.

I’m extremely disappointed that EducationWorld gave wing to an entity based on duplicity. This will have a far-reaching impact on the credibility and sustainability of the original Barefoot College as its mission has never been — or will be — for personal gain.

You should have completed your homework Mr. Thakore before publishing this cover story.

Saritaa Hegde Roy on E-MAIL

One-sided content

We, the entire staff and leadership team of Barefoot College International are writing to express our sincere disappointment and outrage at the recent cover article on 50 years of the Barefoot College.

Your article exemplifies the lowest level of journalism by circumventing fact, genuine due diligence and a willingness to allow unsubstantiated and utterly incorrect information to be placed in the public domain. Perhaps this has been done unwittingly and your trust in the individual who authored the article has been misplaced but that is ultimately the responsibility of the editorial staff at EducationWorld.

It is completely negligent and irresponsible to deliberately and recklessly allow publication of information which may negatively influence the many partners including the Government; with whom we at Barefoot College International, work closely. Your purpose in allowing such one-sided editorial content into the public domain acts as a defacto endorsement and your purpose in doing so as a reputable and important publication is incomprehensible.

We believe that putting poor rural women, children and community development work first, ahead of petty fabricated issues, is and should be everyone’s priority. This applies to the leadership of Social Work & Research Center (Barefoot College Titonia) as we[[, who seem oddly unabte to represent their own history in a factual inctusive way, crediting the individuats and teams whose work has defined so much of who that became.

Omission constitutes a lie as equally as a false statement and Mr Roy’s rampant omissions and poetic liscence with facts, his need to continually reattribute credit to those who are his long standing “yes men”, is the worst sort of outcome for what should be a iconic organisation. Omitting key facts from the testimony of their staff is yet another indicator of an organisation unable to be generous about the contributions of those without whom they would not have achieved what they have in their 50 years.

The ability to build and pass power, decision making and develop a future fit and ready organisation, should be the hallmarks of success for any serious organisation. Not a continual throwback to work done in the past, itself riddled with its own dramas and conflictual suituations that are well known to many., long before Barefoot College lnternational was founded to serve the larger Barefoot College family.

There is a reason some 96 former staff 170% of the total staff of the joint organisation composition) att of whom who had been working team members of the Social Work and Research Center for decades, stood before Mr Roy and challenged his treatment of them, his withholding monies due to them and his categorically authoritative approach in refusing to enter into any genuine dialog in which their views and wishes could be heard as to the future of the organisation; they had been part of building and making successful in India and abroad.

Now we see an article published by you which again is completety void of our voices as if we did not exist and have not made the Barefoot Cottege as a whole, what it was able to achieve. You should be ashamed of your lazy and shoddy representation of an organisation that has a unique history and far beyond that of Mr Roy’s selected representation and salacious mongering for presenting things in a totally incorrect, subjective and factually false manner.

Our Indian Social innovation organisations are needed more now than ever; that means everyone, especially journalists, have a moral responsibility to do whatever it takes to accurately report on them and help the wider public understand how complex, how important and what diversity must come together to make them able to deliver and fit for service to India, tong into the future.

Barefoot College International Staff, Heads of Sections, Directors & CEO, Harmara, Rajasthan

Curiously you don’t mention our interview with your director Megan Fallone, who presented the BCI perspective. We included Fallone’s viewpoint despite Mr. Roy’s objection. — Editor