Thank you for the excellent and detailed cover story on the Subramanian Committee Report’s recommendations for the New Education Policy 2016 (EW November). Evidently, the committee headed by TSR Subramanian, a highly-respected former Union cabinet secretary, has gone to great lengths to submit comprehensive and detailed recommendations for reviving every sector of Indian education — from preschool to higher education. In the circumstances, I am somewhat surprised that Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar has dismissed this labour of love as just “another input” to formulate NEP 2016. 

Indian education, particularly the country’s government schools and universities, is in a shambles. It’s high time the HRD minister and government took urgent heed of the recommendations of the Subramanian Committee to kickstart the overdue reform of Indian education. 

Manish Sharma
Mumbai

Real fears

Congratulations to the EducationWorld team on completing 17 years of uninterrupted publishing. I am sure your sustained coverage of the education sector has greatly contributed to moving education higher up on the national agenda. 

I must also compliment you on compiling a content and insights-rich 17th Anniversary issue. The fears you have raised in the cover story of the Union government deep freezing the recommendations of the TSR Subramanian Committee are real as there seems to be no traction on the New Education Policy 2016.

Clearly, the education and well-being of the country’s children don’t seem to be priorities of the BJP-NDA government. It would have been better if prime minister Narendra Modi waged a war against illiteracy instead of black money.

Bina Mathur
Delhi

Ruining children’s future

I enjoyed reading your 17th Anniversary issue. It is packed with informative and deeply researched stories. 

I wholeheartedly agree with Dr. Geeta Gandhi Kingdon who in her essay argues for replacement of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009 with a Right to Learn Act. The purpose of the RTE Act as implemented by the government seems to be to get children into school, not to ensure they learn. 

We need to set minimum learning milestones for children and ensure teachers meet them. We are ruining our children’s future by going soft on testing learning outcomes and routinely promoting all children through primary education. 

Fouzia Khan
Bangalore

Elitist pedagogies

The special report ‘New pedagogies changing Indian education’ (EW November) was well-researched. Schools practicing these new pedagogies must be congratulated for breaking new ground. 

However, I’m not too sure how these pedagogies can be mainstreamed and scaled up for implementation in government schools. They seem to be elitist, requiring heavy investment in infrastructure, technology and teacher training. You should have included experiences of low-cost schools experimenting with new pedagogies. 

Latika Chatterjee
Kolkata

ABL (activity-based learning) is being implemented in all government schools of Tamil Nadu — Editor

Special needs surprise

We would like to express our sincere thanks for ranking the O.P. Jindal Modern School, Hisar #4 in Haryana state in the EW India School Rankings 2016 in the co-ed day schools category (EW September). 

However, I am surprised that our school has been rated low on the parameter of special needs education. In this connection, we’d like to bring to your notice that a special wing for inclusive education was set up way back in 2007 and since then, the school has left no stone unturned to cater to the educational needs of specially-abled children of diverse age-groups. The school follows a structured and well-defined curriculum for special needs students providing rigorous psycho-motor and skills development training and rehabilitative education to enable them to adapt to mainstream life. 

Moreover, our school is highly proactive in subsidising the education of children from economically weaker sections of society. We also organise remedial classes for underachievers and students belonging to socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds to enhance their learning and productivity.

Julian Egbert
Principal, O.P. Jindal Modern School, Hisar