Thanks for publishing the comprehensive EW India Private Higher Education Rankings 2019-20 league tables (EW May). It’s an excellent guide for students planning their university admission.

However, it’s unfair to compare NIRF and EW rankings in your cover story as you’re making an apples and oranges kind of comparison. For example, you question the Union HRD ministry for ranking Manipal Academy of Higher Education a modest #9 in NIRF. This is because the top eight institutions in NIRF are public universities which aren’t included in your rankings.

Sindhu Kutty
Kochi

Questionable conclusion

Re the cover story (EW May) ‘India’s Top 100 private universities’, Dr. Rupamanjari Ghosh, vice chancellor of Shiv Nadar University (SNU), has been misquoted as saying “she is dissatisfied with the #7 rank awarded by the 4,321 sample respondents to SNU”. On scrutiny of her responses to EducationWorld, there is nothing to indicate Dr. Ghosh was “dissatisfied” with the ranking awarded to SNU. Kindly explain how your esteemed publication came to this conclusion.

Nanddini Sharma
Mumbai

That’s not her quote, it is my comment. Dr. Ghosh expressed her dissatisfaction in a phone interview. Moreover, she said SNU’s “unique features… deserve higher ratings”. — Editor

Good suggestion

It’s surprising that the EW Private Higher Education Rankings don’t have a separate league table for teacher training colleges. As a regular reader, I have seen several of your articles on teacher training and its paramount importance in the country’s education system.

Inclusion of a separate league table ranking B.Ed colleges will inspire them to improve teaching-learning standards.

Smitha Rao
Mangalore

Adopt new pedagogies!

Habiba Insaf’s insights on the benefits of ‘museum learning’ (Teacher-to-Teacher, EW May) should open the eyes of teachers to the immense possibilities of innovative pedagogies to facilitate enjoyable experiential learning. She is right that educationists in India have not realised the potential of museum learning.

It was interesting to read about the advances made in the Federal Republic of Germany in museum learning. It is high time educators in India get out of the rut of rote learning and adopt new pedagogies.

C.M.C. Narasimhan
New Delhi

Amusing exam scores

This year’s school-leaving board exam results, irrespective of the board, amuse me. Scores have literally touched the sky. As an advocacy magazine, it’s your responsibility to convey the message that sky-high exam scores are not the goal of education.

We should celebrate learning and not scores. Since you also publish ParentsWorld, you might consider writing articles enlightening parents on this issue.

Sangeeta Mittal
Bangalore

Childhood robbery

Thank you for publishing an excellent, unprecedented education magazine. The Indian education system is robbing our children of their childhood by leaving them with very little time for play. Add to that parental expectations and pressure.

For children, play is serious business and encompasses much of life’s learning. Einstein was right on the button when he said: “Play is the highest form of research”.

To raise independent, creative and critical thinkers, teachers need to change their approach to learning. It’s time to concentrate on learning objectives rather than the number of chapters taught, on knowledge construction than information, on facilitating learning rather than mere teaching. American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead rightly said: “Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.”

Mrunal Raiborde
Headmistress, Vanita Vishram Primary School, Mumbai

Corrigendum

In the EW India Private Engineering Institutes Rankings 2019-20 main league table (EW May), the D.A. College of the Vedant Group was ranked #87 as Vedant College. Moreover, D.A. Degree College of Engineering and Technology, ranked #88 is sited in Mahemdavad, not Ahmedabad.

We regret the errors — Editor