I read with interest your cover story on Intel India’s education initiatives (EW October). The country needs a host of such initiatives to be able to cover up the lacunae in its education system. It is commendable that Intel is trying to bridge the digital divide by focusing its education programmes on government school teachers. Hopefully the next generation of children graduating from government schools will be as tech savvy as their private school educated counterparts and able to take full advantage of burgeoning job opportunities in our rapidly growing economy. As you rightly point out, such CSR initiatives are limited in themselves and ultimately it is up to the government to see the writing on the wall and set the education system right before it is too late. The way forward is private-public partnerships and hopefully the worth of such initiatives will be recognised and multiplied manifold to fully harvest our demographic dividend. Suryaprasad Tripathi Hyderabad Leave private schools alone Thanks for the in-depth special report on the Right to the Education Bill (EW October). I agree with the author that the public debate on the RTE Bill has been hijacked by Leftists and education NGOs. In the guise of establishing a common school system, they want to nationalise private schools — a ridiculous suggestion to say the least. As Summiya Yasmeen writes, private schools “are the one bright spot of a moribund education system”, and any attempt to meddle with their indepen-dence must be resisted by the public. The objective of enacting the RTE Bill, 2008 is to ensure that the State provides free elementary education to all children aged between six-14. It’s not about how private schools can expand capacity to offer free education to poor children. The world over, including the US, it’s the duty of the State to provide free primary education to all children. Shankar Tambe Mumbai Matchless survey I was delighted to read the cover story ‘India’s Most Respected Schools’ in the September issue of EducationWorld. It was matchless in content and presentation. EducationWorld is truly educative and a great help to teachers and students to improve standards. It is a matter of great pride and elation that City Montessori School, Lucknow has been rated as one of the ten best schools in India under the parameter of selectivity. You deserve the thanks and compliments of all educationists and teachers. Jagdish Gandhi Founder-Manager City Montessori School, Lucknow Futile exercise This is with reference to the ‘India’s Most Respected Schools Survey 2008’ (EW September). Being a proud alumnus of Mayo College Girls’ School, Ajmer, I was shocked to see that the school has been rated so low in your rankings. This outcome highlights the shortcomings of your methodology, else a school which has consistently proven itself in every field over the past so many years would not be displaced by other lesser deserving institutions. What amuses me about your survey is that it’s based entirely on public opinion and facts have been conveniently overlooked; else a school which has…
