Thanks for your insightful cover story ‘RTE Act, 2009: Confusion confounded’ (EW May). Three years on, there’s no doubt the well-intentioned RTE Act will do more harm than good to Indian education. It’s quite obvious the main targets of the RTE Act are the country’s private budget schools which have sprung up as alternatives to underperforming government schools. Budget schools are doing a good job of providing education at ridiculously low prices to children of the poor who otherwise would be condemned to dysfunctional government schools. If your estimate of 400,000 unrecognised private budget schools is correct, there will be a mass parents’ revolt if these schools are forced to shut down because they haven’t upgraded their teacher-pupil ratios, buildings, toilets, drinking water facilities, etc as per the RTE Act. Instead of shutting them down, the government should provide interest-free loans to the managements of these schools to upgrade their facilities. Also why are only private schools threatened with closure and derecognition for failing to meet the infrastructure norms of the RTE Act while government schools are exempt? This is criminal discrimination as most government schools are pathetically under-resourced in terms of infra-structure and teachers. The RTE Act must be applied with full rigour to them as well. Arjun Dasgupta Delhi National teacher training programme call Thanks for the thought-provoking special report ‘India’s lost maths advantage’ (EW May). It’s tragic how India has frittered away its thousand-year maths heritage and is rapidly losing its mathematical prowess. The root of the problem as Hemalatha Raghupathi has correctly analysed, is in the way we teach maths through rote learning and memorisation in schools. Maths subjects being applications-oriented are deeply related to real life. But teachers continue to force children to mug formulae and theories. This has killed the joy of understanding and experiencing maths. Hence the widespread math phobia in students. Though it was encouraging to read that in some private schools, efforts are being made to teach maths practically through math labs, the problem is with the 1 million plus government schools. Is anyone attempting to change the way maths is being taught in them? To effect change, the government must initiate a national math teacher training programme to help teachers learn and implement new pedagogies. Moreover, schools and colleges should make special efforts to educate students about the life and achievements of mathematical genius S. Ramanujan as an inspiration and role model. Suresh Swaminathan Chennai Defective electoral laws I fully endorse the views of your editorial ‘People need to seek political alternatives’ (EW May). It is a fact that we get the government we deserve. But it’s important to appreciate why people vote for corrupt candidates. It’s because of defective electoral laws which need to be changed. A person with a criminal background is not eligible for a government job but can stand for elections and become a policy maker. This is a mockery of democracy. Media reports indicate that the number of citizens casting their votes has increased over the years. This…
