Congratulations on your 13th anniversary issue (EW November)! The EducationWorld team must be commended for throwing a much-needed spotlight on education trends, issues, and policies. I have been a regular reader of the magazine and compliment you for continuous improvement in content, design and overall quality. The comprehensive cover story ‘India’s top-ranked versus Best in West’ is superbly written covering the entire spectrum from preschool to higher education. I entirely agree with the analysis that India’s best preschools and higher education institutions are way behind their western counterparts, particularly in teacher competence and infrastructure provision. Perhaps the only saving grace is our top private schools which offer near-comparable academic and co-curricular education. The main reason behind the low ranking of India’s education institutions is that they lack the academic and financial freedom needed to raise teaching-learning standards to global norms. The heavy hand of government is always in the way, obstructing them with obsolete rules and regulations. Unless Central and state governments stop interfering, India’s private sector schools, colleges and universities will never attain world-class status. Arun Subramaniam Chennai Some superpower! The 13th anniversary issue features excellent content (EW November)! Kudos to your team for publishing a great education magazine. However, while EducationWorld celebrates its 13th anniversary, your cover story and special report provided little cause for jubilation. That India’s best schools and universities are laggards trailing the best in West, is a sad indictment of our education system. In a fast globalising world, our education institutions cannot afford to be big fish in a small pond; they have to be internationally competitive and match the world’s best. Otherwise our products and services won’t be competitive in world markets. More depressing than the cover story is your special report (‘India’s good, bad and ugly states’). It’s shameful that 65 years after independence, the majority of India’s states fare miserably on NUEPA’s Educational Development Index which applies domestic yardsticks. They have neglected primary education to the extent that the majority of 1.25 million government schools in the country don’t provide basic amenities such as girls’ toilets and drinking water, forget about ‘luxuries’ like libraries, laboratories, playgrounds, and computers. Contrast this with our politicians’ loud claims about India’s superpower status! Priya Deshpande Mumbai Excellent anniversary essays I read your 13th Anniversary issue (EW November) with consuming interest. Congratulations for presenting India with an education magazine which is unique even by global standards. You and your team deserve the thanks and gratitude of all people who are sincerely concerned about the nation’s development in the 21st century. I especially appreciated the excellent anniversary essays published in your commemorative issue. All of them and particularly the insightful Teacher-2-Teacher column of Dr. Jonathan Long, were enlightening and should be mandatory reading for all principals and teachers who still subscribe to Mr. Gradgrind’s interpretation of education. I also enjoyed reading the cover story comparing India’s best education institutions with those in the West. Accurate and on-the-ball assessment. Anil Kumar Ghosh Kolkata Depression antidote I refer to the editorial…
