Handsome tribute
I have received the Silver Jubilee issue of EducationWorld (November). On this occasion, I would like to express my deep appreciation of your relentless and thankless crusade for the betterment of Indian education, especially of the country’s dormant public schooling system for 25 long years.
I am full of admiration for the depth and variety with which you have covered educational issues, providing status updates, hard/factual data, contextual reviews, school/college/ university rankings, musings of education experts, state/UT reports, special articles, book reviews, global educational developments, periodical policy/strategy prescriptions — all backed by intelligent editorial comment. It has no doubt been a hard task to continuously struggle for professionalisation of Indian education. Through your unprecedented professional journalism, you have been in loco parentis to the Indian polity which needs a non-violent war on all fronts to realize the constitutional dream of a new, vibrant, powerful India through realisation of the five ‘E’s — Equity, Efficiency, Effectiveness, Excellence and Empowerment.
Prof. A.S. Seetharamu, Bengaluru
Indefatigable effort
Congratulations to EducationWorld for completing 25 years of uninterrupted — come rain, shine or Covid-19 — publishing. Indeed the nation and society owe your angel investors who supported EW in its nascent stage, a huge debt. Your November issue commemorating this achievement, a testament to your indefatigable effort to raise teaching-learning standards of Indian education, is a gem!
I agree wholeheartedly with your assertion that your effort has moved education higher up on the national development agenda, and especially your sustained advocacy of early childhood and skills education has positively impacted NEP 2020.
Keep up the good work!
Zian Hussein, Hyderabad
Kudos to Ravaglia
Loved your November anniversary issue packed with enriching content and information. In particular, your special Anniversary essays authored by respected commentators in India and abroad. I especially liked reading Dr. Raymond Ravaglia’s essay. His analysis of how India’s best schools compare with the best in the West is stark and real.
Indeed India’s schools place too much emphasis on board exams with most of them failing to stimulate children’s creativity and critical thinking. I fully agree with his viewpoint that augmenting students’ learning experiences by providing them with hard skills and adaptation qualities will enable them to succeed better in later life.
Prachi Ranjan, Delhi
Extraordinary initiative
Thank you for the enlightening Eyewitness Report on Gyanshree, Noida’s Skills Hub initiative (EW November). The promoters of Gyanshree, the Noida-based Haldiram Educational Society, deserve appreciation and thanks for being the first to respond to CBSE’s directive and establish an exemplary on-campus state-of-the-art skills hub to provide free-of-charge vocational education and training to children and youth in the community. It’s indeed an extraordinary initiative.
This story provides inspiration to all school managements and leaders to establish skills hubs within their campuses and enter into partnerships with public/private organisations for specific course expertise and faculty.
Malini Deshpande, Mumbai
Inspiring young achievers
The Young Achievers section (EW November) featuring the low-profile Olympics Games medalist Swapnil Kusale and promising badminton player Tanvi Patri was very inspiring. These profiles are inspirational because they recount the stories of incredible determination and self-confidence.
Sandeep Patil, Mumbai
Heed Dhillon advice!
The Teacher-2-Teacher essay ‘Critical importance of the humanities’ (EW November) was absorbing.
Author Himmat Dhillon highlights the need for students to be much more than mere subject experts in the emerging AI-driven global economy. Efficient communicators, empathetic humans and good managers are the prime need of Indian education. An arts graduate myself, I’m well-aware that the humanities develop questioning minds, resourcefulness, self-reliance, metacognition, and reflection. Schools need to infuse humanities into all subjects and teaching-learning pedagogies.
Rohit Banappa, Bengaluru
