“Students educated in government schools evolve into better citizens compared to their counterparts from elite schools.” Uday Holla, advocate general of Karnataka, defending the state’s RTE Rules amendment that allows RTE quota admissions in private schools only if no government schools are sited in their neighbourhood (April 3) “Private investment in education makes government uncomfortable because it pits a private good against a social one. Governments, like parents, want children to learn, but they also want to maximise social mobility and minimise inequality, whereas parents simply want to ensure that their children do better than anyone else’s.” Emma Duncan, social policy editor, on the boom in private education (The Economist, April 13-19) “Several Southeast Asian countries have a similar lack of forthrightness like in India. This is a problem because I feel our children (in India) are so beaten down by the problem of having to regurgitate what you learn that it’s difficult for them to think independently. Even in school projects, we’re very good at gaming the system. You can buy your school projects now… that defeats the purpose.” Gagandeep Kang, first Indian woman scientist to be awarded Fellowship of Royal Society, UK, in an interview with The Hindu (April 27) “School is so much fun. I couldn’t believe this was actually happening to me. Carrying a school bag has always been my dream.” Hwang Wol-geum (70), a class I student of Daegu Elementary, South Korea, which admitted illiterate adults as its enrolment dwindled following plummeting birthrate in the country (The New York Times, April 28) “One of India’s biggest failures is education… TS Eliot once asked, “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” The Indian school system focuses on information rather than knowledge, and certainly not wisdom.” Swaminathan Aiyer, well-known columnist (Times of India, April 28)
