Notes on Education

  M ahatma Gandhi had said that India cannot progress in a true sense until its villages progress. The majority of Indians still live in its villages and they are in a sense the soul of the nation. In recent times Prime Minister Narendra Modi has revived this theme and expressed the desire to begin with model villages called Adarsh Grams. For various reasons the scheme has not taken off due to various constraints among them budgetary ones. A way to overcome this is to combine infrastructure that already exists in villages with other needs of a village. One such is the post office that has now been increasingly used for essential banking needs as well as some other government services such as the issue of Adhhar cards. A school is also an essential infrastructure in villages and it too can be provided to give more services to villagers in a way that improves both school and village life. The services that a school can provide in a village are: Treated drinking w

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=1742 V arious schools of India from primary to high school are of two types. First are government or state run schools and the second type are schools run by private parties that include individuals, societies, trusts or companies. Problems exist in both type of schools that compromise quality of education in the country and the quality of life of citizens. Here we shall consider the most important problems that face both type of schools and propose a simple solution that will help to improve the situation considerably. The main problem in state run schools is the quality of education and governance within schools. The major problem with private schools is their greed and ever increasing fees and expenses imposed on hapless parents. Some severe tragedies have taken place in private schools that even include severe beating, rape and murder of little children. Clearly existing mechanisms are insufficient to dea

T he attention of this author was drawn to the present topic on reading a report that the government of India is planning to introduce a national level certifying examination for engineers. Over the past decade and a half a huge number of engineering colleges have come up across the country, many of dubious quality. They are producing a poor quality of professional engineers and hence such an exam would help control the situation while assuring the industry that employs them of quality. While a good move, what lacks in this change is what was mentioned as enlightened compassion. May we try and understand this. First it is necessary to explain what enlightened compassion implies. It refers to doing an act of good for another person’s long term interest rather than a short term one. The point is well illustrated in a classical story of a robber who was caught and about to be hanged in the public square. He was granted one last wish. He asked to whisper something in his mothe