Each year, when examination results are declared, schools across India repeat a troubling ritual. The faces of children who have scored the highest marks are displayed prominently—on school websites, hoardings, brochures, and sometimes in full-page newspaper advertisements. What should be a private moment of academic achievement is turned into a public spectacle. The intention is…
Category: Editorials
Essays tackling the real issues in Indian education.
Why teachers must remain learners
Learning time: a simple reform schools can implement People come into teaching for many reasons. For most, it is a job that pays the bills. For some, it offers stability. For a few, it is a calling. Yet teaching is different from most other professions in one important way: at its heart, it is meant…
A child’s manners are the headmaster’s legacy
A child spends nearly fifteen years in school — from the age of four until seventeen or eighteen. These are the years when the accumulated knowledge of past generations is passed down through lessons in mathematics, science, and literature. But these years are also meant for something deeper: learning how to live among others, how…
Beyond the syllabus: The case for a school’s own curriculum
If all schools teach from the same books and prepare for the same exams, what makes one school “premium”? One often wonders what truly distinguishes the so-called “premium” schools of India—those branded, high-fee institutions—from the regular, government-aided or modest private schools that serve most of our children. On the surface, both follow the same prescribed…
The unread teacher: a nation at risk
In today’s India, we often speak about the future — of the nation, of our children, of society. But who truly shapes this future? Not politicians or industrialists, not even scientists, but the school teacher. The teacher stands between the wisdom of past generations and the potential of the next. Every lesson is more than…
Are parents the best guides for education?
In India, parents play an outsized role in shaping their children’s early education. They are the most visible, vocal, and invested stakeholders in school life. This raises the central question: Are parents really the best guides for education, or do they sometimes hinder more than help? Parents care deeply about their children and want them…