Education and character

  WHILE I agree with Mr J.N. Puri on some of the points he has made in his article, “Education and character: the task before India” (March 22), I am sceptical about certain others. It is true that our mainstream curriculum is culturally and developmentally inappropriate and content-wise uninspiring, resulting in high drop-out rates. Again, it is correct that our teacher training programmes are woefully inadequate, leading to uninspiring class-room teaching, ultimately again resulting in high drop-out rates and hence illiteracy.

However, I am not one with the author when he says that our education policy lacks focus or is “directionless”, as he prefers to call it. It is clear to any observer of the educational scene that our education policy is dualistic in nature. It is no doubt development-oriented. But it caters for the elite as well as for the masses. It is, however, true that it is lackadaisical in its approach as far as the well-being of the latter is concerned.

The author takes a censorious view of our educational policy, which, he thinks, “suffers from a philanthropic or social service syndrome...” I ask: what is so glorious about our schools being teaching shops, which unfortunately they are at present? He also takes a dim view of “a segregated approach towards the girl child, minorities, backward castes...” I, on the other hand, believe that exclusive attention towards these segments of society is the need of the hour. It will lead to the intensive care of these people, which will result in their all-round amelioration.

Finally, the author is ambivalent about the role of science and technology in the cultural context. He bemoans that the technological advancement, apart from the educational and economic decline, poses a “real danger” to the traditional culture. However, in the same breath, he lauds the generation of new ideas in the scientific field because they can serve as inputs in the growth of a new “live and robust culture”.

AKHILESH
Birampur (Garhshankar)

A pipedream: This refers to the article “Education & character”.

Providing education to every poor child in India is still a pipedream. All of us know that food is the first priority and then comes education. Perhaps this is not realised by the government. How strange!

TARUNDEEP AGGARWAL
Chandigarh

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Birthday shouting

I read with interest the editorial “B. Day verbal shootout” (March 20), focusing attention on two typical “B. Day celebrations” viz-a-viz the completion of 365 days in office by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Congress President Sonia Gandhi the other day in the country’s Capital. What an outrageous way to celebrate a birth anniversary, indeed!

No truck-loads of bouquets and the usual bear hugs; instead, the occasion was marked by virtually a slanging match, with no holds barred, between the BJP and Congress spokesmen. Even the “speaking teams” were reportedly replaced by the “shouting brigades” on either side probably to match the occasion.

The question is: why this “madness”? Well, apparently, because the spectre of “mid-term poll” seems constantly haunting the members of the Lok Sabha as never before, impelling them to increasingly indulge in mindless antics in a frantic bid to bemuse the gullible masses. Whether the gamble will click or not is, of course, a moot point.

TARA CHAND
Ambota (Una)

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Rajpura overbridge for whom?

The citizens of Rajpura want the Punjab government to look into the futility of building an overbridge at Rajpura.

All business centres, shops, schools, hospitals, cinema-houses and residential buildings are situated on either side of this road. The whole business will be destroyed by constructing an overbridge at this site.

The long-pending demand and the urgency of having a regular traffic flow between the two parts of the city have been completely fulfilled with the construction of an underbridge, and the residents have no problem in crossing the railway track.

The government should avoid this wasteful expenditure, harassment and displacing of the residents of Rajpura.

Moreover, traffic is passing easily via the Chandigarh-Patiala and Ambala-Rajpura bypasses with one overbridge. There is no necessity at all of having another overbridge at Rajpura.

PAWAN KUMAR and S. B. LAL
Rajpura

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Vote-bank politics

How sad it is that politicians have succeeded (because of their eye on the vote-bank) in dividing the country into two distinct identities — the dalit and the non-dalit. They talk of atrocities on dalits only. They seldom talk of people as a whole as if those belonging to the upper castes and their blood are expendable commodities. Even the poorest of them do not strike a sympathetic chord in the hearts of politicians.

When Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav or Laloo Yadav protest against what they call as anti-dalit policies of the government, we are not shocked because they are regional leaders surviving on casteist propaganda. BSP leaders too belong to the same genre. But when Congress leaders (which is a national party with a glorious record of service to the country) join their bandwagon, the development shocks the thinking people.

Even more shocking are the recent pronouncements of the BJP. It labels the Congress as anti-dalit, as if the latter has been a great friend and benefactor of the upper castes. Lust for power, it appears, has blinded the BJP leaders too.

Why can’t any party in India today think of the people as a whole, and work for their welfare? For heaven’s sake, please shed this myopia and vote-bank politics.

R. L. SINGAL
Chandigarh