L E T T E R S    T O    T H E    E D I T O R

Improving school education

Dr S.S. Johl’s article, “School education: Money
alone will not deliver” (Sept 27), was thought
provoking. There is a serious need for greater intro-
spection amongst us. With the change of shift to
higher education, the role of school teacher has been
marginalised by parents and governments.

There is an initial inequality in the faculties and natural aptitudes and talents of each one of us. But this must not be misconstrued as legitimising the wrong doings of some in the teaching community who are bringing down the teaching profession.

Success today is gauged in terms of money, power and status unmindful of the means to acquire these. The aspirations of people have risen and all this has created a fear of being left out of the economic development stream.

Dr I.M. JOSHI, Chandigarh

II

Clearly, even after appointing the most qualified staff, government schools are failing to deliver productive education. Ironically, these were the schools which produced IAS officers, technocrats and scientists some time ago. Then, why are they losing their sheen now?

The problem lies in the fact that once a teacher gets a government job, he begins to think that now he is a government servant and so he need not have to work any more. Owing to the lack of dedication and discipline among the teachers, government schools are in no position to produce civil servants now.

Needless to say, there is need for a result-oriented approach and commitment towards the noble profession of teaching.

ANSHOO KANOTRA, Bilaspur

III

In addition to job security and lucrative placements, there are other factors responsible for the dire state of affairs in education. One of them is mass copying which came to the fore in the eighties in schools and colleges.

The students get degrees without burning midnight oil and the teachers are accountable to none. The menace of mass copying gave us a less competent product which would become erroneous at the time of delivering duties.

NARINDER KUMAR BHANGU, Bhaddi (Nawanshahr)

Conserving energy The Haryana government should focus on energy conservation. It must encourage all electricity consumers to replace ordinary bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) bulbs. A beginning has already been made by making it mandatory for replacement of conventional lamps and tubes with energy efficient CFLs in all government offices. There are over 37 lakh domestic and commercial power consumers in Haryana. If 50 per cent of consumers replace two bulbs of 60 watts a consumer, it will be a substantial energy saving for the state as a whole. Further, the use of CFLs and energy efficient tubes should be made mandatory for all new power consumers. Power utilities in the state may empanel approved manufacturers for the supply of CFLs so that consumers are able to procure them at the most competitive price compared with the open market. S. K. VOHRA, Panchkula

Teachers’ selection

There were flaws in the recent recruitment of 4,000 B.Ed teachers by the Punjab government. At the cost of fresh B.Ed. candidates, much older students were given double advantage. Extra marks were given to older students (batchwise) @ one mark a year in the final merit. Secondly, the advantage of work experience and post-graduation marks were also in favour of the old students.

Though fresh B.Ed. candidates had very good percentage in B.Ed and graduation examinations, they were put at the bottom of the final merit list. Selection should be only on the basis of marks scored in B.Ed and graduation as was done last time. A review of the selection system brooks no delay.

HARDEEP KAUR NOHRA, Nohra (Patiala)