The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

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No quality education in Punjab

Of the 45,000 schools of various types in Punjab, hardly 10 per cent impart quality education in conformity with the prescribed seven parameters — curriculum, teaching, infrastructure, students’ performance, management, community support and innovative practices.

The others including almost all the 18,000 state-run and financed schools are poor to very poor, a large percentage among them not even qualifying to be addressed as schools.

As a first step towards introducing quality education, we must grade the schools and teachers on a five-point scale on each of the parameters enlisted above on the lines of the UGC’s Bangalore-based NAAC and come out with a qualitative map of education in Punjab. This will indicate the magnitude and the methodology of this task to be undertaken and accomplished in a fixed time period, jointly by the private and public sectors.

The state government should constitute a broad-based panel for preparing a comprehensive project. This can be submitted to the Planning Commission for fiscal assistance in this task of nation building. The State Planning Board may also be involved in this task.

T. R. SHARMA, Patiala

According to a recent annual report of the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, more than 90,000 schools in India don’t have even blackboards, let alone proper rooms, furniture and toilets (Editorial, “A matter of shame”, July 27).

It’s not as if the Centre does not spend money on providing such necessities, but most of the money is usurped by corrupt politicians, bureaucrats, officers like DEOs and BEOs and so on. Though this has been going on for years, nobody cares to stop it.

Only the children of poor people go to such schools who generally have no say or simply nobody listens to them.

Politicians and bureaucrats send their wards to top boarding convent schools and then to the US for higher education.

The rich and the middle class send their children to private schools where quality education with proper facilities is provided. But ultimately, it is the poorer sections that suffer the most. The editorial aptly says, “Who cares for them?”

RAMESH GUPTA, Narwana.

A valley lost in time

‘Welcome to Kinnaur — The Fruit Basket of Himachal Pradesh’, greets visitors reaching the Sangla valley after a gruelling 10-hour journey from Shimla. We found ourselves surrounded by the Kinnur Kailash Mountain Range.

Captivating sunsets, lush saffron fields and the gushing waters of the river made a lovely copy for the picture perfect postcard. We relaxed at the guest house, trying our culinary skills in the cozy little kitchen. The next morning we started for Badseri — a quaint little village in Sangla. It was refreshing to see the elders enjoying their hukkas at home while the youngsters were away to the fields. One got to see a lot of Buddhist influence in their architecture.

The highlight of the trip was our trek for the perfect picnic spot in the woods which reminded me of Enid Blyton’s The Folk to the Faraway Tree. Sitting by a stream in a thick pine jungle with an interesting book in hand and a bag full of goodies, life couldn’t get better than this.But like all good things, this holiday too came to an end. I am reminded of Hugh Grant’s words in the movie Notting Hill, “It was surreal but nice”.

DEEPSHIKHA JAMWAL,Chandigarh