The Hindu : New Delhi News : Readers' Mail

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 27, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Readers' Mail

Miranda House is fine, thank you....

Sir, -- There were newspaper reports recently about the Miranda House alumni get-together where some respectable ladies gave interviews to the Press stating that the standard of the college has deteriorated with the institution losing the "cream" to the Delhi University South Campus colleges and with St. Stephen's ceasing to be a unisex college.

This is a very elitist comment and I vehemently oppose this idea. How do we define "the cream"? Miranda House has meritorious students (we may not be scoring 95 per cent but cannot be called blockheads by any standard) from every strata of society and there is enough space for everyone to grow according to her fullest potential.

Unlike most other colleges, Miranda House has a reputation of being an institution where class lectures, assignments, tutorials and projects are a reality. Studies do not come to a standstill even when there are strikes. Getting marks in internal assessments involves sincerity and hard work throughout the academic session.

I have not even completed one year here, but can see the positive changes in my personality and it is all because of the environment we get here.

Nostalgia about the past is all fine, but every point of time has its own unique qualities and glorifying the past should not amount to demystifying the present. I would like to request the alumni to do their bit in improving the infrastructure of the college and helping the visually impaired students instead of remembering the college only at the time of alumni get-togethers. Miranda House has grown beyond the Miss Miranda beauty contests and silly fashion shows. The new generation Mirandians are more bothered about their overall personality and aspire to be "women of substance".

Sneha Banerjee,

B.A. (Honours) Political Science 1st Yr.,

Miranda House,

Delhi University,

Delhi-110 007.

Teaching shops

Sir, -- As a teacher, I am pained to see exploitation of teachers at the hands of private schools and coaching centres. Almost all of them charge exorbitant fees from helpless students and earn huge incomes. Yet they pay peanuts to their teachers because of whom they make their fortune in the first place. The teachers remain lowly paid, the Government gets nothing, and these traders of education become millionaires.

Please allow me to cite my own example to explain the point. I took to teaching 20 years ago at a salary of Rs 800 a month in a private school. Today, after 20 years of teaching, and having been a first division holder throughout in MA (English), B Ed, NTT, Computers Diploma, and teaching experience of Board classes even in a residential public school in the Nilgiris, plus management experience, I am still getting a salary of Rs 6,500. And it is thanks to my Army School that I am getting this much at least. Had I been in a private school today, the pay would have been just about Rs 5,000. Can anyone run a household with this pay, leave alone leading a respectable life? I am lucky to be an Army officer's wife, but what about those women whose sustenance depends on their own pay? Do private schools and coaching centres ever realise this?

It is sad to see so many private schools and colleges being run from small, dingy places. No libraries, no sports grounds, no good teachers. But they offer degrees for a price. Can you imagine what sort of professionals such degree holders will make? What sort of character will they manifest?

If a man has paid Rs 5 lakhs for a degree, won't he try to make a quick 10 lakhs by hook or by crook? That is why we have all those corrupt officials. All a product of crass commercialisation of education and lack of values.

I am aware that the government infrastructure is inadequate at the moment. But then, if my limb is sick, should I amputate it or treat it? Definitely treat it. So the answer lies not in depending on these private institutions but in improving the standards and infrastructure of our government schools and colleges. Let us not forget that 70 per cent of our youth belong to the villages.

It is my humble request to the Government to improve the government-run educational institutions' infrastructure as per demand so that our students are not at the mercy of the private institutions. At the same time, make these institutions file their tax returns honestly so that the Government is not denied its due share of revenue. Also, monitor these institutions and check exploitation of teachers.

And to my students, I would like to emphasise that as future leaders of tomorrow:

Let us stand for character.

Let us stand for moral values.

And let us stand for the real meaning of education, and not get swayed by these traders of education.

Madhu Singh,

Army School,

Mall Road,

Ambala Cantt (Haryana) - 133 001.

CBSE, please

Sir, -- The Central Board of Secondary Education, New Delhi, has just announced the date-sheet for the Class XII Board examinations (The Hindu, December 24). Students are shocked to see the examination schedule because there are no holidays in between the exams. The worst affected are the students who opted for geography with accountancy and economics because there is not even a day's gap between the geography and accountancy exams which fall on March 16 and 17, respectively. There is just one day's gap between accountancy and economics. The accountancy paper is on March 17 and economics on March 19. There are two huge books, Micro and Macro Economics, to prepare in a day's time which is a Herculean task for any student. Apart from this, there are numericals in economics to practise before the exam. As a result, panic has gripped the Class XII students. They feel they have lost the battle even before it began. Students and teachers make a humble request to the CBSE Chairman: to revise the Class XII date-sheet with ample gaps between the exams since the Board exams make or break their future careers.

S.M. Hussain,

Director, Vision Academy,

New Delhi.

No passport

Sir, -- After reading about the proposed unusual strike by the Passport Office staff -- working during holidays to register their protest -- I was happy and hopeful that my passport renewal file, pending with the Passport Office for the last four months, will finally be cleared.

I had applied for a new passport in lieu of my old passport on August 3, 2004, at the Delhi Passport Office vide File No. F 021841, Key No. 7002184104.

When I visited their website in the last week of August, I got the message that police verification was waived and the file was under processing.

I am getting the same message even today! This means that for the last four months my application has been "under processing", even though police verification has been waived.

A member of the Passport Employees' Association, as reported in The Hindu of December 5, claims that the passport issue time will be brought down now from 40 days to 30 by working on holidays.

This statement itself is misleading going by my personal experience cited above.

N.K. Rajagopalan,

B-10-7462,Vasant Kunj,

New Delhi-110 070.

Poor show

Sir, -- India has been competing in international sports events even before it got its Independence, but except for a few achievements in a handful of sporting disciplines we cannot boast of much success.

There is always a new round of finger-pointing after each Olympics and other international events for the poor show by Indians. There seems to be no sincere effort by the sports associations in India except a few facial changes.

The main reason for India's poor record in the area of sports at the international level is lack of a sporting culture.

People in India still think that sports is just a waste of time or at best a way of killing time. I came to this conclusion after noticing the priority given to sports at the school level.

There are many talented students waiting to be discovered and trained under the watchful eyes of experienced experts but for these children to show their talent there are no serious sports events held at the school level.

It is time we gave sports the pride of place they deserve. India with its billion-strong population can be a strong player not only in sectors like information and technology but also in the sports fields.

S. Kartik,

C-1/S-6 Shalimar Garden Extn-II, Sahibabad,

Ghaziabad - 201 005.

Wake up

Sir, -- Influx of illegal migrants from Bangladesh to Assam is posing a grave problem not only for Assam but also a security threat for the whole of India. It is changing the demography of the State.

It is time the national Press and the Government woke up to the problem.

Nabin Chandra Sharma,

Bye-Lane No.4 (W),

R.G.B. Road,

Guwahati.

* * *

(Letters for this column may be sent by e-mail to wsins@thehindu.co.in. They must carry the full postal address of the writer

and should be marked "Readers' Mail".)

B.A. (Honours) Political Science 1st Yr.,

Miranda House,

Delhi University,

Delhi-110 007.