This week's roundup

Kapil Sibal’s boastful pronouncement that he would do away with board exams is needless distraction to the real issue plaguing our education system "Quality of Education".
Mr. Minister needs to pay visit to a typical govt run school to understand the ground level conditions. Most of the state run schools operate in dilapidated buildings with little or no infrastructure.
Not to say that attempts are not being made to improve the conditions in schools. Sarva Siksha Abhiyan is a step in the right direction. However as with all the large and visionary schemes in India I think this too is failing due to lack of planning, control and monitoring.
I visited a school which is a beneficiary of the funds in a remote village in Khammam Dt in AP. The school is running in a ruined structure, classes are held under trees and there I see a packed TV set lying unused. Guess what the school does not get power at all during the day? In another school outskirts of Hyderabad they have a new computer with dust gathering, reason the school has no power connection.
There is no point in announcing grandiose plans when the foundation itself is weak. Let’s get the basics in primary education right first. 1) Curriculum design 2) Infrastructure 3) Teachers 4) Delivery methods and not the least getting the child to school.
Time is also ripe to think about voucher model of allowing parents to choose private schools. Of course this is new to India and a clear policy need to be laid out on who the beneficiaries should be.
The fundamental problem of delivery of quality education to our children is a larger issue and needs to be addressed taking into consideration the geographical and cultural diversity of this country. One size does not fit all at least in this case.
To conclude –
This week the AP Olympic association governing committee names were announced and it came to light that there is not even a single olympian in the governing body. It consists of politicos from the Congress and TDP. When will this joke end in this country?
Shopian is a shame. There should be a thorough investigation and guilty punished.