This refers to the editorial "Learn to count" (January 16). The challenges are vast and for the voiceless majority, education is key to bringing them out of poverty and superstition to lead a better life. Discrimination by caste, religion, and gender remains pervasive. Low literacy hampers meaningful social mobility. Parents have a stake in the education of their children. It is this desire that motivates them to send their children to private schools despite higher education costs. They believe that their children will learn better in these private schools, which have now come up even in rural and semi-urban areas. Government schools once served these people. Over the years, the quality of teaching in state schools has gone down, with poor recruitment, lack of facilities and teachers, whose skills, monitoring and motivation are questionable.
We need to emphasise on improving their standards by recruiting quality teachers by offering attractive salaries and benefits. Parents, who have a direct interest in the well-being and education of their children, should be involved in the management of these schools. The fact that many students attend schools is encouraging. To sustain this interest, it is important that they stay motivated to learn better. Investment in education is an investment for the future. The talk of demographic dividend will be futile if we have a vast pool of unskilled and semi-literate citizens.
H N Ramakrishna Bengaluru
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