Independence and agency

We have just celebrated India’s 63rd year of independence and with each passing year August 15 is turning out to be just a day for rituals and paying lip service to the nation. With Teachers’ Day round the corner let us set aside this sense of ritual and adopt one of enthusiasm, faith and trust.

From all of us to each of them

Sometimes wisdom comes from the most casual and incidental of conversations. Discussing a vision statement made by an educational institution, a gentleman I recently met remarked that he had insisted that the word “all” be changed to “each” in the Read More …

In loco parentis

As teachers we are responsible for several children and while we may consider that our only responsibility is to teach them lessons from the syllabus we don’t realize that there are several other lessons that we can teach them by being responsible adults.

Hard Decisions

The question that may be at the top of every regular reader’s mind is the increase in the price of the magazine beginning this issue.

Will the sweeping reforms sweep through?

It’s being debated on television, in staff rooms and drawing rooms, and people have a variety of opinions about Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal’s radical proposal to reform some aspects of school education. At the top of this list is Read More …

Two Decades on…

Twenty years later… what can one say about a struggling magazine in search of a readership except thank you, to those who believed in us at the start, to those who continue to believe in us, and to those who, Read More …

Get the numbers right

It’s summer again, with everything it brings – the heat, the dust, the mangoes, sugarcane juice… and best of all, holidays! But it is also a time of preparation, of cleaning out the old cupboards and readying them for new Read More …

Curbing groupism beyond limits

Among all the mixed messages and information overload we are subjected to every day in the news, one thing stands out for me this month: a young medical student’s death by ragging. While recognizing that what we read or see Read More …

Making every child count

After having sat up to watch the Oscars and celebrated A R Rahman’s recognition on a global platform, one is struck by the whole phenomenon of appreciation and validation. To receive, and even expect this for technical and creative excellence, Read More …

A hard look at soft skills

I am at a conference; people are milling around the coffee service station, lines forming and unforming at an alarming rate, some brash young upcoming professionals elbowing out older, gentler stalwarts. People are huddled in important-looking clusters and others stand Read More …