Editorial

The results of IIT are out. We congratulate all the winners and all the participants. A good player should take part in as many matches as possible. Our exam is only one match. How you play every time, everywhere counts and that decides the quality of a player.

Our special congratulations to the winner of the year, Achin Bansal of Faridkot. This proves that to do well, one need not be from big cities. We wish him all the best.

In our editorial in Physics For You, we had mentioned that if the report that 80% of our graduates are not fit to be trained is true, then we have to change the system of training. Here is a news that proves that what we said is correct.

Mr. Anand Kumar who runs the Ramanujam Institute in Patna, took economically disabled children, trained them, giving free accommodation and food. This is a real gurukul. Out of his thirty students, 28 have cleared the J.E.E. (IIT) this year. Our congrats to the Guru and his students. We hope that they are not really winding up, nor sliding in values.

A case has been made that the infrastructure of the schools in villages have to be strengthened. In many states, midday meals, uniforms and books are free and there are also no tuition charges for the lower secondary schools

run by the government. In some places, the NCERT books meant for students were being sold as waste paper. Infrastructure for education exists. What is needed is tighter control for distribution to prevent leakage.

Educated volunteers, retired teachers and professors, scientists, NGO's all should be invited to bolster up the system. Till the highly educated youth of the localities are involved in the system, there will be scarcity of good staff. Teachers also can be trained. There is a big difference between the government schools and private institutions. Government schools are non-profit making organizations. One has to concentrate on improving these schools.

Increasing the interaction of the students with the teachers, holding regular extension lectures and building up the library are the three key points they should concentrate upon. One can achieve anything if one is ready to work for it.