This article raises some pertinent and less talked about concerns about government schools in India. It stresses that flawed education policies cannot be blamed for many of our government schools' problems, and one has to address the issues of implementation and people involved in implementation of schools' curricula, teaching methodology, and administration. The author convincingly argues that factors influencing apathy of teachers, orientation of parents and local governing bodies can possibly be addressed by directly working on procedures relating to ownership and control of school administration, criteria for selection of school teachers, teacher-student interaction, and teacher-parent interaction.

This article outlines the philosophy of Jeevan Vidya, a radically different view of education - its goals, the means of delivery and its place in the context of society at large. Jeevan Vidya has been developed with the view of an individual as being comprised of material and conciousness components, both of which need to be addressed independently, but in harmony, in the process of education. The article also describes the basis of an educational system grounded in this philosophy and addresses the impact such a system could have on the individual as well as on society, giving much importance to how the new system could have a positive impact towards the development of a just society.

This article explores the history of the United States' public education system, tracing its development from its roots in Puritan and Congregationalist religious schools in the 1600s and subsequently the availability of free elementary education thanks to the efforts of Common School reformers in the 1800s. It continues on to the dramatic changes of the 1900s, culminating in today's highly decentralized (but still very imperfect) system. It explores the impact that many figures of great importance in America's history have had on the education system, and discusses various social, legal and cultural factors that have all influenced public education. The article also touches on issues of racial and gender equality.

This article by Udayakumar is a critical review of the New Education Policy brought out by the NCERT. The last education policy came out in 1986. The author states that the new policy is a manifestation of what he calls the Drona Syndrome, wherein women and lower castes are given the weakest positions in the education ladder. He quotes several examples to show how the Hindutva leadership has always oppressed the lower castes and how it is now trying to perpetrate this in the education system. This will eventually result in the deterioration of social justice and equality. He also cautions readers about the need to be aware of the developments and to take action. Discrimination based on race/caste/gender etc. has been practiced for a long time by humanity all over the world. Udayakumar refers to the discrimination against black intelligence by Hernstein and Murray. In this context, it is interesting to read Gould's "Mismeasure of Man", where he discusses in detail the attempts by whites (west European, male) for years to prove that they are the most superior among men.

The article attempts to address the question of choice of the medium of instruction in multilingual situations. A case is made for using the mother tongue as the medium of instruction. In the article, the mother tongue is considered to be the language known to the child. This is the language that enables the child to learn about the world prior to schooling (and might be different from the language acquired first). The author argues that by using the mother tongue, the process of learning naturally extends to the school and brings it closer to home. Here, Prof. Annamalai makes an important observation that is pertinent to the poorer communities. Unlike the middle class which is able to or can afford to make the home similar to school, the poorer communities cannot do so which makes it important to make the school closer to home. Using the mother tongue as the medium of instruction is therefore more important in the case of poorer communities. He also makes a crucial distinction between the teaching of a language and teaching through a language. The typical demand from the communities to be taught in English, for example, stems from a failure to make this distinction. He argues that people can be empowered by learning English as a language - and this can be achieved on its own merits without using English as a medium of instruction. Certain practical problems in using the mother tongue as a medium are presented in the article and some solutions are presented. These problems and the solutions need more elaboration than is possible in this short article.

Gandhiji's vision of education in independent India was developed in the context of his views on larger political and socio-economic issues. As such, he envisioned a more holistic approach than that which is now being advocated in the NCERT's new report, the National Curriculum Framework for School Education. The report, while frequently invoking Gandhiji's name, does not, in the view of the author, adhere to his principles. This article highlights several egregious differences between the report's recommendations and its purported fulfilment of Gandhiji's vision. It examines, for instance, the NCERT's highly supportive views on English as a medium of instruction, on the homogenization of cultural differences by standardizing textbooks and curricula despite India's diversity, and its seeming furtherence of class-based social stratification, all of which Gandhiji was against.