This morning, I was on my tread mill when a 9th standard boy staying in our gated community walked in. I picked up a gentle conversation with him. He said he is in a ‘famous’ school in Saravanampatti, Coimbatore.
Our general discussion led to ‘specifics’ of language teaching. He was proud to say that his English teacher is ‘good’. I asked him about his syllabus. He said poetry and grammar and he mentioned that he is being taught active and passive voice. I gave him the following sentence for conversion-
“I have been eating mangoes.”
He became defensive and said he needed to brush up the concept.
If concepts are taught properly there is no need of adducing excuses on the ‘Basics’.
This is not to harp on the language skills alone but to highlight that fundamentals of any subject are not taught properly for varied reasons.
Till we find solutions to this ‘Basic problem’, sending children and paying – say 1.5 Lacs per annum – is not a guarantee for ‘Quality Education’. Parents have either of the two choices: wait endlessly till the system gears up to address the problem or seek help from ‘Quality Educators’ at the earliest.
The choice is (y)ours!

Col (Retd) P Jeyaraj
Director
Col’s Calibre Educators Pvt. Ltd.