Needs improvement

It is good to have schools rated by the authorities so that the public will be well informed about the standard of each educational institution ("Quality of Pakistani and Indian education put under the scanner", Gulf News, February 18). It will be easy to decide where to enroll your child for good education. However, having said that, we should also have a plan for schools that are not performing as per the Knowledge and Human Development Authority's (KHDA) expectations or standard. KHDA should introduce another measure called, ‘Needs improvement' instead of saying ‘Unsatisfactory' because this is the first year of evaluation. From next year onwards if the schools don't adopt the KHDA's standard, then it could be perfect to label them as ‘Unsatisfactory'.
From Mr Ganesh Subramanian
Dubai
Website comment

Good standard

I am glad that my son is a student at a school that has been categorised as ‘good’. I am satisfied with the school’s standard of education. Equal importance is given to both academic and extra curricular activities. The teachers are very good and helpful.
They assist their students and are ready to help parents with any issues. I agree that inspections like these help schools to upgrade themselves. They will be aware of their faults and could improve and improvise. These inspections also show parents the true picture. The results could help schools to introduce changes in their existing system, which were otherwise unnoticed.
From Ms Sujatha Dhilip kumar
Dubai

Several drawbacks

I was glad to know that the KHDA has become aware of the real standards of these schools. I was a student at a Pakistani school, so I would like to share some complaints. It is an English school but all teachers converse in Urdu with their students. Most of the teachers have been teaching for the past 20 years and are not aware of latest technology and teaching skills. Assignments are full of spelling and grammatical errors, but teachers do not notice them. The teachers don’t know of the students’ progress. The school buses do not have any conductors to guide the little children. Last but not the least, the principal is rude. I have seen her yelling at parents, students and teachers. I don’t think she is eligible for the job.
From Ms Arsala Abid
Dubai

Appearance first

In every walk of life ‘customer orientation’ has become the watchword except in the field of education. Students are customers of the educational institutions, but what they need is sometimes sidelined due to the inspections or in order to create an appealing image for the institution. Sometimes the faculty’s energies are diverted away from the students to create an ideal situation at institutes. Scoring points and receiving ratings becomes a priority rather than engaging productively with the students. The KHDA inspections should be without prior warning to catch a true glimpse of the situation. It is extremely heartening to see that the KHDA is making relentless efforts to raise the bar of educational standards. They are creating systems and processes to monitor the quality of education imparted to the future citizens. But what is equally imperative is to focus on the development of the human resources manoeuvring these initiatives — the teachers. Many schools hire teachers who are definitely successful in imparting textbook knowledge, but often fail to have the necessary impact on their minds.
From Ms Jyothi Santosh Nair
Dubai

More schools needed

It is definitely humiliating for a school to be branded in a negative way all of a sudden. What is at stake is the credibility of the school, its management, the future of the students and the anxiety of the parents. Even if a person’s child is brilliant, he or she cannot get admission in the best of schools because they follow a lottery system for admission. They don’t have space to accommodate more children. Thus, all the hard work by my child goes to waste. As per the situation, parents now have an option to either enrol their children in a ‘satisfactory’ school or not send them to school at all! We should have enough schools first and then brand them according to quality.
From Mr Vipin Balakrishnan
Abu Dhabi
Website comment


Private tutions

In the report, Mr Ashok Kumar, CEO and Principal of The Indian High School, Dubai, ignored the subject of teachers carrying out private tuitions at their residences. The result is that Dh8,200 is paid to the school annually for tuition and bus fees. Additionally, Dh9,000 is spent by an average parent for private tuitions. The teaching standard is not satisfactory in several classrooms and children are not able to understand the lectures.
From Mr Joseph K John
Dubai


Cannot compete

I don’t agree with the school ratings by the KHDA. They look at all the schools from the same point of view but don’t notice that a school can only provide facilities based on the fees. How do you expect Indian and Pakistani schools to compete with Western schools that charge a higher fee? The KHDA should rather divide the schools in categories based on fees.
From Mr Prakhar
Dubai
Website comment

An eye opener

It is very surprising to note that none of the Indian or Pakistani schools got the ‘outstanding’ rating by KHDA. Especially as this list includes schools run by some famous educators.
What has happened to adherence of standards set by KHDA by these elite schools? Were they not prepared to match them or is it an eye-opener to the readers that there exist several limitations and drawbacks?
From Mr Ramesh Menon
Abu Dhabi


Truly sorry

I think people apologise just for the sake of it (“Focus: Saying sorry”, Gulf News, February 19). After hurting someone mentally or physically, some people just say, “I said sorry, then what is the issue?” An individual’s reaction shows what kind of a person he is. I believe it is always better not to apologise if it doesn’t come from the heart. It’s better to stay quiet — at least you don’t insult the other person. It’s not necessary for you to apologise, especially to people close to you. What matters is what you do after realising your mistake rather than being ignorant.
From Ms Kavitha Prabhakaran
Dubai

Calm down

Many people have a problem with saying sorry. They can’t even muster an apology for simple offences like forgetting a special day or forgetting a wet towel on the bed. However, a lot of people react with defensiveness and anger. This is because they think that by admitting their mistakes they are degrading themselves and giving people a chance to think high of themselves. All of us make mistakes and there is no harm in apologising. In fact, saying sorry can calm the most awful situations.
From Ms Reema Ahuja
UAE

Superiority complex

I apologise even if the other person is at fault — it is satisfying as you don’t live with heaviness in your heart. But in today’s fast-paced life, most people don’t have time to think of what happened and it doesn’t matter to them even if a relationship is affected by their actions. Ego comes in the way and stops people from apologising. Everybody seems to have a superiority complex. However, when a person apologises, the other party believes they have won the race and think they were right. They then underestimate the person who apologised and expect them to do it again, but there is a limit to everything.
From Ms Gousia Noor
UAE


From the heart

I have seen people make several mistakes while driving and they just use body language to apologise. The other person also feels happy and ignores the other motorist’s fault. People have lots to think about and nobody wants to have issues around them. But, it is better to say sorry for the mistakes we make because in the process we don’t lose anything and gain peace instead. At the same time, we should keep in mind that ‘sorry’ and ‘thanks’ are the terms that should come straight from the heart.From Mr Narayanan Prasanna
Sharjah