MyVoice: Views of our readers 20th January 2024

Lives lost in boat capsize as rules flouted

The heart wrenching tragic boat accident in which 12 students and 2 teachers were killed when the overcrowded boat overturned in Gujarat was due to safety precautions not being followed. The boat was overcrowded and life jackets were not provided to the passengers. The Gujarat government is expected to be more proactive in similar incidents; not long ago when the suspension bridge collapsed resulting in numerous deaths due to faulty construction technique and substandard materials used. Payment of compensation to victims is not a solution which is a poor consolation while the focus must be on faultless safety avoiding such incidents from happening.

K R Venkata Narasimhan, Madurai

Poor state of education system to the fore

Even as the editorial highlighting the Annual Status Report of Education (ASER) 2023 which states that nearly 43% of children in the age group of 14-18 age group cannot read sentences in English and 25% of rural kids struggle to read a class 2 level text in their respective regional language is not only disturbing but also shocking because this only goes to show that our education system is ineffective to the core. Further, the government claim that time and again that changes were brought to improve education by making it interesting so that it helps children learn easily appears to be farce. In fact, what is seen in reality is government teachers receiving a hefty salary but failing totally in discharging their duties properly. Despite digital awareness and aptitude in children, there appears failure on the part of the parents and schoolteachers to ensure that kids do not struggle to read texts and do simple division.

K R Srinivasan, Secunderabad

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It refers to “ASER report: A lesson for Govt teachers.” It is heartening to learn that Rural India has largely overcome the dropout issue. But bigger worries remain as to what is the use of a larger number of students between 14-18 years age bracket in the schools if they are not even proficient in reading class 2 level local language and class 5 level mathematics. It merely means they are adding up the number and not improving even the basics. And when there is a decent amount of smartphone penetration amongst rural children then it is a serious concern why they are not learning the basics. If China can realise its demographic dividend then there is no reason why we can not. Government teachers need to adopt a different approach to make students interested in studies.

Bal Govind, Noida

Airline passengers must exercise patience

Everybody is aware of north India being in the grip of severe winter and thick fog disrupting road, rail and air traffic as a result. Passengers are losing their cool in view of unprecedented delays of flights. But, when the visibility is at zero, such things are inevitable – and playing politics on flight delays will not hold water. It was expected of Tharoor to understand the ground reality leading to flight delays and tempers and patience of passengers being put to unprecedented test. Cooperation and orderly behaviour is what is expected of the passengers in such situations; and blaming either the management or the pilot for unexpected delays will not help.

K R Parvathy, Mysuru

Revanth channels huge funds flow to TS

Kudos to Shri Revanth Reddy garu, the CM of Telangana, for his great efforts in entering into several MoUs with leading global and domestic companies by clinching investment deals for over Rs 37,000 crores to Hyderabad City (Hans India, 18-1-24) during his successful visit to the World Economic Forum at Davos. This fresh infusion of investments are top-up to the KTR’s earlier efforts in attracting huge funds to Telangana. Such efforts would turn Hyderabad into a world-class city. The vision of the present IT Minister Sridhar Babu to bring all US IT companies to Hyderabad is highly appreciable.

Ganti Venkata Sudhir, Secunderabad

Attending Ram temple event secular

Sub: Editorial – Kya Hindu, Kya Musalman, sabse pehle Insaan (Jan 17, 2024). Undoubtedly, the caption to the editorial speaks of the very essence of secularism, enshrined in the Constitution - which is often put to use as per the whims of the political parties like the AIMIM. Asaduddin Owaisi is irked when the AAP leaders have taken to chanting ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ and ‘Sundarkand’ till the inauguration of the temple at Ayodhya. Owaisi called out AAP, nothing different from BJP. Why should this person be so particular about the religious sentiments of others – be it AAP or some other party? The AAP could perhaps be doing this owing to the remorse that it is giving a miss to the consecration ceremony of Sri Ram temple at Ayodhya. Gone are the times, when India had tall Muslim leaders who were giving leadership and direction to the community, unlike the present times.

S Lakshmi, Hyderabad