Saturday, July 4, 2015

A letter to Chief Minister of Telangana from a Principal

2nd July 2015
Hyderabad
India

Dear Respected Chief Minister

It has been a little more than a year since you assumed the responsibility of being the chief minister of a new born state of India.

To give a report card is in the DNA of a teacher. So here is my report card to you.

With your own set of challenges, it looks like you made a mark of your own. People in Telangana seem to be okay with the novice governance.                  

As an ordinary citizen of this state ( TS), I am most happy with plenty of power this summer. I mean the electricity. No power cuts.                                      
Dear CM, you seem to have just the right magic wand.
You get A1 for this.

Being a woman, I commend you for the SHE teams you created. Kudos.
Another A1.

Mission Kakatiya is certainly the need of the day. Imagine if all the 46000 lakes you plan to revive are flowing with water, Telangana is the new green state of India. Here is another A1 for this.

I appreciate the time you take to meet the people to understand their needs.
And when you meet people from other countries, I understand that you have to open up the market to create economic and employment opportunities.

Professor Howard Gardner of Harvard University commented that the culture and civilization of a place can be ascertained by the way it’s urbanites drive on roads or behave in public places.

Well roads were not great, traffic was equally worse, even before you had taken over. Therefore I won’t assess you in these areas. Moreover, traffic gets better when people have self - management skills and some amount of emotional intelligence and of course, civic sense.

It’s not your fault that you inherited a mixed group of people who are contributing to the economy and chaos at the same time.

In a new state, education is as important as economy. Development also means grooming qualitative human resources for the state. Changing times and an evolving world needs education of a different kind.

Literacy in China means writing nearly 800 words and in India it means  skill to write your name. We in India have been focusing more on process of   education than the purpose of education.

The goals of education in Japan are clearly defined. That all those who go through the realms of education should emerge with, harmony with self, society and nature’. Lofty goals indeed, but it gives clear guidelines.

  I had the opportunity to interact with Dr Abdul Kalam and asked him the question on Indian goals for education system. Sagaciously he recommended that each school should identify it’s goals and work towards a larger purpose.

How about identifying goals of education system in Telangana ?

Imagine if every school in our state grooms children with a clear sense of the world and his or her role in it ! And every student can be empowered with thinking and analytical skills. We have no obligation to continue with the disconnected curriculum we have now, or reason to believe this is the best. 

But we do have a pressing need to groom people with critical thinking and
We can very well do without the potential societal chaos when millions of narrowly educated generation make the human resource of our state.

Learning from effective models of governance is most ideal and you seem to be doing just that. You are looking at Japan and other countries for their best practices of governance and perhaps customizing them to our local context.

It is in this connection that I write to you dear CM. There are some good models of education not far from your office. In your state capital, there are schools and there are educators.

Just the other day we had a conference of school principals. More than hundred of us got together and discussed about what we can do to realize that famous quote of Swamy Vivekananda- “destiny of a country begins in it’s classrooms.”

This group of hundred plus are directing the future of nearly 1.50 lakh students in your state capital.               

How I wish you were there to see our commitment!                                                            
In fact how I wish, you meet all of us and ask us to share our best practices with the schools in this new state.

In Singapore, the Prime Minister calls for a meeting of School principals once in every six months. To know what is being taught and what are the problems!

He also calls for a meeting of Heads of Universities to tell them the economic direction of the country and industry needs. This enables the universities to include courses which will create a workforce for the future of the country.
And look at their model of education. 

They have two tracks from a secondary level. Those who wish to go for skill based schooling have an option just like those who wish to continue with higher studies. Interestingly, the skill based courses are those that the industry needs.
Employment immediately after schooling !

Do you think this could be a part of our school system ? It could be the perfect answer to all those languishing in some regions of our state with neither skill nor knowledge and at the end of the tunnel, nowhere to go.

Well I am not aspiring for our Honorable PM to call school heads for a meeting. But I certainly wish that you will be that path breaking Chief Minister who will meet with School Heads and discuss the educational goals of a new state.

We are a highly trained and experienced group of people with a rich harvest of achievers in character and competence.

We could be your supporting team to construct an innovative school education system in the entire state or may be just a group of people who will update you on essential interventions in schools.                                                    

It would be sad if our experience is limited only to a few thousands of students. After all our state has lakhs of students who deserve the best.              

Our expectations are nothing but service to the nation.

The 29th State of Indian Union has the potential to be role model to the rest of the 28. You only have to make some choices and decisions to be the                      1st Ranker in the entire country.

With Deep Regards
Seetha Murty
A Principal & An Educator


PS: My less formal language is owing to my belief that a chief minister is not only an official head but can also be an endearing leader.

18 comments:

brainfeedmagazine said...

Hi ma'am, let's hope for the best- Brahmam

brainfeedmagazine said...

Hi ma'am, let's hope for the best- Brahmam

Unknown said...

Hats off seetha ma'am for your proactive nature and showing your transformatonal leadership style.

Unknown said...

Hats off seetha ma'm for your proactive nature and transformational leadership style.

Unknown said...

Hats off seetha ma'am for your proactive nature and showing your transformatonal leadership style.

Revanth Ukkalam said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
K Bhudevi said...

Devi,

I am Happy to read the Article,Thought provoking and very interesting not only to our state but it should be across India.Once again Mam,you seem to be like a Painter who sprint the colors and bring prosperity to the Nation. Nobel thoughts for a Nobel cause.

The newly-formed state of Telangana has sought investment in multiple sectors from Saudi businesses.He said the state government was in the process of creating special economic zones to attract foreign direct investment,especially from Saudi Arabia.

Chief Minister Sri K. Chandrashekar Rao (CM KCR) has recently handed over approval letters under TS-iPASS to 17 companies that will invest more than Rs 1500 crore in Telangana generating employment to about 3300 individuals.This is with regard to economic acceleration in our state.

"India is a rising power and the whole world is looking at us with awe. Now is the time for him to look into Education system. so that it fulfills the needs of the employment the way he needs his goals are very clear and wish he brings Educators into policy making and give them a right direction with goals fulfilled and be a Model State in INDIA.Mam you are a trend setter of our country.Proud of you.

Unknown said...

This indeed a true leadership and has to reach the Chiefminister.

Unknown said...

wow, truly inspiring.. should definitely reach out to chiefminister

Prithvi Koundinyasa said...

Wonderful thought..

Krishna said...

A student's future, destiny is decided by no one but by the 'Guru'.... It's The Guru who puts them in the tunnel of destiny, rest is future....

suri said...

An attempt to connect the dots around education, society, politics and industry is awesome and must for future generations.
Does this message reached honorable CM or CM office?
Posting on official CM's FB page is one thought.

Unknown said...

Yes ma'am. I agree with you that the initiatives taken by the CM of newly formed state like Jalaharam, Mission Kakatiya and Harithaharam are tremendous. Your thoughts of sharing with group like you for the future of TS is very good.

Rajan said...

Please pursue this spirit relentlessly with CMO office on Half yearly meeting of school principles and universities VCs. At least Education Minister of state should start this and after few years CM can attend at least once ( being big state than Singapore).

Our first CM Hon KCR sir had vision for free education for all that too compulsory. He should take responsibility of good education policy and become of father of teleangana education system for best state of telangana.

If telangana fails in education, the blame goes to Hon Mr. KCR who holds credit of father of telangana and first CM of telangana.

Particularly our govt policies and administration is totally disconnected citizens of the state and country.
I wish you all the best

Unknown said...

Good Initiative. Just curious, have you got the response?. If not, move him to B1 rating this year and don't promote :)

Hamid said...

Ma'am,
Wonderful thoughts. Curiously waiting for the score-card.
Hamid

Unknown said...

It's wonderful thought & an attempt to connect to it's ground realities which we can't ignore simply. I hope that a futurist leader can understand an educational needs of the country.

Unknown said...

Great thought ma'am, wish it get circulated across India,for the betterment of the students.