INDIA: Education

Few WAISers know the Asia-Pacific area as well as Siegfried Ramler. He is especially interested in education. He has sent me an article he has written for the Fall, 2001 issue of Independent School. It is entitled "The Educational and Social Divide". There are many uneducated people in India, but there is also a layer of highly trained people, notably in the area of computer science. The Indian Institute of Technology is the leading school in this field. In the past, India was one of the countries constantly complaining about the brain drain, mostly to the US. Siegfried was pleased to hear it described as brain gain, because it establishes links between India and western technological centers. On the high school level there is Doon School, India's most famous, modelled after English public schools and located in the Himalaya foothills. As in Britain and elsewhere, socially elite schools are opening up and becoming more democratic.

As Siegfried says, India is a country about which we know little. He specializes in education, fellow-WAISer Glynn Wood in Indian politics. Between them, they could enlighten us. I have toured India and found it depressing. I did not have the occasion to meet any of the wise men who so impressed Scotty McClennan.

Ronald Hilton - 10/31/01