Dear Sir,
I wholeheartedly agree that the teachers in Qatar’s Indian schools are grossly underpaid (“Demand grows for salary hike of Indian teachers”, Gulf Times, September 25).
Although as a parent I am struggling to cope with the recent hike of school fees (20%), I feel that the teachers should get more for their work. The frustration of low-paid teachers gravely affects the education process at schools and our children are the ultimate victims.
Schools are compromising on quality as they could hardly get any talented teachers with the low salary they offer. I do agree that a small number of that rare breed of dedicated and sincere teachers do remain in our schools but they are the exceptions.
The majority of them are forced to work outside the classrooms, tutoring children until late night, for the extra income so that they can make ends meet. This definitely affects the quality of classroom teaching, making it just a syllabus-covering routine.
In the higher classes, parents have no option but to send their children for private tuition in all the core subjects if they have to get reasonable good marks in final examinations. The worst part of the private tutoring is that the burden of parents and students increases, financially for the former and emotionally for the latter. Parents have to pay both for the school and the private tuition apart from spending all the evenings shuttling their children to different tutors. Students come under great stress as they are left with no time to relax, mentally or physically.
We will never be able to solve these problems in schools until teachers are paid fairly and their performance is monitored periodically to ensure the quality of teaching.
Shabna Muhammad
(Address supplied)
Verdict against Jayalalithaa
Dear Sir,
The supremacy of the Indian judiciary has once again been upheld by the Karnataka High Court with its landmark judgment that Jayaram Jayalalithaa is guilty of amassing wealth disproportionate to her known source of income when she held office as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu from 1991 to 1996. The matter is all the more important as she used to proclaim to the gullible people that she was drawing a salary of just Rs1 per month as a mere token. Where did then her huge wealth come from? She has taken the state, judiciary and the people for a ride.
The case against her has been pursued relentlessly for almost 18 years by those who have unassailable faith in the fairness of judiciary, undaunted by her callous attitude of getting more than 150 adjournments.
This is a landmark case for many reasons. Among them are: 14 judges had heard this case; public prosecutors had presented a list of a whopping 306 properties owned by her as well as her nominees; the jewellery, diamonds, silk saris confiscated from her luxurious Poes Garden residence in Chennai is worth several millions of Indian rupees.
She is fined Rs1bn ($16mn), four years’ imprisonment, besides losing her coveted position as chief minister and seat as member of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. Indians can continue to invest great confidence in the country’s judiciary as courts have shown that they are not shy from punishing anyone, if evidence is presented to prove his/her wrongdoing, whatever the position, office or status the accused hold in society. The Jayalalithaa verdict shows once again that justice will prevail in the long run.
V Kalyanaraman
(e-mail address supplied)
