As learning is a continuous process, teachers in fact remain students forever. Dedication and awareness of the latest advancement in their areas of expertise are a must. Thorough homework is essential for effective representation of ideas. The teacher becomes more of a guide as the student evolves into a scholar.

T. V. Jayaprakash, email

Performance audit has become inevitable in every institution, not to speak of the arteries of society like educational institutions. Teachers should be given the benefit of self-appraisal before their seniors pass judgment on their performance. Feedback from students can also be obtained. Educational institutions recruiting and sustaining highly rated staff can be given the status of ‘institutions of excellence’ and this will serve as a brand value for such institutions.

T. S. Sundareswaran, email

Possessing knowledge is one thing but imparting the knowledge — that is, teaching — is another. Trained teachers are what we lack in schools/colleges. Teaching is not only a science but also an art. Like any other profession, teaching qualities are passion, zeal, commitment, dedication and making unknown as known in a civilized manner without recourse to many punitive actions.

Subjecting teachers to independent evaluation may be a futile exercise. Rather, it would be better for the independent person to be present at the time of induction and interview than for him to do a post mortem job.

Periodical appraisal of teachers’ strengths and weaknesses should form part of awarding annual increments and deficiencies can be addressed by sponsoring them to attend orientation classes to upgrade themselves during vacation.

Ashok Jayaram, email

False claims are made by some colleges regarding their university exam results, availability of highly qualified professors, well equipped labs and libraries, and so on. Such colleges think that such publicity will enable them to compete with the best colleges in attracting good students.

But the setting up an independent system of rating by the university may not help improve matters. The ratings system may also end up being corrupt like most other systems instituted by the Central and State governments. A good rating can be bought by any college — akin to what many poorly performing NBFCs did in the 1990s.

Instead it will be prudent to foster and promote a spirit of healthy competition between colleges, be they colleges of engineering or medicine or institutes of management. Colleges which aim at excellence and attain high standards in all areas, including quality of teaching and research, may be given autonomy and deemed university status

Colleges that make false claims cannot fool students and parents for long and their true colour will unfold itself sooner or later. Therefore, it is better to bring about an improvement in the quality of teaching and the overall standards in colleges through promotion of healthy spirit of competition among colleges rather than instituting a system of rating.

K. K. Ammannaya, email

In the context of the rapid growth of educational institutions and the awareness of parents on the need to get their children educated in the best institution there is competition among the institutions for enrolling the best. There is therefore bound to be all sorts of claims about the quality of the institutions. Establishment of an autonomous organisation to evaluate the worth of the institutions and their staff in a comprehensive way would therefore be welcome. Else, the standard of education is bound to fall badly.

T. R. Anandan, email

There are many colleges which do not meet guidelines and pre-qualifications set by the universities. There should be checks and balances in the case of colleges and universities falling under the UGC.

Palakkadan S. Narayan, e-mail

Two important criteria for an effective ranking system are that it must be easy to administer and should be tamper-proof. This necessitates that the data for the ranking should be available at the university’s end, as any information requested from individual colleges is liable to manipulation. With the number of colleges increasing by leaps and bounds, a subjective evaluation by an independent agency would be cumbersome and time-consuming.

In the light of this principle, the current ranking scheme of Anna University based on the pass percentage seems to be the best bet. However, this process works against those colleges which produce more number of top ranking students. Therefore, the ranking should be based on the ‘median score’ as it would also take into account the frequency distribution of marks of students.

P. H. Karthik, email