THIS refers to the article 'Yearning for learning' (Feb 2) by Rafia Zakaria. It is a fact that America has advanced universities and research centres and is often labelled as 'black hole' for intelligentsia and research scholars the world over. The leadership qualities and vision of President Barack Obama could be gauged from his second State of the Union address in which he emphasised the need for raising American educational standards in mathematics and science, calling the current times a 'Sputnik moment' as mentioned in the article.

If one considers the current trend in American society, this issue has been linked to and compared with the Chinese educational system/styles.

As mentioned by the writer, parenting has a direct bearing on the education of children. Chinese parents are depicted as the ones who lay special emphasis on 'memorisation' — a practice which is also common in our society. Another aspect which needs special mention is that Chinese have specially focused on quality education to the underprivileged section of their society.

We need to probe Chinese strategies of education, bearing in mind cultural similarities as far as parenting attitudes are concerned and try to assimilate the Chinese experience. But we also need to urgently address the issue of imparting quality education to the disadvantaged section of our society.

Over a period of time we have evolved an education system where only affluent class has access to quality education. And because of this sense of deprivation, some people also call it 'apartheid in education.'

It is time we utilised our resources and made some serious, strenuous and concerted efforts to put our education system back on the track.

SIDRA SOHAG Hyderabad