When I was thirteen I was lucky to have a history teacher who inspired me, made me learn to think for myself, and gave depth to my private life. Many of us, I think, have had the same experience there was one good teacher at some point in our lives who changed us, and this made all the difference. Vimala Ramchandran's recent research with poor children in U.P., Andhra, and Karnataka also confirms that the biggest motivator in getting children to complete primary school is a welcoming, and affectionate teacher.

Hence, it seems obvious that education reform must begin with creating conditions in our schools for inspiring teachers to enter and to flourish. But in endless meetings convened by state governments I hear only endless talk about the need for more resources, instilling values, universal literacy, but no one proposes the need for recruiting and retaining outstanding teachers. The reformers are so obsessed with literacy targets that everyone has forgotten quality. At the end of these frustrating meetings I wail in desperation, ''Don't worry if the roof is leaking or if there is no blackboard, let's discuss how can we get our brightest youngsters to become teachers and motivate our existing army of time-serving teachers! But no one listens.

I realise money is an issue in attracting the best, but in recent years teachers salaries have risen after the Pay Commissions award. Moreover, there are always idealistic youngsters who would rather teach than go into law, medicine or business. What deters them is the coarse mediocrity of the teaching environment. My friends idealistic daughter decided to make teaching a career, but she quit after a year. She found that the average teacher was bored and did not want to teach. Her timeserving colleagues could not tolerate her sense of commitment and literally drove her away. Of course, there are many fine teachers who strive day in and day out despite terrible handicaps. The question is can we retrain the vast majority who do infinite harm to the minds of our children everyday?

In India , the middle class sends its children to private schools and the poor send theirs to government schools. But now even the poor are enrolling them in low-cost private schools, which charge between Rs 60-100 a month. Even though private school teachers earn less and are less qualified, children and parents report in surveys that they prefer the private school because the teacher at least shows up and teaches something. In government schools, teachers get away without teaching because they know that no one is looking.

I have spent sleepless nights over our failure to bring accountability to government schools, and have concluded that only way to raise their standards is do away with this dualism between private and government schools. For grades 1-5, I would give vouchers to parents and allow the schools compete for these vouchers. Because of competition, schools will have to hire better teachers, who will have to teach. The leftists and old educationists are horrified at this, but don't we owe it to ourselves to at least test this idea when all else has failed over the last 50 years? Plato wrote more than 2000 years ago that the reform of our schools is everyone's work—the work of every man, woman and child. Because of our guru-shishya tradition, we Indians revere teachers; so, we must not give up on high standards. But meanwhile, on this Sunday, let us praise great teachers!