If our education governance has to improve, we would have to try and rationalise the distribution of teachers across our schools to even out the lop-sided pupil-teacher ratios. Besides, if we have a system of reward and recognition, and a system of accountability, we will improve upon the 40 per cent efficiency of our schools. It is as important to reward the good teachers as it is to have a solid deterrent for the irresponsible ones.

First, we must build on a sound notion of education. Education that fosters capabilities of multiple kinds: cognitive, social, emotional, ethical and others. And all these at a deep, not superficial, level like the ability of “rote memorization”. It’s the overall schooling experience that must foster the students’ abilities on all these dimensions—the curriculum, the school culture, the teacher, the classroom practices, etc. This might seem like an esoteric, theoretical point to make, but the fact is that most of our ills in education stem from not getting this fundamental right.

Whatever systems we adopt to tackle the rubbish physically, as a society we need to tackle its roots. And for this, we need changes in attitude and behaviour. The apathy of producers and consumers must be changed through education and sensitization. Likewise, we must bear the real cost of the use of plastic. Governments, local and national, can make both changes happen through education, regulation and taxation.

They have a rigorous, research-driven, university-based, five-year master’s programme for teacher education (India has 10-month programmes). The country has a set of guiding national curricular goals, but the teachers actually have enormous freedom: in the curriculum, in the classroom, in the choice of books, etc.