Derek Mountford, Principal, Assam Valley School

Where would you place education on your national list of priorities?
Evolved societies have a marked focus on learning; education is a primary concern, a top priority. From it flows literacy, employment, and ultimately personal and national growth.

How best to upgrade government schools?
Their major malaise is a dearth of high-quality human resources. Reinvention requires a model that will attract committed and talented teachers into a cosmos of upgraded infrastructure.

Thinker/philosopher you admire most.
Bertrand Russell

Your favourite Nobel laureate.
Dag Hammarskjöld, second secretary-general of the United Nations.

Your favourite book on leadership.
Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr’s A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House.

For or against the RTE Act mandating 25 percent reservation for underprivileged children in private schools?
Premeditated murder and accidental death are entirely different things in a court of law, but the difference is academic to the dead man! The Right to Education Act is laudable in principle, but unfeasible in practice.

How satisfied are you with the growth and development of The Assam Valley School?
Merge 235 acres of campus greenery in a new age school with unparalleled infrastructure and the best talent of the North-east of India and you get The Assam Valley School. We are well on our way to becoming a pan-India centre of K-12 excellence.

Your leadership style.
Leadership through action: measurable, tangible, responsible and accountable.

Should the education outlay be doubled by cutting defence expenditure?
In realpolitik, curtailing defence expenditure is not a pragmatic solution. Enhanced revenue-flow into education through streamlining other government expenditure is a better solution.

Pessimistic or optimistic about Indian education?
Bullish. International interest in Indian education, including the K-12 segment, shifts the paradigm and has made the implementation of best global practices inevitable.