There is nothing surprising or extraordinary about the IE story about board 'toppers'. Said 'toppers' don't represent our education system, which has collapsed years ago. Come see the state schools, the mushrooming private-run schools that cater to the lower middle classes.

Come meet the kids who, after 12 years of schooling, struggle to comprehend sentences and structure, or any form of complex reading, and ask who failed them. Who cares if the 'toppers' are working abroad?

Come talk to the young people who aspire, but are held back by grinding poverty, caste and a system that has already written them out when they enrol for a general degree program or in schools of open learning.

'Toppers' don't represent our education system. They do.