After ninety children perished in a blaze at a primary school in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the chief minister ordered the closure of more than 200 schools for safety reasons. The tragedy occurred at a school when a thatched roof caught fire, and now it has emerged that many other schools had also breached fire regulations and used highly flammable materials because they were cheaper than cement.

For those who know nothing about India, the tragedy might appear to have its roots in the practice of cutting corners because of a shortage of money. But Tamil Nadu is not an impoverished state. Anyone who has lived in India knows that the reality of such disasters has its roots in a mixture of slack attitudes and corruption. Slackness is endemic throughout the country and the result is fire tragedies. The last major fire that I can recall was at an Indian wedding. These disasters would all be avoidable if local officials took a tougher attitude.

It's true that such misfortunes are not unique to India. Offhand, I can think of avoidable tragedies that have occurred in the last year in China, Russia and France. But the frequency in India points to a political system desperately in need of an overhaul.

All this is a pity since the school tragedy paints an unfair negative picture on the educational system of India. In fact, the reverse is the case. Education, in general, is excellent across the country. Let's take Tamil Nadu. I have three brothers-in-law (Sanjay, Seamus and Sigmund) who attended Catholic-run schools in a semi-rural area of this south-western state before moving in their teens to England in the early 1980s. As Indians, they felt apprehensive on how they would cope educationally in Britain's state-run schools. Their fears proved unfounded. Not only were they top grade scorers, showing great ability in mathematics and the sciences, teachers praised them for their high standard of written English and use of grammar.

"As an Indian, being told my grammar was superior to that of the other students in my class came as quite a surprise," one of them told me.

Barbara Bell, who heads the classics department at Bristol Grammar School, made the following comments in a report on teaching Latin: "Some years ago, I was urging my Latin beginners (aged 11) to begin a Latin sentence by finding the verb. A sea of polite but glazed faces was looking up at me, until it finally dawned on me that the majority had no idea what a verb was!... this may seem unbelievable, but I'm afraid it is all too true (and mine is a highly academic, selective Independent school!)"

Hong Kong and India do not suffer from the same educational blight that has afflicted Britain for some decades. Both post-colonial societies share many attributes - including the preservation of high standards that embodied the old way of life. A case in point is in the field of education, whether one speaks of the church-run schools or notable non-church schools (such as Queen's College in Hong Kong or Doon School in India).

Why have educational standards slipped so much in Britain's state schools? One explanation given by former Chief Inspector of Schools Chris Woodhead is the malign influence of liberal ideologues. Another important factor is the way British education officials so readily copied America's non-elitist school system, discarding much of the tradition that had governed excellence.

One hated elitist symbol was the school uniform. Hong Kong and India are truly fortunate that they did not imitate the UK. Many of the international schools in Hong Kong are the losers by not having uniforms. The Chinese students look smartly dressed compared to many of their foreign counterparts. My own girls look forward to wearing the smart chocolate-brown uniform of the Brownies. A uniform points to higher aspirations with the accent on excellence.

Schools in Britain have belatedly realized their error, the momentum swinging towards turning back the clock. A news report in 2001 noted that attempts to "raise classroom standards in Greater Manchester" and restore a sense of pride in youngsters began with the return of the "old school blazer". Ian Fenn, headteacher at Burnage, commented: "The way uniforms have developed with sweatshirts is quite scruffy and associated with leisure wear," he said, "and the boys don't feel sharp in them."

In America, "leisure wear" can mean identity with "gang colours" and that's true even in genteel, affluent towns across the country, most of which suffer from hooliganism, youth gangs, narcotics and graffiti problems.

School uniforms are a minor issue compared to wider educational concerns. Woodhead quotes from the US National Committee on Excellence in Education published in 1983: "If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre education performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war."

(China Daily 07/19/2004 page9)