Page 164 - EW November 2023

Pictorial Essay

Lifetime Achievement in Education Leadership Award 2023-24

Damodar Prasad Goyal

tireless crusader for the institutional
autonomy of private schools, Damodar
A Prasad Goyal has been enlightening,
empowering and litigating for the rights of self-
financed education institutions for the past 40
years.
A commerce graduate of Rajasthan University,
Damodar Goyal began his career in the foodgrains
and gemstones trade with which he successfully
persisted for three decades. However while serv-
ing the Shri Agrawal Shiksha Samiti (managing
pre-primary to postgraduate institutions) as Gen-
eral Secretary and Senior Vice President, Goyal
became aware that although they are supplement-
ing the primary duty of the State by serving the
cause of education, private educational institu-
tions were being subjected to a steadily multiply-
ing number of Central and state government laws,
rules and regulations which hindered them from
discharging their obligation to provide high qual-
ity education to their students. “Privately promot-
ed schools have made a massive contribution to
post-independence India's modernisation and Damodar Prasad Goyal receives award & citation from EW's Dilip Thakore
national development. It's not well-known, but (left) & Dr. C. Raj Kumar, Vice Chancellor, OP Jindal Global University
some of the greatest leaders of India's freedom
movement including Mahatma Gandhi and Jawa- In 2012, in Society for Unaided Schools of Rajasthan
harlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose among others, were vs. Union Government & Ors, he won a famous Supreme
educated in private schools and colleges. And currently 48 Court verdict exempting minority and boarding schools
percent of all school-going children countrywide are in pri- from complying with s.12 (1) (c) of the RTE Act, 2009. This
vate schools. Therefore, I deplore government's suspicious provision of the Act mandates all private schools to provide
and step-motherly treatment of India's 450,000 private free-of-charge to elementary (classes I-VIII) education to
schools,” says Goyal. poor children in their neighbourhood. Similarly after his
The harassment and discrimination suffered by pri- intervention, in 2007, a Central Board of Secondary Educa-
vate schools “promoted from private savings” prompted tion directive to private schools to waive the tuition fees of
Mr. Goyal to empower, educate and unite private educa- one girl child per family was withdrawn, following a plea
tional institutions. In 1997, he registered the Society for filed in the Delhi High Court. And in 2021, a directive to
Unaided Private Schools of Rajasthan and the Rajasthan private schools to slash tuition fees during the Covid pan-
Private Aided Colleges Management Association. Since demic years was quashed by the Supreme Court.
then, the Society for Unaided Private Schools of Rajasthan “Private schools are critical for the advancement of K-12
has grown to 140 CBSE-affiliated primary-secondaries and education in India. They set benchmarks in infrastruc-
the Association of Aided Colleges to 74 institutions. Goyal ture provision, curriculum and pedagogy innovation, and
believes that government – especially state governments teacher training and development for government schools.
-- has done a great disservice to the majority of India's Therefore, they need to be encouraged and enabled instead
children by neglecting orderly development of the coun- of being harassed and discouraged. This awareness has to
try's 1.10 million government schools while focusing their permeate government and society,” says this indefatigable
attention on regulating and controlling private schools. champion of private education.
Well-versed in the plethora of education laws, rules For his determined support of private education institu-
and regulations enacted by the Central and state govern- tions which provide better quality education to 48 percent
ments to regulate and control private schools, Goyal has of India's school-going children and 70 percent of youth
an impressive record of famous victories in courts of law. in higher education, the Board of Directors and Editors
In 1993, in Shri Agrawal Shiksha Samiti vs State of Ra- of EducationWorld are delighted to present the Educa-
jasthan, he won an unprecedented court order directing tionWorld Lifetime Achievement in Education Leadership
the Rajasthan state government to pay interest on delayed Award 2023-24 to Damodar Prasad Goyal, an indefatigable
grants to aided colleges. champion of quality education for all.

164 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2023