Page 46 - EW-June-2024

Cover Story

Rising no. of IB & Cambridge International schools (India) education in India, its prime focus is
on private primary-secondary educa-
233 tion. This is inevitable since LoEstro
is a private sector for-profit invest-
IB +11%
ment banking and consultancy firm
engaged in providing equity finance,
45
mergers and acquisitions, and struc-
2007 2023 tured finance services to education
institutions and aspiring and extant
650 promoters in K-12 education. There-
fore although in its initial pages, the
Cambridge +12% report provides a holistic perspective
of India’s K-12 system — number of
100 schools, teachers countrywide — the
main focus and interest of State of
2006 2023
K-12: Resilience Amidst Uncertainties
Source: State of India K-12: Resilience Amidst Uncertainties is to provide a roadmap for existing
and aspiring entrepreneurs to grow
and enter K-12 education in India for
of Indian education,” he prophesies. profit, philanthropy or a mix of both.
Optimism about favourable de- Most of the advice dispensed by the re-
velopments in foundational K-12 port is irrelevant and/or inapplicable
education and its incremental inter- to government schools.
nationalisation is shared by bona fide The authors of the report seem un-
educationists, even though it might mindful that a widening gap between
mean more intensive competition private and public education is likely
within this sector. Praveen Raju, co- to invite ideologically-driven restric-
chairman of the Delhi-based ARISE tions on the growth and development
(Alliance for Re-Imagining School of private schools by way of tuition
Education), a lobby of promoters and fees regulation, government imposed
managers of upscale independent admission quotas, expat faculty re-
schools, “eminent educators, foun- cruitment, teachers’ remuneration
dations, civil society representatives, ceilings etc to discourage foreign in-
think tanks and technical experts” vestment and capital.
that proposes policy reforms to the Raju: accelerated internationalisation Logically, the entry of foreign ex-
Central and state governments, wel- amination boards and foreign capital
comes internationalisation of K-12 — India’s largest national school- into private education should prompt
education. leaving examinations board — has government to raise teaching-learning
“ THIS IS A POSITIVE develop- sessment reforms to lead children public schools. Yet typical government
standards in the country’s 1.20 million
already introduced wide-ranging as-
away from rote learning towards de-
response to competition in industry,
ment. Growth and expansion
of the Indian middle class
ism that levels standards downward.
and integration of the Indian veloping critical thinking and analysis business and education is protection-
skills. It’s high time our school educa-
economy with the global economy has tion system aligns with the rest of the Therefore, not a few monitors of In-
spiralled the demand for internation- world. Internationalisation of India’s dian education apprehend a reversal
ally comparable K-12 education. This hitherto insulated K-12 education sys- of the liberalisation and deregulation
will intensify competition among the tem will accelerate this process,” says of K-12 education.
top-ranked schools and compel them Raju, an alum of Osmania University However Payal Jain, partner at
to raise teaching-learning standards and promoter-director of the Suchi- LoEstro Advisors, believes that such
and adopt global best practices. In tra Academy, Hyderabad, ranked the apprehension is unwarranted. “The
turn, this will force examination pearls city’s #3 co-ed day school in the investment flowing into India’s edu-
boards in India to review their as- EW India School Rankings 2023-24. cation sector is not hot money; it is
sessment systems which will compel It is pertinent to bear in mind that patient capital driven by a combina-
pedagogy and curriculum changes in although the State of India K-12 pur- tion of reasonable return on invest-
affiliated schools. For instance, CBSE ports to report the condition of K-12 ment and philanthropy. The policy

46 EDUCATIONWORLD JUNE 2024