Page 4 - EW July 2021 final

From the

Editor
THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT MAGAZINE

Volume X XII No.7

BOARD OF ADVISORS
N.R. Narayana Murthy, H.V. Gowthama, Shukla
Bose, Dr. Glenn Christo, Dr. R. Natarajan F
(Bangalore); Adi Godrej, Dr. Augustine Pinto, or the past 15 months after it was belatedly acknowledged that the
Krishan Khanna, Guilherme Vaz, Ketan Gala, novel Coronavirus, aka Covid-19, which originated in neighbour-
Kirit Mehta, Balkishan Sharma (Mumbai); Dr.
Ramdas Pai (Manipal); Dr. Geeta Kingdon ing China, was rife and spreading rapidly within India and taking
(Lucknow); Rajiv Desai, Dr. Parth Shah, Jeroninio a heavy daily toll of lives, national attention has been focused on
Almeida, Premchand Palety (Delhi); Dr. Kannan
Gireesh (Chennai); Robindra Subba (Kurseong); ways and means to combat it. But even before a comprehensive
Sanjeev Bolia (Kolkata); Dr. Achyuta Samanta unprecedented national lockdown of industry, business, trade and public
(Bhubaneswar); Shyama Thakore (London)
transport was officially declared on March 25, 2020 — with four hours notice
EDITOR given to the public — all schools, colleges and education institutions country-
Dilip Thakore wide had been shut down from mid-March.
MANAGING EDITOR Since then, the country has made considerable progress in containing the
Summiya Yasmeen worst ravages of the pandemic. The number of Covid infected citizens has
CHIEF SUB-EDITOR reduced from a peak of 4.12 lakh on May 6 to 46,617 on July 1, and the count
Sundar Anand of officially recorded fatalities caused by this deadly, easily transmissible virus
Paromita Sengupta, Reshma Ravishanker, Gopi that attacks the lungs, has fallen from 3,980 to 853 per day during the same
Chand N, (Bangalore), Autar Nehru (Delhi) period. And, with a nationwide vaccination drive underway, all indications are
9868256512, Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)
9836491981, Shivani Chaturvedi (Chennai) that the worst of Covid-19 is over and infections and fatalities are plateauing.
9500506102, Dipta Joshi (Mumbai) 9920243111 During this harrowing period in national history, the issue of livelihoods
CHIEF EXECUTIVE of the general populace has received insufficient attention. Although industry
Bhavin Shah +91 9867382867 and business have been accorded expert attention and government relief, and
MARKETING are slowly limping back towards normalcy, schools and higher education insti-
West: Tejas Pattni (General Manager) 9022487997 tutions have remained tightly shut for the past 15 months with little prospect
E-mail: marketing@educationworld.in of campuses reopening in the near future. A small minority of children from
South India: S. Vijaya Lakshmi 98456 80696
Poonam Shah 9731966373 well-off homes are learning best as they can in online classrooms offered by
North: Hannan Ahmed 9810302768 high-end private schools. But education of the great majority of the country’s
GRAPHICS 260 million children has been severely interrupted.
Suresh K. It’s disturbing that India’s youngest citizens who were educationally short-
SUBSCRIPTIONS changed even before outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, have been out of
Kiran Kumar: 9108225694/ school for longer than children of any country worldwide, except the US and
080 43711141 Brazil. But children in these countries have superior Internet connectivity and
sub@educationworld.in
greater access to digital learning devices. Against the backdrop of alarming
ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION: RS.1700 reports that the future learning and livelihoods of an estimated 200 million
OVERSEAS SUBSCRIPTION: USD95
Cheques/drafts in favour of DT Media & children countrywide are in grave danger, in this issue we make a strong case
Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. Bangalore for reopening schools — and all other education institutions — for on-campus
EDITORIAL teaching-learning. With adequate health and safety safeguards, of course.
C3-36, 3rd Floor, Devatha Plaza In addition, this issue features the EW Grand Jury India Higher Education
131 Residency Road, Bangalore 560 025. Rankings 2021-22 that recognise and rank low-profile colleges and institutions
Tel: 080 22480880; Fax: 2227 5962; excelling under unusual parameters. Very useful for school-leavers mulling
E-mail: editorial@educationworld.in
higher education options. It is also rich with expert opinions, news from states,
Printed and published by Dilip Thakore on behalf
of DT Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. institution profiles. Let’s discuss and debate.
Printed at Rajhans Enterprises, 134, 4th Main, In-
dustrial Town, Rajajinagar, Bangalore-44. Published
at C3-36, 3rd Floor, Devatha Plaza, 131 Residency
Road. Bangalore 560 025.
Editor Dilip Thakore.
RNI No. KARENG/1999/00234
Website: www.educationworld.in

4 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2021