Page 90 - Education World November 2022

Special Report

country’s Top 4,000 schools listed
in the EducationWorld India School
Rankings — have never received
response.
Socialites appointed public rela-
tions czarinas block all access to cor-
porate leaders heading these indus-
try lobbies infamous for pandering
to every government in power. It’s
mind-boggling that the captains of
India Inc fail to grasp the elementary
proposition that if EW succeeds in
its mission to accelerate upgradation
of the country’s abundant human
resource, India Inc will be the biggest
gainer by way of higher productiv-
ity and improved profitability. It’s a
Teacher and student stimulus awards: abrupt termination reflection of the quality of leadership
of India Inc that they haven’t yet un-
the large and multiplying number captains of Indian industry who were derstood that if EW succeeds, India
of private coaching schools, which rescued from cowering obscurity by Inc succeeds.
levy high fees to drill and skill chil- BI and BW and transformed into D og - in - m a n g e r g odi m e dia .
dren and teens to succeed in public national heroes, have exhibited irra- To intensify public pressure on the
entrance exams, has failed to attract tional prejudice and hostility towards Central and state governments to
judicial (or government) disapproval. this nation-building publication. increase their budgetary allocation
C orp ora te dis in te re s t & dis - For instance, Ratan Tata whose for education and human resource
c on n e c t. A curious anomaly of the candidacy for chairmanship of development, educating the public
“socialist pattern of society” of post- Tata Sons was decisively endorsed about the cost-benefits of providing
independence India is the disinterest by BusinessWorld, refused high-quality education for children
and indifference of India Inc to de- advertising support to EW when and youth, is a precondition. There-
veloping the country’s abundant and it was struggling; N.R. Narayana fore, your editors have continu-
high-potential human resource. This Murthy withdrew support for the ously solicited the collaboration and
industry myopia has heavily disap- annual Infosys-EW Young Achievers cooperation of media corporates,
pointed your correspondent who in a Award (annual expenditure: Rs.4 television channels, media houses
previous avatar as founder-editor of lakh) pleading “not enough bang and newspapers by offering free-of-
Business I ndia and BusinessWorld for the buck”. Likewise, when N. charge content, language translation
— India’s pioneer business maga- Chandrasekaran was appointed rights and often made requests for
zines — strenuously campaigned chairman of TCS in 2017, he abruptly publicity to our numerous path-
with a substantial measure of success terminated the annual TCS- breaking features and news reports.
to free Indian industry from the EducationWorld Teachers Awards Alas to little avail.
shackles of pervasive licence-permit- (instituted by TCS founder-CEO F.C. Preoccupied with reporting po-
quota raj imposed upon India Inc Kohli) which felicitated outstanding litical and sports news, mainstream
and private sector enterprise. government and budget private media has little space for education
In the circumstances, it’s been school teachers countrywide. news and initiatives. Offers have also
particularly disappointing that These instances of irrational hos- been made to vernacular language
leaders of India Inc whom the said tility towards the country’s pioneer newspaper publishers to translate
pioneer publications also freed from and #1 education news publication EducationWorld and the affiliated
the low ceiling on managerial remu- are not restricted to tunnel-vision ParentsWorld into native languages,
neration, have shown no interest in techies. Repeated entreaties to the without any response. Hyper-com-
co-operating with EducationWorld heads of FICCI, Assocham, CII for petition, unwarranted insecurity
in our 23-years campaign to place interviews on education policy and and indifference to QEFA (quality
education, aka human resource de- management issues remain unan- education for all) within mainstream
velopment, at the top of the national swered. Ditto invitations to them media leaders has inflicted grave
development agenda. On the con- to grace the annual EWISR Awards injury to the world’s largest child and
trary for mysterious reasons, several -- which felicitate leaders of the youth population.

90 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2022