Page 44 - EW February 2023

Cover Story

Recent big deals in K-12 education

Purchaser Vendor Comment
Feb. 2019 KKR EuroKids International Rs.1,475 crore deal size
(USA) acquisition 1,415 preschools
Sept. 2019 Nord Anglia 5 Oakridge Int. Schools 7,000 students, Deal size:
(Hong Kong) acquisition Rs.1,600 crore. Vendor: People
Combine, Hyderabad
Nov. 2019 FirstCry Parenting 55 pre-primaries acquired Vendor: People Combine,
(India) Hyderabad
Nov. 2019 Cognita CHIREC International Acquisition for Rs.700 crore
(UK) School, Hyderabad
Feb. 2021 KKR/EuroKids Cambridge Public School, —
Bengaluru
Jan 2023 Global Schools K-12, Glendale Academy
Foundation (Singapore) Glendale International, Consultancy and exchanges
Hyderabad agreement
Source: EW compilation

Commission) for foreign educa- state governments — are
tion institutions, and universi- distinguished by crum-
ties in particular. “Every nation bling buildings, chronic
has its own distinctive cultural teacher truancy, multi-
consciousness and world-view. grade classrooms, lack of
India’s deepest thinkers and intel- toilets, and aversion to
lectuals Sri Aurobindo and Rabi- teaching English. They
ndranath Tagore envisioned the are in such poor condi-
university as a deep well and cen- tion that only bottom-
tre of history and culture rooted of-pyramid households
in the Indian context from which enrol their children with
knowledge, ideas and innovations them, mainly because of
relating to teaching the social sci- their free-of-charge mid-
ences, art and literature in par- day meal rather than free
ticular would emerge. The entry Dhankar (centre): Macaulay agenda fulfillment tuition.
of foreign universities will pro- Therefore, the solu-
vide further impetus to the process of for self-assertion,” warns Dhankar. tion to reduce inequalities in edu-
grafting alien cultural-consciousness Although there’s some merit in the cation is not prohibition and/or
and world-view on to our higher edu- argument that conceding a larger role proscription of private schools, but
cation institutions. This process which to the private sector in school and improving infrastructure and sharply
began during the British Raj remained higher education is likely to exacer- raising teaching-learning standards
uncorrected after independence. As a bate inequalities in Indian education of government schools. Likewise,
result, our higher education system and society, it’s pertinent to acknowl- designing indigenous syllabuses and
has failed miserably and our cultural edge that a great divide between rich curriculums rooted in Indian history
consciousness has substantially di- and poor children has been a notable and culture has defied the ingenu-
minished, force-fitted into social theo- feature of Indian education for several ity of left and left-liberal professors
ries developed to understand a differ- decades, especially in K-12 education. and pundits who have dominated the
ent cultural milieu. A large number of It’s hardly a national secret that post- academy, for over seven decades.
foreign, especially British schools and independence India’s great middle Meanwhile the authoritative Annu-
universities, setting standards and class — estimated at 300 million — has al Status of Education Report (ASER)
benchmarks in Indian education will almost entirely been educated in fees- surveys of the Delhi/Mumbai-based
result in completion of Lord Macau- levying private schools whose num- Pratham Education Foundation of the
lay’s agenda of transforming middle ber is currently estimated at 450,000 past 25 years are a sad commentary
class Indians into second class Eng- countrywide. This is because the coun- on the quality of education in govern-
lishmen, resulting in schizophrenic try's 1 million government schools ment schools. In 616 (out of a total
moral codes and jingoistic nationalism — mostly owned and managed by 730) districts countrywide, learning

44 EDUCATIONWORLD FEBRUARY 2023