Page 48 - EW February 2023

Cover Story

community of school promoters, prin- of top-ranked Indian pre-primaries,
cipals and teachers — albeit to lesser K-12 schools and HEIs are unper-
extent in higher education — to raise turbed by the prospect of marketplace
teaching-learning standards to global competition from foreign education
norms. institutions. On the contrary, most
T annual rating and rank- and universities on the reasoning that
welcome the entry of foreign schools
HE EDUCATIONWORLD
their best practices will seep into In-
ing surveys of preschools,
waves will raise all boats.
primary-secondaries, col- dian education, and that competition
leges and universities under several “Entry of foreign schools and HEIs
parameters of education — rather into India’s expanding education sec-
than mere academic excellence — have tor is welcome. I don’t believe they
aroused great appreciation within the will pose a major threat to the coun-
educators and parents communities. try’s top-ranked international schools
As a result, there is unprecedented which have acquired experience in
awareness within the educators, par- Gen. Ray: no threat perception adapting and innovating best west-
ents and students communities that ern syllabuses and curriculums for
the country’s education institutions hygiene, mental and emotional well- Indian conditions. In our neighbour-
need to move beyond knowledge accu- being services, among others. hood, 25 high quality international
mulation to developing the analytical, The importance of balanced, mul- schools affiliated with the Interna-
critical thinking and problem-solving tidisciplinary education is endorsed tional Baccalaureate and UK-based
skills of children and youth to prepare by NEP 2020. Although there is some Cambridge examination boards have
them for the increasingly complex and legitimate apprehension about over- been operational for several years. But
new technologies-intensive workplac- regulation, this charter unequivocally they haven’t been able to dislodge us
es of the future. mandates professionally-adminis- from our #1 rank in your annual EW
Further evidence of this new aware- tered early childhood and founda- rankings surveys for the past 11 years.
ness of the importance of contempo- tional education; development of That’s because in Indus International
rary syllabuses and curriculums that children’s critical thinking and ana- schools, we are constantly improv-
promote holistic education is provided lytical skills through projects-based ing and enriching the IB curriculum
by the tremendous response that the and skilling pedagogies; intensive through intensive research and in-
pioneer annual EducationWorld teacher development programmes novation. In 2009 IIS, Bangalore
India School Rankings — which and incorporation of new-age digital became the country’s first school to
since they were introduced in 2007 technologies into K-12 education. In establish a teacher training and re-
have ballooned into the largest and higher education, NEP has mandated search institution — ITARI (Indus
most comprehensive schools ranking internationalisation of HEIs through Training and Research Institute). In
survey worldwide — and the follow-up intensified collaboration, student and ITARI, we train teachers on advanced
annual EWISR Awards generate with- faculty exchange programmes, and in digitally-enabled simulators, and are
in the educators community. Ditto the a remarkable ideological about-turn, conducting research into applying
annual EW preschools, budget private it invites foreign universities to estab- Metaverse, AI and blockchain tech-
schools, higher education institutions lish owned campuses in India. nologies in education. To develop our
(HEIs) rankings and awards. And it’s a measure of newly devel- technology-enabled curriculum, we
In this connection, it’s pertinent to oped confidence spreading within the have built bridges with higher edu-
note that unlike institution rankings domestic education sector that leaders cation institutions including Jindal
abroad which rate and rank education Global University in India and Soka
institutions under the sole parameter Evidence of new awareness University, Tokyo. Therefore by con-
of learning outcomes, the multidi- of the importance of con- tinuously upgrading our teachers and
mensional EW institutional ranking developing a hi-tech advanced ecosys-
surveys evaluate schools and HEIs temporary curriculums that tem built for Indian conditions, we are
under numerous parameters of excel- promote holistic education confident of taking on the best inter-
lence including teacher welfare and national schools entering India,” says
development, leadership, individual is provided by tremendous Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Arjun Ray, PVSM,
attention to students, curriculum & response to the annual EW VSM, chief executive of the Bangalore-
pedagogy (digital readiness), co-cur- India School Rankings based Indus Trust (regstd.2003).
ricular and sports education, safety & Under Gen. Ray’s leadership, the

48 EDUCATIONWORLD FEBRUARY 2023