Page 10 - EW August 2025

From the

Editor
THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT MAGAZINE

Volume X X VI No.8

BOARD OF ADVISORS
N.R. Narayana Murthy, H.V. Gowthama, Shukla I t’s a measure of the importance that the Indian establishment
Bose, Dr. Glenn Christo, Dr. R. Natarajan accords to education and human capital development that for 34
(Bangalore); Adi Godrej, Dr. Augustine Pinto, years, India, a nation blessed or cursed — take your pick — with the
Guilherme Vaz, Ketan Gala, Kirit Mehta, Balkishan
Sharma (Mumbai); Dr. Ramdas Pai (Manipal); world’s largest child and youth population, was governed by the Na-
Prof. Geeta Kingdon (Lucknow); Rajiv Desai, Dr. tional Education Policy (NEP) 1986, reportedly supplemented by a
Parth Shah, Dr. C. Raj Kumar (Delhi); Dr. Kannan
Gireesh (Chennai); Robindra Subba (Kurseong); policy announcement made in 1992. Those were years before the era
Sanjeev Bolia (Kolkata); Dr. Achyuta Samanta of the internet, smartphones, and credit cards. Even though industry and com-
(Bhubaneswar); Yogi Kochhar (Dharamshala); merce were liberalized and deregulated in 1991, the education sector shaping
Shyama Thakore (London)
the lives and future of over 500 million children and youth, didn’t experience
EDITOR structural reform until formulation of NEP 2020.
Dilip Thakore
The inexplicable blind-spot of the establishment and failure of omniscient
MANAGING EDITOR 13 Planning Commissions staffed with renowned economists and intellectu-
Summiya Yasmeen
als to make adequate budgetary provision for education — the annual outlay
CHIEF SUB-EDITOR for education (Centre plus states) has averaged 3.5 percent of GDP for the
Sundar Anand past 75 years cf. the global average of 5 percent and 7-10 percent in developed
Paromita Sengupta, Reshma Ravishanker, Gopi OECD countries — has extracted a terrible price from the Indian economy and
Chand N, (Bangalore), Autar Nehru (Delhi)
9868256512, Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata) citizenry.
9836491981, Shivani Chaturvedi (Chennai) Three-quarters after independence, as repeatedly testified by the Annual
9500506102
Status of Education Report (ASER) of the independent Pratham Education
CHIEF EXECUTIVE Foundation, more than half of class VII children in rural India’s dilapidated
Bhavin Shah +91 9867382867
primaries plagued with teacher shortages and absenteeism can’t read class
MARKETING II texts and solve simple division and multiplication sums. An estimated 130
Vice President — Sales: Tejas Pattni 9022487997 million children in 1.10 million government schools are mired in rote-learning
West: Aasana Jain 9820319127
South: Poonam Shah 9731966373 pedagogies and bereft of vocational and skills training. And in higher edu-
E-mail: marketing@educationworld.in cation, the overwhelming majority of youth struggle with obsolete syllabi,
GRAPHICS pedagogies and experiential education neglect. As a result, 70-80 percent of
Chandrashekar L. college and university graduates are not sufficiently prepared for employment
Kotresh Y
in formal Indian industry and commerce.
SUBSCRIPTIONS Against this backdrop when after the BJP/NDA government was swept to
Mithun Jadhav: 9108225694/ power in Delhi in 2014 and resolved to formulate a new National Education
080 43711141
sub@educationworld.in Policy, your editors enthusiastically supported and tracked this initiative.
Apart from providing detailed education reform and upgrade blueprints, we
ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION: RS.2500
OVERSEAS SUBSCRIPTION: USD100 featured unprecedented and detailed cover features on the draft NEP reports
Cheques/drafts in favour of DT Media & of the T.S.R Subramanian (2016) and Dr. K. Kasturirangan (2019) committees
Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. Bangalore
as also on the NEP 2020. In this issue to mark the fifth anniversary of NEP
EDITORIAL 2020, we present a detailed implementation progress report of NEP 2020.
C3-36, 3rd Floor, Devatha Plaza Alas, it’s a story of missed opportunities again.
131 Residency Road, Bangalore 560 025. Comprehensive cover story apart, there’s a banquet of news and views
Tel: 080 22480880; Fax: 2227 5962;
E-mail: editorial@educationworld.in in this EW monsoon edition. Check out our Special Report feature which
Printed and published by Dilip Thakore on behalf investigates the much-proclaimed education upgradation initiatives of the now
of DT Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. forgotten AAP government of Delhi state. Also the very interesting People, In-
Printed at Rajhans Enterprises, 134, 4th Main, In- stitutional Profiles, Interview and Book Review pages. And of course the Edi-
dustrial Town, Rajajinagar, Bangalore-44. Published torial page on which we opine on vital national issues. Hope springs eternal!
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

10 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2025