Page 10 - February EW 2024 PDF

From the

Editor
THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT MAGAZINE

Volume X X V No.2

BOARD OF ADVISORS
N.R. Narayana Murthy, H.V. Gowthama, Shukla E
Bose, Dr. Glenn Christo, Dr. R. Natarajan ven as the Great leader and the acclamatory establishment,
(Bangalore); Adi Godrej, Dr. Augustine Pinto, including academics who should know better, are predicting best
Guilherme Vaz, Ketan Gala, Kirit Mehta, Balkishan
Sharma (Mumbai); Dr. Ramdas Pai (Manipal); days ahead for the Indian economy which is all set to emerge
Prof. Geeta Kingdon (Lucknow); Rajiv Desai, Dr. as the world’s third largest — never mind population advantage
Parth Shah, Jeroninio Almeida (Delhi); Dr. Kannan
Gireesh (Chennai); Robindra Subba (Kurseong); and pathetic per capita income data — the country seems to be
Sanjeev Bolia (Kolkata); Dr. Achyuta Samanta oblivious that the ground is slipping under its feet.
(Bhubaneswar); Shyama Thakore (London)
Over 12 million children and youth are streaming out annually from schools
EDITOR and colleges without having learned to read and write properly. The latest An-
Dilip Thakore nual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2023 of the highly-respected, inde-
MANAGING EDITOR pendent Pratham Education Foundation says the majority of 14-18 year-olds
Summiya Yasmeen graduating from rural schools can’t read class II textbooks in their vernacular
CHIEF SUB-EDITOR languages or calculate discounts and percentages. And 42 percent can’t read
Sundar Anand simple sentences in English, the language of business, commerce and the
Paromita Sengupta, Reshma Ravishanker, Gopi courts. Yet despite your editors continuously blowing the whistle about poor
Chand N, (Bangalore), Autar Nehru (Delhi) learning outcomes in the vast majority of the country’s neglected education
9868256512, Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)
9836491981, Shivani Chaturvedi (Chennai) institutions, there’s little visible urgency about addressing this vital issue.
9500506102 In the latest Union budget presented to Parliament and the nation on Feb-
CHIEF EXECUTIVE ruary 1, the Central government’s outlay for public education inched up from
Bhavin Shah +91 9867382867 Rs.1.12 lakh crore last year to Rs.1.20 lakh crore in 2024-25. As a percentage of
MARKETING GDP, it fell from 0.37 to 0.36. Admittedly, most of the spending on education
Vice President — Sales: Tejas Pattni 9022487997 is done by state governments. But added together, the national expenditure for
West: Aasana Jain 9820319127 public education is unlikely to exceed 3 percent of GDP against the minimum
South: Poonam Shah 9731966373
North: Hannan Ahmed 9810302768 6 percent recommended by the high-powered Kothari Commission way back
E-mail: marketing@educationworld.in in 1967. The plain truth is that because of weak foundational and primary-sec-
GRAPHICS ondary education dispensed in the country’s dilapidated public/government
Chandrashekar L. schools, the majority of India’s college and university graduates can’t match up
Kotresh Y
to their counterparts in developed OECD and South-east Asian countries. This
SUBSCRIPTIONS explains the low productivity of Indian industry, agriculture and services and
Mithun Jadhav: 9108225694/ the country’s widespread poverty and misery.
080 43711141
sub@educationworld.in Be that as it may, since our whistle-blowing has limited impact, this time
round we invited Sridhar Rajagopalan, Co-founder and Chief Learning Officer
ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION: RS.1700
OVERSEAS SUBSCRIPTION: USD95 of Educational Initiatives (estb.2001), a successful Bengaluru-based K-12
Cheques/drafts in favour of DT Media & learning outcomes assessment and institutional development company, to
Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. Bangalore
write a diagnosis and prescription for the infirmities of India’s primary-sec-
EDITORIAL ondary school system. The result is an engaging lead feature written from an
C3-36, 3rd Floor, Devatha Plaza education professional’s perspective that is mandatory reading for all educa-
131 Residency Road, Bangalore 560 025. tion policy formulators and school leaders and educators.
Tel: 080 22480880; Fax: 2227 5962;
E-mail: editorial@educationworld.in As usual, there’s a big bouquet of features and news features in this issue of
Printed and published by Dilip Thakore on behalf EW. Check out our editorials and columns written by intelligent commenta-
of DT Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. tors and educators, as also our Education and International News sections.
Printed at Rajhans Enterprises, 134, 4th Main, In- Lots of food for thought in them.
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

10 EDUCATIONWORLD FEBRUARY 2024