Page 8 - EW-December-1-31-2024-merged

From the
Editor

THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT MAGAZINE

Volume X X V No.12

BOARD OF ADVISORS I
N.R. Narayana Murthy, H.V. Gowthama, Shukla n civilized societies, care of infants and youngest children is given
Bose, Dr. Glenn Christo, Dr. R. Natarajan highest priority. Yet despite loud proclamations about our ancient
(Bangalore); Adi Godrej, Dr. Augustine Pinto, culture and civilization, little attention is paid to the well-being and
Guilherme Vaz, Ketan Gala, Kirit Mehta, Balkishan
Sharma (Mumbai); Dr. Ramdas Pai (Manipal); nurturance of India’s youngest and most vulnerable children. The
Prof. Geeta Kingdon (Lucknow); Rajiv Desai, Dr. great majority of India’s 115 million children under five years age —
Parth Shah, Jeroninio Almeida (Delhi); Dr. Kannan
Gireesh (Chennai); Robindra Subba (Kurseong); especially in bottom-of-pyramid homes — suffer severe malnutrition, with an
Sanjeev Bolia (Kolkata); Dr. Achyuta Samanta estimated 32 percent of them suffering stunted growth.
(Bhubaneswar); Yogi Kochhar (Dharamshala); These are shameful and damning data. Yet until the early years of the new
Shyama Thakore (London)
millennium few bothered about the neglect of youngest children. In 2010
EDITOR EducationWorld convened India’s first national conference on early childhood
Dilip Thakore
care and education (ECCE) in Mumbai at which eminent ECCE experts from
MANAGING EDITOR India and abroad highlighted the critical importance of professionally admin-
Summiya Yasmeen
istered ECCE. Simultaneously, we introduced the annual EducationWorld In-
CHIEF SUB-EDITOR dia Preschool Rankings (EWIPR) to felicitate the small number of enlightened
Sundar Anand educators providing ECCE to a small minority of the country’s estimated 150
Paromita Sengupta, Reshma Ravishanker, Gopi million children under six years of age. The intent of EWIPR was to not only
Chand N, (Bangalore), Autar Nehru (Delhi)
9868256512, Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata) felicitate pioneer ECCE providers, but to also arouse them and other educa-
9836491981, Shivani Chaturvedi (Chennai) tors to the parameters of ECCE excellence and promote healthy competition
9500506102
to upgrade. Since then inspired by the Heckman Equation of the US-based
CHIEF EXECUTIVE Nobel laureate economist Dr. James Heckman which posits that every dollar
Bhavin Shah +91 9867382867
invested in professionally delivered ECCE is $16 saved along the education
MARKETING continuum, EWIPR has been held every year.
Vice President — Sales: Tejas Pattni 9022487997 EducationWorld’s consistent propagation of the benefits of formal ECCE
West: Aasana Jain 9820319127
South: Poonam Shah 9731966373 has borne fruit. Currently, metropolitan and larger cities and the country’s
E-mail: marketing@educationworld.in 150-200 million strong middle class is well served by good quality preschools.
GRAPHICS And not only are they becoming better, a rising number of enlightened edu-
Chandrashekar L. cators well-aware of international ECCE best practices are promoting and
Kotresh Y
establishing excellent pre-primaries countrywide. Moreover, government has
SUBSCRIPTIONS also belatedly woken up to the primacy of formally-dispensed ECCE. The Na-
Mithun Jadhav: 9108225694/ tional Education Policy (NEP) 2020 mandates three years of compulsory early
080 43711141
sub@educationworld.in years learning for all children in the 3-6 age group under its 5+3+3+4 school
continuum to replace the centuries old 10+2 system.
ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION: RS.2500
OVERSEAS SUBSCRIPTION: USD100 Now the major problem is to upgrade India’s 1.6 million Anganwadi Cen-
Cheques/drafts in favour of DT Media & tres (AWCs), essentially nutrition centres for poorest newborns and lactating
Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. Bangalore
mothers, which also provide rudimentary ECCE. With sufficient capacity to
EDITORIAL host only half of India’s 150 million children in the 0-6 age group, AWCs usu-
C3-36, 3rd Floor, Devatha Plaza ally managed by a solitary grossly under-paid ‘helper,’ are in pathetic condi-
131 Residency Road, Bangalore 560 025. tion. Bringing them up to speed urgently through massive investment is an
Tel: 080 22480880; Fax: 2227 5962;
E-mail: editorial@educationworld.in urgent — and largely ignored — national priority.
Printed and published by Dilip Thakore on behalf Meanwhile in this year-end issue, we present the EWIPR 2024-25, ranking
of DT Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. best preschools in 19 cities. We urge all readers and right-thinking citizens to
Printed at Rajhans Enterprises, 134, 4th Main, In- become ECCE evangelists to give our youngest and most vulnerable citizens a
dustrial Town, Rajajinagar, Bangalore-44. Published good start in life.
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

8 EDUCATIONWORLD DECEMBER 2024