Page 8 - EW April 2021

From the
Editor

THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT MAGAZINE

Volume X XII No.4

BOARD OF ADVISORS
N.R. Narayana Murthy, H.V. Gowthama, Shukla
Bose, Dr. Glenn Christo, Dr. R. Natarajan, Anand T
Sudarshan (Bangalore); Mala Ramadorai, Adi he public, especially the great Indian middle class, has a curious
Godrej, Dr. Augustine Pinto, Krishan Khanna, love-hate relationship with private schools. On the one hand,
Guilherme Vaz, Ketan Gala, Kirit Mehta (Mumbai);
Dr. Ramdas Pai (Manipal); Dr. Geeta Kingdon almost every household in the country aspires to educate its chil-
(Lucknow); Rajiv Desai, Dr. Parth Shah, Jeroninio dren in private schools which are not only a status symbol, but
Almeida, Premchand Palety (Delhi); Dr. Kannan
Gireesh (Chennai); Robindra Subba (Kurseong); provide passports for upward mobility and financial security.
Sanjeev Bolia (Kolkata); Dr. Achyuta Samanta However once they have ensured the admission of their progeny into
(Bhubaneswar); Shyama akore (London)
private schools of their choice (or second choice), not a few parents transform
EDITOR into hostile witnesses and often into persecutors of institutional manage-
Dilip akore ments. Instead of co-operating with the school’s administration and teachers
MANAGING EDITOR to jointly educate their children, they transform into carping critics and fault-
Summiya Yasmeen finders.
CHIEF SUB EDITOR And even though private school promoters and managements have made
Sundar Anand heroic efforts to switch to online classes to continue the education of their
Paromita Sengupta, Gopi Chand N, (Bangalore), students during the Covid-19 pandemic, parents groups and associations de-
Autar Nehru (Delhi) 9868256512, Baishali
Mukherjee (Kolkata) 9836491981, Shivani manding fees waiver and concessions have mushroomed countrywide. Despite
Chaturvedi (Chennai) 9500506102, Dipta Joshi parents being well-aware that schools have incurred substantial expenditure
(Mumbai) 9920243111 for installing digital connectivity and hardware, and training teachers to con-
CHIEF EXECUTIVE duct online classes. And state governments, which are less than enamoured
Bhavin Shah +91 9867382867 with private — especially affordable budget private — schools that are continu-
MARKETING ously attracting government school students, are happy to oblige. Almost all of
West: Tejas Pattni (General Manager) 9022487997 them have issued notifications and directives slashing private school fees while
E-mail: marketing@educationworld.in simultaneously issuing stern warnings against laying off teachers and staff.
South India: S. Vijaya Lakshmi 98456 80696
Poonam Shah 9731966373 Contrary to popular perception, India’s private schools don’t educate the
North: Hannan Ahmed 9810302768 children of a thin upper crust. According to a study conducted by the Central
GRAPHICS Square Foundation last year, 47.5 percent of the country’s 260 million in-
Suresh K. school children are enrolled in 450,000 private schools across the country. Yet
SUBSCRIPTIONS despite their critical role in the pre-primary to class XII education system, the
Ajay Kumar: 9108225694/ Central government has denied private schools MSME (micro small medium
080 43711141 enterprises) status which would have qualified them for interest payment
sub@educationworld.in
moratoria, soft loans and other concessions to tide over the pandemic.
ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION: RS.1700
OVERSEAS SUBSCRIPTION: USD95 Therefore the troubles and travails of private schools is the subject mat-
Cheques/drafts in favour of DT Media & ter of our cover story in this issue. The plain truth is that if a large number of
Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. Bangalore India’s private schools go under, the K-12 education system will self-destruct.
EDITORIAL Our second lead feature focuses on the recently concluded CENTA Teach-
C3-36, 3rd Floor, Devatha Plaza ing Professionals Olympiad (TPO) 2020, which attracted 25,000 entries from
131 Residency Road, Bangalore 560 025. 8,000 schools in India and abroad. That so many in-service teachers are test-
Tel: 080 22480880; Fax: 2227 5962;
E-mail: editorial@educationworld.in ing themselves in this annual competitive contest open to all teachers world-
Website: www.educationworld.in wide, is good news. It’s an indicator this community is beginning to appreciate
Printed and published by Dilip akore on behalf the virtues of continuous improvement and skilling. Moreover, this EW spring
of DT Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. issue also has several commentaries on the controversial resignation of widely
Printed at Rajhans Enterprises, 134, 4th Main, In- respected public intellectual Pratap Bhanu Mehta from the faculty of the high-
dustrial Town, Rajajinagar, Bangalore-44. Published
at C3-36, 3rd Floor, Devatha Plaza, 131 Residency potential, new- genre liberal arts Ashoka University.
Road. Bangalore 560 025.
Editor Dilip akore.
RNI No. KARENG/1999/00234

10 EDUCATIONWORLD APRIL 2021