Page 4 - EducationWorld Feb 2021 Low
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From the
                                                                                             Editor

              THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT MAGAZINE

                      Volume X XII No.2

              BOARD OF ADVISORS
              N.R. Narayana Murthy, H.V. Gowthama, Shukla
              Bose, Dr. Glenn Christo, Dr. R. Natarajan, Anand  A
              Sudarshan (Bangalore); Mala Ramadorai, Adi   ccording to all indications, the worst of the Coronavirus aka
              Godrej, Dr. Augustine Pinto, Krishan Khanna,   Covid-19 pandemic which prompted the complete shutdown of
              Guilherme Vaz, Ketan Gala, Kirit Mehta (Mumbai);
              Dr. Ramdas Pai (Manipal); Dr. Geeta Kingdon   industry, business and trade nationwide for over three months —
              (Lucknow); Rajiv Desai, Dr. Parth Shah, Jeroninio   and closure of all education institutions from pre-primary to Ph D
              Almeida, Premchand Palety (Delhi); Robindra
              Subba (Kurseong); Sanjeev Bolia (Kolkata); Dr.   for over nine months and counting — is over. The infections curve
              Achyuta Samanta (Bhubaneswar); Shyama Thakore   has flattened across the country and the total number of fatalities has been
              (London)
                                              contained at 155,000 (February 8). Schools and higher education institutions
              EDITOR                          are cautiously re-opening, and following the presentation of a pro-production
              Dilip Thakore                   and business growth Union Budget 2021-22, the engines of the economy have
              MANAGING EDITOR                 started humming and its wheels are gathering momentum. Compared with the
              Summiya Yasmeen                 Spanish flu epidemic of 1915-19 which took a toll of 50 million lives worldwide
              CHIEF SUB-EDITOR                and 12 million in India, this time humanity has got off lightly.
              Sundar Anand                      For the nation bruised and battered by this deadly virus, it’s time to count
              Paromita Sengupta, Gopi Chand N, (Bangalore),   the cost and repair damage. Although several million citizens have suffered
              Autar Nehru (Delhi) 9868256512, Baishali
              Mukherjee (Kolkata) 9836491981, Shivani   grievous loss of lives, livelihood and employment, the country’s most vulner-
              Chaturvedi (Chennai) 9500506102, Dipta Joshi   able 500 million youngest citizens in the 0-24 age group — the world’s largest
              (Mumbai) 9920243111             child and youth population — have been worst hit in terms of irreversible loss
              CHIEF EXECUTIVE                 of learning and heavy psychological and emotional damage. But curiously,
              Bhavin Shah +91 9867382867      neither government nor the establishment seems to be aware of this.
              MARKETING                         Despite 48 percent of the country’s children studying in private schools and
              West: Tejas Pattni (General Manager) 9022487997  70 percent of youth in private higher education institutions, neither the prime
              E-mail: marketing@educationworld.in  minister’s Rs.20.97 lakh crore damp squib pandemic relief package announced
              South India: S. Vijaya Lakshmi 98456 80696
              Poonam Shah 9731966373          last May, and Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s five mini-budgets
              North: Hannan Ahmed 9810302768  of last year, nor the Union Budget 2021-22 presented to Parliament and the
              GRAPHICS                        public on February 1, provided any relief, aid or incentives for private educa-
              Suresh K.                       tion institutions. Most are suffering acute distress because of loss of income
              SUBSCRIPTIONS                   for over 10 months since last March.
              Ajay Kumar: 9108225694/           In particular, reports that private pre-primaries aka preschools, are in deep
              080 43711141                    distress with thousands shutting down operations, are especially disheartening
              sub@educationworld.in
                                              for your editors in EducationWorld because we have been in the vanguard of a
              ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION: RS.1700
              OVERSEAS SUBSCRIPTION: USD95    new millennium movement to impact the critical importance of professionally
              Cheques/drafts in favour of DT Media &   administered ECCE (early childhood care and education) for India’s young-
              Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. Bangalore  est and neglected infants in the 0-5 age group. The extent of damage done to
              EDITORIAL                       ECCE during the pandemic is reported in our cover story of this issue.
              C3-36, 3rd Floor, Devatha Plaza   In the special report feature, managing editor Summiya Yasmeen takes
              131 Residency Road, Bangalore 560 025.   a broader view and assesses the damage done to the education system as a
              Tel: 080 22480880; Fax: 2227 5962;
              E-mail: editorial@educationworld.in   whole by the pandemic, and ways and means to repair it.
              Website: www.educationworld.in    Also check out my interview with Dr. Shashi Tharoor, MP and author, lit-
              Printed and published by Dilip Thakore on behalf   terateur, wordsmith, darling of the educated middle class, who would arguably
              of DT Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.   have been India’s best ever Union education minister. Don’t rule it out.
              Printed at Rajhans Enterprises, 134, 4th Main, In-
              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




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