Page 6 - EducationWorld September 2020

From the
Editor
THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT MAGAZINE

Volume X XI No.9

BOARD OF ADVISORS A conspicuous flaw of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020,
N.R. Narayana Murthy, H.V. Gowthama, Shukla
Bose, Dr. Glenn Christo, Dr. R. Natarajan, Anand presented to the country on July 29, is the cursory attention it
Sudarshan (Bangalore); Dr. F.C. Kohli, Mala has paid to India’s large and growing private education sector.
Ramadorai, Adi Godrej, Dr. Augustine Pinto,
Krishan Khanna, Guilherme Vaz, Ketan Gala, Yet the grassroots reality is that almost half the country’s
Kirit Mehta (Mumbai); Dr. Ramdas Pai (Manipal); 256 million school-going children are attending private schools.
Dr. Geeta Kingdon (Lucknow); Rajiv Desai, Dr. In 1993 a mere 9.2 percent of in-school children were in private education.
Parth Shah, Jeroninio Almeida, Premchand Palety
(Delhi); Robindra Subba (Kurseong); Sanjeev Bolia By 2017-18, the proportion had risen to 47.5 percent, and is most likely to be
(Kolkata); Dr. Achyuta Samanta (Bhubaneswar); over 50 percent currently. According to State of the Sector Report: Private
Shyama akore (London)
Schools in India (PSIR 2020) commisoned by the highly-respected Central
EDITOR Square Foundation and the Omidyar Network India (both based in Delhi), the
Dilip akore number of private unaided (financially independent) schools countrywide is
MANAGING EDITOR 350,000, and the number of private aided (recipients of government subsidy)
Summiya Yasmeen is 84,000. To this aggregate one should add a large number of ‘unrecognised’
CHIEF SUB EDITOR budget private schools and preschools (which don’t need government licence).
Sundar Anand Altogether, they are mentoring a massive cohort of 119 million children in the
Paromita Sengupta, Jeswant J.M, Gopi Chand N, 3-16 age group across the country.
Akhila Damodaran (Bangalore), Autar Nehru
(Delhi) 9868256512, Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata) The plain truth is that even bottom-of-the-pyramid households have
9836491981, Shivani Chaturvedi (Chennai) become disenchanted with government schools distinguished by crumbling
9500506102, Dipta Joshi (Mumbai) 9920243111 infrastructure, chronic teacher absenteeism, English language aversion and
CHIEF EXECUTIVE rock-bottom learning outcomes. Therefore despite government schools being
Bhavin Shah +91 9867382867 free of charge and providing free mid-day meals, books, uniforms etc, they are
MARKETING exhibiting incremental preference for fees-levying private schools, in the hope
West: Tejas Pattni (General Manager) 9022487997 of giving their children a better chance to rise to middle class status.
E-mail: marketing@educationworld.in The great service rendered by the diligently researched 153-page PSIR 2020
Shruti Srivasatava +91 98216 66019
South India: S. Vijaya Lakshmi 98456 80696 is that it demolishes carefully curated myths of Left-liberal intellectuals who
Poonam Shah 9731966373 dominate the academy and media, to the effect that India’s 460,000 private
North: Hannan Ahmed 9810302768
schools are elite education institutions defined by high pricing, snobbery and
GRAPHICS exclusion. It discloses for instance that 70 pecent of the country’s private
Suresh K.
schools levy monthly tuition fees of less than Rs.1,000, and 45 percent less
SUBSCRIPTIONS
than Rs.500. Only 9.4 percent charge more than Rs.2,000 per month.
Ajay Kumar: 9108225694/ These and other startling facts about the valuable contribution of private
080 43711141
sub@educationworld.in school promoters, managements and principals — mainly public-spirited
ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION: RS.1700 individuals driven by motives of enlightened self-interest rather than greedy
OVERSEAS SUBSCRIPTION: USD95 pursuit of profit — are contained in PSIR 2020. Therefore this unprecedented
Cheques/drafts in favour of DT Media & and overdue report is a fit subject for our cover story in this mid-September
Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. Bangalore
issue of EducationWorld.
EDITORIAL One of the major subjects of discussion and debate in the immediate after-
C3-36, 3rd Floor, Devatha Plaza math of NEP 2020 is on ways and means to implement this ambitious policy
131 Residency Road, Bangalore 560 025.
Tel: 080 22480880; Fax: 2227 5962; prescription. In our complementary cover story, we present the expert advice
E-mail: editorial@educationworld.in of experienced education leaders on seven domains of primary-secondary and
Website: www.educationworld.in higher education. Check out these and other stories and opinions in this infor-
Printed and published by Dilip akore on behalf mation and insights packed issue.
of DT Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.
Printed at Rajhans Enterprises, 134, 4th Main, In-
dustrial Town, Rajajinagar, Bangalore-44. Published
at 703-704, Devatha Plaza, 132 Residency Road.
Bangalore 560 025.
Editor Dilip akore.
RNI No. KARENG/1999/00234

6 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2020