Indian education system has been devastated by the national lockdown prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic. The onus of reviving KG-Ph D education has devolved upon tried and tested institutional leaders – Dilip Thakore & Summiya Yasmeen On March 25 when a national lockdown was decreed by prime minister Narendra Modi following outbreak of the novel coronavirus aka Covid-19 pandemic, Indian education — like the Indian economy — was already in bad shape. Last January (2019) the authoritative and extensively field-tested Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2018 of the Pratham Education Foundation informed the public that the number of children in class V who cannot read and comprehend class II textbooks has risen — rather than reduced — to 56 percent and the percentage of class VIII children who can manage to solve simple arithmetic division sums is a mere 40 percent. On May 20, the World University Rankings (WUR) league table published by the London-based Quacquarelli Symonds included only three of India’s 993 universities among the Top 200 (cf. seven in China). The WUR league table of Times Higher Education released shortly thereafter doesn’t include any Indian university in its Top 200 league O table. Therefore like the struggling Indian economy which has been devastated by the national lockdown — GDP is likely to contract by 5 percent and unemployment is forecast to rise to 27 percent — India’s education system from preschool to Ph D is certain to suffer a severe setback. Although school, college and university managements claim to have switched to conducting online classes and lectures, the depressing truth is that only a thin sliver of well-funded and efficiently managed private education institutions are dispensing acceptable quality digital learning and education services to students. Nevertheless, it is arguable that with the imminent dawn of the 5G era in broadband telecom connectivity, blended education which combines conventional classroom learning with advanced digital technologies, will not only maintain continuity in KG-Ph D education, it could dramatically improve learning outcomes across the spectrum. Yet to successfully harness revolutionary technology with conventional pedagogies and inspire teachers and students to make a great and overdue leap forward in academic learning outcomes and research, the vital prerequisite is capable and visionary institutional leadership. Unfortunately, as in all walks of life in this ill-fated nation dominated by the ubiquitous neta-babu (politician-bureaucrat) brotherhood that controls and commands every sector of the economy including school and higher education, independent, progressive education leaders are a rare species. The bald truth is that the vast majority of principals, directors and vice chancellors who head the country’s 1.2 million government primary-secondary schools, 39,931 colleges and 935 universities are individuals whose main qualifications are high capability to manage great and small politicians and bureaucrats, rather than effectively nurture and develop great institutions. This explains why so few, if any of India’s universities — some of them of over 150 years vintage — figure in WUR league tables of QS, THE, Shanghai Jiao Tong or any other globally respected rating…
