On January 26 the nation will celebrate its 65th Republic Day. That’s the day on which over six decades ago, the Constituent Assembly of India, comprising the sub-continent’s most eminent political leaders, intellectuals and legal professionals who had spent almost three years to draft, debate and shape the Constitution of India, declared the country a sovereign Republic, and presented the final draft of the Constitution under which newly independent India would be governed and administered. Republic Day is a very important day in the annual calendar of the nation. It prompts — or should prompt — all right-thinking and responsible citizens to seriously reflect upon the condition of the Republic and evaluate the extent to which the ideals set out in the Constitution have been achieved, and if not, why not. Beyond the grand Soviet-style military parade and march past staged on Rajpath, Delhi on January 26 every year, it’s a day of stock-taking, reflection and honest assessment of the state of the nation. This is what we have attempted in the cover story of the first month of the new year written in anticipation of Republic Day. Unfortunately, 65 years after the Constitution was presented to the people with great hope and expectations, the bitter truth is that none of the basic ideals — justice, liberty, equality and fraternity — are anywhere near realisation. Although it’s often argued that 65 years in the life of a nation is a very short period, the plain truth is that our Republic has been bypassed and bested by several dozen countries which were more disadvantageously positioned in terms of natural and human resources than India in 1950. It’s painful but necessary to acknowledge that currently the Indian Republic is ranked #130 in the international league table of the UNDP’s annual Human Development Report, and is among the world’s bottom-ranked countries on almost every parameter devised to assess the progress and development of nations. In my considered opinion, the neglect of public education — especially primary education ab initio — is the mother cause of the pandora’s box of ills that plague the Republic today. Regrettably, the vital issue of ways and means of providing high-quality, universal public education has been continuously fudged. I believe that deep debate of this issue is overdue, and is the prerequisite of re-energising the spluttering national development effort. Meanwhile, also driven by the belief that the parents’ community is a partner of principals and teachers in education, with this first issue of the new year, we present ParentsWorld, a supplementary publication of EducationWorld. Launched as a prototype, for financial and logistic reasons, ParentsWorld is being mailed to select subscribers and will be available to newsstand purchasers of EducationWorld. Non-recipients interested in ParentsWorld, please write-in to our head office. Indian education is in crisis. Join with us in 2016 to make it the #1 item on the national agenda.
