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EducationWorld February 2022

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Inspiring model Congratulations for your brilliant news-breaking cover story ‘National rollout of India’s largest private schools chain’ (EW January). This is an unrevealed success story of Dr. B.S. Rao and Dr. Jhansi Lakshmi Bai Boppana and their go-getting daughters, who have quickly built the Sri Chaitanya Group which has transformed Andhra and Telangana into India’s most well-educated states within 36 years. It’s great news to learn that the group is establishing its high-performance schools all over India. Shri Chaitanya Group’s record in getting its children into the country’s very best professional education institutions — IITs/NITs, AIIMS — is outstanding. And the tuition fees they levy are astonishingly low. Certainly a model worthy of emulation and replication. Lipi Mishra on email Also read: National rollout of India’s largest private schools chain Welcome return I am an avid reader of EducationWorld and was delighted to read of the return of the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings Awards event (EW January). I salute your magazine’s efforts to recognise and celebrate the country’s best schools providing high-quality education. I also appreciated the citations of the winners — Dr. G.S. Madhav Rao and Dr. Ashok Pandey — who were conferred the EW Extraordinary Achievement in Education Leadership Awards. Their dedication and commitment to the cause of upgrading Indian education is truly commendable. Prarthana Sen Kolkata Not ill advised As much as I enjoy reading your magazine, I must draw your attention to the ‘ill-advised’ repetitive use of the phrase ‘ill-advised lockdown and closure of schools’. When every state government has taken the decision to shut schools after consulting a duly constituted technical advisory committee comprising experts in the field of medicine and epidemiology, why are you labeling the lockdown of schools ill-advised? Ponder a moment on the psychological distress families would experience if their children were infected with Coronavirus, and worse if they are hospitalised. Shilpa Fadnavis Mumbai New Era query In your latest EW India School Rankings 2021-22 issue (EW November), I wish to draw your attention to the New Era School, Breach Candy, Mumbai ranked #212 among co-ed day schools in India. I am an alumnus of a school of the same name sited on Hughes Road/N.S Patkar Marg, Mumbai and want to make sure if the two are one and the same school. Bhavik Shah on email Yes. Since New Era School, Hughes Road is located near Breach Candy, we referred to it as such. However this school has shut down with the last batch of students graduating in 2018. Hence we won’t be ranking it in future editions — Editor Wrong focus While I applaud the Sri Chaitanya Group’s vision and mission to deliver quality K-12 education at modest tuition fees, your cover story failed to attract my full attention. I suggest EW should focus on macro issues in education such as NEP 2020, schools closure, pandemic learning loss, etc rather than run biographies of private individuals or school chains. Soumya Bhattacharya via Email Shocking scandal Thanks to your Maharashtra correspondent…

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Declare 2021-22 as zero academic year

Declare 2021-22 as zero academic year

In the rarefied environment of Lutyen’s Delhi about to experience a landscape makeover with the hindutva-inspired Central Vista new Parliament building and in business-as-usual state capitals, there seems to be no awareness that in the vast hinterland, the country is experiencing an Education Emergency. In early January, primary-secondaries, which had cautiously reopened last October, following an unprecedented 70-week lockdown of all 1.5 million schools countrywide during 2020-21, were peremptorily shut down again with the Omicron variant of the novel Coronavirus fuelling a surge in infections. This despite numerous authoritative studies indicating severe learning loss of 70-80 percent within India’s pre-pandemic school-going children. Of them, two-thirds have had no access to online learning over the past 18 months. As for the rest, a recent Azim Premji University study has concluded that online learning is “inadequate and ineffective”. On the other hand, in the UK, Russia, France and China — all badly hit by the Delta and Omicron variants of the Coronavirus — schools have reopened after shutdowns of a mere 12 to 37 weeks. The prolonged lockdown of early childhood and primary schools where children are too young to grasp online learning is especially reprehensible. Because even in the pre-pandemic era, as continuously highlighted in the authoritative field-tested Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) of the Pratham Education Foundation, learning outcomes of rural and government primaries were declining. In these exceptional circumstances, the best available option is a Central government order that all children should repeat the academic year 2021-22 i.e, declare it a zero year. The heavens won’t fall if youngest children relearn the 2021-22 syllabus to build a strong foundation for future learning. It’s certainly a better option than routinely promoting children to the next higher class where they are certain to experience severe learning difficulties and stress. Alternatively in the event of widespread resistance to this proposition, the next best option is for the Union and state governments to make substantial provision for remedial education and learning recovery programmes in the Union and state budgets 2022-23. Under this proposition, the Centre’s outlay for public education in the Union Budget 2022- 23 must double from Rs.93,224 crore in 2021-22 to serve as a precedent for state governments. The Education Emergency that confronts the world’s largest child and youth population needs the focused and urgent attention of government, academics and the public. It’s no exaggeration to state that contemporary acts of omission and commission will shape the future of the Republic. Immediate collective action is imperative to ensure that 21st century India’s accidental demographic dividend doesn’t transform into a prolonged disaster. Also read: KPCC urges Karnataka govt to declare 2020-21 as ‘zero’ academic year

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Positive discrimination is not appeasement

As the tempo of electioneering in five states including the bellwether Uttar Pradesh (pop.215 million), which will be electing their legislative assembly representatives before March 10, gathers momentum, there’s rising responsibility for leaders of all political parties — especially the ruling BJP at the Centre with a massive majority in Parliament — to come down hard on inflammatory religious and caste hate speech. Somewhat belatedly, the Uttarakhand police (a BJP-ruled state) has initiated criminal proceedings against Hindu extremists who on December 17 called for the extermination of the country’s 200 million-strong Muslim minority. Moreover in several states including BJP-ruled Gujarat and Karnataka, violent sangh parivar (‘Hindu family’) vigilantes are disrupting church services of the Christian minority. There are well-established provisions of the Indian Penal Code (ss. 153-A, 495 etc) which proscribe stir[1]ring up religious and caste antagonisms within the public. Therefore, the national interest demands that individuals who inflame and incite hatred, violence and contempt against fellow citizens on religious and other identity grounds are promptly prosecuted and awarded exemplary punishment. At a time when the economy is struggling to rebound following several waves of the Covid-19 pandemic, the country doesn’t need communal riots and civic insurrection to interrupt the revival process. On a broader canvas, it’s a shame that on the eve of our 75th anniversary as a free and independent nation vivisected on grounds of religion, India is regressing into religious communalism and identity politics. Instead of moving forward and evolving into the secular and compassionate society envisaged by Mahatma Gandhi and leaders of the freedom movement, Indian society seems to be reversing into medievalism when religious identity of citizens determined their place in the social order. The BJP leadership’s position on minorities is to end ‘appeasement’, i.e, create a level playing field for all. Although ex facie, this seems a reasonable objective, on deeper reflection it’s questionable. It’s axiomatic that religious and other minorities are disadvantaged in matters relating to employment, state benefits and social acceptance vis-a-vis the majority community. Therefore, there’s nothing objectionable in practising affirmative action in favour of minorities. Indeed the Constitution of India drafted by highly learned and visionary individuals over half a century ago is mindful of minority rights and positive discrimination, because its authors were aware of the importance of co-opting minority communities into the national development effort. Against this backdrop, the highly divisive electoral campaign based on 80-20 electoral arithmetic being conducted by the BJP in UP — and the deafening silence of the party’s leadership at the Centre including prime minister Narendra Modi — is condemnable and fraught with danger. Hate-speech disseminators need to be speedily arrested, tried and awarded exemplary sentences in the cause of national unity and harmony. Also read: Delhi: Emerging election issue

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Letter from the Editor

Way back in 2004 when this pioneer education news magazine, promoted in 1999 with the mission to arouse public opinion to exert pressure on the ignorant establishment to develop India’s abundant and high-potential human capital, was in its infancy, we featured a cover titled ‘Dirty dozen corrupt practices destroying Indian education’. Seventeen years later following a rising number of anecdotal reports of multiplying rackets and rip-offs in the education sector, your editors were compelled to revisit this issue. And lo and behold, the dozen corrupt practices that were poisoning the education system in yester-years are flourishing unchecked. Worse, after enactment of well-intentioned legislation such as the landmark Right of Children to Free & Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, new rackets have been devised with a larger number of parasites nibbling at roots of the system. It’s a telling commentary on the depth of the moral rot that has permeated post-independence India’s professedly socialist society, that there’s no shortage of citizens ready, willing and able to profit from denying the world’s largest child and youth population their fundamental right to good quality education which is tantamount to snatching bread from their mouths. Although the major share of the blame for this sorry situation must be laid at the doorstep of politicians and bureaucrats who foolishly believe that the nation can generate financial capital without developing human capital, the establishment — academia, business, industry and the influential middle class — are complicit. We have stood idly by as the abundant, high-potential human resources of the country are being washed down the drain. It’s high time a political consensus and societal acceptance that provision of acceptable quality education for all, is the non-negotiable pre-condition of national growth and development. The cover story apart, in our special report feature we have advanced a proposition likely to generate controversy, and hopefully, intelligent debate. Should the academic year 2021-22 during which most education institutions were shuttered because of the Covid pandemic be written off and re-covered? Well, I believe this is the best option, especially for children in pre-primary and primary education. It will prove less stressful for children and provide them a strong platform for future learning. This issue of EW is especially rich with unique editorial content. Check out the insightful essays penned by Dr. Krishna Kumar and Prof. Geeta Kingdon, and our People section which profiles several inspiring movers and shakers in Indian education.

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