EducationWorld November 2021 Archives

Climate change — problems and solutions

by Armin Rosencranz, Siddhanth Prasad and Abhiroop Chowdhury (Authors are, respectively, Dean, Assistant Professor, and Associate Professor at Jindal School of Environment and Sustainability, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana) We must make deep efforts to decarbonize, both to make headway against the climate crisis and avoid irreparable harm to our economy, society, and civilisation. In view of the general consensus on this issue – which has existed for nearly three decades now – it is alarming that we have not yet taken corrective action. However alarming the status-quo may be, it is anything but surprising. To explain, let’s consider the case of the carbon tax. Largely pushed by economists as the most efficient method to control emissions, it has struggled in the real world to gain acceptance. The problem is not that the economic policy advisors are wrong in theory, but that some of them are unseeing to the real-world constraints on rational policy making. The carbon tax is deeply unpopular among the electorate. Much of the resentment comes from the negative popular reaction to the word ‘tax’. Whatever its basis, a rational politician would do well to acknowledge such sentiments. To do otherwise would be to risk electoral decimation. The longer environmentalists take to recognise that policy making is not solely based on reason or logic, the easier they make it for unscrupulous but clever opponents of climate action to delay change. Rampant forest fires, frequent natural disasters along the coastlines, intensive draught and desertification is destabilizing the global ecology, lives and livelihood of billions. Environment, climate change requires sustainable solutions. Climate situations are worsening day by day. Even with a cooling La Niña event, and ongoing pandemic, 2020 was one of the three warmest year in record with 2011-2020 being the warmest decade. Global temperature is 1.2 degree Celsius above record since the industrial revolution. It is predicted that if the global average warming increases by more than 3°C by 20701 , it can lead to a loss of $6 trillion in present value terms by 2050, which will be 6% of India’s GDP in 2050. There is a hope with substantial emission reduction nation can have an economic gain of $11 trillion by 2070. One of the major source of Green House Gasses (GHG) emission is transportation and energy sector. A report indicates that during 2019, 29% of emissions is generated by transport sector while energy sector contributed to 25% at US2. A 2014 report indicated that India’s GHG footprint was 3,202 million metric tonnes CO2 equivalent, of which the energy sector contributes 68.7 percent. Diversifying the energy production and adopting ‘Electrical vehicles’ can be an effective solution to tackle the current climate change impacts. India’s energy production is largely dependent on thermal power which accounts for about 70% of produced electricity, which is also a major contributor to GHG emissions. On the other hand, Nuclear technologies are safer, greener and can produce more affordable energy. The cost budget of an energy producing unit is estimated…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

Shalom Group of Schools, Gurgaon

The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence —Rabindra Nath Tagore We at Shalom manifest in every thought, word and action our philosophy and mindset for a new age education. The educational scenario has undergone a drastic change as the fallout of pandemic that has left children with no choice other than being home bound. Shalom group is making rapid strides by establishing present day educational pedagogy in its schools. The child of today cannot be taught with traditional methodology and learning has to be facilitated by understanding individual aptitude and capacity. The potential of every child needs to be optimized by following suitable pedagogical practices. With a clear vision, foresight and prudence of our Founder and Chairperson Dr. (Mrs.) Lilly George, we have been able to curate a unique space for every child as per his/her interests, abilities and ambition. With her love for children and her passion for education, Dr. George envisages nurturing such children who are the masters of self and able to lead the world by knowledge, analytical skills, problem solving abilities and integrity of character. The empowering fuel is the core values like confidence, courage, compassion, conviction, commitment and consistency. An embodiment of grit courage, poise and excellence, Dr. George is the strength and inspiration for every member of Shalom family and leads them with example. Shalom group is a community of learners who are committed to provide a stimulating environment with academic rigor by making learning so engaging that every child learns effortlessly and feels excited about academics. We develop a culture of excellence that includes robust instructional plan aligned with the 21st century skills. We seek to develop well rounded personality who exemplify physical health, wellness character and core values. The focus is on nurturing the minds to empower them to find solutions to the difficult life situations and problems that humanity is facing and become valued global citizens. The beautiful campus of Shalom Group gives a feeling of extended home environment. The architectural beauty is enhanced with lush green lawns. Open spaces, play grounds, herbal gardens and a swimming pool. Our schools have well ventilated class rooms, well-spaced-out Labs, and well-stocked libraries as an integral part of the modern set up for the children to explore. Our continuous endeavor is to: empower each child to achieve his/her highest potential focus on developing skills and competencies through hands on experience expose them to creative art for emotional growth and understanding empower them through group work, Debate, discussion, researchanalysisand documenting. encourage them to participate in various Activities focus on Language Expertise- Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing by providing extended learning opportunities focus on their physical fitness by organizing various games and sports. focus on their nutrition facts with awareness of health and hygiene enhance their love for nature and environment by organizing nature walk tree plantation and many other activities. nurture their mind with inspirational episodes and short stories. nurture their…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

3 Key learnings to improve your school’s admission process and convert faster

Priya Pandit School Success Manager at SchoolPad The new age teaching methodologies, updating curriculum to be in sync with the changing times and curating events that can engage and stimulate students are the backbone of every school. But equally important and of strategic importance is the admission process. The more simplified it is, the easier it is for the parents, translating into quicker admissions. The admission enquiry process for a school is one of the essential processes that fuels the entire system. Every school strives to quickly get its quota of admissions to keep growing and improving its educational initiatives and outcomes by investing more every year. In the last decade of working with schools and helping them manage their admission enquiries and admissions, apart from other processes, we have helped them evolve their admission processes and have made the entire process more effective and meaningful. Consolidating and summarizing our learnings from the last decade of working with schools, we figured out that with the increasing number of new schools coming up every year leading to intense competition, one differentiator that works like magic is the parents’ experience, right from their first interaction with the school which is usually the enquiry they make for the admission. The experience they get, not only after the child gets admitted to the school but even before that, can help position the school favourably in the parents’ minds. This experience can positively influence them and makes them believe in the school, which further helps them evaluate and decide on the ideal school for their child. Hence it is a no-brainer that schools need to build an exceptional experience for parents from the day they enquire about the school, whether online or offline and keep building on it organically. To help you build this kind of experience, we thought of writing this article and putting together the top 3 components of the admission process, which have helped schools significantly boost their conversions and build better brand perception. Working on these components will help improve your school’s admission process, make it more effective and create an exceptional experience for parents even before they get their child admitted to your school. Simplify your admission form and make it easily accessible: This is the first point of experience for the prospective parents where they show interest in your school and sign up for the admission process. One thing that generally ruins the experience at this point itself is the complexity of the process of filling in the enquiry/admission form. Make sure you get this right. It should be as hassle-free as it can be. Make your form more accessible by making it available online, in school or even acceptable through the post so that the parents can apply from anywhere and at any time. Simplify your form by breaking it into stages. Get the essential information in the first stage, and then at different points in the admission process journey, get the rest of the data. In a…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

Rethinking Education

Mrs. Madhvi Chandra M.Phil., M.A., B.Ed., Associate director Gitanjali Group of Schools and Principal, Gitanjali Devshala, comes with an experience of over 25 years. She has been an educationist as well as a teacher trainer. She has been a dynamic leader not only in the school arena but also at various social forums. The covid 19 Pandemic has had a profound effect on the education sector. The use of technology and disruptive strategies have taken a massive leap, moving forward many years. As we commence reopening physical schooling, we are now encountering the unnoticed influences of staying home for 18 months with online education. As per the UNESCO study more than 40 million children worldwide have missed out on early childhood education leading to a lack learning opportunities, social interactions and a stimulating environment. The Education Endowment Foundation research also suggests that the pandemic has deprived children of social contact and experiences essential for increasing vocabulary. Schools are now realizing that children need more guidance with communication skills, writing skills and emotional support. As teachers and school leaders we need to be aware of the complex and sometimes traumatic experiences our children may be dealing with as a consequence of the pandemic. Challenging experiences at home, uncertainty, limited or no interaction with peer group, loss and bereavement, fear of stepping out are some of the challenges children have faced over these past few months. There is a need for patience and flexibility from the teachers and support from the school counsellor to work with the students and help them transition into a safe and comfortable school environment. Individual and group sessions for the students with the counsellor, teachers and leaders helped us create an environment of open communication and sharing. When schools reopened at Gitanjali we realised expected student behaviours like respecting others, wishing teachers, accepting failures or tolerance of differences taking a backseat. The discipline of being in school and empathetic mentoring by the teachers is helping tide over this phase of readjustment. Physical activity along with increased screen time has taken a toll on the physical well being of children. Designing a new curriculum that encourages both indoor and outdoor activity along with covid appropriate protocols is the need of the hour. Physical activities encouraging team work, skill development and dexterity were planned to encourage a healthy lifestyle. We found that dynamic situations paved way for dynamic practices. This led to the transformation in teaching pedagogy at Gitanjali Schools, diminishing the learning gaps. Refresher training sessions helped empower our teachers in more effective ways for guiding the students. As children spend a majority of their formative years in school, we provided online and offline stimulation to develop their communication skills. We worked on activities for more exposure to the language with ample opportunities to speak and express their opinions. Asking and responding to questions whether online or offline, is an easy way to encourage communication and critical thinking. To focus on the social development of children collaborative peer…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

There Is Opportunity In Every Challenge

Every problem has a solution and every setback can become a comeback Dr. (Mrs.) Amita Chauhan Chairperson, Amity Group of Schools The best way to lead a happy and successful existence is to humbly accept every challenge that the universe throws at us, instead of considering it as a threat. If we treat a difficult time like a stepping stone towards becoming an improved version of ourselves, I have, no doubt, that we can create a far better world, both inside and around us. The past year, I believe, has given us this chance, to face one of the hardest challenges ever and create the best opportunities out of it. While we all have begun to now recover from the onslaught of the deadly coronavirus, but what matters to me even more is how individuals, societies and nations did not leave any stone unturned to make the best of a very difficult situation. Almost every person – be it a medical professional, a sanitation worker, or even a young student -rediscovered their inner strength and kindness and went out of their way to help one and all. This time taught each of us that the biggest power of humanity lies in unity and that each one of us can make a difference, a lesson perhaps no school curriculum can teach. In fact, children have emerged the true champions during this time, in my opinion. Despite being faced with a sudden change in their lifestyles and having to stay indoors for months together, so many young children used this tough period to transform themselves in all the ways we could not have imagined earlier. First, what seemed like an impossible situation in the beginning turned out to be great opportunity for students to learn newer and better digital methodologies, and students skillfully adapted to a string of online class, activities and competitions. It is not surprising, therefore, that a recent World Economic Forum report states that `for those students who do have access to the right technology, e-learning can be very effective, as students are able to learn faster online; they can learn at their own pace, going back and re-reading, skipping, or accelerating through concepts as they choose’. At the same time, we cannot ignore that structured classroom learning can never be replaced fully as younger kids have a much lesser retention span. This is why educators made a concerted effort to provide a range of innovative ideas and methods to keep children engaged and motivated. They took every chance they could, by using technology, to expand teaching beyond the confines of a class, city or even country. Whether it was through virtual trips to national parks and museums, exotic islands and diversity-rich oceans, or online interactions with experts and specialists from across the globe, learning became fun and interactive. Even when educational institutions had to shut down due to the lockdown, and online learning had still not begun, many children saw this as only a temporary pause. They utilised…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

“We created home learning hubs for our students”

L V Sehgal Principal, Bal Bharati Public School, GRH Marg EducationWorld in conversation with LV Sehgal, principal of the top-ranked coeducational K-12 Bal Bharati Public School, GRH Marg, New Delhi. What initiatives did your school take to cope with the Covid-prompted shift to online education? Our school made a comfortable switch to online teaching within a week of campus shutdown in April 2020. For K-V students, we leveraged Microsoft Teams and the CRISP digital platforms to initiate scholastic and co-scholastic online learning modules. Google Meet was used from class VI onward and thereby helped us to facilitate. We used Google Meet from class VI onward and thereby facilitated uninterrupted holistic learning for all. Our digital initiatives that successfully resulted in the creation of home learning hubs for each of our students, had begun with training workshops for teachers for effective online curriculum transaction. Class WhatsApp groups that we routinely create at the commencement of each academic session, were optimized for effective school – parent interactions. Dedicated grade-appropriate timetables were prepared, ensuring adequate breaks in-between classes to avoid prolonged screen exposure. Endeavouring to ensure a holistic learning experience, we also incorporated library, sports and co-curricular activities in the online classes. Periodically, assessments were conducted online, followed by virtual parent-teacher meetings to keep parents informed about the progress of their ward/s, and overall school’s activities. Was specialized training offered to introduce teachers to the latest online teaching-learning pedagogies? Please elaborate. IT – based pedagogy, using smart boards, including flipped learning, was already being practiced in Bal Bharati. Our teachers routinely used the ‘Connected Classrooms’ digital platform to create study material, modules, videos besides PowerPoint presentations, well before the pandemic. The school was also a subscriber to G Suite, and user-ids were already being used by the staff and students. After our school switched to online classes, we organised in-house training for teachers in new age technologies usage including Google Classroom/ Microsoft Teams. Workshops were also conducted to upskill educators with appropriate digital tools usage, including features like chat box, jamboard etc. Our teachers were also familiarised with other creative tools such as Canva, Book creator, Kahoot, Google Padlet, Mentimeter etc. Moreover, various capacity building workshops organised by CBSE, NCERT, DIKSHA, Google, Microsoft were also attended by teachers for their professional development. What measures did the school take to ensure mental well-being of students and prepare them for in-person learning? Ensuring mental well-being of our students during and post-Covid, has been a priority at Bal Bharati. Our empathetic teachers connected with the students on a regular basis, beyond academics as well. Creating awareness about covid-19, they reinforced covid-appropriate behaviour, narrated inspiring stories, posted motivational and uplifting videos in the WA groups to keep the learners’ morale high, throughout. We also organised mental health workshops, values education classes and kept the students engaged in varied invigorating activities. Care was also taken to conduct remedial and special classes for students as per need. Tell us about the most distinguishing features of your school. Ours is…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

The Punjab Public School, Nabha

The Punjab Public School was started in 1960 with a view to provide quality public school education to the deserving children of the ex-servicemen, serving personnel of the defence forces and civilians. The guiding force in the opening of this school was Sardar Partap Singh Kairon, who was the Chief Minister of Punjab. The school was formally inaugurated by Dr Rajendra Prasad, President of India, in April 1961. The school, in its initial stages, was financed by the Post-War Services Reconstruction Fund. The moving force for using the Post-War Services Reconstruction Fund for setting up an endowment fund to start a school was Col Naunihal Singh Mann, who prevailed upon Sardar Partap Singh Kairon, sometime in August 1959, to pursue the idea. Sardarp Partap Singh Kairon formed a Sub-Committee consisting of the Education Secretary to the Punjab Government, the Secretary to the Governor of Punjab, the GOC-in-C in Western Command Lt Gen Kalwant Singh, and Col Naunihal Singh Mann to examine the proposal. The committee visited Dehradun to see the Rashtriya Indian Military College, and several other public schools, and finalized its report within a month. On receiving the report, the Chief Minister asked the committee to select a Headmaster for the school. He also suggested that the committee should go around and see the buildings, belonging to the princely states, which were suitable for setting up the school. Accordingly, the committee selected the old and new Secretariat and the Guest House of the erstwhile Nabha State, along with a large area of land which would be most suitable for setting up a public school. On receiving the recommendation of the committee, Sardar Partap Singh Kairon directed that these buildings be handed over for the purpose of the school. The Punjab Government made the buildings and land available to the school, free of cost, and also gave substantial financial help. Mr JK Kate was appointed as the first headmaster on December 30, 1959. It was initially named as ‘Sainik School’ since its purpose was to be a feeder to the National Defence Academy, Kharakwasla. It was formally inaugurated on 11 April 1961 by the President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad. Mr Ajay Singh is the current headmaster of the school. The school has grown exponentially under his leadership. The school has won several accolades of late. These include Educational Excellence Award,the School with Best Infrastructure of the Year Award from the Punjab region (National School Awards 2020) and PPS being ranked No. 10 in the 14th Annual Education World India School Rankings survey concluded in December 2020. Besides, Mr Singh was conferred the 1st CV Raman Award for Principal. The school is affiliated to the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), New Delhi and Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE).

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

Karnataka: Belated reopening

Reshma Ravishanker (Bengaluru) After 19 months of continuous lockdown and dithering over reopening of schools because of fear of Covid-19 contagion, on October 25 the state’s BJP government greenlighted commencement of in-person classes in all 73,238 government, aided and private schools of Karnataka with free mid-day meals for classes I-V children in government schools, beginning November 2. Earlier on August 23, the government had allowed reopening of on-campus schooling for classes IX and XII and for class VI onwards from September 6. Moreover, on November 8, all 66,361 government managed anganwadis and private preschools statewide also reopened. However, even as on-campus in-class learning has been permitted, the state’s education ministry has made attendance optional with schools allowed to continue online learning. In addition, the government has issued detailed Covid safety SOPs (standard operating procedures) for school managements to make masking, 50 percent classroom attendance, parental consent letters and all teacher and staff vaccination, compulsory. But with widespread fears about an imminent third wave of the pandemic, parental response has been lukewarm. Data released in early November by the Department of Public Instruction’s Student Attendance Tracking System indicates that average attendance in classes I-V is a mere 25 percent. In upper primaries (classes VI-VIII) attendance ranges from 31-36 percent with classes IX-X registering the highest — 38 percent — student attendance. As on November 3, over 65 percent of the state’s 17,416 private unaided schools had not started in-person schooling for classes I-V children. With the majority of the state’s private unaided schools, in particular upscale CBSE/CISCE-affiliated schools having installed robust digital teaching-learning platforms and their parent communities able to provide children home learning infrastructure, private school managements report that parents are satisfied with the status quo and are especially hesitant to send primary school children given that vaccination of children has not yet started and a third post-Deepavali pandemic wave is imminent. “Parents are hesitant about sending children to school as there is widespread apprehension that without vaccination children are susceptible to the virus, which is still very much out there. For instance, in my daughter’s school, out of 200 children enrolled in class VII only 20 attend daily. Parents and students have become accustomed to online schooling. The attendance is slightly better in high school as children have to write board exams, but parents are not yet willing to send youngest children to school,” says Rithu Dravid, parent representative of the Sophia High School, Bengaluru. This reluctance of even well-educated, upscale households to resume in-person classes, which it’s now proven provide far better education is perplexing as worldover — especially in developed OECD countries — primary schools were the first to restart because it’s well established that youngest children are least susceptible to Covid-19 infection. Niranjanaradhya V.P, senior fellow and programme head, Universalisation of Equitable Quality Education Programme at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, believes that it’s important for the state government to urgently engage with private schools and parents to address campus reopening challenges. “In-person…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

India’s most admired government day schools 2021-22

In recent years in response to relentless criticism from this publication, several state governments have promoted high-quality primary-secondaries which are threatening the dominance of Central government Kendriya Vidyalayas. Here are India’s best government day schools 2021-22. Sad but true. The country’s 1.20 million government schools are neglected poor relations of private schools. According to State of the Sector Report: Private Schools in India 2020, published jointly by the Central Square Foundation, Delhi and the Omidyar Network India, 48 percent of India’s 260 million school-going children are learning in private schools. Moreover, there is a continuous exodus from public (government) to private schools. Hardly surprising, because government schools — especially primary-secondaries promoted and managed by state governments — are defined by crumbling buildings, multigrade classrooms, chronic teacher absenteeism, rock-bottom learning outcomes and severe shortages of electricity, water and toilets. Therefore, the SEC (socio-economic category) A sample respondents polled by field personnel of C fore, the highly reputed market research and opinion polls company which conducted the EWISR 2021-22 survey, have minimal awareness of government schools. Perhaps the only government schools that have a respectable public reputation are 1,244 Kendriya Vidyalayas promoted by the Central government for its employees. However, in recent years in response to relentless criticism from this publication, several state governments have promoted high-quality primary-secondaries which are threatening the dominance of KVs. Nevertheless with very low awareness about government schools in the SEC A category, C fore surveyors constituted a special sample respondents group comprising 1,027 SEC (socio-economic category) ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ respondents across the country to rate and rank sufficiently well-reputed government schools. The EWISR 2021-22 league table of government day schools is likely to provoke celebration in the AAP government of Delhi state because its Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya (RPVV), Sector 10, Dwarka, New Delhi has bested Kendriya Vidyalaya, Pattom (Kerala) and is ranked India’s #1 government day school. With top scores on academic reputation, individual attention to students, parental involvement and co-curricular education RPVV, Dwarka has regained its #1 rank of 2018-19 and 2019-20. Within the Top 5 are Kendriya Vidyalaya, IIT Madras, Chennai elevated to #2 (3) followed by KV, Pattom dislodged from #1 to #3 this year. The Kerala government’s celebrated Government Vocational Higher Secondary School for Girls, Nadakkavu, Kozhikode is ranked #4 (3) followed by KV-IIT Bombay, Powai jointly ranked with the Bombay Municipal Corporation’s Worli Seaface Mumbai Public English School at #5 (4). “It’s a great honour to be ranked India’s #1 government day school, a position becoming progressively difficult to maintain given the stiff competition from Kendriya Vidyalayas. We are especially satisfied to have been awarded top scores under the parameters of academic reputation and mental and emotional well-being during the pandemic. Continuous improvement is our mantra and we are determined to retain our #1 rank next year. Meanwhile, our class X-XII students are back on campus and we are anxiously awaiting government permission to resume full schooling,” says Ranjana Sharma, a botany postgraduate of Ch. Charan Singh University, Meerut…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

India’s most respected special needs schools 2021-22

To compile the 2021-22 league table of dedicated special needs schools, C fore field personnel interviewed 494 parents of children with disabilities and special needs educators in six cities. They were asked to rate special needs schools on ten parameters of education excellence, writes Paromita Sengupta One of post-independence India’s greatest acts of omission according to the author, scholar, historian and politician Dr Shashi Tharoor, MP, is the neglect of primary education (see www.educationworld. in). But perhaps the greater collective sin is neglect of children with physical and mental disabilities whose number nationwide is estimated at 20 million, according to ADAPT (formerly Spastics Society of India). To right this egregious wrong since 2011, EducationWorld has encouraged mainstream K-12 schools to make better provision for children with special needs (CWSN) by introducing the parameter of special needs education (with a maximum score of 100) in the annual EW India School Rankings. Subsequently, in 2015, we introduced a dedicated league table ranking the country’s best special needs schools. Since then, the number of sufficiently high profile special schools has risen from 16 in 2015 to 28 in 2021. To compile the 2021-22 league table of India’s Top 28 special needs schools, C fore field researchers interviewed 446 parents and 48 special needs educators in six major cities. They were asked to rate and rank special schools on ten parameters of education excellence — teacher welfare and development, competence of faculty, quality of program, rehabilitation, co-curricular education, individual attention to students, leadership/management quality, safety and hygiene, infrastructure provision and value for money. Ranked #3 last year, the Academy for Severe Handicaps and Autism, Bengaluru (ASHA, estb.1995) is India’s #1 special needs school in 2021-22. ASHA has been awarded top scores under the parameters of teacher welfare and development, teacher competence, quality of program and individual attention to students. “This is wonderful news! Our hard work has paid off! Forced to switch to online learning last April, we provided intensive digital technologies training to all our teachers, investing substantial time to design specific solutions for the special needs and conditions of our children. Our teachers responded enthusiastically and won us the day. We hope to strengthen our online learning competence and develop new ways of teaching-learning, and continue providing training in English and vernacular languages to teachers and parents across Karnataka,” says Jayashree Ramesh, a special education postgrad of San Jose State University, USA, and founder-director of ASHA which currently has 92 students and 36 teachers including seven therapists, on its muster rolls. At top table, The Aditya Birla Integrated School, Mumbai (TABIS, estb.2014) promoted by philanthropist Neerja Birla, is ranked #2 (#1 in 2020-21) followed by Delhi’s pioneer Tamana Autism Centre (estb.1992) promoted by celebrated educationist Dr Shayama Chona at #3 (2). SPJ Sadhana School, Mumbai #4 (4) and Mata Bhagwanti Chadha Niketan (MBCN), Noida #5 (5) have retained their 2020-21 rankings with Sankalp, Chennai, making a great leap forward into the Top 5 from #13 last year. The Top 10 table is…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

EW India School Rankings 2021-22 (Part 2)

EW India School Rankings- Day Schools 2021-22 (Part 1)

To compile EWISR 2021-22, 11,458 sample respondents — educationists, principals, teachers, SECA (socio-economic category A) parents and senior school students — in 28 cities countrywide were interviewed by 118 C fore field researchers over a period of four months (June-September). The annual EWISR is the world’s largest schools ranking survey – Dilip Thakore & Summiya Yasmeen Somewhat tentatively launched in 2007, the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings (EWISR), which rates and ranks primary-secondary schools countrywide which at that time were mainly reputed for academic education, has evolved and matured into the world’s largest schools rating and ranking initiative. We believed — and continue to believe — that education should be a holistic and enjoyable learning experience for children. Therefore every year, EWISR rates over 3,000 of India’s best reputed primary-secondaries on 14 parameters of excellence including teacher welfare and development, teacher competence, infrastructure, co-curricular and sports education, parental involvement, academic reputation, curriculum and pedagogy, internationalism, among several other parameters. For this annual exercise, over 11,000 sample respondents including eminent educators, principals, teachers, parents and senior school students are interviewed by field personnel of our valued partner, the Delhi-based Centre for Forecasting & Research Pvt. Ltd (C fore, estb.2000), a nationally reputed market research and opinion polls company. They are asked to rate schools in their zonal region under each parameter on a scale of 1-100 with the critical parameter of teacher competence accorded double weightage. The scores awarded to schools under each parameter by the sample respondents are totaled and schools are ranked inter se nationally, in the states and cities. The objective of this annual exercise is to enable parents to choose the most convenient and aptitudinally suitable school for their children. To facilitate choice of this all-important institution, schools are ranked in 14 separate and distinct categories such as co-ed day, day-cum-boarding, all-boys and exclusively girls schools, legacy co-ed, boys and girls boarding schools and international schools. This is to avoid making apples and oranges type comparisons. The annual EWISR has also proved very useful for institutional managements because it provides them with an independent, objective image of their public profile, enabling them to conduct SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analyses and improve under parameters in which they receive low scores. Moreover, high-ranked schools attract the best teachers and brightest students. Nevertheless, despite the annual EWISR having evolved into the world’s largest primary-secondary schools ranking initiative which has beamed a bright searchlight on the vital necessity of delivering globally competitive education, influential academics tend to be skeptical, if not indifferent. “The great infirmity of all education institution ranking surveys conducted by for-profit companies — including the London-based QS and Times Higher Education — is that they give huge weightage to public perception. They are not data and facts-based. For this reason, I believe that the NIRF (National Institutional Ranking Framework) of the Union education ministry and NITI Aayog which is entirely based on hard data submitted by ranked higher education institutions, is superior to the much[1]celebrated QS…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

India’s top day-cum-boarding schools 2021-22

Promoters and managements of day-cum-boarding schools deserve special appreciation for making the additional investment to accommodate out-of-town students who but for this consideration would be denied high quality primary-secondary education Among the various categories of primary-secondaries ranked in the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings (estb.2007), day-cum-boarding schools occupy a special place. The approximately 100 schools that are sufficiently well-reputed to be included in the national league table of India’s best day-cum-boarding schools are a cut above top-ranked day schools which are accessible only to residents of the city in which they are sited. On the other hand, day-cum-boarding schools make high-quality education accessible to children from other educationally under-served geographies. Their promoters and managements deserve special appreciation of the public for making additional investment in hostels and dormitories to accommodate out-of-town students who but for this consideration, would be denied high-quality primary-secondary education. Therefore, their multiplication should be encouraged by government policies and excellent day schools should be incentivised to transform into day-cum-boarding institutions which would confer the additional benefit of student body diversity upon them. Presumably because all schools countrywide were under an 18-month lockdown — unprecedented in living memory — for fear of Covid-19 infection, during which schools ranked in this survey resorted to providing online classes, there are only marginal changes in the EW league tables of the country’s most admired day-cum-boarding schools. At top table, the Sai International School, Bhubaneswar, DPS, R.K. Puram, Delhi, Emerald Heights, Indore, Modern School, Barakhamba Road, Delhi, Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet, Greenwood High, Bengaluru, Pallikoodam School, Kottayam (Kerala), DPS, Noida and Sanskaar Valley, Bhopal have all retained their Top 5 2020-21 rankings with few rearrangements of seating. Also read: SAI International School, Bhubaneswar Delhi Pubic School, RK Puram, New Delhi Jointly ranked #5 with DPS, Noida and Sanskaar Valley, Bhopal, this year is DPS, Bhadbhada Road Bhopal promoted from #7 last year. That the country’s Top 5 day-cum-boarding schools are spread across seven states of the Indian Union is revealing testimony that excellent primary-secondary education is no longer confined to the industrially advanced states and metropolitan cities. As usual, the Top 10 table is dominated by owned and licensed schools of the Delhi Public Schools Society (estb.1949) promoted by senior public servants 72 years ago, with eight DPS schools — the majority sited in Delhi NCR — awarded seats at the Top 10 table. Yet one wonders to what extent the sample respondents quizzed for the EWISR were impressed by the high-ranked DPS institutions, and the brand rub-off impact of the DPS Society which has established 222 owned and franchised schools in India and abroad. As at top table, further down the Top 10 table as well, there is a minor readjustment of seating. Among the schools that have improved their ranking are Neerja Modi School, Jaipur, The Mann School, Delhi and Ebenezer International School, Bengaluru which is co-ranked #9 with Daly College, Indore, moved from the co-ed boarding schools to this category because the number of day scholars by far…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

India’s best girls day schools 2021-22

With many conservative households still preferring gender segregated education institutions for cultural and religious reasons, all-girls’ day schools are flourishing countrywide with many of them having built big size reputations Even though all-girls schools are going out of fashion around the world, in India they continue to remain relevant and serve an important public purpose. With many traditional households still preferring gender segregated education institutions for cultural and religious reasons, all-girls’ day schools are flourishing countrywide with many of them having built big size reputations for dispensing high-quality academic and co-curricular education. During the Covid-19 pandemic-prompted closure of all schools since March 2020, managements and teachers of India’s most reputed girls schools have pulled out all stops to ensure the learning continuity of students through online media. In the EW India School Rankings 2021-22, the 11,458 respondents interviewed by the Delhi-based Centre for Forecasting & Research (C fore) have awarded girls day schools high scores under the newly introduced parameters of online education effectiveness and mental and emotional well-being services. Topping this year’s league table of India’s best girls’ day schools with high scores under new as well as conventional parameters of K-12 education excellence such as academic reputation, the competence of teachers, and co-curricular education, is the vintage JB Petit High School for Girls, Mumbai (JBPHS, estb.1865). This CISCE-affiliated K-10 school ranked #1 for three consecutive years in the annual EWISR from 2017-2019, has reclaimed its premier position as India’s #1 all-girls day school in 2021- 22. Also read: JB Petit High School for Girls, Mumbai “Though JB Petit has never focused on rankings, it’s gratifying to learn that your well-informed survey respondents are aware of the huge effort our teachers have made to maintain our children’s learning continuity. Our teachers readily switched to online platforms and learnt new technological tools almost overnight. Our parents patiently made all required home-schooling adjustments, while our students showed us once again the power of adaptability and resilience that the country’s youth possess. Our #1 overall rank and top scores for parental involvement, academic reputation, online education, among others is testimony to the support and trust that our teachers, students and parents repose in the school,” says Benaifer P. Kutar, principal of JBPHS, which has 904 girl children mentored by 65 teachers on its musters. The school has reopened in-person classes for class IX students with class VIII and class X opening later in November. This year, the #2 position has been awarded to the Sacred Heart Sr. Secondary School, Chandigarh (SHSS, estb: 1968) which has leap-frogged from #7 and is jointly ranked second with La Martiniere for Girls, Kolkata. Ranked #3 is the Carmel Convent School, Chandigarh (#1 in 2020-21) followed by Loreto House, Middleton, Kolkata at #4 (5) jointly ranked with Rajmata Krishna Kumari Girls’ Public School, Jodhpur (3) and Modern High School for Girls, Kolkata at #5 (3) — all of whom have yielded ground this year. Sr. Arti, principal of the CBSE-affiliated SHSS, Chandigarh, is delighted with SHSSS’ India…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

Letter from the Editor

The annual EducationWorld India School Rankings (EWISR), introduced in 2007 and continued ever since without a break-even in the pandemic year, has evolved into the world’s largest and most sophisticated schools ranking survey. Sophisticated because unlike other surveys that rank education institutions in India and abroad, the EWISR evaluates the country’s 2,500-3,000 most reputed primary-secondaries under more than a dozen parameters of K-12 education excellence, not merely on academics. That’s because ab initio since this unprecedented education-focused news magazine was tentatively launched exactly 22 years ago, we have held firm the belief that education at all levels should be an enjoyable, holistic experience for students, rather than the vale of tears which children’s education experience has been transformed into by post-independence India’s academics and exam outcomes obsessed public. Fortunately, since then there has been a substantial even if inadequate, change in the public mindset in favour of balanced, holistic education to realise the full potential of children. Proof of this changed mindset is the growth of the annual EWISR into the world’s largest school ranking survey which arouses great enthusiasm, not only in India but in neighbouring countries where the best schools are ranked by specially constituted juries. Moreover, the geographical spread and number of schools ranked in EWISR has extended to 351 cities and almost 3,000 primary-secondaries countrywide with schools assessed under 14 parameters and ranked nationally, in their host states and cities. And since the annual EWISR is essentially a perception-based nationwide survey of knowledgeable sample respondents comprising educationists, principals, teachers, parents and senior students, it’s a massive exercise requiring 120 field personnel of our partner organisation, Centre for Forecasting & Research Pvt. Ltd (C fore, estb.2000) — a nationally reputed market research and opinion polls company — to interview more than 11,000 sample respondents countrywide over four months. But despite the substantial resources invested by your editors in the annual EWISR and the great boost, it has given to holistic education and human capital development, some academics and school leaders are dissatisfied and critical. They believe that perception-based evaluation and ranking league tables are imperfect. Yet a physical audit of 1.6 million schools would stretch for years, apart from being ruinously expensive. In the prevailing circumstances, the EWISR institutional evaluation methodology is the best option available. Please note we don’t claim that the EWISR league tables are holy writ. At best they enable parents to short-list the most convenient and aptitudinally suitable primary-secondaries for their children and select the final one after careful study of short-listed schools. Against this backdrop, we present the comprehensive and as yet unmatched EWISR 2021-22 as the bumper cover story of our 22nd-anniversary issue. Also, check out the special anniversary essays written by brilliant public intellectuals.

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

19th Anniversary Essay

Futile syllabus loading malaise

Political masters of the education system never tire of inventing new bits they believe are worthy of being glued into the school routine. These bits are wrapped in politically correct labels, writes Krishna Kumar

The tendency to fragment the curriculum has become endemic to our system of education. New bits and slices keep getting added to […]

Education Briefs

IIT-K-JKCL partnership Kanpur, october 26. IIT-Kanpur and JK Cement Ltd (JKCL, estb.1975), signed an MoU (memorandum of understanding) to collaborate in the construction of a super specialty hospital on the IIT-K campus. JKCL has consented to support the initiative with CSR (corporate social responsibility) funding of Rs.60 crore. The MoU is part of the IIT-K’s endeavour to catalyse a paradigm shift in medical research and innovation in India. Under the agreement, IIT-K will establish a School of Medical Research and Technology (SMRT) and centers of excellence on futuristic medicines as additions to the super specialty hospital. “We are very grateful for the generous contribution of JKCL towards establishing a super specialty hospital which will benefit the residents of Kanpur as well as people from other parts of the country. The proposed hospital will be associated with our School of Medical Research and Technology and will play an important role in driving IIT-K’s innovations in medical science and technology,” said Prof. Abhay Karandikar, director of IIT-K, speaking on the occasion. Pearson presents Digital Library Delhi, october 26. Pearson India — a subsidiary of Pearson Plc, UK which markets its products and services in 200 countries worldwide — has launched Digital Library, a comprehensive digital learning solution providing institutes, teachers and learners with a vast range of e-book collections and digital content across multiple disciplines. According to a company spokesperson, the new digital library offers online reading content and quick revision tools such as voice notes, highlights, hyperlinks and weblinks and access to study material 24×7. Students can access the digital library through multiple devices such as laptops, mobile phones and desktop systems. “Digital Library is a testament to our commitment to support the Union government in its mission to provide learners with the most affordable, flexible and student-friendly e-text solutions. With over 4,000+ e-book titles, we are certain that our vast repository of content by renowned authors will help us cater to the growing demand for quality resources and enable India to become a global study destination,” said Rajesh Pankajakshan, director of Pearson India, speaking on the occasion. EuroSchool’s nature school Bengaluru, october 22. EuroSchool is set to inaugurate its 14th school countrywide and fifth campus in Bengaluru early next year. Spread across five acres, the CBSE-affiliated EuroSchool, Bannerghatta, Bengaluru, is designed to accommodate 2,000 students — from Jr. KG-class XII. This new school will become operational in the academic year 2022-23. “Inspired by the world’s best teacher — Mother Nature — every aspect of the school is designed to encourage children to be one with nature. Classes will no longer be limited to the four walls of classrooms. Instead we will have learning in and outside school, enabling our children to learn from and around Nature — our first teacher,” says Rahul Deshpande, CEO, EuroSchool. Also read: EuroSchool hosts workshop with cricketer Jonty Rhodes Start-ups B-school New delhi, october 27. Stoa School — India’s first online business school focused on developing talent for the startup economy — has roped in Nithin…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

India’s Top Government Boarding Schools 2021-22

The Central government promoted Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas — free-of-charge boarding schools for meritorious rural children — continue to dominate the EW league table of government boarding schools, writes Paromita Sengupta Conceptualised in 1984 by late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi (1944-91) as free-of-charge boarding schools for meritorious rural children, the Central government-promoted and managed Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs) — currently 661 countrywide — continue to dominate the EWISR league table of India’s sufficiently well-known government boarding schools. It’s noteworthy that the learning outcomes of these generously funded (Union Budget provision in 2021-22: Rs.3,800 crore) JNVs are on a par with India’s top-ranked day and boarding private schools. This year, 1,027 SEC (socio-economic category) ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ sample respondents have voted a relatively new entrant Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Bagalur, Bangalore Urban (estb.1992) India’s #1 (ranked #3 in 2020-21) government boarding school pushing JNV, Chennithala, Alappuzha to #2 (1) followed by the Haryana state government-promoted Motilal Nehru School of Sports, Sonipat, which was moved last year from the category of co-ed boarding to government boarding schools, at #3 (2). Oak Grove School, Dehradun at #4 (4) and JNV, Gachibowli, Ranga Reddy district #5 (6) complete this year’s Top 5 table. Further down the 16-strong table of government boarding schools are 10 JNVs (Chennithala #2, Gachibowli #5, Hamirpur #7, Ernakulam #8, Kannur #9, Pimple, Pune #10, Chittoor #11, Karimnagar #12, Pathanamthitta #13, Samastipur #15). A non-JNV entrant in the Top 10 is Odisha Adarsha Vidyalaya, Patharchepa, Balangir, promoted under the aegis of the Odisha Adarsha Vidyalaya Sangathan, a publicly funded initiative inaugurated in 2015 by Naveen Patnaik-led the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government of Odisha. Kannan Sundaravel, a science and education alum of Madurai Kamaraj, Annamalai and Bharathidasan universities and incumbent principal of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Bagalur, Bangalore Urban (JNV-B), is elated that JNV-B is voted India’s #1 government boarding school in 2021-22. “Government schools including JNVs, get very little media coverage. Therefore, this recognition will motivate our teachers to work harder for JNV-B to retain its #1 EWISR ranking next year. I thank your sample respondents for acknowledging the dedicated service of my teachers and staff and the hard work, sincerity of my students. I am not surprised by our top rating in academic reputation. Every year, our students routinely qualify for the IITs, NITs and other reputed engineering and medical college “After Covid struck India last March, we ensured all our children were sent home with escorts and quickly switched to online learning platforms such as Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. Moreover, thanks to the generosity of our alumni, no child suffered lack of digital devices and Internet connectivity. We have recently welcomed our senior classes back on campus and will ensure all safety guidelines are followed to welcome the rest,” says Sundaravel, who acquired three decades of teaching and admin experience in several JNVs (Manipur, Kerala, Assam, Goa, Karnataka) countrywide prior to taking charge as principal of JNV-B in 2019. Currently, this class VI-XII fully residential school has 749 students…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

West Bengal: Laggard state

Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata) West Bengal’s 92,000 government and 2,000 private schools, 372 colleges and 32 universities will reopen for on-campus classes on November 16. Following chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s declaration to this effect on October 25, an official gazette notification was issued by the state government on October 28 re-starting the massive education system of West Bengal (pop.91 million) after the unprecedented 20 months long Covid pandemic lockdown. However under the October 28 order, only class IX-XII students are permitted to attend on-campus classes with the education ministry also set to announce the schedule for class X and XII board exams for 2022. Board exams for 2021 were cancelled earlier this year for fear of Covid-19 contagion. The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) government’s ultra-cautious restarting of on-campus secondary and higher education classes has received lukewarm welcome. “In the US and Europe, the effect of closure of education institutions has been studied extensively, and they are of the opinion that (prolonged closure of education institutions) has decreased students’ life expectancy and caused enormous economic damage that will take 70 years to set right. We have to remember the closure has been much longer in India and therefore the effect is going to be huge,” Dr. Arjun Dasgupta, one of Kolkata’s leading medical practitioners, told The Hindu (October 28). Experienced educationists in Kolkata believe that the TMC government’s restriction of on-campus in-class learning to secondary upwards education reflects a confused mindset, if not inverted priorities. Self-evidently, older children are better equipped to self-learn and access online learning. On the other hand, youngest children in pre-primary and primary classes who are too young to learn online, are in danger of forgetting the socialisation skills they learn in early childhood education and the academic fundamentals they learn in primary classes. According to Dr. Swati Popat Vats, president of the Early Childhood Association of India, India’s prolonged lockdown of schools — the longest of any major country worldwide — has endangered the architecture of the revolutionary 5+3+3+4 K-12 education system mandated by the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 which accords high importance to early childhood care and education (ECCE). “Because of the too prolonged closure of schools, many years of work to impact the value of professionally provided ECCE to children in their most important years has gone down the drain,” Dr. Popat Vats told EducationWorld in July. In defence of the cautious approach to restarting class I-VIII, state education ministry spokesperson quote the Annual Status of Education Report 2020 Wave 1 of the highly-respected Pratham Education Foundation. According to the report, West Bengal has the least number of children who dropped out of school in the 2018-20 period. The report says, school dropouts in the state declined from 3.3 percent to 1.5 percent even as the national percentage increased from 4 to 5.5 percent during the pandemic. This is because the West Bengal government distributed textbooks to 99.7 percent of school students as against Uttar Pradesh (79.6 percent), Rajasthan (60.4), Gujarat (95), Andhra Pradesh…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

Ten lessons for a post-pandemic world

Ten lessons for a post-pandemic world Fareed Zakaria W.W. Norton & Company Rs.473 Pages 224 It’s India’s loss and America’s gain that Mumbai-born, Yale and Harvard grad Fareed Zakaria has made his career in the US rather than in India. Over the past two decades, he has emerged as one of America’s most respected public intellectuals — author of The Future of Freedom (2003), The Post-American World (2008), In Defence of Liberal Education (2015), and now the title under review. That’s in addition to having served as editor of Newsweek International and Foreign Affairs, columnist at Time and Washington Post, and weekly anchor of a CNN current affairs television show which has a viewership of 220 million worldwide. Although Zakaria’s books and TV show tend to be US-centric, he does occasionally comment on the mess in the country he left behind. But on the whole, his comments on India’s national development effort and current progress in that direction are less than complimentary. Be that as it may, because of the unforeseen global impact of the novel Coronavirus, a “single particle about 1/10,000 the size of the period (full-stop) that ends this sentence,” Zakaria believes that we now live in a radically altered “post-pandemic world” which will “not reshape history so much as accelerate it” — a new post-pandemic — “world on steroids”. The purpose of this work of penetrative insights is to provide important advice to national governments and societies co-existing in a now more than ever inter-connected world. The titles of most of the ten lessons for the post-pandemic age are self-explanatory, but not all. The first lesson titled ‘Buckle Up’ is mysterious. It advises people and governments to take our collective foot off the GDP growth foot-pedal. Urgent collaborative action is needed to prevent environmental destruction by resource extractive industries, greedy meat consumption which has prompted cruel, inhumane factory farms — “the best way to select for the most dangerous pathogens possible”, decimation of glaciers, rivers, forest and mountains, in retrospect rightly worshipped for providing ecological balance. The next four lessons we need to learn to survive and prosper in the post-pandemic world are titled ‘What matters is not the quantity of government, but quality’; ‘Markets are not enough’; ‘People should listen to experts and experts should listen to people’; and ‘Life is digital’. The somewhat puzzling Lesson 5 titled ‘Aristotle was right — we are social animals’ makes the point that despite plagues, pandemics, two world wars and the latest Covid-19 pandemic which hit crowded cities hardest, a reverse migration to rural spaces is unlikely. The author highlights that the number of cities in the world with populations of over 1 million has increased from just two (London and Beijing) in 1800 to 371 in 2000 and will “surpass 700 in 2030,” because homo sapiens is a social animal, and loves to huddle in cities. But a new metropolitan model city in which every citizen can reach wherever she needs to go by a 15-minute walk or…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

19th Anniversary Essay

Throwing away English advantage

In turning their backs on a language that’s not only recognised by the Constitution but is the language of global business, India’s myopic politicians are doing the electorate a great disservice, writes Rajiv Desai

English is the language introduced by the British colonisers of India. It evokes mixed emotions. In some middle-class families and schools, you […]

Maharashtra: Time of reckoning

Dipta Joshi The Maharashtra state government’s ill-advised initiative to slash the reimbursement amount payable to private unaided schools admitting students under s.12 (1) (c) of the Right of Children to Free & Compulsory Education (aka RTE) Act, 2009, has boomeranged. Dattatray Jagtap, director of the school education department, who recommended that the amount payable by the state government to private schools under this provision of the Act should be reduced to Rs.8,000 from Rs.17,670 per student per year, has been transferred to the examinations department. Moreover, now the state government is in the unenviable position of having to explain unpaid arrears of Rs.1,800 crore before the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court. The landmark RTE Act guarantees all children aged 6-14 years free-of-charge admission into classes I-VIII in neighbourhood schools, even if they are privately promoted institutions. The Act stipulates that private schools admitting poor household children should be reimbursed expenses incurred equivalent to per child expense incurred by (state) governments in public schools. The state government’s calculation of per child expense by public schools is Rs.17,160 per annum. Last May, on Jagtap’s recommendation the state government unilaterally reduced the payout to Rs.8,000 per child or actual fees of private schools, if lower. Statewide, 700 non-minority (minority schools were exempted by the Supreme Court in 2012) English-medium schools reserve 25 percent of their seats in classes I-VIII for children from economically weaker section (poor) households in their neighbourhood as mandated by s.12 (1) (c). However, the state has been taking its time to reimburse private schools the amounts due to them under s.12 (2). Pending dues under this head have aggregated Rs.1,800 crore over the past three years ended March 31, 2021. In blatant violation of s.12 (2) of the RTE Act, successive state governments — including the incumbent Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi coalition (Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress) — have been slow to discharge their s.12 (2) obligation to private schools. In academic year 2019-20, the government reimbursed a mere 50 percent of dues without clearing the previous backlog. Moreover, citing the closure of schools during the past 16 pandemic months, the May 19 circular almost halved the government payout to Rs.8,000 per child despite private schools having incurred considerable capital outlays to provide online learning and continuing to pay teachers’ salaries. Inevitably this unilateral reimbursement cut has hit the state’s 32,000 estimated low-fee budget private schools (BPS) hardest. According to Jagtap’s report dated November 2, 2020, Maharashtra’s private schools were getting higher s.12 (2) per-child reimbursements at Rs.17,670, whereas private schools in other states such as Karnataka and Gujarat were being reimbursed a paltry Rs.4,300 and Rs.13,000 per child per year. However, according to the Nagpur-based RTE Foundation which has obtained information under the Right to Information Act, 2005 from several state governments, the Karnataka state government pays private schools Rs.16,000 per year for children admitted under s.12 (1) (c) and Delhi state pays Rs.17,000. “English medium budget private schools are under tremendous pressure to keep themselves afloat.…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

CBSE issues notice against fake sample papers circulating in the web

Delhi: Beneficial examinations reform

Autar Nehru (Delhi) Following heavy criticism from Supreme Court for not having devised an alternative examination system for the pandemic academic year 2020-21 after board examinations were cancelled in the wake of the second wave (March-June 2021) of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has initiated major examination reforms for the academic year 2021-22. It has decreed two terminal exams for class X and XII school leavers in lieu of single annual examinations. Under the new examination system of CBSE — the country’s largest national examination board with 24,240 affiliated schools — the first terminal exam that will test students for 50 percent of prescribed syllabus, will be held between November 30 and December 11. Exam papers will be in MCQ (multiple choice questions) format. The second-term exam scheduled for March-April 2022 will be of the traditional subjective/objective type question papers with students given two hours to write each subject exam. The new bifurcated classes X and XII school-leaving exam system, which is also likely to be followed by the country’s 31 state examination boards, is the outcome of widespread outrage that board exams scheduled to be held in April 2021 were repeatedly cancelled for fear of spread of Covid infection in crowded exam halls, and finally not held at all. On June 1, prime minister Narendra Modi announced cancellation of the CBSE class XII exams of 2020-21. Subsequently, hearing a writ petition Meeta Sharma vs. CBSE & Ors (Civil) Nos. 522/2021) on June 17, the Supreme Court accepted an assessment formula devised by CBSE. As per the formula, students were assessed on the basis of marks obtained in pre-board exams conducted by affiliated schools (maximum 40 marks), half-yearly mid-term exams (30 marks) and periodic units (10 marks) subject to “moderation” by the board. However, the fallout of the board not conducting exams and students certified on the basis of marks awarded by schools themselves, has been raging grades inflation in the pandemic academic year 2020-21. This has posed problems for undergraduate colleges with admission cut-offs in several Delhi colleges set at 100 percent. Nevertheless, academics have welcomed the two-exam initiative of CBSE. “Evaluating students on the outcomes of two term exams is better than judging them on the basis of one all-important exam. It will encourage them to study through the year and will reduce final exam stress and anxiety. CBSE has already pruned the 2021-22 syllabus by 30 percent and children get two chances in school-leaving exams. I am sure once it becomes the norm, students will prefer the new format,” says Dr. Sudha Acharya, principal of ITL School, Delhi and chairperson of the National Progressive Schools’ Conference, an association of 195 private CBSE-affiliated schools. Certainly, CBSE’s adoption of the two-semester board exams system for school-leavers is a radical departure from past practice of the do-or-die final exam and is a half-way house of the continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) system favoured by most intelligent educators and the report of the K. Kasturirangan Committee…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

Time to end prolonged PSE love affair

The total priivatisation on October 8 of Air India, the public sector national airline, which during the past 68 years since it was nationalised in 1953 has recorded a cumulative loss of Rs.70,000 crore, is a milestone in the half-hearted national development history of post-independent India. That this perpetually bleeding airline has been re-purchased by the business house of Tata from whom it was unwarrantedly snatched away almost seven decades ago, is a double bonus. The privatisation of Air India is a landmark inasmuch as it has prepared the ground for the privatisation of a large number of the country’s 358 Central and state government public sector enterprises (PSEs), including nationalised banks established at huge cost to the public exchequer, but have bled the economy dry and destroyed the modest material aspirations of hundreds of millions of free India’s citizens. Regrettably, the country’s academics and public intellectuals continue to be in love with the inorganic PSE-led economic development model imposed upon newly-independent India by a myopic political leadership. The plain truth is that the recurring losses incurred by PSEs which required budgetary support year after year, have been at the cost of public goods such as roads, railways, telephone connectivity, bank credit, quality government schools, primary health centres, police and judicial systems. All these public services — prerequisites of middle class societies — are grossly inadequate 74 years after independence. Almost four decades ago, your editor wrote a first-ever 13-page feature in Business India that examined the commercial operations of Air India. At that time, the story reported that the nationalised airline was an unviable enterprise. It had double the number of employees per aircraft of any airline worldwide; the nationalised airline hosted over a dozen trade unions; it was run by a bureaucracy instead of professional management and all important decisions had to be cleared by New Delhi. Moreover, almost every employee was recruited on the recommendation of a member of the neta-babu brotherhood because in those years, an Air India job was highly coveted. The huge losses suffered by this nationalised airline — which in effect was captured by its over-paid, well-connected middle class employees — had to be borne by the masses toiling at the bottom of the country’s iniquitous socio-economic pyramid. This infirmity is common to all PSEs. It’s high time the academy and teachers community acknowledge that until the mid-19th century, the Indian subcontinent was the world’s wealthiest and most prosperous region contributing 20 percent of global GDP. We were prosperous because governments focused on governance and maintaining law, order and justice systems. The proper organic development model is for government to enable industry and business entrepreneurs to prosper and pay taxes, for government to provide high quality public goods and services. This should be taught to students in the nation’s classrooms. If not, it will take another 40 years for the next bleeding PSE to be privatised. Also read: Don’t backslide on PSB privatisation

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

19th Anniversary Essay

Higher Education according to Confucius

Confucius (551-479 BCE) was a master teacher, a gurudev. He had extraordinary love of learning and deep respect for the laws of ancient China, writes Sudheendra Kulkarni

Whenever I visit Beijing, I make it a point to visit Wangfujing Street for English language books. There I always find illuminating books on Chinese philosophy, culture, arts and even […]

Obfuscated eminence

There’s something disquieting about the increasing number of US-based NRI academics, taking leave of absence from tenured professorships in American universities to play advisory roles in the Central government, enjoy public adulation and exaggerated respect for a few years in India before they scarper back to tolerance and condescension abroad. These musings are the outcome of (incomplete, abandoned) reading of Policy Maker’s Journal: From New Delhi to Washington DC (2021), the diary-style journal of Dr. Kaushik Basu, a professor of economics at Cornell University, USA who served a three-year-term (2009-2012) as chief economic advisor to the scandals-tainted Congress-led UPA-II government. The predominant takeaway from this journal is the round of dinner parties and soirees attended by Basu and spouse, their first class air travel in India and abroad and the splendid lakeside resorts and restaurants — enumerated with exemplary exactitude — at which they tarried and dined at public expense. The no doubt brilliant economic growth and development advice Dr. Basu rendered the government is somewhat shrouded in modest obfuscation. Indeed, Basu admits awareness that his advice wouldn’t make much difference because despite being an atheist, he believes that everything is pre-destined, a conviction that gives him mental peace and detachment. This Calvinist belief in predestination enabled him to smoothly mingle and fraternise with the biggest names in politics, industry and even the film world. Curiously the great coal, telecom spectrum allotment and other scandals which doomed the UPA-II government and paved the way for the BJP’s electoral triumph of 2014, receive scant attention. During the past decade not a few reputed NRI academics — Raghuram Rajan, Arvind Panagriya, Arvind Subramanian — have been imported to aid and advise the Central government and made media headlines and attracted public accolades they will never receive in their adopted countries. But the nation and economy continue to stumble from crisis to crisis. Perhaps there is something to be said for predestination, after all. Also read: AFAIRS’ Study In India Virtual Expo 2021 for NRI students

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

Belated hand-wringing

For sheer hypocrisy and two-facedness, the English are hard to beat. And to all intents and purposes, compradors vending their goods in this country seem to have learned their lessons well. Take for example, the latest ad campaign for Dove soap manufactured and marketed by Hindustan Unilever, the India subsidiary of the London/Amsterdam FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) multinational Unilever plc (annual revenue: €50.7 billion or Rs.436,020 crore). This trendy, politically correct ad campaign exhorts women of India to acknowledge and celebrate their rich and varying diversity and skin tones and refrain from taking “the beauty test”, i.e, ignore standards of pulchritude set by society and media and the entertainment industry. It recounts stories of women and girls who have suffered ridicule and contempt for being too fat, dark, thin, tall, whatever, and advises them to glory in and celebrate their unique identities. Excellent, incontestible advice. Who can possibly dispute it? But wait a minute. Until recently, wasn’t Dove toilet soap being advertised as the magic formula for reprehensibly dark non-caucasian women to transform into lily white? And wasn’t it the Indian compradors of Unilever Red Devils in London and Amsterdam who had been advertising a faux skin-lightening potion branded Fair & Lovely for decades, which gave the world’s most beautiful, multi-hued women a massive inferiority complex? Now after inflicting huge psychological damage upon India’s citizenry and brain-washing them to accept florid visages and milk-bottle legs as standards of beauty, the belated hand-wringing compradors of Hindustan Unilever (who have blacklisted this publication for consistently criticising Fair & Lovely) have become cloyingly politically correct. Fair & Lovely has been re-branded Glow & Lovely, and Dove and Lux have become colour neutral. Clearly this belated hand-wringing is all to the good. But a public mea culpa is necessary. Also read: Shattering stereotypes

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

Expanding ice-berg

There’s considerable merit in the simile that official corruption is like an ice-berg. Only one-tenth of it above the surface of water is visible to the naked eye. The massive dangerous body of corruption is invisible underwater. In the circumstances, one wonders about the sheer scale of official corruption in Maharashtra, India’s second most populous (115 million) and industrialised state accounting for 25 percent of the country’s industrial production, and Mumbai, the state’s admin and India’s commercial capital, in particular. In recent months, three major scandals have rocked India’s most industrially and financially productive state. In February, an SUV automobile packed with explosives was detected outside the towering 28-storey residence of Mukesh Ambani, India’s wealthiest business tycoon. Investigations into the subsequent murder of the owner of the SUV, unearthed the involvement of a crooked cop, Sachin Waze, who had been suspended from the state police for 12 years, but was re-inducted in dramatic circumstances by Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray soon after he was appointed chief minister of Maharashtra’s tripartite (Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress) coalition government in 2019. The next big scandal that has erupted in Maharashtra involved the home minister no less, Anil Deshmukh, who reportedly issued a directive to Mumbai police to extort Rs.100 crore per month from the city’s bars and restaurants. As evidence against him has mounted, he has been arrested by CBI. To this list, add the arrest and 29-day detention of Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan’s son on flimsy drug possession and running charges. The asking price for the Narcotics Control Bureau chief not opposing bail? Rs.25 crore! Quite clearly in India’s most industrialised state and commercial capital where the Shiv Sena — a corrupt enterprise ab initio — steers government, the below waterline corruption ice-berg is growing exponentially. Also read: Most infamous corruption scandals of India

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

HXLS’ director Manit Jain: magnificent pandemic response

India’s best co-ed day schools 2021-22

This year the co-ed day schools league table rates 1,928 primary-secondaries — the largest of any category. It augurs well for better gender relations and greater social respect for girls and women in future It is surely an indicator of social progress and emancipation that the largest league table in the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings (EWISR) is of co-ed day schools. This year’s league table of co-ed day schools with sufficiently high public profile to be included in the rankings survey (institutions ranked by less than 25 sample respondents are eliminated from the league tables) aggregates 1,948, by far the largest number in any category. This augurs well for better gender relations and greater social respect for girls and women in future. If boys and girls fairly learn and study together from the early years, they are likely to become more empathetic and mutually respectful of each other. The number of all-boys and all-girls gender-segregated schools — although they serve a useful purpose in conservative societies and communities — is declining, and the country is certain to be better off if co-ed day (and residential) schools multiply. It’s also all to the good that the co-ed day schools top table is dominated by primary-secondaries sited in the Delhi NCR region, which has a poor gender egalitarianism record and where crimes against women are widely prevalent. Indeed it would be fairly accurate to state without fear of contradiction, that the gender-egalitarian record of north India — especially of the educationally and socio-economically backward BIMARU (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh) states which grudgingly host 60 percent of India’s 1.30 billion citizens — is poor, and girl children and women suffer gender discrimination and violence on a substantially greater scale than in any other of the Indian Union of 29 states and seven Union territories. Against this depressing backdrop, it’s encouraging that four of the Top 5 most admired co-ed day schools ad seriatim — Heritage Xperiential Learning School (HXLS), Gurugram; Step-by-Step, Noida; Vasant Valley, Delhi; The Shri Ram School, Vasant Vihar/ Moulsari and Mother’s International, Delhi are sited in Delhi NCR (national capital region). The sole Top 5 schools beyond Delhi NCR are the KFI School, Adyar, Chennai and Cathedral & John Connon, Mumbai jointly ranked #5. Further down the Top 10 table, there is a greater geographical variety. After the vintage Cathedral & John Connon (CJCS, estb.1860) which has regained its #1 Maharashtra and Mumbai position, the 2021-22 sample respondents have ranked three Bangalore/Bengaluru schools #6-9 — Inventure Academy #6 (cf. #3 in 2020-21) and #1 in Karnataka; The Valley School and Mallya Aditi International jointly #7 (4 & 5) followed by Smt. Sulochanadevi Singhania, Thane (Mumbai) at #8. Three Hyderabad-based schools — CHIREC International and Glendale Academy jointly ranked #9 and #1 in Telangana/Hyderabad and Vidyaranya High School complete the Top 10. Also ranked #10 is the Nirmal Bhatia School, Delhi. “It was too much to expect from this year’s different sample respondents to also rank HXLS #1…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

India’s most admired boys day schools 2021-22

Even though gender-segregated schools are steadily going out of fashion, competition within the category of boys day schools for best seats at top table is intense. Dislodged last year, Campion School, Mumbai has reclaimed its pre-eminent position With gender-segregated schools rapidly becoming obsolete, the number of all-boys day schools ranked in the annual EWISR has been declining over the years. In the latest EW India Boys Day Schools Rankings 2021-22, only 53 all-boys schools are sufficiently high profile (schools assessed by less than 25 sample respondents are not ranked) to be included in this league table. Within this shrinking minority of all-boys day schools, Campion School, Fort, Mumbai, ranked #1 for seven consecutive years (2013- 2019) and #2 in 2020-21, has reclaimed its pre-eminent position. This year’s 11,548 sample respondents — parents, principals, teachers and senior students — interviewed by the Delhi-based Centre for Forecasting & Research (C fore), have restored Campion School (estb.1943) to its premier position by a huge margin, awarding this 78-year-old school top scores on seven of 14 parameters of K-12 education excellence including faculty competence, teacher welfare and development, co-curricular education, online education effectiveness, curriculum and pedagogy and value for money. “The year 2020-21 was very difficult for the entire world. And Campion too faced new challenges and hurdles, and lost its #1 rank. But since then, we have equipped the school for the future by promptly switching to online learning. In the process, we have ensured that our children have not suffered any loss of academic, co-curricular, sports and life skills education during the pandemic. Our class X ICSE results for 2020-21 are excellent and our boys won many online inter-school co-curricular competitions. Now as we prepare to reopen secondary school, we are fully equipped to implement our new hybrid teaching model for students unable to attend in-person classes,” says Fr. (Dr.) Francis Swamy, an alumnus of Mumbai University and former principal of Holy Family High School & Junior College, Mumbai and St. Mary’s, Mazgaon, was appointed principal of Campion in 2020. Indeed this year’s seating at top table has been majorly rejigged. St. Mary’s School, Mazgaon, Mumbai has inched up to #2 (#3 in 2020-21) jointly with St. Xavier’s Collegiate School, Kolkata (4) even as St. John’s High School, Chandigarh has slipped to #3 (1). St. Joseph’s Boys High School, Bengaluru at #4 (5) and The Bishops School, Camp, Pune at #5 (3) constitute the Top 5. Further down the Top 10 table, La Martiniere for Boys, Kolkata #6 (5) and Bishop Cotton Boys, Bengaluru (6) are jointly ranked #7 with Birla High School, Moira Street, Kolkata (8) have yielded rank even as La Martiniere Boys College, Lucknow #8 has improved its last year’s ranking (11). Calcutta Boys School (8) is ranked #9 jointly with Don Bosco High School, Matunga, Mumbai (10) and St. Columba’s School, Delhi (12) jointly ranked #10 with DAV Boys Senior Secondary School, Mogappair, Chennai (9) complete the Top 10 table. Fr. Bernard Fernandes, principal of Don Bosco High…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

19th Anniversary Essay

Re-engineering India’s schools for the knowledge economy

The new knowledge economy is driven by information, data and computing power. Developing human resources requires critical analysis, lateral thinking and inter-disciplinary applications, writes Mohandas Pai and Nisha Holla

Mohandas Pai

Today information is available at our fingertips. The agricultural and industrial economies of yore where information was a scarce resource, have been replaced by […]

NIT-AP initiatives

Andhra Pradesh NIT-AP initiatives Tadepalligudem, october 30. The National Institute of Technology, Andhra Pradesh (NIT-AP), has revised its B.Tech curriculum and added new features in conformity with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The institute recently conducted a ‘National Conclave on Strategies for Implementation of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020’ symposium to apprise administrative staff, students, researchers and faculty members about implementation of NEP in NIT-AP. Addressing the conclave, Telangana governor and Lt. Governor of Puducherry Dr. (Smt.) Tamilsai Soundararajan said: “I am glad that in spite of being the youngest among all NITs, this institute has taken steps towards quickly developing required infrastructure, offering lectures employing modern day technology and is set on fulfilling the academic expectations of the Union ministry of education. NEP 2020 will nurture and orient India’s youth towards the path of development.” Also read: NEP 2020 will focus on concepts: Kriti Garg, SAI International School Uttar Pradesh Government-Wheebox agreement Lucknow, october 5. The state government signed a collaboration agreement with Gurugram-based Wheebox, a global leader in artificial intelligence-based online proctored assessments, to digitise the examinations of its technical education institutes. Following the agreement, over 200,000 students of the Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University (AKTU), formerly Uttar Pradesh Technical University, and another 300,000 students wrote the exams of the Board of Technical Education Uttar Pradesh. Dedicated teams were deployed by the universities and technical board along with Wheebox specialists for conducting and monitoring a secured exam. Addressing a press conference, Nirmal Singh, the founder & CEO of Wheebox, said: “In the past year, we have partnered with more than 130 premier academic institutions who have made a smooth transition to online examinations. Our collaboration with the UP government has helped evaluation of millions of students.” Odisha Girls taking to tech Berhampur (odisha), october 1. More than 400 of the 1,351 new students who have enrolled in 22 trade courses offered by the government-run Industrial Training Institute (ITI), Berhampur in the state’s Ganjam district, are girls. “With the admission of 30 percent girl students this year, the institute is looking to fulfil the state government’s objective of one-third of graduates passing out from technical education institutes being women. Moreover, many girl students have opted for subjects related to technology this year which is an encouraging trend and reflects changing social attitudes,” said principal Rajat Panigrahi, addressing a media conference. Delhi Sports education drive New delhi, october 14. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has requested all engineering colleges and other technical institutes to submit details of their sports infrastructure including number of playgrounds, sports complexes, gymnasia/fitness centres, indoor stadia, swimming pools and yoga centres. “Technical institutes can play an important role in promoting sports and prepare sportspersons for national and international championships. The education ministry wants to explore the issue of optimal sports infrastructure usage in these institutions following India’s excellent performance at the olympics and paralympics,” said Col. A. Shreenath, director, AICTE’s policy and academic planning bureau, in an official communique. Maharashtra Kalam Teachers…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

Mailbox: Extraordinary Dr. Kumar

Extraordinary Dr. Kumar Congratulations for the inspirational success story ‘The very extraordinary Prof. Raj Kumar’ (EW October), a welcome departure from routine EW cover features. This visionary educator dared to dream of establishing India’s first global university, and how! I applaud his grit, determination and extraordinary project conceptualisation and management capabilities. It’s amazing to read how over the past 12 years since admitting its first batch of 100 students, the O.P. Jindal Global University in rural Haryana has grown to attract 8,200 students mentored by 900 highly qualified faculty including 100 full-time international faculty from 41 countries. This is an indication of the high education standards maintained by this liberal arts institution under Prof. Raj Kumar’s able leadership. May his tribe increase! Adithi Ananda Chennai Also read: The Very Extraordinary Dr C Raj Kumar Not so extraordinary I am a regular reader of EducationWorld and follow with great interest your lead education features. However your cover story ‘The very extraordinary Prof. Raj Kumar’ (EW October) was disappointing. In my knowledge and opinion, there are many unsung heroes in education with inspirational success stories and Prof. Raj Kumar’s story does not even come close. I am surprised that an education magazine of two decades standing dedicated not just the cover page but also several inside pages to his life history, including details about his wife and family. It’s time your magazine got back on track! Himaja Naidu Hyderabad Laudable patriotism Thank you for the well-written and motivating cover story on the “extraordinary” Dr. C. Raj Kumar, vice chancellor of O.P. Jindal Global University (EW October). His single-minded dedication to building a world-class university is laudable and inspiring. I especially want to congratulate him for his nationalism and patriotism to return to India and contribute to education development of this country, even as many of his contemporaries decided to remain and teach abroad. After his education at Oxford and Harvard, he could well have landed a comfy highly-paid job in US academia. That he chose to return to India to put his blue-chip education to good use is reflective of his loyalty for this country. We need more people like him. T. Surya Kumar Chennai Public utility call To read about the digital divide in India’s much-hyped Silicon Valley known for its transformative IT revolution in your special report ‘IT capital’s shocking digital education divide’ (EW October) was truly a shocking revelation. I shudder to think of the extent of disparity in tier II and III cities. I agree with Nooraine Fazal’s views that there is urgent need to address the mounting learning loss suffered by children in the over 60-weeks campus lockdown by declaring Internet connectivity a public utility like electricity and water supply. I also urge EducationWorld to explore the ground situation in other metro cities. Karthik Ravishankar on e-mail Learning loss challenge ‘Learning loss nonchalance’ (Education News, EW October) that cites data from the Pratham Education Foundation’s ASER 2020 Karnataka Rural Report establishes what experts have feared all along…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

EducationWorld November 2021

EW India School Rankings 2021-22 (Part 2)

Degeneration into a gougers nation

Prometheus School, Noida joins the IB continuum club

Boarding schools and the paradigms of constructivism

IBCP receives AIU recognition for India

Climate change — problems and solutions

Shalom Group of Schools, Gurgaon

3 Key learnings to improve your school’s admission process and convert faster

Rethinking Education

There Is Opportunity In Every Challenge

“We created home learning hubs for our students”

The Punjab Public School, Nabha

Karnataka: Belated reopening

India’s most admired government day schools 2021-22

India’s most respected special needs schools 2021-22

EW India School Rankings- Day Schools 2021-22 (Part 1)

India’s top day-cum-boarding schools 2021-22

India’s best girls day schools 2021-22

Letter from the Editor

Futile syllabus loading malaise

Education Briefs

India’s Top Government Boarding Schools 2021-22

West Bengal: Laggard state

Ten lessons for a post-pandemic world

Throwing away English advantage

Maharashtra: Time of reckoning

Delhi: Beneficial examinations reform

Time to end prolonged PSE love affair

Higher Education according to Confucius

Obfuscated eminence

Belated hand-wringing

Expanding ice-berg

India’s best co-ed day schools 2021-22

India’s most admired boys day schools 2021-22

Re-engineering India’s schools for the knowledge economy

NIT-AP initiatives

Mailbox: Extraordinary Dr. Kumar