One of the perquisites of this demanding job — and demanding it is given the hostility of education bureaucrats, paucity of reliable data, disinterest of industry, indifference of the teachers’ community and shortage of trained writers — is that one often gets to meet with great visionaries, thinkers and doers who, unsung and unappreciated by the consumerist urban middle class which controls the media and is completely disinterested in the welfare of the poor and underprivileged, are doing great work in public education. In this respect the year 2012 has started off well. In the first quarter, EducationWorld has had the good fortune to access and highlight the huge contributions to public education of Bunker Roy and his team at Barefoot College, Tilonia; the Harvard-based Dr. Howard Gardner, guru of the theory of multiple intelligences; and the breakthrough initiative of banker-turned educationist Ramji Raghavan of the Agastya International Foundation in delivering experiential science education to children in ill-equipped government schools in south India.
Now in this first issue of the new fiscal year we present yet another deeply inspiring story of an intelligent, unwavering and committed initiative of Dr. Achyuta Samanta — a highly admired and respected edupreneur in the eastern India state of Odisha (formerly Orissa, pop. 41 million), but relatively unknown in self-absorbed metropolitan India — to the education of the much-neglected and exploited (by timber mafias, corrupt government officials and real estate sharks) aboriginal or tribal people. Having experienced extreme poverty in his childhood from which he lifted himself out through the power of education, at an early age Dr. Samanta (now in his mid-40s) resolved to commit his life to the development and uplift of Odisha’s large (11 million) tribal population through the enabling power of education. But intelligently, he set about the task of attaining this objective by establishing the for-profit (‘self-financed’) KIIT University, Bhubaneswar and recently the IBO (Geneva)-affiliated KiiT International School to cross-subsidise the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), which dispenses private school style K-postgraduate academic-cum-vocational education to over 15,000 scheduled caste and tribal children. The most populous boarding school worldwide, the free-of-charge KISS, set within a 60-acre campus with five large playing fields, is one of the wonders of the world as testified by every luminary who has visited its awe-inspiring campus. KIIT and KISS are living proof of individual enterprise, commitment and empowerment through education. Read our cover story to be dazzled, inspired and uplifted.
In our special report feature, following presentation of the insipid Union Budget 2012-13 to Parliament and the nation on March 16, we again highlight the grossly inadequate provision routinely made in Union and state government budgets for education of the world’s largest child and youth population — the majority of whom are obliged by poverty, proximity and poor judgement to attend government primary and secondary schools (and later state government-run colleges). In a unique analysis of the Union budget, managing editor Summiya Yasmeen provides unprecedented insights, international comparisons and per capita provision calculations to expose the ugly truth behind professedly generous outlays made for public education.
