Several decades ago, a friend from abroad who came to visit India on a one-month visa but stayed on for six, perceptively remarked that the children of the country’s poor majority are very endearing. “They live in the most wretched conditions and many of them casually beg for money, but they are always so cheerful and smile readily even if you refuse them,” she observed. Since then I have increasingly appreciated the perspicacity of that observation, and to a significant extent it prompted the promotion of EducationWorld with the mission statement to “build the pressure of public opinion to make education the No. 1 item on the national agenda”, 12 years ago.
The degree to which Indian society and the State in particular have neglected the welfare and well-being of the country’s vulnerable children is shocking beyond belief. Almost half (46 percent) of the world’s largest child population (450 million) is malnourished which makes it difficult to absorb academic instruction. Although 220 million children enroll in primary school at the start of every academic year, 53 percent don’t complete primary education, mainly because very little learning happens in classrooms, especially in the country’s 1.25 million government primaries where multi-grade classes are common, teacher truancy is ubiquitous, learning outcomes pitiful and corporal punishment rife.
Now with Indian industry and business experiencing an acute shortage of adequately literate and skilled personnel, awareness of the importance of education for all has belatedly dawned on the omniscient Soviet-style Planning Commission, the establishment and the country’s me-first 200-million strong middle class. The Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (which became law on April 1, 2010) makes it obligatory for the State (Central and state/local government) to provide free and compulsory education to all children in the age group six-14. But this belated legislation is silent about early childhood education of an estimated 159 million children in the 0-6 age group. With recent research in brain development indicating that early childhood education (ECE) is a vital prerequisite of school and lifelong learning, the editors of EducationWorld resolved to beam a powerful spotlight on preschool learning.
Thus during the past two years we have commissioned nationwide surveys to identify and rank the country’s most exemplary preschools in six cities, while simultaneously highlighting the Central government’s anganwadi (early child and post-natal mothers’ nutrition) programme, with the objective of encouraging private and government ECE initiatives. Moreover we have also convened annual Early Childhood Education Global Conferences in 2010 and 2011, inviting national and international experts to detail the latest developments and initiatives in ECE adopted by countries around the world. The cover story of the first issue of 2012 is essentially a record of the discussions and deliberations at the Early Childhood Education Global Conference 2011 convened in Mumbai in December.
And in our special report feature, managing editor Summiya Yasmeen presents a round-up of small achievements in yet another uneventful year for Indian education.
We wish all readers and children of India in particular, a happier New Year!
