One of the perquisites of this demanding job — the greatest downside is the problem of discovery and recruitment of analytical journalists/writers who can string a half decent sentence together as the education system keeps sliding downhill — is the opportunities one gets to travel to often remote parts of the country where committed and dedicated educators are doggedly disseminating information and knowledge while coping with indifferent and often hostile government and local administration officials.
According to government propaganda, private sector educators are either proselyters or profiteers. Never mind that the real purpose of the country’s 1.30 million government schools, colleges and universities is to provide sinecures for kith and kin, teachers and administrators, rather than educating students. Call it naivete if you will, but I have always admired — and benefited from — dedicated private school teachers and educators who travel far from home and endure the insolence of government officials and opportunism of parents and students who seldom give this community the financial rewards or social respect it deserves.
Therefore when I learned that Dr. Glenn Kharkongor (formerly Glenn Christo), who served for almost two decades as vice president of the 55-institutions-strong Manipal/Bangalore-based Manipal Engineering and Medical Group, and played a major role in transforming this provincial education provider into India’s premier professional education multinational with campuses in Nepal, Malaysia, Dubai and the West Indies, had returned to his roots to promote the Martin Luther Christian University of Meghalaya (MLCU-M), I felt it incumbent upon me to investigate the reported phenomenon of an academic renaissance in this remote region almost severed from mainland India and surrounded by not entirely friendly countries.
A whirlwind tour of Assam and Meghalaya — the most advanced of the eight states of the North-east — revealed that an education renaissance, if not revolution, is indeed sweeping these states and reportedly the other states of the region as well — a detailed report on the latter must be deferred for a more propitious time. Meanwhile in this issue of EducationWorld we explore several amazing private sector initiatives, entirely untold stories which are transforming the education landscape of North-east India.
Moreover against the backdrop of the media and even academia, trumpeting the success of a spate of Indian professionals who have risen to apex-level positions in multinational corporations abroad, our special report feature examines the paradox of graduates of low-ranked Indian higher education institutions succeeding overseas. More fundamentally, why do India’s brightest and best flee abroad to benefit foreign corporates and economies? You’ll get some interesting perspectives from this feature.
