That teaching-learning standards — and consequently learning outcomes — in public, i.e. government-run, K-12 schools (and most government-run colleges) are abysmal, is known to everybody except Central and state government bureaucrats who dominate seminars, workshops and the lectures circuit outlining lofty projects to enable this overpopulated nation to harvest its accidental demographic dividend. Proof of the pathetic condition of public K-12 education is that India’s 40 million middle class households shun government schools.

But such is the depth of ignorance of global education norms and systems, that on the lecture/seminar circuit I spend considerable time informing parents and educators that in developed industrial nations, children from most middle class households attend public (government) K-12 schools. Therefore instead of complaining about tuition fees, admission processes and administration of private schools, they should insist upon better teaching-learning standards in public schools so they can avail free-of-charge K-12 education for their children. But this explanation is usually too complex for most people to grasp. Instead they prefer the dangerous option of inviting government intervention in private education.

Yet although private K-12 schools undoubtedly offer superior education and better learning outcomes, they are at best relatively better. It’s doubtful whether in terms of learning outcomes and problem-solving capabilities of students they are on a par with the best private schools of the developed industrial countries, especially of Britain and the US. In short, K-12 schools (and higher education institutions whose certified graduates are mostly unemployable) in this country need drastic and urgent overhaul if the ubiquitous rhetoric about India’s demographic windfall/dividend is ever to translate into anything meaningful.

It’s against this depressing backdrop that our cover feature in this issue of EW expresses considerable enthusiasm about the takeover of the Bangalore-based pioneer online tutoring company TutorVista by Pearson Plc, the London-based education, media and books publishing conglomerate which bills itself the world’s largest education company. Hitherto a traditional school and college textbooks publishing company, over the past several years the company’s Pearson Education division has transformed into a globally-active new information technologies-driven end-to-end education provider offering content and curriculums, online tutorials, teacher training, ICT-in-education, testing, assessment, certification and school management services. All of which are urgently needed in Indian education.

The knee-jerk reaction of indigenous academics and educrats — busy with business as usual even as the education system is inexorably sliding from bad to worse (for proof, read our special report feature testifying to abysmal learning outcomes in rural primaries) — to the entry of this multinational megacorp into Indian education is likely to be hostile. But even at the risk of being branded a lackey, running dog of western capitalism etc, I believe the full commitment of the Pearson Group, as evidenced by its largest ever one-time investment in Indian education, is an overdue and welcome development. To discover how and why, you’ll have to read our first-of-its-type cover story in EW’s milestone 125th issue.