This copy of EducationWorld in your hands, is the 156th issue of this pioneer and as yet India’s sole education news and analysis magazine. It represents 13 years of back-bending, and largely unsung effort to attain the mission statement articulated in the very first issue, viz, “to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the No.1 item on the national agenda”. Thirteen years of uninterrupted publication later, it would be foolish to say this mission has been accomplished. Far from it. As the cover story in this 13th anniversary issue highlights, even India’s top-ranked and highly feted education institutions from preschool to university, lag way behind in terms of syllabus and curriculum design, pedagogy innovations and learning outcomes.
Nevertheless despite the insolence of office, nouveaux riche’s contumely, and indifference, often hostility, of industry — to whom in previous avatars I have done some service, and they know it — we have doggedly pushed forward to realise our mission. A formidable task given that self-styled superpower India is ranked 132 of 183 countries listed on the World Bank’s ease of doing business index and 182 on the parameter of enforcement of contracts. Thirteen years after often staring into the abyss of disaster, with the help of our advertisers — mainly medium and small-scale producers and marketers of education-related goods and services — for whom we have created a national market, and our nationwide growing community of readers genuinely concerned about devising ways and means to develop the country’s abundant, high-potential human capital, we are out of the woods and are pressing ahead to fulfill our mission through other media. Over the years EducationWorld — also available in digital format in online and e-zine versions — has funded the parent company’s diversification into the books, films, and seminar and events businesses.
Pressing forward, we are currently engaged in building a platform for perhaps the world’s most ambitious education portal on the worldwide web or internet. Designed modularly with infinite growth capacity, on completion the portal (www.educationworld.in) will host profiles of all major education institutions — preschools, primary-secondaries, colleges, universities and after-school coaching, sports and co-curricular education providers. The process of profiling all 444 primary-secondary schools included in the EducationWorld India School Rankings league tables has already begun. Not bound by space and time constraints of the print medium, educationworld.in offers the additional facility of constant updation and reportage of weekly news and events in listed schools. The business model of this portal is that institution updation and news reportage facilities are available for a modest annual fee. Check out educationworld.in for institution enlistment details.
Meanwhile, in this bumper anniversary issue we take a cold, hard look at how India’s top-ranked education institutions which enjoy huge domestic reputations compare with the best in the West. Unfortunately not very well. And in our special report feature based on NUEPA’s recently published Educational Development Index, we highlight India’s most elementary education-friendly states. In addition, this special issue features a smorgasbord of columns written by insightful educationists, teachers and scholars. For serious monitors of the Indian education scene, this 13th anniversary issue offers a veritable feast. Bon appétit!
