For the first time in living memory, the appointment of a Union human resources development (aka education) minister has created as much excitement and attracted as many newspaper headlines as has the swearing-in of high-profile Congress party spokesperson and legal eagle Kapil Sibal to this vitally important, but traditionally devalued ministry. Suddenly cleansing the huge mess in Indian education — primary, secondary and tertiary — the consequence of decades of neglect, heavy politicisation and fudging of vital issues, has become a top national priority.
This development is of particular satisfaction to us in EducationWorld whose prime objective, indeed raison d’etre, as encapsulated in our mission statement, is to “build the pressure of public opinion to make education the No.1 item on the national agenda”. Ten years ago when this monthly publication began ploughing a lonely furrow in a forlorn field, there was none so poor to do us reverence. Although they are the largest users of well-educated youth, captains of Indian industry — many of whom were brought into the national limelight by your editor in his previous avatars as the first editor of India’s very first business magazines — were indifferent and even hostile to the idea of an education news and analysis magazine. Nor did educationists and academics particularly welcome media intrusion into their campuses and ivory towers. And ironically the greater proportion of the investment required for growth and development of this publication had to be raised from well-wishers of Indian education and democracy abroad.
Be that as it may, now that even if coincidentally, education — or the chronic lack of it — has risen to the top of the national agenda, the challenge is to ensure that it remains the top priority of the recently elected Congress-led UPA-2 government at the Centre, and of state governments across the country. It’s a matter of amazement that post-independence India’s 15 governments in New Delhi and more in the state capitals, gave expansion and development of education — particularly primary education — such low priority in a country with the world’s largest child and youth population. But hopefully neglect of Indian education is now history, and there is a new national consensus and resolve to reap the nation’s demographic dividend through thorough and comprehensive education of generation next. HRD minister Kapil Sibal has the huge task of cleansing the long-neglected augean stables of Indian education. This month’s cover story celebrates his appointment and spotlights areas of darkness in Indian education. Hopefully it will make a contribution to the national debate which is a vital precondition of his success as the new incumbent of Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi.
Re our special report, David Wightman, a Canadian journalist and writer who was recently in Australia, offered to write us an in-depth feature on the causes and effects of the rash of violent assaults on Indian students in that country. The offer was accepted with alacrity, and the outcome is a racy narrative which casts an illuminative light upon the anti-Indian rampage down under. You’ll hear more from this can-do journalist who is now India bound.
