Ever since I transformed overnight from a manager in Indian industry into the editor of India’s first business magazine several decades ago, I have entertained the notion that the true entrepreneur is one who can deliver maximum quality at minimum price. The example of the world’s first discount store tycoon F.W. Woolworth (1852-1919), who established a chain of over 1,000 Woolworth stores where everything was priced at 5-10 US cents (then 35-70 paise), has always remained lodged in my mind. In several edits I wrote in the country’s first two business magazines, I recommended the Woolworth model as most suitable for the price super-sensitive Indian market.
Alas, to little avail. Only recently and particularly after the publication in 2004 of the seminal Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid — Eradicating Poverty through Profits authored by the late Dr. C.K. Prahalad, professor of business at the University of Michigan, in which he cited several contemporary case histories of enterprising businessmen serving the public good while simultaneously keeping investors and shareholders happy, has India Inc become aware that although a nation of abysmally poor people, the sub-continent offers efficient businessmen who can provide quality products and services at affordable prices, huge economies of scale advantages.
This is especially true of primary, secondary and vocational education. But unfortunately the Central, state and local governments which have assumed the burden of educating the poor and disadvantaged majority, have miserably failed to deliver cost-effective education. Year after year the Central and state governments cascade a river of money (Rs.350,000 crore in 2010-11) into 1.26 million government schools, 400 universities and 25,000 junior and undergraduate colleges, with little to show for it by way of learning outcomes.
Against this backdrop the news that several education entrepreneurs and philanthropists — inspired by ground-breaking research conducted in the slums of Hyderabad and elsewhere around the world by Dr. James Tooley, professor of education at Newcastle-Upon-Tyne University, UK (The Beautiful Tree, 2009) — have ventured into the affordable education market segment, generated considerable excitement in the offices of EducationWorld. We expeditiously tracked down Hyderabad-based Rumi Education Pvt. Ltd which is first off the blocks to provide learning improvement service packages to the estimated 65,000 K-12 schools in this newly-discovered, high-potential market segment. The outcome is this month’s cover feature on the welcome gold rush into affordable education which offers the prospects of huge multiplier benefits to Indian education, and society.
And in our second lead feature this month — the most detailed and analytical story on the subject — our painstaking managing editor Summiya Yasmeen explains the root causes and wrong turns which have prompted the national outcry and anguish over the high admission cut-offs prescribed by the top colleges of Delhi University, dashing the legitimate dreams of thousands of students who topped the recently concluded school-leaving board exams. Regrettably, it’s a national malaise.
