M.A. Faiz Khan
Trustee, Mukarram Jah School, Hyderabad
Businessman and educationist M.A. Faiz Khan is trustee of the H.E.H. The Nizam’s Mukarram Jah Trust for Education and Learning which manages the CISCE-affiliated Mukarram Jah School, Hyderabad (MJS, estb. 1987). Ranked the country’s #2 budget private school in the EW India School Rankings 2019-20, […]
Pradip Agarwal
CEO, Heritage group of Institutions
An alum of Calcutta University with 27 years’ experience of managing top-ranked educational institutions, Pradip Kumar Agarwal is CEO of the Heritage Group comprising six education institutions in Kolkata including the top-ranked K-12 Heritage School, Heritage Institute of Technology, Heritage Academy, Heritage Business School, Heritage Law […]
Saurabh Modi
Chairman, Neerja modi school, Jaipur
A commerce post grad of Sydenham College, Mumbai, Saurabh Modi is founder-chairman of the Neerja Modi School (NMS, estb.2001), which has five campuses in Rajasthan (Jaipur, Jodhpur, Chittorgarh and Udaipur) with an aggregate enrolment of 7,000 students mentored by 475 teachers. He is also founder of […]
Born out of the Covid19 incubation period, ‘Cricket-Math™’ is fast becoming a global household name as families embrace the world of virtual learning. As it names suggests, it is a refresing perspective for most school owners and school leaders who want to introduce learning outcomes in a way that is futuristic and brings in relevance […]
The environment crisis is sweeping the planet. Rising temperatures to loss of biodiversity, increasing pollution to impending population displacement, smoggy skies to sinking coastlines—the effects are devastating.
A small group of voices has been screaming climate change for a long time. Yet there is a need for climate action with a refreshed perspective—and it is coming. […]
When you think of a lecture hall, you usually think of a room that is used for instruction typically at a college or university. You may even think there is not much to lecture hall design; just a large room with a bunch of tables and chairs and either an instructor or an audio-visual […]
“Graduation equals unemployment has long been a common saying in China (the nouns share a character). It is often used in jest by university students as final exams loom. But for the 9 million or so who graduated in May — a record high — the words convey a dark reality. As China limps back […]
Hong Kong’s two medical schools, which have been important critical voices in global public health policy, have received significant government support for 26 studies related to Covid-19. The Health and Medical Research Fund-approved HK$111 million (Rs.108 crore) for the University of Hong Kong Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine (HKU Med) and the Chinese University […]
A wide variation in different countries’ success in tackling Covid-19 could lead to major winners and losers in the coming battle to recruit international students, it has been predicted. Perceptions that some nations have struggled to contain the outbreak could be the difference between university sectors losing millions or billions of dollars, according to calculations […]
Job security is emerging as the key battleground as Australian universities strive to offset the billions of dollars the Covid-19 crisis is costing them. Universities are scrapping construction and refurbishment plans, and deferring discretionary spending. Institutions are also courting banks, those with contingency funds are raiding them and every institution is eyeing its cash reserves.
Those […]
Lucian Stiopu watches his son cycle round Central Park in Peterborough. Before the government imposed a lockdown, he says, the boy would spend about nine hours a day at primary school, allowing him to go to work in a prison. And now? Stiopu’s son reports that his teachers are setting a bit of work online. […]
The voices of epidemiologists and public health experts have inevitably dominated initial responses to the coronavirus crisis. This has meant that other disciplines have been sidelined and risk being shut out altogether from the thinking processes informing decisions about how to move forward.
So what can those in the social sciences bring to the table, both […]
US college students are stepping up demands for partial tuition refunds for the spring semester, with a growing number pursuing legal action against institutions they accuse of overstating virus-related financial losses. The students have filed lawsuits against more than a dozen universities, in some cases citing the institutions’ own data showing they had been charging […]
Early teen Nikhil Jha (14) is the latest to join the country’s exclusive club of asteroid hunters. This class X student of Mount Abu Public School, Delhi was among 17 of 1,000 participants countrywide to spot an asteroid in the online All India Asteroid Search Campaign (AIASC) held in July-August 2019, the […]
Bangalore-based Team Helios Racing — comprising 50 engineering undergrads of the city’s RV College of Engineering (RVCE) — bested 40 teams to be crowned national champions at the Enduro Student India (ESI) competition staged in Talegaon, Pune from February 7-10. The team bagged a humongous trophy and prize money of Rs.2.65 lakh.
Started […]
With schools downing shutters worldwide, and learning having shifted online on a massive scale, a new era has dawned for KG-Ph D education. The novel Coronavirus aka Covid-19 pandemic, has upended lifestyles, and with production and usage of tablets, laptops and computers becoming ubiquitous, a new world of teaching-learning is taking shape. Projects, skills-building activities, […]
While all of India and the world was fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, the east coast state of West Bengal (pop. 91 million) which has reported a modest 5,772 Covid positive cases and 335 fatalities (June 1) was hit by a double whammy. Supercyclone Amphan with wind speeds of 155-165 km per hour ravaged the state […]
“With the existing digital divide, expanding online education will push the digital havenots to the periphery of the education system, thereby increasing inequity in educational outcomes.”
Protiva Kundu of the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability on how the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the education inequities of Indian society (scroll.in, May 5)
“It is important to […]
Tamil Nadu’s 18,000 private unaided and 16,500 budget private schools (BPS) are experiencing an unprecedented financial crunch. Because of the Covid-19 lockdown — education institutions in the state have been shuttered for over 80 days — they have not been able to collect fees from parents. A majority of them are set to default in […]
Although the 68 day-national lockdown prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic has hit the entire education sector hard, it has perhaps hit pre-primaries, aka preschools, hardest. In Karnataka, 185 standalone preschools are reportedly up for sale.
Pre-primaries have been particularly impacted by the national lockdown ordered by the Central government on March 25, because the popular perception […]
Over 1,000,000 final year students of universities across Maharashtra are exhibiting signs of panic about whether their final pre-graduation exams will be held at all this year. If cancelled, those opting to write their final year exams may have to take a forced gap year with all further higher education plans in India and abroad […]
As India gradually unlocks from the 68-day national lockdown which began on March 25, the Covid-19 spike continues to climb steeply. Nevertheless, two national school boards — CBSE and CISCE — scheduled their pending school-leaving board exams for classes X and XII for the first fortnight of July. Now all eyes are on guidelines and […]
In the United States, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Sam Walton, the late Steve Jobs and even Ray Kroc (founder of McDonalds) are national heroes. They are appreciated for inventing and innovating excellent products and services for the public and generating well-paid employment for millions of Americans, and paying billions of dollars to the government as […]
The allegedly Rs. 20 lakh crore — equivalent to 10 percent of GDP — stimulus package announced on national television and radio and presented to the nation by the Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in tranches over five days, not only plunged the Sensex by over 1,000 points but also confused if not dumfounded the […]
The silver lining of the Covid-19 crisis and the susbequent lockdown of all education institutions from KG to Ph D is that it has stimulated innovative ICT solutions to ensure continuity of teaching-learning. Here’s how several randomly selected education companies and institutional managements are responding to the Covid-19 Challenge & Response.
Covid-19 Challenge & Response: Shemford […]
As noted editorially (p.10), the Union government’s underwhelming stimulus package to kickstart the economy battered by the Covid-19 induced national lockdown also offered a silver lining. While rolling out minute details of the package over five days (May 13-17), in an obiter dicta finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman also provided relief to thousands of citizens suffering […]
Covid-19 Education Warriors: K.V. Arjun Rao, principal, JBCN International, Oshiwara, Mumbai
Under the leadership of principal K.V. Arjun Rao, the Cambridge International (UK) and IB (Geneva)-affiliated JBCN International School (JBCNIS), Oshiwara has designed innovative online teaching-learning solutions by leveraging ICT and digital platforms to ensure learning continuity of its students during the Covid-19 induced national […]
Geeta Gandhi Kingdon
President, City Montessori, Lucknow
An alumna of Oxford University and the London School of Economics, Prof. Geeta Gandhi Kingdon is chair of education economics and international development, University College London. She is also president of the City Montessori School, Lucknow (CMS, estb.1959), certified as the world’s largest city school by […]
Manit Jain
Co-founder, heritage group of schools
An alumnus of the globally renowned Harvard Graduate School of Education, Manit Jain, co-founder of the Heritage Group of four K-12 schools in Delhi NCR, is a pioneer of experiential learning. In the EW India School Rankings 2019-20, the group’s showpiece Heritage Xperiential Learning School, Gurgaon is ranked India’s […]
Dr. Nissar Ahmed
Chairman, Presidency Group of Institutions, Bangalore
Dr. Nissar Ahmed is chairman of the Bangalore-based Presidency Group of Institutions (PGI, estb.1976) which comprise seven CBSE/CISCE-affiliated schools, three undergrad/postgrad colleges and Presidency University, Bangalore, with an aggregate 25,000 students and 1,300 teachers.
PGI’s Covid-19 response. After the mandated closure of our institutions in […]
Dr. Ashok Pandey
Director, Ahlcon Group of Schools
A physics and education postgraduate of Allahabad and Annamalai universities, Dr. Ashok Pandey is the director of the CBSE-affiliated Ahlcon Public School (estb.1998) and Ahlcon International School (2001) in the national capital with an aggregate enrolment of 5,500 students and 320 teachers. Former chairperson of […]
Gunmeet Bindra
Co-founder, DPS, Rajpura
An alumna of Calcutta University and the Delhi School of Economics, Dr. Gunmeet Bindra was appointed the first woman principal of a Top 10 ranked all-boys boarding school — Welham Boys, Dehradun (WBS, estb.1937) in 2012. After an eight-year tenure at WBS during which the school was ranked […]
Kulbhushan Sharma
President, National Independent Schools Alliance
A commerce graduate of Punjab University, Dr. Kulbhushan Sharma is president of the National Independent Schools Alliance which has a membership of 60,000 mainly budget private schools (BPS) with an aggregate enrolment of 10 million children.
The Covid-19 crisis has majorly disrupted the education system. How […]
Shukla Bose
Founder, Parikrma Humanity Foundation
Formerly the most highly-remunerated woman CEO of India, Shukla Bose is the promoter- director of the Bangalore-based Parikrma Humanity Foundation (PHF, estb.2003) which has established four free-of-charge K-12 schools and one junior college with an aggregate enrolment of 1,500 slum children mentored by 183 teachers.
Parikrma schools’ […]
Divya Lal
Managing director, Fliplearn Education Pvt. Ltd
A psychology graduate of Delhi University, Divya Lal acquired two decades of valuable work experience in blue-chip edtech companies including NIIT, Educomp Solutions and Ebix Smartclass prior to her appointment as managing director of Fliplearn Education Pvt. Ltd in 2019. This Delhi-based company provides […]
MVM Sasikumar
Director, Velammal Education Trust
An alum of University of Canberra (Australia), MVM Sasikumar is director of the Chennai-based Velammal Education Trust (estb.1986) which runs the Velammal Knowledge Park comprising 21 educational institutions (20 K-12 schools, one college) with an aggregate enrolment of 40,000 students mentored by over 2,000 teachers.
The Covid-19 […]
Fatema Agarkar
Co-founder, Agarkar Centre for Excellence
Educationist, parenting expert and teacher educator, Fatema Agarkar is co-founder of the Agarkar Centre for Excellence (ACE) Mumbai, a firm providing K-12 education consultancy services, sports and life skills programmes to over 25 schools with an enrolment of 20,000 students. An alumna of Mumbai and Birmingham universities, […]
Samina Bano
Founder, RightWalk Foundation
An alumna of the College of Engineering, Pune and IIM-Bangalore, Samina Bano gave up a rewarding corporate career with Deloitte Consulting, USA to return to India in 2012 and promote Bharat Abhyudaya Foundation, now known as the RightWalk Foundation (RWF). Since then, this Lucknow-based NGO has succeeded […]
Kiran Bir Sethi
Founder, Design for Change
An alumna of the prestigious National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, Kiran Bir Sethi is promoter-director of the Riverside School (estb.2001) and founder of Design For Change (DFC), a co-curricular experiential learning programme which encourages class III-X children worldwide to design and implement socio-economic development programmes in their […]
10 oldest cities in the world Every city in the world has a story to unfold. The ancient cities have all the more tales engulfed with ... 
Trivandrum International School In a state which has earned a global reputation for development through education, Trivandrum International School (TIS) has been promoted ... 
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Haryana: 35 percent engineering seats vacant in govt colleges says minister During the academic session 2022-23, Haryana's Minister for Higher Education, Mool Chand Sharma, revealed that there is a 35 percent ... 
Corona in the curriculum
UNESCO’S Journal, PROSPECTS has scheduled an entire issue later in the year to the implications of the coronavirus crisis for curriculum design. Its guest editor will be Prof. William Pinar of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver (Canada). The idea is to explore how future curriculum developers in different countries can incorporate […]