Although meant to be a festive communication which celebrates Indias most inventive and innovative teachers, this end-of-the-year letter to EW readers is being written under the shadow of the terrorist outrage of November 26-28 in Mumbai, which claimed over 195 valuable lives and injured 295.Like many corporates, firms and families across the country, EducationWorld and your editor personally were not unaffected by this unimaginable tragedy. We suffered the loss of Rohinton Maloo, a member of our Board of Advisors and one of the most fervent supporters ab initio, of this publication. Low-profiled and understated, Rohinton (48) was a rare entrepreneur with many unheralded accomplishments. Apart from promoting a medium-sized advertising agency, he was the co-promoter of Media Scope, perhaps the largest media marketing company in the Middle East, which sells advertising space for most Indian newspapers and periodicals in that region, and also for several western media including Forbes and the Financial Times.
Moreover it is arguable that he introduced Star TV and cable television to India. An information technology and communications wizard who was on the threshold of launching a television division for the holding company of this publication, this productive visionary was cruelly felled by assassins bullets at the Oberoi Trident on November 26 in the prime of his life — a great loss not only to his wife Nikki and children Nairaka (19) and Arshaan (13), but also to the Indian economy and society.
The craft and role in society of teachers is not unconnected with such and other grim tragedies that millions of people across the country suffer on a daily basis, in a social order defined by deep inequalities and ubiquitous socio-economic injustice. Clearly, teachers play a crucial role in shaping the character of societies. Theirs is the onus of moulding and nurturing children and youth who will transform into values-driven, caring and compassionate citizens, committed to building an equitable society. But a pre-condition of such transformation is for the teachers community to inculcate the love of learning and creation of new knowledge in their students. In this issue we present the winners of the Tata Consultancy Services-EducationWorld Teachers Awards 2008 — the countrys most innovative teachers who are carving new paths to attain these objectives.
And conversely, in our special report feature, we present a grim picture of the chronic and unconscionable neglect of vitally important primary education. Its a roadmap identifying the many hurdles and obstacles we have to cross and negotiate to provide a fair deal to the worlds largest child population.