The biggest opportunity in this segment is that 35 per cent of our population is 0to14 years of age, and this figure is ever growing. So the Indian population is an opportunity for us.
The biggest challenge is that the concept of read aloud and picture books has still not taken shape in this market.We are working closely with parents and schools to make them understand the value of reading aloud and the value that a picture book brings to the child. Even our Report says that one of the things which determines whether the child will become a frequent reader or not is whether their parents read aloud to them or not.We are trying to educate young parents on the importance of reading aloud to their child to inculcate the habit of reading and to nurture overall growth as an individual. If all parents knew why reading aloud is so important and critical, I think they would find those 20 minutes for it.
Q: How has been the journey of Scholastic in India? Is it in line with the global objectives?
NJ: Scholastic is 20 years old in India.As we are known globally, in India
too we are known as a reading-promotion company much more than a children’s publishing company, though we are a big name in children’s publishing too. For us, the whole endeavour is to promote the habit of reading.We work closely with schools to promote the habit of reading. While doing this, we not only promote our own books, but also books in general, across the globe.
Q: How does Scholastic promote the reading habit in India? NJ: We reach 7,000+ schools with our reading-promotion activities across the country, right from Kargil to Lakshwadeep to Gangtok to Gandhinagar.We are present in every possible market and we try and take books to every kid.We believe that if you have to build a strong reading habit, it has to stand on four strong pillars—access, choice for kids, involvement from parents and teachers, and practice. So the more you read, the better reader you are.We have brought out new programmes that can enhance the skillsets of Indian kids. Scholastic News Kids Press Corps is a group of talented Kid Reporters, aged 10 to14, from across the country and around the world.We are very happy that three kids from India were selected and now they are on the panel of Kid Reporters. Our corporate communication team interacts directly with the kids, and they would be reporting on certain important matters.This will be very good exposure.
Besides, we have been organizing Scholastic Writing Awards where the kids write their stories and the top ten stories get published in the form of a book.What could be more encouraging for a 10 to 12-yearold child than to see his/her story published?
Q:What is the road ahead? How do you see the next five years? NJ: We would like to carry on doing what we are doing, improvise on it and do it in a much better way. One of the things we are going to focus on is how to reach more kids.We would also like to share our research and learning with others, so that we equip them with the right ammunition.We are also doing curriculum publishing.There, we try to bring all the best things that are practised across the globe to the Indian classroom, in a way that it is organically connected to the Indian
curriculum.Again the pedagogy, the methodology, the spiral progression
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are all taken care of, as in the global environment. Our focus remains preschool to grade 5, though we also have series for Classes 6-8. Q: How has the CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) directive to use NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) books impacted school publishers and how does your organization plan to handle this development?
NJ:Any directive that the CBSE or NCERT comes out with, will always have an impact on all publishers but there is enough space for everybody. One has to see what comes through and strategize accordingly. It does impact us, but we are trying to create the best, so that our schools get the best.
Q: How have teaching resources/aids evolved over time? NJ: Scholastic is one of the companies which creates maximum amount of teachers resources.Also, on the curriculum side, we have a lot of professional development for teachers when we engage with schools.We also offer teaching guides, which help them deliver content in the best possible way.We have digital resources, webinars, videos, etc., to equip teachers with the resources they need.
Q:What is your take on e-books?
NJ: Even if you look at the broader global perspective, where e-books have become more popular than in India, especially in the children’s segment and in the younger section, e-books have never been too big a component.We are still in the initial stages.According to our Kids and Family Reading Report, 80 per cent of kids who were exposed to an e-book, now prefer a print book.Though it is very difficult to predict which way it will go, we at Scholastic feel that the medium is not important, what is important is that they consume the content. It is important that they read.That is what our focus is.
Q:What are your views on declining readership?
NJ: In comparson with earlier times, today’s kids have got many options with screen time. People also say kids’ attention time is declining. Rather than focusing on the reading habit going down, we should focus on how to improve reading, so that it becomes the most important activity among the other activities. For this, in India, we introduced a method for schools to measure a student reader’s ability, called Lexile level or Lexile measure. Lexile measure is a valuable tool for teachers, parents and students. It serves two unique functions: it is a measure of how difficult a text is as well as a student’s reading ability level.The Lexile Framework was developed by MetaMetrics, an educational assessment and research team, funded originally by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. We took it a step further and introduced LitPro through which any individual can log on and get to know what her reading level is. This helps in reading the right books of your choice within your reading level and thereby improving it. Currently, we are offering this to schools but we are also looking at it to take it to individuals as a retail model.
Q:Tell us about your experience as a publishing professional? NJ: I have learnt a lot about how books play a critical role and how reading is so deeply connected with academic success too. I have been reading aloud to my daughter since she was 9 months old and today she is an avid reader. I was privy to all the research that goes on at Scholastic and I was fortunate to share these books and my learning with her. Besides, I get to read a lot of children books which keep the child in me alive.We should all remember we are catering to a segment which changes and evolves very fast. Every 2 to 3 years, there is a generation gap.We have to ensure we are on top of the latest development so that we can provide material that resonates with today’s kids.The biggest satisfaction is that we are always giving back to society.
neeraj jain is Managing Director of Scholastic India. Before joining the publishing industry, he worked with media and direct marketing companies and has been in the Steering Committee of ‘Excellence in School Education’, an initiative by IIT Delhi. He is a member of
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gearIng uP for the 21st Century “Putting new wine in old bottles ” Atiya Zaidi
Q: How big is the K-12 publishing segment?
Atiya: There is huge opportunity in the K-12 publishing segment.As the population keeps increasing, the number of schools increases as well. Every parent is aspirational now and wants her/his children to study in ‘Englishmedium’ schools.With this, publishers in this segment are increasing and all feel that the more there are, the better. Competition is increasing but quality is what sets us apart.We take great pride in the quality and pedagogy of our books and I am not talking about just quality in content, but also visuals, designing, printing, binding, etc. Besides, we use CFP (chlorine-free paper) to do our bit for the environment.
Q:Tell us something about the journey of Ratna Sagar. Atiya: Ratna Sagar started 35 years ago with just five people. Now we have 600 plus people. Ratna Sagar means an Ocean of Gems.The name has been taken from Nalanda University, where the library building, which housed valuable manuscripts, was named Ratna Sagar. So it is a 3,000-yearold tradition
we are carrying forward.
The first series we brought out was Living Science in 1984, which has become a legendary series, and is still going strong. It was the first fourcolour science book at that time and was readily accepted. People did not believe it was printed in India!
Another series which furbished our image was My Big Book of Social Studies for Classes 1–5.This is a bestseller till date. It was launched in 1990
and has become invincible. Later, we also published for Classes 6–8.
Teachers and principals have appreciated our books and the journey has brought us more appreciation than challenges. Q:What are the recent trends, opportunities and challenges in the K-12 publishing segment?
Atiya: In our country, things change slowly; there are no visible trends as such.Almost 25 years ago when the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) introduced the communicative pattern of learning in English, all publishers followed it. It is interesting to note that Orient Longman (now Orient BlackSwan) had introduced this kind of a book called Onward English long back, but even though a very good series, it was not very successful because people were not open to change. However, when CBSE introduced the pattern, it was mass adopted and schools accepted it readily.
Since the past two decades, most of our ELT courses have been based on LSRW (listening, speaking, reading, writing) skills.A few years ago, on the HRD minister’s suggestion, the HRD Ministry introduced the CCE (Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation) pattern of learning. It was a useful concept but it did not work because the implementation was not effective, as schools were not prepared for it. Many private schools, where teachers were trained and qualified enough to handle the new system, could implement it properly. But schools in smaller cities were not able to implement it fully.The system was revolutionary and the books were more learning-oriented and less exam-oriented. Here, the role of teachers became more important and so did their accountability. But it did not work the way it should have.As a result, the pattern was dropped.
Q: How has the CBSE directive to use NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) books impacted school publishers? How is your publishing house taking this new directive? Atiya: Last year, there was a confusion that schools affiliated to CBSE were asked by the board to use only NCERT books for all classes. But, there has been no directive from NCERT and publishers are not affected.This year,
we brought out 317 books, the highest number we have ever done.This is also due to the fact that the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) changed the syllabus and we revised all the books. We have not dropped a single book from our publishing plan.
Q:What makes a good textbook?
Atiya: Publishing textbooks is a big social responsibility as you are moulding the minds of future citizens. On an average, a textbook has a shelf life of 6 to 7 years and a successful book sells 50,000–60,000 copies a year. Some of the bestselling books even sell 1-lakh plus copies!
A textbook should be easy for an average teacher to use and should be student-friendly for the child to feel interested. If a science teacher is not in school on a particular day, the book should be such that an English or social science teacher can take it up and teach the class, at least upto Class 8.That is one of the guidelines for our editors!
We are blessed to be in this culture-rich country. But, the more plural a country, more the scope for stereotyping.Thus, books should also have universal values likes caring for the environment, mainstreaming the differently-abled, knowing the extended family, gender equality respect for other castes, religions, classes, regions etc.
Q: What specific things does Ratna Sagar do to face up to the competition and other challenges?
Atiya: It has become imperative for publishers to provide teacher resource material along with textbooks.At Ratna Sagar, we provide a Teacher Companion with detailed lesson plans so that teachers can plan their lessons accordingly.The lesson plans are detailed and technical, designed by practising teachers.There are a few articles on pedagogy as well, besides guidelines for activities, worksheets, etc.
We also provide digital support for teachers in the form of e-books, more activities for smart boards, games, assessments, test generators for different lessons, apps, virtual reality, 3D, etc.
Moreover, we do a lot of teacher training. Every year, we conduct around 14,00 to 15,00 workshops across the country, which are free for
teachers.We do it as a service as we believe that we cannot expect the
government to do everything. If we can take even a small initiative, it will make a difference somewhere. Q: How has e-learning impacted K-12 publishing in general and your publishing house in particular?
Atiya: E-learning is an additional resource; the print book is still the king (or queen!) and will remain so. E-learning aids teaching; it goes a long way in explaining abstract concepts like various body systems and concepts like rotation and revolution.
However, it has not reached many schools due to issues like lack of proper infrastructure, low connectivity and inadequate teacher training. Maybe, it will take another 5 to10 years to become a part of classroom teaching. However, e-learning material does help publishers in getting their books prescribed as schools feel it is a value-addition.
Q:What are the creative challenges you have faced in your career? Atiya: In mainstream educational publishing, if you are too creative, it does not work. It is important to keep your dreams and creativity under control and create a book, that is suitable for one and all. I think keeping a balance between acceptability, conformity and non-conformity is a challenge.
We did a path-breaking series of English readers, based on the concept of language across the curriculum, as we believe in holistic education and not teaching in compartments. For example, one chapter of the English Reader was linked to the science curriculum and another with maths.The series did not succeed because it was far ahead of its time.
Another series, which also did not get much success, was Hindi Reader, which had a Mickey Patel painting on the cover and lots of funny stories inside, and even a few English words here and there. It was created by a well-known educationist and linguist, an expert in elementary education. One teacher from an elite school remarked that it was too interesting and looked like a magazine rather than a book!
So, we learnt the trade secret that instead of putting old wine in new bottles, we should put new wine in old bottles.We have to give
good content in the way teachers or children want. For example, instead of putting all literary works in one reader, we put one story from the likes of Ranjit Lal or Ruskin Bond in the reader.The same story in a book of stories might reach 2,000 children but in a textbook, almost 200,000 children get to read it.Thus, we found the formula of reaching the acceptance point, which is to keep 80 per cent of the content conventional and 20 per cent new. Most of our books work on this formula of acceptability.
Q: What are the other challenges you face?
Atiya: There is a very small pool of editors and content creators to draw upon. For content writers, we prefer practising teachers as they know the problems and needs of children and they understand what a teacher can handle in a 40-minute class.
The other challenges in the industry include rising paper costs, returns going up, and the problem of long credit cycles, which has increased from 60 days to 180 days to as much as 360 days now.
Q:Where do you see the industry five years from now? Atiya: K-12 publishing will grow more content will be created and disseminated, though the platform may be different.Traditional classroom teaching will be around and remote learning will still take time to be mass adopted.We are geared for the 22nd century and will always keep a step ahead of others in technology or pedagogy.We are on solid ground and our company is aligned to the vision of the future of education.
atiya zaidi is Publisher at Ratna Sagar. She has 26 years of experience in writing and preparing books for children. She specializes in ELT, and creates course material
for the social sciences, maths and science as well. She is on the faculty of two major publishing courses and is a founder member of the FICCI Publishing Cell.
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teChnology In eDuCatIon “technology is an enabler in k-12 publishing” Himanshu Gupta
Q: How big is the K-12 publishing segment and who are the key players in India?
HG: According to the Nielsen 2015 report, the K-12 segment is close to US$3.5 billion in India, which would be around Rs 22,000-23,000 crores, of which 65–70 per cent would be with private publishers.This segment is growing at the rate of 8–10 per cent annually and it will continue to grow as India has a very specific school market.According to the latest reports, we have 270 million students of whom 40 per cent go to private schools. By 2030, there will be approximately 350 million students going to school, of whom 65 per cent will be privateschool students.This is because both the students and the parents feel that the quality of education, teaching faculty, learning materials and infrastructure at private schools is much better than in government schools in most cases. So, even low-income group parents feel that putting their children in private schools will not only enhance their careers but also give them the same opportunities as children from higher-income groups.They want their children to become doctors, engineers or management graduates, which they feel is more attainable if their children study in English-medium private schools. Else, they will remain stuck in the lower income strata.
So we believe there is a transformation and evolution happening in the education segment, which will give a whole lot of opportunities to players like us in the future.There are a lot of players in the industry and in
time consolidation will happen in the industry, with only limited players who offer quality content and services able to survive.This will be good for the industry as well as for customers as it will grow in size but the number of players will be fewer and they will be more quality conscious.
The key players operating in the Indian school market today are Oxford University Press, Macmillan, Cambridge University Press, Pearson, Orient BlackSwan, Ratna Sagar and Encyclopedia Britannica. According to industry estimates there are around 20 to 25 players who control 70–75 per cent of the total CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education)/ ICSE (Indian Certificate of Secondary Education) market worth Rs 4,000–4,500 crore.
Publishers On Publishing Page 24