New Delhi: The K-12 education system in India is one of the largest in the world, with more than 1.5 million schools and 259 million students enrolled. Statistics shows that schools have grown at a CAGR of 2.7 per cent, from 1.36 million in 2010-11 to 1.52 million in 2014-15, while enrolment has grown from 247 million in 2010-11 to reach 259 million students in 2014-15, a CAGR of 1.1 per cent.
The K-12 Indian book market would grow at a CAGR of 19.6 per cent, from INR 221.7 billion in 2014-15 to INR 541.9 billion by 2019-20, these data was revealed by FICCI – Nielsen Report : K-12 Book Publishing: Market Report 2016. The report was launched at the “PubliCon 2016”, FICCI’s flagship programme in publishing held recently. Making the presentation on the Report, Mr. Vikrant Mathur, Director, Nielsen India, said the potential for school book publishing sector in India with the help of the fact that, the school going population (children aged 5-14) in India in 2015 constitute 19.4 per cent of the total population of the country, more than 3 times the size of the UK, US and Brazilian population together.
Addressing the conference, Prof. Krishna Kumar, Renowned Educationalist, Professor, Department of Education, University of Delhi, and Former Director, NCERT, highlighted the basic difference between textbooks published in developed and developing world. He said that, text books in developed markets make children read other books while books in India confine our children to the syllabus. Books should not make children obsessed with them, but act as a window to connect with the rest of the world. Education ought to make society more open and thought provocating, he added.
On the contribution of private publishers in textbook publication Prof. Kumar said that textbooks attached to a syllabus could be present in a variety of ways. NCERT books cover about 15% of the textbook market and that is where private players could play a significant part.
Emphasising on the significance of intellectual property rights for the sustenance of publishing industry, he said that the book publishing industry runs on meager margins and copyright violations through photo-copying of printed content is leading to diminishing attraction towards the job of content creation. It is therefore high time that people should recognise the contribution of authors and
publishers in creation & dissemination of knowledge by respecting their copy rights.
Ms. Urvashi Butalia, Chair, FICCI Publishing Committee and Director, Zubaan briefly highlighted the significance of the theme of the conference and said that it is one of the biggest segments in overall publishing sector.
