If it took six decades for the Central government to honour the constitutional commitment to provide free and compulsory education to all children in the age group of 05-14 by putting in place the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2010, the State governments, barring a few, have failed to complete the necessary spadework even a year after the law was enacted. The spadework related to...

The HRD ministry has taken the first step towards extending the Right to Education till the secondary level by making it part of the agenda of next month's meeting of state education ministers and the Central Advisory Board of Education. Sources say the idea of extending RTE is at the stage of infancy but the ministry is keen that the process should begin at right earnest so that it becomes...

Educationists are questioning the retrospective nature of the no-fail policy that was made applicable to schools in Goa earlier this month through a circular, days after the results of the last academic year had been declared. While there appears to be a near consensus that the policy will be beneficial, the haste with which the directorate of education (DoE) is implementing this, is leading to various questions being raised. "It...

Like the majority of India's children, the Right to Education (RTE) Act has completed its first year facing malnourishment, neglect and routine criticism. A year after it was notified as law, the right to elementary education remains a dream. The law provides a 5-year window to its implementation but the dream it legislates looks as elusive now as it did when this countdown started. While one important clause is facing...

-DNA   Academicians in Goa have voiced their concern over the education department's arbitrary decision to implement a part of Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009 in the state which asks schools for mass promotion of students from first to eighth standard. Three major bodies -- Goa Headmasters Association (GHA), Goa School Managements Association (GSMA) and Nationalist Educational Institutions Management Association (NEIMA), have said that the circular needs to be withdrawn as...