-The Hindustan Times   With the Supreme Court upholding the constitutional validity of Right to Education Act, the government today dismissed suggestions that the burden which private schools will have to bear to implement it will be passed on to the students. The RTE Act mandates the schools to provide free education upto 25 per cent of the students from economic weaker section between 6 to 14 years of age.   "I do not...

Accessible curriculum, teacher training a must in schools, say activists Poorva Subramanium is barely 10 years old, but has learnt an Important lesson in life — not to trouble her parents when they come out of the schools they have been visiting these days. “It is frustrating. No school wants to admit her. She is good at shapes, colours and can also read,” says her mother, showing her report card from...

-One World South Asia The World Bank signs an agreement with India to inject $ 352 million into the National Dairy Support Project, an initiative designed to revive the flagging fortunes of milk production in the country. Other than being crucial to the nutritional security of the country’s population; dairy farming or dairying is also a major source of livelihood for 147 million rural households in India. Spurred by the success of the...

-The Indian Express   'Paid news' syndrome is a menace capable of eating into the vitals of a free and fair media and rooting it out is essential for the health of democracy, Union Minister Ambika Soni has said.   Inaugurating the 125th year celebrations of Malayalam daily 'Deepika' here last evening, the Information and Broadcasting minister noted that the Press Council of India and Election Commission are seized of the matter and are...

The task of positive disciplining will be trickier for the new age teachers, who are already grappling with the new found malaise of increasing student aggression on teachers.  With “corporal punishment” and “mental harassment” punishable under the new Right to Education Act, many educators are left nonplussed.  Yes, most of them believe sparing the rod need not necessarily spoil the child, but how can teachers abdicate their prime responsibility of shaping young...