-The Indian Express   The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has justified the agitation by children against Posco's 12 million tonne steel project calling it "voluntary". "The children think that they are protecting the interest of their families which is contrary to the allegations that children are being coerced to participating the agitation. The anxiety / apprehension on account of the prospect of displacement and loss of the source of...

The debate on Right to Education (RTE) Act has begun again with the Centre on Thursday remaining firm on implementing it without any dilution and insisting on 25% inclusion of underprivileged children by private schools. Though implemented in 2009, Karnataka is among many states yet to notify the rules for implementation. The Times of India spoke to primary and secondary education minister Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri to get a status report...

Pune : The state government’s exercise to map schools in the state to determine distribution as per population to make it easier to determine the number of schools and where they should be located to suit the Right to Education (RTE) Act targets has completed the second stage. As per the survey released on Monday, Pune district needs around 200 more schools as of now. There is a need of around...

“Freedom from fear” and “Punishment-free zone” read the slogans on the school walls. These signify the end of corporal punishment. They take on a different meaning, though, when schools are occupied by the police, as they are around Dhinkia and Govindpur, the villages resisting the State's takeover of their farmland for Posco's mega power and steel project ( The Hindu , July 13-14). Children here grabbed national attention when they joined...

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen's strong criticism of political India for its gross neglect of elementary education over the decades has revived the debate on the quality of school education and also the scope of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 in addressing the problem of “out-of-school” children, who are estimated to number about 14 crore. Speaking at a university function recently in New Delhi, the...