-The Hindu Rajasthan’s Jan Soochna portal is a step in the right direction for transparency in governance Fourteen years since the implementation of the groundbreaking Right to Information (RTI) Act, which has helped shed light on government works and administration, the launch of the “Jan Soochna Portal” (public information portal) by the Rajasthan government on Friday marks a milestone in increasing transparency and accountability in governance. The portal details various schemes run...

-The Telegraph Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget spells out the colossal failure that the draft NEP is fated to be In her budget speech on July 5, the finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, reiterated the government’s plan of bringing in a new National Education Policy, thereby initiating “major changes in both school and higher education”. Her announcement comes close on the heels of a draft NEP published by the ministry of human resource development in...

-The Hindu The focus is on preparing residents of 1,517 habitations to take the test by 2020 KALPETTA (Kerala): After making two successful forays into the tribal hamlets of Wayanad, Kerala’s State Literacy Mission (SLM) is all set to earn the ‘100% literate’ badge for the outlier region, which has the highest tribal population among all districts. Tribal pockets are among a handful of areas where full Literacy remains elusive in the...

-PTI The HRD Ministry has received 35 complaints for substandard food since 2016 More than 900 children were reported ill across the country with zero fatalities due to the consumption of mid-day meals in the past three years, according to officials of the Human Resource Development Ministry. The Ministry had received 35 complaints from 15 States and Union Territories (UTs) regarding substandard food quality in the same period. “A total number of 930 children...

-Newsclick.in The draft National Education Policy reinforces outdated ideas about the goals of a foundational Literacy programme Many children in elementary classrooms across India cannot read and write proficiently, as demonstrated on an annual basis by the Annual Status of Education Reports (ASER). This affects other school-based learning, as well as functioning in societies and economies that prize Literacy. Capabilities of young children It was heartening, therefore, to see a chapter devoted to “Foundational...