-Governance Now However Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat are trying hard towards implementing the RTE Act successfully Even after three years of implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, less than 20 percent schools across the country are RTE compliant. The RTE Act, which was implemented in April 2010, specified a time frame of three years for improving schools' infrastructure and hiring teachers. The deadline expires on March 31,...

-The Hindu A fifth of all primary schools had no drinking water facility in the period surveyed There was an increase of 26.77 per cent in the total number of schools in the country between 2002 and 2009, according to a national survey. The maximum growth rate was witnessed in upper primary schools (49.15 per cent) followed by higher secondary schools (46.80 per cent), secondary by 28.95 and primary by 16.68 per...

-The Hindu Salem: Officials in the Department of Education in Salem district are resorting to ‘intimidating and dissuading’ tactics by asking the parents of school dropout children, majority of them Dalits, not to send their wards to the Public Hearing on Child Right Violations in Western Districts of Tamil Nadu, being organised here on Monday claimed the organisers. Salem People Trust and Samakalvi Iyakkam- Tamil Nadu, supported by Child Rights and You...

-The Indian Express The growing influence on policy issues of activists who call themselves “civil society” is a worrying trend and needs to be objectively analysed. Two recent policy pronouncements will illustrate how government seems to be yielding to their pressure. It is well established that absenteeism of teachers and poor quality of outcomes in government schools is the main factor behind the popularity of private schools with poor infrastructure that cater...

-The Times of India PUNE: Less than a fortnight ago, the state education department had stirred up a hornet's nest when it announced that kindergartens would now come under the purview of Right to Education Act, putting a spanner in their ongoing admission process. Much confusion prevailed followed by a flurry of clarifications from the government asking them to go ahead with their admission process as long as they kept 25...