-The Indian Express   More than a quarter of children between the age group of 10 and 12 years cannot add two small sums of money without using a calculator, a new study has revealed. The research indicated that youngsters are leaving primary school unable to spell, add or do times tables and their parents do not have the time to help them. Around a third cannot do division or basic algebra while half...

A government-appointed panel has suggested launching online higher education courses, a step experts said would not only widen access to knowledge but also check irregularities in distance learning. Apart from permission to universities and deemed universities to offer courses through the Internet, the committee has recommended that the government set up a Distance Education Council of India (DECI) as regulator. Fourteen open universities and 172 other institutions now offer distance education to...

The arbitrary deletion of A.K. Ramanujan’s ‘Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation’ from the syllabus of a concurrent course taught by the History Department by the Academic Council of the University of Delhi has understandably sparked off a major debate. The prehistory of this step is to be traced to early 2008 when ABVP activists attacked and vandalised the office of the History Department in the...

It has to be but a means to development, not an end in itself Is India doing marvellously well, or is it failing terribly? Depending on whom you speak to, you could pick up either of those answers with some frequency. One story, very popular among a minority but a large enough group—of Indians who are doing very well (and among the media that cater largely to them)—runs something like...

For the first time in Jharkhand, World Bank officials from Washington DC will hold daylong deliberations with a select group of academics, bureaucrats and stakeholders here to thrash out a roadmap for improving the standard of higher education in the state. “The quality of higher education is not up to the mark at most educational institutions. There are many challenges and opportunities in the sector in a country where there is...