-The Hindu What the draft National Education Policy omits in its chapter on early childhood care and education The draft National Education Policy starts its opening sentence with a hitherto little-known fact: “The learning process for a child commences immediately at birth.” Many believe that children start learning only in school. It is true that language and numerical proficiency, and analytical skills, are attained in school, but the foundation for such a...

-The Hindu About 5% useful; about 25% of letters on teacher recruitment norms The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has received more than 77,000 comments and letters on the draft National Education Policy (NEP), according to HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. The extended deadline for accepting feedback from the public ends on Wednesday, July 31. “About 5% of the feedback received so far is useful, and will be taken into account,” said a...

-The Hindu The draft’s endorsement of critical thinking would have gained credibility if it had promoted liberal values A few months ago, a school principal told me about her conversation in the morning assembly with children of the middle (Grades VI-VIII) section. She had asked them for suggestions to turn the school into heaven. Some children suggested a garden, with trees, grass, and flowers blossoming all year round. Others pointed out that...

-Hindustan Times The report, which was released in Delhi on Wednesday, called for policy interventions to improve the situation. Nearly three-fourths of five-year-old children and one-fourths of kids aged between 5 and 19 with disabilities in India are out of school, according to a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) report. The UNESCO had commissioned and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences prepared the report titled State of the Education Report for...

-The Hindu Business Line India’s manufacturing needs higher investment in education and R&D to become self-reliant and technologically competent The share of manufacturing in India’s GDP has stagnated at 16 per cent since 1991, despite economic reforms. No country ever became a manufacturing force without (a) a design capability; and (b) an institutional system that incentivises and sustains innovations. India needs a system to develop human and technical capabilities at both the...