BIJLIPUR (PUNJAB): For some time now, the village of Bijlipur has been attracting a slew of local news TV crews and even reporters from Canadian radio stations. The village has something that most of Punjab can't boast of: a sex ratio in favour of women. The state of Punjab along with Haryana is among the country's worst performers when it comes to sex ratio. The census 2011 figures record 893 females...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Think outside the 25% box-Vikas Maniar
RTE implementation must focus on improving standards in government schools The provision for reserving 25 per cent seats in Class I for private unaided schools in the Right to Education Act is a red herring. About 30 per cent of the 76 lakh primary school children in Karnataka go to unaided private schools, mostly in urban areas, according to District Information System for Education (DISE) data. A 25 per cent reservation...
More »Flagships adrift -Jayati Ghosh
The ICDS' plight is symptomatic of the problems plaguing the Union government's flagship schemes for the poor all over the country. INDIA may be the only country in the world where we describe the ensuring of the basic socio-economic rights of the people in terms of “flagship schemes” that are seen as the benevolent contribution of governments. One problem with this approach is that the delivery of basic services is...
More »RTE declares war on education entrepreneurship, feel PE investors-Ahona Ghosh & Saumya Bhattacharya
Entrepreneurs and investors , who had only recently found innovative ways to invest in education as a business , are concerned about the financial impact of the Supreme Court ruling last week upholding the Right to Education Act. All schools, except minority unaided ones , will now have to set aside 25% of seats for poor students . While most investors welcome the move , they also worry about funding the...
More »Hitting the RTE note-Namita Bhandare
As the final bell goes off in my daughter's school, a ripple of anticipation runs through a group of children waiting at the gate. Tiny hands stretch through eager to touch those on the other side. For an instant, a single handshake seems to bridge an insurmountable distance, the meeting of the children of the two Indias: one that is elite, entitled and exclusive and the other that is deprived,...
More »