-The Hindu 'They quit because they are not learning anything in school' With eight million children never having stepped inside a school and 80 million dropping out without completing basic schooling, the United Nations Children's Fund has described the situation as a national emergency and called for equipping the government and civil society to implement the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. "There has been progress in implementation of...
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What Right To Education? Failing to meet the prescribed norms, half of the existing schools will lose their recognition -Arvind Panagariya
-The Times of India The three-year compliance period for the Right to Education (RTE) Act is just over. What has the Act accomplished? Sadly, not very much that is positive. A key provision in the law abolishes board examinations and grants automatic promotion to each child to the next grade at the end of the academic year. It also requires the award of a diploma to all at the end of eight...
More »The silent war over education reforms-Krishna Kumar
-The Hindu Despite apparent similarities, the reports of two centrally appointed committees are split on the relationship between knowledge, skills and social needs Two major reports with overlapping concerns were submitted to the central government during the last decade. They were drafted by committees appointed by two different offices of the same government. One was chaired by Yash Pal, and the other by Sam Pitroda. The titles of the two committees indicated...
More »Government close to giving up on Aakash project- Prashant K Nanda and Surabhi Agarwal
-Live Mint HRD minister Pallam Raju says focus should be on helping students access content, not on hardware The government seems to have virtually given up onAakash, the $35 tablet computer that was once billed as India's low-cost solution for bridging the divide between digital haves and have-nots. "Let's not get obsessed with hardware," human resource development (HRD) minister M.M. Pallam Raju said on Friday. "The overall (issue) is how we enable students....
More »Small Children, Big Dreams-Mathangi Subramanian
-The Hindu In a small town in Karnataka, government-school students are working to ensure that their schools meet the infrastructure norms of the RTE Act. Can this model be replicated elsewhere in the country? Kishore Mahadevaiah, a Std VII student, is describing his ideal school. “The school should be very clean and neat. In every class, there should be teaching and learning materials and sports materials and qualified teachers. And there should...
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