-The Hindu   In his Independence Day address, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made two important announcements, both relating to education. One affirmed the government's intention to improve the quality of education at various levels and appoint an Education Commission to go into the issues. The other outlined a plan to universalise secondary education as a follow-up to the enactment of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE), 2009...

-The Hindu   Universalisation of secondary education in 12th Plan Education without textbooks. This is what the government is contemplating for pre-school children. “We would like to move forward, hopefully, in the next few years to bring pre-school education on the formal education agenda without formally teaching children between four and six years,'' HRD Minister Kapil Sibal told the Rajya Sabha on Friday. Replying to a question on the steps taken to extend the purview...

The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved verdict on a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Right to Education Act, 2009, which guarantees free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school till completion of elementary education for all children between 6 and 14 years of age in the country. A three-Judge Bench of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia, Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar reserved verdict at the conclusion of...

The Supreme Court is set to deliver a decision on a constitutional challenge by private schools Private schools around the country are waiting for the Supreme Court to issue a judgement in a constitutional challenge to a 15-month-old law that enforces free and compulsory education as a fundamental right, after hearing was concluded last week. The government, through the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, or RTE, had...

Even as academic circles debate whether schools should do away with the detention policy (pass-fail system) as well as examinations that put pressure on students, the West Bengal government is yet to notify the Right to Education Act nearly 15 months after it came into force all over the country in April 2010. Recently, School Education Minister Bratya Basu said the government was considering a proposal to do away with examinations...