-The Hindu     There is no linkage between decentralisation of school governance and quality inclusive education, reveals a recent study Delhi: Inequity and very low per capita expenditure on teachers are the major reasons behind the crisis faced by school education currently, two recently released study reports have identified. They have further pointed out that it is the combination of a good head teacher and a good team of teachers that is the...

-The Hindu There is absolutely no methodological relationship between the Tendulkar poverty line and the one dollar poverty line. Mihir Shah has defended the poverty line recommended by the Suresh Tendulkar Committee in 2009 in his article in The Hindu (editorial page, "Understanding the Poverty Line", August 5, 2013). Mr. Shah makes two claims. First, he argues that "Tendulkar [...] computed poverty lines for 2004-05 at a level that was equivalent, in...

-Frontline Once more, without feeling: the government's latest poverty estimates. YET again the Central government has mired itself in controversy by releasing its latest poverty estimates based on the consumption expenditure survey of the NSSO (National Sample Survey Office) Survey of 2011-12. The Planning Commission's poverty line, using methodology suggested by the Tendulkar Committee in 2010, is now apparently defined as the spending of Rs. 27.20 per capita per day in rural...

-Frontline The midday meal scheme is a grand idea in a flawed school system. "THEY played here, studied here and got buried here!" (Yahin khela, yahin padha aur yahin ho gaya dafan). With these emphatic words, grieving parents buried the bodies of two children within the compound of the Dharmasati Gandaman Primary School of Masharakh block in Saran district of Bihar. This sentiment was expressed with great dignity even in the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Government's failure to run the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) scheme smoothly in the government schools has not stopped it from proposing to extend the programme to cover 25% children of private schools in SC, ST and minority-concentrated districts. Initially, the idea was criticized within the HRD ministry and now both the finance ministry and the Planning Commission have put a spanner in the proposal. Sources in the...