“It is a violation of the child's right to be included in education system” Some non-governmental organisations have opposed the recent amendment to the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, which makes home-based education a right for children with multiple and severe disabilities. The clause says: “Provided that a child with ‘multiple disabilities' referred to in Clause (h) and a child with ‘severe disability' referred to in Clause...

Rudyard Kipling opens his superb novel with the street urchin Kim teasing the son of a wealthy man. Kim kicks Chota Lal, whose father, Lala Dinanath, is worth half-a-million sterling, off the trunnion of the mighty cannon Zam-Zammah. Kipling loved India and wrote that it was the only democratic place in the world. It warms us to read this, but of course this was quite untrue in Kipling’s time and...

-The Times of India JAIPUR: A day after TOI published a report, "Orphans in peril as RTE mandates parents' income, caste certificates," the Rajasthan government's social justice and empowerment department has written to the education department to soon clarify the issue of certificates mandated under RTE for orphaned children. The report had highlighted how orphans were being asked documents like parents' income certificate, caste certificate, age certificate etc. to get admission in...

-The Hindu “Hectic lobbying by private interests in education is responsible for Karnataka being a laggard among Indian States in implementing the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act,” said a senior government official on Thursday. Karnataka and Goa are the only States that are yet to notify rules that will enforce the legislation that guarantees education as a fundamental right to all children aged between six and...

-The Economic Times The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday passed an amendment to the Right to Education Act. The amendment will widen the beneficiary net for disabled children and provide those with severe disability the option of receiving education at home. It will also give school management committees an advisory role in minority schools, both aided and unaided, and will put madarsas and vedic schools and other institutions providing primarily religious instruction outside...