-The Hindu Sulabh International, a non governmental organisation (NGO), has decided to double the monthly allowance of destitute, widowed women from this month to dissuade them from begging. The move will benefit 700-odd widows residing in five government-run old age homes here. In addition, the women will be taught Hindi, English and Bengali by trained teachers so that they are able to sign and the money can be directly transferred to their...

-Live Mint Building an outcomes-focused delivery system is a particular challenge in India For once, I am optimistic about elementary education in India. Not because we have witnessed improvements in learning levels. In fact, the opposite is true. The latest Annual Status of Education Report highlights the deepening crisis of poor learning levels. In 2008, just under 50% of standard III students could read a standard I text. In 2012, this dropped...

-The Hindu The Ministry of Human Resource Development recently informed Parliament, that 12 States in the country could not meet the demand for professionally qualified teachers. Moreover, there are more than 8.7 lakh teachers in the country who do not have the necessary training to perform their role. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that the independent annual study by theASER Centre into schooling outcomes in rural India has found a...

-The Hindu Setting up of effective grievance redress and monitoring machinery mooted The Right to Education Act’s guidelines need to be strengthened to help end discrimination in schools, whether based on caste, religion, gender, disability, class or language, by setting up an effective grievance redress and monitoring machinery. This was one of the themes discussed by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) when it met here on Monday to approve in principle...

-The Hindu A fifth of all primary schools had no drinking water facility in the period surveyed There was an increase of 26.77 per cent in the total number of schools in the country between 2002 and 2009, according to a national survey. The maximum growth rate was witnessed in upper primary schools (49.15 per cent) followed by higher secondary schools (46.80 per cent), secondary by 28.95 and primary by 16.68 per...