-The Times of India The education department on Thursday slapped a show-cause notice to Sofia Senior Secondary Girls' School for violating norms under the Right to Education (RTE) Act. The show-cause notice was served after the department investigated complaints of a parent who said many girls studying below Class VIII were not promoted to the next class. The department found the complaints to be true but the school said saying parents of...

By selectively borrowing habits from the West, the urban Indian has worsened his chances with cancer. Doctors say that while the city-bred Indian has willingly adopted a western diet, lapping up high-fat foods and shunning high-fibre content, he or she hasn't picked up the healthy western attitude of detecting and treating cancer early.  The end-result, as the India's Million Death Study (MDS) reported on Thursday shows, is that urban Indians are...

Block the loo and train the child. If a recent report of the National Commission of Child Rights is to be believed, barring students bathroom breaks seems to be teachers’ favourite form of punishment. According to the report, “Eliminating Corporal Punishment in Schools”, released earlier this month, almost 18 per cent students are not allowed to go to the restroom as punishment for bad behaviour in class. This is at the top of...

With the decision on 25% reservation for underprivileged students in all schools, including private and unaided ones, pending in the Supreme Court, city schools are finding it difficult to keep seats vacant.  Most schools have completed the admission process. Some have managed to keep 10% seats vacant, in case the order comes out before the session begins. This would be the third consecutive year, when this clause under theRight to Free...

Two years after they were implemented in rest of India   Nearly two years after the legislation was implemented in the rest of the country on April 1, 2010, the West Bengal Government has now framed rules for implementing the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. In keeping with the provisions of the Act, the age of admissions to Class I across the State has been raised from the...