At least 76 people have died and several are still missing in Uttarakhand after cloudbursts and landlslides triggered by heavy rains. The region has seen some respite after four days of heavy downpour. The Chief Minister himself took stock of the situation in Haridwar and Almora districts, which have been most affected by the floods. Congress President Sonia Gandhi too visited the nature ravaged state on Tuesday accompanied by Defence Minister...

The state government has decided to ask private schools to furnish details of their accounts to stop them from indiscriminately hiking fees. Although all private schools will be required to reveal the data, the government’s focus is on English-medium institutions as they have been frequently accused of raising fees arbitrarily. The state education department will soon send a circular to nearly 500 private English-medium schools — both unaided and partially aided (those...

The state government will require an additional 43,500 primary school teachers to implement the right to education (RTE) Act, 2009, in schools managed/aided by the government and civic bodies, a preliminary report by the state primary education department has revealed. Under the act, every child between 6-14 years of age will be provided eight years of elementary education in an age-appropriate classroom in his/her neighbourhood. According to the primary report prepared by...

The Centre has agreed to release `400 crore to the Andhra Pradesh government to implement the Right to Education Act from this academic year 2010-11. The decision was taken at a meeting convened by the Union minister of human resource development with the officials of the school education department of various states in New Delhi this week. The principal secretary of primary education, Ms Chandana Khan, had attended the meeting. The Union...

Dispur has decided to set up a children welfare trust to adopt a holistic and comprehensive policy for physical and mental wellbeing of every child living in Assam. The trust will be headed by chief minister Tarun Gogoi and include personalities like industrialist Ratan Tata as its member. The government will formally float the trust on November 14 on the occasion of Children’s Day. Health and family welfare minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told...