-The Economist A steadily rising Muslim population continues to fall behind IT TELLS you something hopeful perhaps that, for all the horror unleashed when two bombs laid by presumed militant Islamists ripped through a crowd in Hyderabad on February 21st, India’s public response has been muted. The blasts killed 16 and injured 117. Both the method of the attack (bombs in metal tiffin boxes strapped to bicycles) and its location (near a...

-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 Indian Express ASER’s findings highlight the dismal state of school education. Improving teacher training programmes could lead to better outcomes I remember Rukmini Banerji of Pratham telling us in 2005 that ASER the Annual Status of Education Report — will be a national survey that will hold up a mirror to the condition of education in India and shake us into urgent action. For nine years now, every January, ASER is...

-DNA Many have forgotten the bad news that was delivered about a year back when three reports – the international PISA report, the Wipro-EI Quality Education Study and ASER 2011 – painted a sad picture of the learning scenario in India. The first report ranked our Class 10 children 73rd in the world out of 74 countries. The second said that students in our top private schools were learning more poorly...

-The Indian Express Pratham's Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) tells us every year that teaching-learning at our primary schools is quite a disappointment. This time, however, it is shocking. ASER 2012 reveals the ‘path breaking’ Right to Education Act may have worked to further bring down Learning levels by several notches. Aimed at ensuring free and compulsory education for all aged between 6 and 14, the RTE in its zeal to...