After months of debating the issue and seeking the law ministry's opinion, the HRD ministry on Tuesday finally issued guidelines about screening of children at the time of admission under the Right to Education Act. HRD minister Kapil Sibal said, "We have taken the law ministry's clearance to issue the guidelines on screening. The RTE Act will be amended later. Had we gone in for an amendment on screening now admissions...

KEY TRENDS   • Maternal Mortality Ratio for India was 370 in 2000, 286 in 2005, 210 in 2010, 158 in 2015 and 145 in 2017. Therefore, the MMRatio for the country decreased by almost 61 percent between 2000 and 2017 *14    • As per the NSS 71st round, among rural females aged 5-29 years, the main reasons for dropping out/ discontinuance were: engagement in domestic activities, not interested in education, financial constraints and marriage. Among rural males aged...

National Advisory Council Chairperson Sonia Gandhi today voiced concern over the high dropout rate and the absence of teachers in village schools. She noted that "one fourth of the teachers" in village schools remain absent and said the dropout rate, particularly amongst the minority and poor, was high. Speaking at a function after inaugurating 31 Navodaya Vidyalayas in various parts of the country, Gandhi said, "Everyone has a right to education and...

The challenge to the validity of the much-hyped Right to Education (RTE) Act mandating free and compulsory education for children was on Monday admitted for hearing by the Supreme Court and referred for adjudication to a five- judge constitution Bench. A Bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar found the petition filed by an association of Jaipur-based private unaided schools raising constitutional...

A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court will hear a batch of petitions filed by several private unaided and Minority Schools challenging the government's new Right to Education Act, 2009, which guarantees free and compulsory education for all children between 6 and 14 years of age in the country. Under this law, every child aged 6 to 14 shall have the right to free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood...