India’s largest public school chain has accepted that it has failed to improve standards of education in its primary classes two years after it launched a revamp plan, following concerns over learning levels of children. In a letter to all its 981 schools spread across the country, the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) has said an internal survey to assess the revamp has found “shortcomings” on all parameters. The revamp plan...

In an effort to unburden children, the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan has laid down stringent weight norms for school bags carried by students. KVS has asked its schools to maintain the lowest school bag weight of less than two kg for students in Classes 1 and 2 with the highest bag weight, six kg, allowed for those studying in Classes 8 to 12. KVS has directed the principals of its schools...

  KEY TRENDS    • A total of 7.55 lakh (755,247) RTI applications were received by the reporting public authorities in 2014-15. This is about 79,000 fewer RTI applications received in 2013-14. The CIC report notes this decline in the number of RTIs received. However almost 90,000 RTI applications were pending decision at the start of the reporting year of 2014-15 *@ • Around 67 percent of men and 54 percent of women interviewed...