-Live Mint Skill development in teachers and selection on stringent quality can deliver desired educational outcomes in India While School education is largely a state government subject, the centre can do a lot to create an enabling environment for government and private entities, ensure accountability and shape flagship programmes. Access to and enrolment in School education in India have grown significantly in the last two decades, to over 90% now. This should...

-Economic and Political Weekly     Looking at the National Sample Survey Office data on employment and unemployment by major religious groups, this article finds that the Muslim community remains worse-off compared to all other religious groups on almost all indicators. It is argued that to reap the "demographic dividend", Indian policymakers and administrators will have to proactively implement at least existing social welfare programmes, particularly those that are related to School education. Sunita...

-The Times of India     NEW DELHI: Latest statistical research finds strong causal links between areas with the most suicides and areas where impoverished farmers are trying to grow crops that suffer from wild price fluctuations due to India's relatively recent shift to free market economics. A new study has found that India's shocking rates of suicide are highest in areas with the most debt-ridden farmers who are clinging to tiny smallholdings...

-The Telegraph     MANGALORE: Santosh Menezes is eager to vote. Like many in his age group he loves cricket and idolises Tendulkar, Dhoni and Yuvraj. But unlike the others, he cannot communicate or move about. Bedridden since birth, the 24-year-old will have to be carried by his parents to the polling booth on April 17. Santosh, who lives in Kokkada village in Belthangady taluk, some 70km from Mangalore city, is among the 6,000 victims...

-Live Mint   Instead of testing theoretical knowledge, the problem-solving tests examined how students could use their knowledge in practical situations New Delhi: Asian countries led by Singapore took the top seven spots in the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) report on problem solving capability among 15-year-old students, released by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Tuesday. "Students from Singapore and (South) Korea have performed best in the first...