According to the HRD ministry, the new set of Sanskriti schools  across the country being planned by the department of personnel & training (DoPT) will have to give 25% reservation to children of economically weaker sections as per the Right to Education Act. Earlier, DoPT had sought the opinion of the HRD ministry on the proposed Sanskriti schools. The ministry has urged DoPT to spell out if Sanskriti schools are specified...

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...

Allaying fears of minority groups about the Right to Education Act, HRD minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday said the government has no intention to interfere with minority rights which are guaranteed under the Article 30 of the Constitution. Speaking at a meeting on RTE organised by Jamiat-Ulama-e-Hind, Sibal said his ministry will issue regulations to deal with minority fears on RTE and if need, the RTE Act will even be...

The government on Thursday said it did not propose any amendments to the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act that would dilute the Act's provisions. “There are some practical difficulties in the implementation of the Act that need to be addressed,” a senior official of the Human Resource Development Ministry said. “We are working out a reasonable way to address these issues to take the social agenda forward without...