-Newsclick.in It is not just about electricity, playground and boundary walls, but the government schools lack infrastructure—classrooms, library, labs, etc. Identifying the shortfalls in budgetary funding and utilisation, a parliamentary panel on education has found that close to half of government schools across the country don’t have access to electricity or proper playgrounds. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development (HRD), in its report—Demands for Grants 2020-21 Analysis—which was submitted to Rajya...

-Newsclick.in The latest education budget needs condemnation but got kudos. In recent times there has been growing discontent in universities and colleges over rising fees and cost of education. The growing worries about access to higher education for students of modest means extend beyond this, to the steady privatisation of higher education. Already, according to the government’s own data, nearly 77% of the colleges, accounting for about two-thirds of the students, are...

-Counterview.net It was a shocking reply by the Union human resource development minister to a question raised in Parliament on closure of schools in a country where lakhs of children are still out of school. On December 2, the minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, told Lok Sabha that the NITI Aayog’s education project, Sath-E, has led to 35,996 schools of different levels being merged in Madhya Pradesh, 4,312 in Jharkhand and 1,803...

-The Hindu NITI Aayog’s draft working paper to strengthen the ICDS programme in urban areas For every 100 anganwadi beneficiaries in the country, only seven are in urban areas, according to the government’s response to a Right to Information (RTI) query from The Hindu. This is primarily because of a severe lack of anganwadis in cities, leading to poor coverage of the government’s flagship programme in early childhood development.   Six services Anganwadis or day-care...

-The Hindu NITI Aayog will develop draft policy, which will be circulated to the Ministries for consultations Urban areas are likely to receive a renewed focus under the government’s ICDS programme, which provides for anganwadis or day-care centres across the country for delivery of nutrition and pre-School Education. The government’s think tank, the NITI Aayog, has prepared a draft working paper, which once approved would be circulated to different ministries for consultations. These...