-The Hindu After a prolonged struggle with low enrolment rates for children in the school-going age, India now has to come to grips with another crucial issue: poor learning outcomes for students in the six to 14 age group. National data on this is not comprehensive, but available empirical evidence points to weak achievements for a significant percentage of students. In rural India, which is more disadvantaged, the highest level of...

-The Hindu The Central Advisory Board of Education has decided to constitute a committee to revisit the ‘no detention' provision under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. The panel will submit a report in three months. The Advisory Board, at a meeting on Wednesday, also endorsed the government's initiative to create a Credit Guarantee Fund to provide better flow of credit to deserving students. The Rs. 5,000-crore...

Schools scrambled to get minority status after the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act was framed, say education officials. Records show that after the RTE was implemented in 2009, around 930 schools across the state got minority status from January 2009 to June 4, 2012. Under the Act, all schools except minority unaided schools will have to admit 25% students belonging to economically weaker sections of society. Experts said schools...

-The Economic Times One of the most heartwarming films of 2011 centred on a child labourer who fitted in exceedingly well with his wealthier classmates at school. While a nasty teacher drives the child out of school in the celluloid imagining, in real life, a nasty education system threatens to drive such kids from the country's elite schools.  Among the most jarring arguments against a clause in the Right to Education (RTE)...

-The Economic Times The "no-detention" and "comprehensive and continuous evaluation" provisions of the Right to Education came under criticism from some states particularly Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Assam at the 59th meeting of the Central Advisory board of Education on Wednesday.  In the two years that the Right to Education has been implemented there appears to have been a great deal of misconception about the intent of having a "no detention" policy or...