-Frontline.in The mergers of small primary schools with low enrolment rates with bigger ones may have saved money for the Jharkhand government, but it has wreaked havoc on the lives of children in remote areas who find it difficult to commute to their new schools. It is a little past seven in the morning, time for children to get ready for school. But for nine-year-old Phoolmati Kumari, in Tengrapathar village of Jharkhand’s...

-The Hindu There are fewer girls with disabilities in school than boys, says report More than one in four children with disabilities between ages 5 and 19 in India have never attended any educational institution, while three-fourths of five-year-olds with disabilities are not in school. A report by UNESCO and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences released on Wednesday recommends structural, funding and attitudinal changes to ensure that no child is left out...

-Hindustan Times The report, which was released in Delhi on Wednesday, called for policy interventions to improve the situation. Nearly three-fourths of five-year-old children and one-fourths of kids aged between 5 and 19 with disabilities in India are out of school, according to a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) report. The UNESCO had commissioned and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences prepared the report titled State of the Education Report for...

-The Hindu It is imperative to promote community-based care rather than relying only on hospital services The deaths of 154 children in Bihar due to acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) has laid bare the precarious capacity of the State’s healthcare apparatus to handle outbreaks. AES has been linked to two factors: litchi consumption by starving children and a long, ongoing heat wave. As promises of bolstering the health infrastructure are being made, it...

-Down to Earth The midday meal scheme for schoolchildren is increasingly getting politicised, as the upper class elite wants to impose its own religious/food beliefs on malnourished children Most countries in the world now have some programme that provides midday meals to schoolchildren. School meals have been widely hailed for their multiple benefits — they increase enrolment and attendance, particularly of children from vulnerable groups; contribute to reduce “classroom hunger” and improve...