-The Economic Times India came 72nd of 73 nations in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) competition, despite fielding students from its best states, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The dismal quality of Indian education is confirmed by the latest Annual Status of Education Report (ASER). Throwing money (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan) and legislation (Right to Education Act) at education has produced no quality gains at all. Abhiyan spending is up from...
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Only six per cent of elementary education budget spent on children, points out survey by Aarti Dhar
Interventions aimed directly at children — providing free textbooks, uniforms and addressing out of school children – account only for 6 per cent of the total investment in elementary education. The largest investment — 78 per cent — of the education budget in India is invested in teachers and management costs while the next largest spending, to the tune of 14 per cent, is done on creating school infrastructure. Only...
More »The glory and the blemishes of the Indian news media by Amartya Sen
One of the great achievements of India is our free and vibrant press. This is an accomplishment of direct relevance to the working of democracy. Authoritarianism flourishes not only by stifling opposition, but also by systematically suppressing information. The survival and flowering of Indian democracy owes a great deal to the freedom and vigour of our press. There are so many occasions when, sitting even in Europe or in America,...
More »Inclusive growth: Malnutrition-education link by DP Chaudhri & Raghbendra Jha
The approach paper for the 12th Five-Year Plan with focus on faster, sustained and inclusive growth is candid and forward-looking. On poverty reduction, the document notes, without comment, the annual trend decline of 0.8% accelerating to 1% during 2004-05 to 2009-10, against a promised target of 2% in the 11th Plan. It emphasises that India will easily meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving poverty by 2015, over 25...
More »Committee to give Maha school laws a full revision by Yogita Rao
School education laws in the state will soon undergo an overhaul. The Maharashtra government has set up a committee to synchronise all laws in school education with the centralRight to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 . Formed recently by the state's school education department, it will be led by a retired Bombay high court judge and will have experts in education. While the committee will look at all laws in...
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