When the fledgling Indian government drafted its higher education policy after Independence, it formed two separate tiers for teaching and research: colleges and universities in one, exclusive research establishments in the other. The intention was of the noblest, to deploy our best talent exclusively to create an indigenous knowledge pool; in particular, to provide research input for the nation’s development. Sixty years down the line, the outcome has patently failed those...

Ranchi, April 3: Newbie eighth grader Radha Kumari at Government Middle School in Ranchi’s Tharpakhna is happy over her promotion, but says it does not feel like she is in a new class. “No new textbooks,” she frowns. Radha is not alone. In fact, 60 lakh students between classes I and VIII studying in 40,000-odd state-run primary and middle schools are in a similar quandary. They have not received their new,...

-PTI The request came from a 10-year-old, but it put the government in a spot of bother. In February, Class VI student Aishwarya Parashar had filed an application under the Right to Information Act to the central public information officer in the Prime Minister’s office seeking a photocopy of the order through which Mahatma Gandhi was declared Father of the Nation. The PMO forwarded the application to the home ministry, which forwarded it...

-The Times of India   Parents who wish to seek the district education department's help for promotion of their detained ward in the schools will now have to lodge complaint with the department in affidavit. Following the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2008, coming into effect in the district since 2011, several parents have approached the RTE cell of the education department seeking promotion of their detained wards to higher class in tune...

The Guinness Book of world record would have been happy to include this feat by a surgeon on January 7 in Bihar's Araria district - 53 sterilization operations on females in two hours with the help of unqualified staff in Kaparfora Government Middle School that did not have basic amenities like running water or sterilizing equipment. Instead, the Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Union and state governments on...