-The Telegraph   Calcutta July 13: The state government has made BEd compulsory for teachers of secondary and higher-secondary schools but offered a two-year window from the day of joining to new recruits without the degree. The announcement was made today in accordance with the provisions of the Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, and will come into effect from this year. Although the government will allow those without BEd...

The state is not serious about the need for a robust programme of elementary teacher education to realise the right to education. IN India today it is difficult to decide how the agenda for teacher education and its reform can be taken forward. The Right to Education will succeed only if teachers are able to work to ensure that all children do become educated by attending school; effectively, this means...

After a long tussle with the Centre over sharing of expenditure, the Uttar Pradesh Government has finally started working on the implementation of the Right to Education Act. The Basic Education Department has been asked to speed up work on finalising rules for the implementation of the Act as well as for conducting eligibility tests for appointing teachers. The government is keen to appoint 80,000 teachers before the Assembly elections are...

If it took six decades for the Central government to honour the constitutional commitment to provide free and compulsory education to all children in the age group of 05-14 by putting in place the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2010, the State governments, barring a few, have failed to complete the necessary spadework even a year after the law was enacted. The spadework related to...

Cash transfers are now suggested by many as a silver bullet for addressing the problems that plague India’s anti-poverty programmes. This article argues instead for evidence-based policy and informed public debate to clarify the place, prospects and problems of cash transfers in India. By drawing on key empirical findings from academic and grey literature across the world an attempt is made to draw attention to three aspects of cash transfers...