Notification of rules is a step forward, but a lot more needs to be done A bunch of children selling toys at a traffic signal, small boys cleaning tables at restaurants or washing glasses at tea shops or little girls engaged as baby sitters – the effective implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, will possibly make such instances a thing of the past. However, for...

The Right to Education Act, which lacks a transformational vision, is geared to preparing foot soldiers for the global market. THE most encouraging and delightful news regarding school education in India since the pro-market reforms began in 1991 came from Erode district in Tamil Nadu recently. To be sure, it is neither about the World Bank-sponsored District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) of the 1990s nor about the internationally funded and...

The State's public education system faces the threat of dilution from several quarters. WHEN a national law is finally in place to ensure that not a single child is out of school, there is a growing concern in Kerala, which already has a well-established, though languishing, public education system, about the United Democratic Front (UDF) government's moves to sanction a large number of private, unaided schools. The decision to issue no...

Lakhs of children waiting to take the entrance test for admission into the prestigious Navodaya Vidyalayas can now finally appear for the take relief as the law ministry has finally said that these schools can be exempted from two key provisions of the Right to Education Act. However, the law ministry has asked HRD ministry to take the precaution of issuing the necessary notification exempting these schools from the RTE...

-Express News Service   The Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs) will conduct the screening examinations for Class VI from July 10, after having delayed the exams for almost six months while they secured an exemption from the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education that prohibits screening tests for admission to schools. “Because of this confusion, we have already delayed our examinations. We are under the specified category, and hence exempt from...