The interaction between less privileged and rich students will enrich the experience of both. The Supreme Court recently upheld the validity of Clause 12 of the Right to Education Act that mandates aided and non-aided private Schools to reserve 25 per cent of the seats for disadvantaged children in their neighbourhoods. This is arguably a landmark judgement that creates an opportunity, though not a certainty, for rendering School a site of...

New census data on asset ownership among different social groups has shown that a far higher proportion of scheduled castes and higher still of scheduled tribes do not own basic consumer durables like a phone or bicycle as compared to "others". Three states however buck this trend; across caste groupings in Punjab, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the rate of ownership of basic consumer durables is high. In fact, the asset ownership...

Double fortified salt is a good idea but... Iodine & Iron     Iodised salt came to India in the late 1950s     Today, 80 per cent of India uses iodised salt, which has reduced the incidence of goitre     Fortifying salt with both iodine and iron can help fight another widespread condition—anaemia     Double fortified salt, or DFS, could prove to be a game-changer in the fight against malnutrition     But if the fight against...

Performance-enhancing drugs are no longer restricted to the high-stakes world of professional sports. Eleven participants at the 57th National School Games in Delhi-from Maharashtra, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, and aged between 14 and 19-tested positive for such substances earlier this year. Alarmed by the dangerous trend, the government's National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) shot off a letter to various educational boards and universities across the country, asking them to ensure dope-free sports....

-DNA A day after private Schools in the state expressed their helplessness in implementing the Right to Education (RTE) Act from the current academic year, a determined state government on Wednesday directed private unaided Schools to announce only 75% of the admission list and keep 25% of the seats aside to enable admission of students belonging to economically weaker sections. But here’s the worrying bit in the story. Most private Schools have...