For the first time, a job quota will be thrust on the private sector if the government accepts a panel’s recommendation for reservations for the disabled and turns it into law. The government-instituted committee has suggested extending to the private sector the 3 per cent reservation for the physically challenged that now exists in government jobs. It also wants a 5 per cent quota introduced for disabled students in private Educational Institutions...

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is world’s most extensive primary education programme, but is it working? The grim reality that India’s Right to Education is at best working in terms of quantity of schools, and certainly not in terms of quality of education, was first proved in successive Annual Status of Education Reports (ASER), brought out by education NGO ‘Pratham’ through nationwide ground-level surveys. Now a Planning Commission evaluation report confirms most...

Allaying fears of minority groups about the Right to Education Act, HRD minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday said the government has no intention to interfere with minority rights which are guaranteed under the Article 30 of the Constitution. Speaking at a meeting on RTE organised by Jamiat-Ulama-e-Hind, Sibal said his ministry will issue regulations to deal with minority fears on RTE and if need, the RTE Act will even be...

Modifications recommended in definition of ‘child with disability\\\' Taking forward the agenda set by actor Aamir Khan in the Bollywood film Taare Zameen Par, a Parliamentary Committee has suggested that dyslexia and any other type of disability, if existing, need to be included in the definition of “child with disability” while amending the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill 2010. Dyslexia does not find mention in...

As it stands, the Right to Education Act has several flaws that will prevent its efficacious implementation. Several amendments are called for. Something that cannot work, will not work. This is a tautology applicable to the Right to Education (RTE) Act, which cannot meet the objectives for which it was enacted. There are several reasons for this. First, the Act does not rule out Educational Institutions set up for profit (Section 2.n.(iv))....