-The Hindu     No significant difference between rural and urban outcomes The government's own assessment of how much children are learning in schools says that 86 per cent of children in class III can recognise words in their own language and 69 per cent can do simple numerical additions. Maharashtra and the four southern States, Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur perform better than the national average on both tests. The findings of the third...

-The Indian Express A state-wise break up of learning levels, however, indicates that the traditional BIMARU states have much to catch up even now compared to their southern counterparts. Even as independent surveys continue to point fingers at the quality of education being imparted in Indian schools, the National Council Of Educational Research And Training (NCERT) Friday released its National Achievement Survey (NAS) for Class III that indicated quite otherwise. Released...

-Deccan Herald New Delhi: The decade-old mid-day meal scheme for primary school children, rolled out with the twin aims of fighting malnutrition and improving attendance by providing cooked food, still appears too little to fight the menace of malnutrition in many states, including Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. A large number of elementary school children are suffering from "severe" malnutrition in as many as nine states, with the highest figure of...

-The Hindu In the case of technologies with benefits and risks, it is important to have regulatory mechanisms which can help analyse them in an impartial manner It is 61 years since the beginning of new genetics based on the discovery of the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. It is also 31 years since the production of transgenic plants. The first patent for a living organism went to Dr. Anand...

-The Telegraph Ranchi: If in 2010, half of Jharkhand's Class V children in government schools could read Class II textbooks, only 34 fifth graders out of 100 could do so in 2013. But don't blame the child, blame the lack of teachers. The standard of Jharkhand's state-run schools is plummeting through the years, says Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2013, prepared by NGO Pratham, which annually undertakes an assessment of the...