D.C. Voucher Program Produces Academic Gains for Students
Institute of Education Science, US Department of Education, March 2009

“The District of Columbia School Choice Incentive Act of 2003, passed by Congress in January 2004, established the first federally funded, private school voucher program in the United States. As part of this legislation, Congress mandated a rigorous evaluation of the impacts of the Program, now called the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP). This report presents findings from the evaluation of the impacts 3 years after families who applied were given the option to move from a public school to a participating private school of their choice. The evaluation is based on a randomized controlled trial design that compares the outcomes of eligible applicants randomly assigned to receive (treatment group) or not receive (control group) a scholarship through a series of lotteries.” More [+]

Extreme Negativity Amongst Schoolchildren: NCERT Study
Indiaedunews, February 2009

“New Delhi: Concerned about the mental well being of children as they grow into adults, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is conducting a nationwide survey to analyse the emotional experience of children in schools and the initial results have not been encouraging. "The initial results of the survey have revealed that there is extreme negativity amongst schoolchildren," NCERT director Krishna Kumar said at a panel discussion on corporal punishment in schools here on Thursday.” More [+]

NIIT to provide training in 29 New Delhi schools
Reuters India, 8 April 2009

“MUMBAI (Reuters) - IT training firm NIIT Ltd said it has entered into a deal to provide information and communications (ICT) training in 29 New Delhi municipal schools.” More [+]

Parents protest non-availability of books in govt schools
Indianexpress, 6 April 2009

“New Delhi: Students of Government Schools in Delhi, along with Parents and teachers gathered at the official residence of Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely on Sunday in protest against the non availability of books in government schools. The delay has been attributed to the change in curriculum from SCERT to the NCERT syllabus.” More [+]

The Role of School Improvement in Economic Development
Eric A. Hanushek, Hoover Institution and Stanford University And Ludger Woessmann, University of Munich and CESifo, 2007

“This paper reviews the role of education in promoting economic wellbeing, with a particular focus on the role of educational quality. It concludes that there is strong evidence that the cognitive skills of the population - rather than mere school attainment - are powerfully related to individual earnings, to the distribution of income, and to economic growth. New empirical results show the importance of both minimal and high level skills, the complementarity of skills and the quality of economic institutions, and the robustness of the relationship between skills and growth. International comparisons incorporating expanded data on cognitive skills reveal much larger skill deficits in developing countries than generally derived from just school enrollment and attainment. The magnitude of change needed makes clear that closing the economic gap with developed countries will require major structural changes in schooling institutions.” More [+]

ID cards not given, students miss NIOS exam
The Times of India, 9 April 2009

“NOIDA: Several hundred students of National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) from the Delhi region were on Monday reportedly unable to appear for the class XII exam as their identity cards were not delivered to them. Many others have spent the last few days queuing up outside the institute for duplicate ID cards, and thousands of admissions were cancelled recently because the institute which caters to about 1.30 lakh students of NCR claimed to have lost fee payment records.” More [+]

Education board tells schools to get state recognition
The Times of India, 2 April 2009

“Several new schools affiliated to boards other than the SSC do not have a certificate of recognition from the Maharashtra government. "We want all such schools to immediately apply for recognition as students from unrecognised institutions will not be given admission to Std XI at a junior college that follows the HSC syllabus,'' says Shridhar Salunkhe, chairman of the Mumbai division of the state board of education." More [+]

Life, in semesters
The Times of India, 6 April 2009

“The University Grants Commission (UGC), in its 11th Five-Year Plan, proposed many academic reforms for central and state universities. One among them is the introduction of a semester system.” More [+]

The Comprehensive Longitudinal Evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program:
Patrick J. Wolf, School Choice Demonstration Project, University of Arkansas, February 2008

“Our plan for evaluating the Choice program is comprehensive, multi-method, rigorous, and longitudinal. It is comprehensive in that we recognize that school choice programs could affect a wide variety of individuals and institutions in positive and negative ways. Our research will evaluate the participant effects of the MPCP on such important outcomes as student achievement, parent and student satisfaction, civic values, the religious identity of private schools, and how parents and students experience the program. We will determine the systemic effects of the Choice program on education finance, public schools, non-participating students, private school capacity, and school-level racial integration. Finally, we plan to examine the under-explored question of the possible broader "community" effects of the MPCP on the levels of economic and racial segregation and integration in Milwaukee neighborhoods. This project represents the most comprehensive evaluation of a school choice program ever attempted.” More [+]

Tomorrow's Schools Today: New Zealand's Experiment 20 Years On

"In 1989, the government of New Zealand embarked on a radical series of reforms continuing into the 1990s to address a failing schools system. The government halved the size of the educational bureaucracy, putting money and power directly into the hands of parents. Despite setbacks that may have hindered even greater success, educational quality was greatly enhanced by these policies."

Mark Adams, Mercatus Center at George Mason University, January 2009

Jharkhand (Urban and Rural) Education Landscape (2007-08)

Examination Results: Grade IV/V - Passed with 60% and above marks:

Boys: 32.47 %
Girls: 30.65 %

Net Enrolment Ratio at Upper Primary Level:

45.11 %

Examination Results: Grade VII/VIII - Passed with 60% and above marks:

Boys: 29.28 %
Girls: 28.97 %

DISE 2007-08: Flash Statistics

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