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Weekly Update on Education (Issue No 218)

18 Dec 2012

TET complusory for BTC, Shiksha Mitras as well: Uttarakhand HC
Uttarakhand Portal, December 17th, 2012

The Honorable Uttarakhand High Court, Nainital, in its yesterday ruling made Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) mandatory (compulsory) for BTC, Shiksha Mitras as well. Regarding the Uttarakhand Government’s recent order of recruiting Non-TET regular BTC passout trainees in primary Schools in the state; the Hon’ble HC declared the said appointment unlawful.

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Education Bills fall casualty to parliamentary chaos
The Hindu, December 17th, 2012

Crucial legislative measures aimed at improving the country’s educational system are getting sidelined as both houses of parliament witness unruly scenes and are disrupted over different issues. Human Resource Development Minister M.M. Pallam Raju has however not lost hope although just four days are left for the winter session of parliament to end.

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A Win-win solution: The empirical evidence on School vouchers
The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, March 23rd, 2011

This report collects the results of all available empirical studies using the best available scientific methods to measure how school vouchers affect academic outcomes for participants, and all available studies on how vouchers affect outcomes in public schools. Contrary to the widespread claim that vouchers do not benefit participants and hurt public schools, the empirical evidence consistently shows that vouchers improve outcomes for both participants and public schools. In addition to helping the participants by giving them more options, there are a variety of explanations for why vouchers might improve public schools as well. The most important is that competition from vouchers introduces healthy incentives for public schools to improve.

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Competition and free thought: Friedman, Mill and Educational Choice
The Freeman, December 11th, 2012

John Stuart Mill’s ideas on education are not as well known as Milton Friedman’s. But they may deserve to be. Mill and Friedman agreed that government should not run schools, but for different reasons. (At least each emphasized different things.) Friedman was mainly concerned with productivity improvements that arise through competition. Mill was more concerned with freedom of thought. Mill valued the diversity of opinion that comes from people pursuing their own intellectual journeys, and all compulsion in opinion was anathema to him. The consequences of State schooling in America suggest Friedman and Mill were both correct.

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Punjab to provide free crash course to Class XII students
Hindustan Times, December 13th, 2012

The director general school of education, Punjab, cum project director Punjab Edusat Society, Kahan Singh Pannu confirmed the crash course will be provided with the help of Edusat network facility.The crash course is free of cost for the students of government schools of Punjab and the private school students can also avail the opportunity by paying an amount of Rs. 1000 to the Edusat society through Demand Draft (DD) in the favour of project director Punjab Edusat Society payable at Chandigarh with the concerned government school principals.

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Parents wary of point system in nursery admissions
The Hindu, December 17th, 2012

Despite the Directorate of Education issuing specific guidelines about the nursery admission process earlier this week, parents are wary of the point system-based admissions and believe the creation of various categories by the schools was grossly “unfair”.

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Employment of persons upto 18 years of age to be treated as child labour
The Hindu, December 17th, 2012

Union Minister for Labour and Employment M. Mallikarjun Kharge has said that the Centre is considering treating the employment of persons up to the age of 18 as child labour and ban it.

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Punjab govt. to start Radio classrooms in primary schools
Times of India, December 17th, 2012

In an effort to bring qualitative improvement in the state education, the Punjab government has decided to start ” Radio Classrooms” in all the government primary schools from December 20.

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Schools desperate for minority tag to avoid RTE
Times of India, December 17th, 2012

An inordinately large number of schools in the state is rushing to seek minority status to avoid the provisions of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, especially those related to admitting 25% students from disadvantaged sections and better pay for teachers.

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The effect of primary school quality on academic achievement across 29 high and low income countries
Chicago Journal, 1983

Most previous research on effect of schooling has concluded that the effect of school or teacher quality in academic achievement is less than that of family background or other characteristics of students that predate entry into the school.

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MOOCS and the future of education
The conversation about the future of education has recently been dominated by the acronym MOOC - Massive Online Open Courses. These are famously run by large Ivy league colleges, often on a common platform such as Coursera, though some are run independently too. These are normally free and are available to anybody who has a good internet connection on a computer. Click here to read more

Brooking Education choice and competition index
Watch Video: Brooking Education choice and competition index
To watch video click here.

Poll

Should the scope of RTE Act be raised from 14 to 18 years of age?

To vote click here

RTE Coalition

To initiate and continue the discussion amongst concerned groups and individuals on the issue of right of education and monitor the implementation
of the RTE Act, an RTE Coalition has been formed. Join the coalition to make universal elementary education a reality in India.

Log on to www.righttoeducation.in
for more information

Skill Vouchers - Global Experiences and Lessons for India

Leah Verghese and Parth J Shah

A study of the role that skill vouchers can play in catalysing demand for quality skill development services. This study examines global experiences with skill vouchers and draws lessons for India from these experiences.

For more click here

Reservation in Private Schools under the Right to Education Act: Model for Implementation

Shekhar Mittal and Parth J Shah

Through this document the Centre for Civil Society seeks to highlight the lacunae in the current framework for 25% reservation for weaker and disadvantaged groups in unaided private schools and seeks to provide inputs on effective implementation of the same.

For more click here

School Vouchers for Girls

400 girl children from poor families of North East Delhi receive school vouchers for a period of 4 years.
For details visit our website

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