Charter-Style Schools Catching on Across the World
Education Week, May 20, 2009

"Historically, various countries have had some mechanism in place for providing some public support for private schools," said Mr. Brewer, a professor of education, economics, and policy at USC, in Los Angeles. "But there does seem to be this worldwide phenomenon over the last 15 years, and in countries where you wouldn't think they would be following this similar policy path."........Having opened its first charter school in 1992, the United States may be a pioneer of the modern charter concept, which allows selected schools to operate in the public sector with more autonomy than regular public schools. The authors point, however, to at least 14 other countries, spanning three continents, in which national and regional governments have taken recent steps to introduce some form of market-based schooling into their public education systems. More [+]

Education awaits super boss Manmohan
The Telegraph, May 21 , 2009

Even before a new cabinet has been sworn in, the ministry has resumed work on key projects that had been planned under the previous government but shelved with the announcement of elections and the prospect of a new government........The Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2007-12), drafted by the UPA government, allocated unprecedented funds for education, outlining the greatest expansion in apex higher education institutions since Jawaharlal Nehru — all these at the initiative of the Prime Minister. More [+]

New govt to focus on making education accessible, affordable
Business Standard, May 22, 2009

Broadening the scope of ongoing education schemes is likely to be the focus of the second UPA government. In this year's Interim Budget, Rs 41,978.21 crore was earmarked for the education sector....The passing of the Right to Education Bill, which has been held up in the Rajya Sabha, would place the onus of educating children on the state, and would give a fillip to the government's flagship programmes such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) — primary education for children between 6 and 14 years of age. More [+]

'School chains' website aims to boost choice
www.schoolchains.org

A new website -- www.schoolchains.org -- aims to boost educational choice by highlighting the many high-quality school chains around the world. So far the recently opened website has details on 80 school chains that operate an 37,000 individual school locations around the world. More [+]

91 percent primary schools in state are ‘headless'
Expressbuzz, 25 May 2009

In a damning indictment of the poor state of rural education in the State, a report released by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), New Delhi, has found that around three-fourth of primary schools in rural Karnataka do not have a regular headmaster. NUEPA, which carried out a nation-wide study of elementary education in rural India, has some disturbing data on the state of rural education in India and the state. More [+]

A Tale of Two School Systems
The Wall Street Journal, MAY 26, 2009

In India, the clamoring to even get an interview drove me to tears, as did the rumors of corruption, such as seats at one tony school for sale through a shopkeeper in the capital's Bengali Market. Neither the Indian government nor education entrepreneurs have been able to keep up with the hunger for opportunity, aspiration, education. The latter blames the former, and vice versa. More [+]

Plan Panel identifies four PPP models for higher education
Business Standard, May 22, 2009

Setting agenda for the new UPA government, the planning commission has zeroed in on four business models to promote higher education through Public- Private Partnership (PPP) mode.....Under the basic infrastructure model, private sector will invest in infrastructure while government would run the operations and management and make annualised payments to the private player. The outsourcing model suggests that private players should invest in infrastructure and also run the operations and management while government would pay for specific services. The hybrid model suggests that private player and the government should share investment in infrastructure while operation and management should be taken care of by the former. The reverse outsourcing last suggests that the government should invest in infrastructure and private players should run operations and management. More [+]

Bank accounts for all govt school kids
The Indian Express, May 24, 2009

To cut paperwork for school principals in Delhi government schools and deal with delays in disbursement of grants to students, the Directorate of Education, Delhi government, will soon open bank accounts for students where the all the grants will be directly deposited. At present the students of Delhi government schools get cash grants, channelled through the school principals, for purchasing uniforms and books, as well as scholarships given to students from SC/ST groups and minorities. More [+]

Performance of Govt schools improves
Hindustan Times, 27 May 2009

Delhi Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely congratulated the students of government schools whose performance in the CBSE class 12th results, declared Friday, had improved compared to last year. The overall pass percentage of Delhi government schools has gone up by 1.44 per cent. "There has been a marked improvement in pass percentage of students of Delhi government schools whereas there has been a decrease in pass percentage of students from public schools in Delhi," the minister said, in a statement. More [+]

D.C. Voucher Study Offers Little Support for Continuing Program

A recent evaluation report on the District of Columbia's voucher program finds that participants saw a statistically significant improvement in reading scores, but not math, compared with a control group of students who didn't get vouchers. A new review of the report, however, points out that any such effect is modest and provides little support for vouchers as a solution to the District of Columbia's educational problems.

Read the full review here

ASER 2008 Findings:

Percentage of children (all children age group 6-14) out of School in rural India in 2008 – 6.3%

State with highest percentage of out of school children is Orissa with 7.2% of its children in the age group 6-14 not in school

State with lowest percentage of out of school children is Kerela with only 0.2% of its children in the age group 6-14 not in school

ASER Report 2008

Action for School Admission Reforms (ASAR) More[+]

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