Where private and public co-exist
Parth J Shah, Pragati , March 2010

Over the years, India has aspired to provide education to every child in the age group of 6-14. Sadly, as some recent surveys and data show, there is a huge gap between aspirations and actual achievements. This gap can only be filled by encouraging private involvement over and above reforming government schools.Unfortunately many intellectuals, educationists and policy-makers believe that expanding the government system in itself, with some tinkering, is the necessary and sufficient condition for achieving universal quality education. They believe that since the government is responsible for education, schools have to be built, owned and operated by the government. They do not realise that it does not matter to parents and children where they get quality education from, as long as they do.

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Children can demand education from April 1
The Telegraph, 23 Feb 2010

India has notified education as a fundamental right for all children between 6 and 14 years, enabling them and their parents to legally demand schooling from the government for the academic session beginning April 1. The notification, dated February 19, was received by the human resource development ministry today and has set in motion a chain of measures the ministry and state governments need to take to effectively implement the law. Starting April 1, the Centre or state governments can be hauled up in court for failing to provide schooling to any child between 6 and 14. More [+]

Budget allocates 25% more for education
The Financial Express, 27 Feb 2010

The government has increased the allocation to the education sector by over 25 per cent this year as it gears up to implement the Right to Education Act from April. The Budget raised the total allocation for education from Rs 36,400 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 45,711 crore in 2010-11. In the backdrop of the decision to implement the Right to Education Act--that aims to make primary education accessible to all children in the country--the allocation for elementary education, which was Rs 26,800 crore last year, has been increased to Rs 34,711 crore in this year More [+]

SSA gets 24k crore windfall under Right to Education
The Times of India, 25 Feb 2010

HRD ministry and states can be happy as 13th Finance Commission has been the most generous for elementary education allocating Rs 24,068 crore for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to all the states for the next five years.. The fund to be disbursed over the next five years is part of the equalisation grant to all states which will be equivalent of 15% of the assessed requirement. It will take care of the recurring expenditure that SSA incurs in terms of salary, training and similar other heads. But capital expenditure has to be left out of it. More [+]

Rights of education for economically weaker sections I
Neetu Banga, Merinews, 01 March 2010

Many Private schools in the city have failed to follow the directions issued by the education department, which has made it mandatory for all schools to admit a minimum of 10 per cent students from the economically weaker sections (EWS) of the society. While the department says they have taken note of this, schools are violating the norms unchecked.This provision is dodged in numerous ways; schools claim ignorance of the law, that they can’t find poor students or that poor students have to be educated separately even if admitted and so on. More [+]

Rs.1,300 crore spent on 'quality' education of SC students
Sify News, 25 Feb 2010

Nearly Rs.1,300 crore have been released for the 'quality' education of Scheduled Castes (SC) students under various centrally sponsored schemes and scholarships as per the Economic Survey for this fiscal.An amount of Rs.60.99 crore was released up to Dec 31, 2009 to target 6.60 lakh beneficiaries under the pre-matric scholarship scheme. Under the post-matric scholarships, the government has released Rs.728.91 crore up to December 2009. As part of the centrally sponsored scheme of hostels, the government has released Rs.5.98 crore to meet a target for construction of 44 and 30 hostels for SC girls and boys, respectively. More [+]

Poor state of schools exposes government promise
India Today, 01 March 2010

As many as 1,722 schools in India function in tents while another 34,278 do not have any pucca building, the Supreme Court has been told. The shocking statistics, submitted by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration, further reveals that an overwhelming majority of such schools - about 95 per cent - are either aided or run by the government.The court had sought a countrywide report from the university after taking note of the poor state of affairs in the Capital where about 6,000 posts of teachers and principals are lying vacant. More [+]

Educational Reforms: Issues of Quality and Equity
P R Dubhashi, Mainstream Weekly, Vol XLVIII, No 10, February 27, 2010

Recent measures to introduce educational reforms have put into sharp focus issues of quality versus equity.This article discusses two important measures for educational reform-Bansal Committee's recommendation for the regulation of fees charged by non-aided schools and concept of universal primary education as per the RTE Act. More [+]

Good Governance Lessons for Primary Education
Transparency International, Feb 2010

ABSTRACT: This report presents a regional overview of accountability and transparency in primary education management in seven African countries. It has been produced within the framework of Africa Education Watch (AEW). Since the late 1990s the management of primary education in much of Africa has been subject to structural changes intended to bring it closer to the ‘user’, and to give citizens at the local level (particularly parents) a greater stake in management. The goal is to increase accountability, oversight and responsiveness.This report seeks to discover whether these new decentralised systems are effective in controlling malpractice, monitoring the flow of resources, and preventing corruption, resource leakages and delays. Particularly, it asks whether school administration is now a genuinely accountable and participatory governance system. More [+]

The Role and Impact of Public-Private Partnerships in Education
By Harry Anthony Patrinos, Felipe Barrera-Osorio, and Juliana Guaqueta

This slender volume provides an invaluable overview of the role that private ventures can play in K—12 schooling. The best-known form of public-private partnership in schooling is a voucher plan that includes private schools. But the authors flag the many different roles that private providers play around the world when it comes to professional services, support services, school management, and facilities.
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Date:11 March 2010(6pm onwards)
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