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Accounts leash on private schools – Government
move to stop institutions from hiking tuition fees arbitrarily
Mita Mukherjee, The Telegraph,
September 20, 2010
The state government has decided to
ask private schools to furnish details of their accounts
to stop them from indiscriminately hiking fees. Although
all private schools will be required to reveal the data,
the government’s focus is on English-medium institutions
as they have been frequently accused of raising fees
arbitrarily. The state education department will soon
send a circular to nearly 500 private English-medium
schools — both unaided and partially aided (those
getting dearness allowance) — telling them that
it will be binding on them to provide details of their
financial data (income and expenditure) whenever asked
by the government.The government can take legal action
if the schools fail to reveal the figures.
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Speaking the right language
Hindustan Times, September
17, 2010
Union minister for human resource development
Kapil Sibal is clearly a follower of Confucius who once
said, “If language is not correct, what is said
is not meant…” Something perhaps that India
and China could well do without. So, Mr Sibal’s
initiative to introduce Mandarin in the Central Board
of Secondary Education (CBSE) curriculum will go a long
way towards exciting interest in schools about China,
still largely a mystery to most Indians who seem to
identify far more with more distant lands like the US.
Mr Sibal is on the right track, given that China is
not just a powerful neighbour but also a huge consumer
of global resources.
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Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidates advocate school-vouchers
bill at forum
Tom Infield, The Philadelphia Inquirer,
September 15, 2010
Addressing “school choice”
advocates, the two candidates for Pennsylvania governor
said Tuesday they generally support a bill that would
permit low-income students in failing public schools
to obtain vouchers they could use for attendance at
another public school or private school. That commitment
by Republican Tom Corbett and Democrat Dan Onorato represented
a major shift in the education debate since the last
election for governor in 2006, when school choice was
not a top issue.It reflects a growing split among public-education
advocates, including liberals, over whether taxpayer-funded
vouchers should ever be permitted, even in school districts
with low test scores and high dropout rates.
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It’s criminal to close schools that teach the
poor
Gurcharan Das, The Times of India,
September 19, 2010
India must be unique in the world for
wanting to close down schools that serve the poor. What
would be admired elsewhere as an example of entrepreneurial
initiative (or jugaad as we say) is illegal here. These
schools typically charge Rs 100 to 250 per month in
fees but do not get recognition because they fail to
meet standards. For example, they don’t have a
large enough playing field or they cannot pay the minimum
government teacher salary of Rs 20,000 a month. In order
to comply with standards, they would have to raise fees
to Rs 1,200, but then the poor would not be able to
afford them.
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School For Change – A new breed of managers is
required to sustain India’s growth
S.L. Rao, The Telegraph, September
20, 2010
Management education is now 45 years
old if we count the business administration departments
established in 1955 in Delhi and two other universities.
The number of management schools recognized by the Central
government is now said to have reached 2,500. India
and the United States of America have the largest number
of students going to business schools. The vast majority
of these schools in India is well below standard, with
few staff members and that of low quality, poor facilities
as in libraries and computers. The image of most is
that they are there only to make money for the promoters.
Business school students do not come for an education
but for the choicest jobs. Business school education
is seen as inculcating greed as the highest virtue.
The large number of MBAs in financial firms in the US
at the time the world economy was thrown by their mismanagement
into recession is validation of this.
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Education in poor countries hurt by financial crisis
Michelle Nichols, Reuters Africa,
September 20, 2010
As world leaders meet this week to
review a U.N. bid to cut poverty and hunger by 2015,
the Global Campaign for Education warned that the financial
crisis had halted improvements in education for children
in impoverished countries. There are 69 million children
out of school around the world, said a report on the
world’s 60 poorest nations by the campaign, a
coalition of more than 100 organizations. But if all
those children could be educated to leave school with
just basic reading skills, about 171 million people
could be lifted out of poverty, it said.“If scientists
can genetically modify food and NASA can send missions
to Mars, politicians must be able to find the resources
to get millions of children into school and change the
prospects of a generation of children,” said the
campaign’s president, Kailash Satyarthi.
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Maharashtra may fail to implement no-fail policy
Yogita Rao, Daily News & Analysis,
September 19, 2010
Though the grading system in schools
was introduced over a month ago by the state education
department, teachers are yet to undergo training to
implement it. The system has to be in place before the
no-fail policy introduced under the Right to Education
Act can be implemented. What is now worrying students
and teachers is that the first semester is coming to
an end. The government resolution had laid down a plan
for the implementation of the new grading system in
schools, which reduced the numbers of unit tests. It
also introduced formative and summative assessment for
students from Std I to VIII. Summative assessment requires
a semester-end test, while for the formative one students
need to be evaluated throughout the year, every day.“Even
though the semester is almost over, we are clueless
on the new pattern.
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| 70 million
children get no education, says report
Jessica Shepherd, The Guardian,
September 20, 2010
Almost 70 million children across the
world are prevented from going to school each day, a
study published today reveals. Those living in north-eastern
Africa are the least likely to receive a good education
– or any education at all, an umbrella body of
charities and teaching unions known as the Global Campaign
for Education has found.It ranks the world’s poorest
countries according to their education systems. Somalia
has the least functional system in the world with just
10% of children going to primary school, while Eritrea
is second worst..
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Research Paper
Can Cost-Benefit Analysis
Guide Education Policy in Developing Countries?
ABSTRACT: Cost-benefit analysis in
education is an important tool in the economists’
arsenal. However, it is essential that research, especially
on the social benefits of education, make further progress
to make cost-benefit analysis more useful. There is
a need for more research on the effects of policy interventions
on outcomes beyond access to a year in school and what
they earn as a result, such as onwhat children actually
learn. Such research should focus on ensuring that the
interventions are attributable to outcomes. Nevertheless,
it is worthwhile to go through the discipline of noting
the benefits and costs, even if social rates of return
cannot be calculated robustly.
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Global Education Statistics
Distribution of aid to basic education by levels
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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.
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2010
Fisher International Memorial Award
James Tooley’s “The
Beautiful Tree” bags 2010 Fisher International
Memorial Award.
To read more click
here
Student First! Dialogue
Social Audit in School Education
Thursday, 4 November 2010 | 6:30 - 8:00
PM
Casuarina Hall, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, India
For more details
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 website
Support Children's Right to
Education of Choice!
DONATE
For more details on how to support, log on to www.schoolchoice.in
or email us at [email protected] |
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