Michelle
Rhee’s Cheating Scandal
The Daily Beast, March 29, 2011
Bad education policy is no excuse for cheating—especially
cheating from principals and teachers, whom we hope
will serve as role models for our kids. But the sad
truth is that we shouldn’t be surprised by USA
Today’s disheartening findings on test score irregularities
in the Washington, D.C., public schools during the reign
of Michelle Rhee, the firebrand former chancellor best
known for firing teachers, closing underperforming schools,
and linking teacher and principal pay to student test
scores. Such irregularities are, in part, the unintended
consequence of a spate of popular education reform policies
that over-rationalize teaching and learning—both
of which are creative processes—by measuring them
almost exclusively through the results of multiple-choice
standardized tests.
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IIM governance
structure should change: Kapil Sibal
Times of India, April 1, 2011
With the census results out, it was
an evidently happy Kapil Sibal who was at the 36th IIM-B
convocation.“We firmly believe that in the next
few years, we will achieve full literacy in the country,”
said the Union minister for human resource development,
who is also a strong propagator of the Right to Education
Act. The literacy rate has gone up from 64.8% to 74%
— female literacy is 65% (up from 53%) and male
82% (as against 75%).
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India Graduates
Millions, but Too Few Are Fit to Hire
Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2011
Call-center company 24/7 Customer Pvt.
Ltd. is desperate to find new recruits who can answer
questions by phone and email. It wants to hire 3,000
people this year. Yet in this country of 1.2 billion
people, that is beginning to look like an impossible
goal.
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In a first,
women steal literacy lead over men
Hindustan Times, March 31, 2011
More Indian women gained literacy over
the past decade than men, the 2011 census which was
unveiled today showed — a first for India which
is still grappling with rampant female infanticide and
gender discrimination. A total of 110 million additional
women have become literate since 2001, as opposed to
107 million men over the same period. Never before have
women outdone men in numbers gaining literacy over any
decade.
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A yr on, RTE
has a long way to go
Hindustan Times, March 31, 2011
A year after the Right To Education
(RTE) was introduced it has got mixed bag results. According
to studies by studies by different civil society groups,
dropout rate in many schools is still high, but there
has been a slight improvement in new enrolments. April
1 is the first anniversary of the watershed Right to
Compulsory and Free Education, also called RTE law.
In this year, the independent groups increased vigil
in schools to find how the law has been implemented.
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Gujarat faces
staff shortage in higher education
DNA, April 4, 2011
The report of the Comptroller and Auditor
General of India (CAG) has revealed an acute shortage
of teaching staff in the higher education institutions
of Gujarat. It has also highlighted the lack of quality
education provided in the state as 60% institutions
in higher and technical education have not obtained
NAAC/NBA accreditation.
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The missing
daughters of Jhajjar
Livemint, April 4, 2011
Jhajjar, Haryana: Fifteen-year-old
Aarti Ahelawat waits patiently for the midday meal at
the government senior secondary school in Chhuchhakwas,
a village in Haryana’s Jhajjar district. Her younger
brother goes to the privately run Paramount Senior Secondary
School a few metres away, and doesn’t have to
wait for the free meal.
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Education Reform
— Getting Personal
Huffington Post, March 29, 2011
I felt a lot less melancholy about
the future of U.S. public education after having coffee
a few days ago with Joel Rose, the founder of the path-breaking
New York City experiment called School of One. That
name conveys the philosophy of the program — now
running in a limited form at three Manhattan middle
schools — which is to customize learning for each
student, so that no one is held back, nor pushed forward.
For more than a year, School of One has been winning
raves from education experts, including Education Secretary
Arne Duncan and Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
president Arthur Levine.
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Research
Article
Incentives Work: Getting Teachers to Come to School
Esther Duflo, Rema Hanna, and Stephen
P. Ryan
ABSTRACT: We use a randomized experiment
and a structural model to test whether monitoring and
financial incentives can reduce teacher absence and
increase learning in rural India. In treatment schools,
teachers’ attendance was monitored daily using
cameras, and their salaries were made a nonlinear function
of attendance. Absenteeism by teachers fell by 21 percentage
points relative to the control group, and children’s
test scores increased by 0.17 standard deviations. We
estimate a structural dynamic labor supply model and
find that teachers responded strongly to the financial
incentives, and that this alone can explain the difference
between the two groups. Our model is used to compute
cost-minimizing compensation policies.
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ENABLE
– ARK & CCS’s School Access and Voucher
Programme
ARK’s work in Delhi has identified
many communities where children are facing multiple
social and economic challenges which put them at great
risk of being excluded, dropping out or never attending
school. To address this need ARK has partnered with
Centre for Civil Society (CCS)
to implement ENABLE (Ensure Access to Better Learning
Experiences), a school access and
voucher programme for underprivileged children in Shahdara.Read
more
School
Choice National Conference Video
Watch this video to catch the highlights
of the School Choice National Conference 2010 held at
India Habitat Centre.
Click here
for the video
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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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Money for RTE
Has enough money been allocated to ensure effective
implementation of RTE? Cast your vote and tell us
your thoughts.
For more click here
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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
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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
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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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