YES Bank bets big on education infrastructure space, to build Rs 4,000-5,000-cr sectoral loan portfolio
The Economic Times, July 11, 2011

KOLKATA: Private sector YES Bank sees an opportunity in the country’s education infrastructure space and plans to build a Rs 4,000-5,000-crore sectoral loan portfolio over the next four years. With the country now acknowledging education as a fundamental right for all children between the age group of 6 and 14, investment requirement for education infrastructure grew manifold. The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India ( Assocham) estimated that over 16% of the villages in the country don’t have primary schools.

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Bihar could have full literacy in two decades
The Economic Times, July 08, 2011

PATNA: Bihar’s literacy rate may be the lowest in the country at 63.8 percent, but it could achieve total literacy in about two decades like the rest of India, predicts a new report. During the past decade, the literacy rate in Bihar has increased by 17 percent, much faster compared to nine percent for the entire country, the report points out.

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Schools will follow old syllabus until HC verdict
The Times of India, July 08, 2011

CHENNAI: A diagram in a science textbook depicting the sun in shadow during a lunar eclipse has been blacked out as the sun resembled the DMK’s symbol, advocate N G R Prasad submitted in the Madras high court on Thursday. The submission by the advocate, appearing on behalf of the State Platform for Common School Sytem, came in the course of a hearing on petitions relating to the Tamil Nadu Uniform System of School Education Act, 2010.

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Ambassadors in place for Wikipedia education programme
The Indian Express, July 08, 2011

Pune: Wikipedia has selected 22 students/professionals from the city as campus ambassadors for its India Education Program, an initiative aimed at using the online user-generated encyclopaedia as a learning tool. These ambassadors — trained at the Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research last month and now been assigned colleges — will interact with students and teachers, urging and teaching them to use Wikipedia as a medium of sharing knowledge.

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Victoria to fund for vocational teacher training in India
The Indian Express, July 07, 2011

Melbourne: Australia’s Victorian state government said on Thursday that it will provide USD 300,000 to Kangan Institute to establish a vocational teacher training programme in India. According to an official statement, Minister for Innovation, Services and Small Business Louise Asher said that the Victorian government will provide the funds to the institute to establish the training program in Maharashtra.

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‘No Child Left Behind’ Reforms May Get Left Behind
Business Week, July 07, 2011

Liberty County School District in Florida is running out of time. The district’s $9 million budget has been axed by more than a third since the 2007-08 school year, as federal stimulus money dried up and a tourism dip hurt tax revenue. Under the No Child Left Behind Act, all three schools in the 1,300-student district are labeled as failing and could lose federal funding unless every student passes standardized math and reading tests by 2014.

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Indiana schools to teach children to type instead of joined up handwriting
The Telegraph, July 12, 2011

In a sign of the endless march of technology individual schools will no longer be required to instruct pupils in long hand from the age of eight, and they may only learn to print.The move has led to fears that youngsters could grow up not even knowing how to sign their own name.

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Soon, register online for admission in MCD schools
The Indian Express, July 06, 2011

New Delhi: The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is going hi-tech this admission season. For the first time, the civic body will have the option of online admissions, thus cutting down on queues at its 1,729 schools. People will now be able to log on to the MCD website, fill up forms and submit it. Later the admission can be verified by showing the birth certificate.

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Research: Favored child? School choice within the family

Authors: Chumacero, Romulo and Paredes, Ricardo

We study school choice within the family, analyzing how birth order, gender, innate talent, and family financial restrictions impact the parents´ decision to prioritize the education of one or more of the children over the rest. We find that parents, particularly from lower income homes, are more likely to select more prestigious, higher cost schools for their eldest child, male children and the most talented children. This behavior may explain part of the positive “male bias” in learning and may have a relevant impact on income distribution among family members.

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Research: Schooling and youth mortality: learning from a mass military exemption

Authors: Cipollone, Piero ; Rosolia, Alfonso

This paper examines the relationship between education and mortality in a young population of Italian males. In 1981 several cohorts of young men from specific southern towns were unexpectedly exempted from compulsory military service after a major quake hit the region.

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Student First - Dialogue Series on Quality Education for All

Announcing Panelists for the Student First! Dialogue on PPP for Quality in School Education

Gajendra Haldea: Adviser to Deputy Chairman and Principal Adviser at Planning Commission
Anit Mukherjee: Co-author, PAISA Report and Associate Professor, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy
India Habitat Centre,
New Delhi, India
Parth Shah: President, Centre for Civil Society, New Delhi

For more information,
click here.

The Joseph P Overton Fellowship for Education Policy

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 15TH JULY

For more, click here

RTE BLOG: Is hi-tech the best way to go?

Read the debate here

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

For more details on how to support, log on to www.schoolchoice.in or email us at [email protected]

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