Record sum allocated to school education
The Hindu, 27 March 2012

Free uniform and notebooks; compulsory for schools to reserve 25% seats for children from poor sections. The State Budget gives a major boost to school education, with the government earmarking a record sum of Rs.14,553 crore for it — the highest ever allocation made to any department in Tamil Nadu. The school education department will also focus on increasing enrolments and arresting drop-out rates, Finance Minister O. Panneerselvam told the Assembly on Monday.

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Governments dual stand on RTE slammed
IBNlive, 26 March 2012

BANGALORE: The befuddlement over implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act in the state still continues. Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda’s statement during the state budget presentation has only added to the confusion. CM D V Sadananda Gowda said: “The government will be implementing the RTE Act from 2012-13, and will seek full co-operation from privately managed schools.” This has essentially made RTE dependent on private schools, much to the anger of educationists.

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Education act pits parental rights against human rights
The Edmonton Journal, 24 March 2012

This isn’t about just home-schooling families and this isn’t about hate. This is about taking away parents’ rights to decide what is fundamentally right or wrong in their children’s lives and having the right to opt out. A school is a means to deliver education. It isn’t a parental body that guides the way of the child based on personal principles and beliefs. That is for the parents to decide. I am tired of being labelled homophobic because I am teaching my child that homosexuality is not something our family supports.

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Made in S’pore, snapped up in India
The Star, 25 March 2012

Low-cost I-slate ordered for schools in southern Andhra Pradesh state. Thousands of young schoolchildren in southern Andhra Pradesh state in India will get to use a low-cost electronic educational tablet developed in Singapore when school reopens in June. Called the I-slate, the tablet took the Rice-NTU Institute for Sustainable and Applied Infodynamics (Isaid) in Singapore about two years to develop. The institute is jointly set up by Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University and Houston’s Rice University.

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Early Childhood Care and Education Policy proposed
The Hindu, 26 March 2012

With the aim of providing integrated services for the holistic development of all children from the prenatal period to six years, the government has proposed a National Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Policy that lays down the way forward for a comprehensive approach towards ensuring a sound foundation for every child. India has 158.7 million children in the 0-6 age group as per the 2011 Census.

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One Stop Shop for Education in India Is Looking for Investors
MERAR, 24 March 2012

The idea of free educational resource stemmed from the fact that education as a sector has received huge attention from private players. Extragrades.com is equipped to become largest repository of educational content. Our mission is to help students make sense of confusing schoolwork. Why online tests when there are so many? Each course covers the topics in detail. Our course material is self-explanatory and the chapters in each course are largely self-contained.

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World Bank approves USD 500mn education project for India
Deccan Chronicle, 23 March 2012

In a bid to make quality education accessible to young people at the secondary level, the World Bank on Friday approved a USD 500 million credit to support India's secondary education project. The project will support all activities as envisioned in the USD 12.9 billion Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) programme, a flagship Government of India programme for gradual universalization of secondary education.

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Harvard India Conference: Meet on where India is headed
The Economic Times, 24 March 2012

BOSTON: International leaders from government, business, non-profit, media and entertainment sectors are meeting here over the weekend to discuss where India stands currently and where it is headed over the next decade. The discussions are part of the 9th Harvard India Conference with the theme of India: The Next Frontier, co-hosted by Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School of Government March 24-25 at Cambridge, Massachussetts and Boston.

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Estimating Wealth Effects Without Expenditure Data—Or Tears: An Application To Educational Enrollments In States Of India
Authors: Filmer, D and Pritchett, L
DEMOGRAPHY, Volume 38, Number 1, 115-132

Abstract: Using data from India, we estimate the relationship between household wealth and children’s school enrolment. We proxy wealth by constructing a linear index from asset ownership indicators, using principal-components analysis to derive weights. In Indian data this index is robust to the assets included, and produces internally coherent results. State-level results correspond well to independent data on per capita output and poverty. On average a “rich” child is 31 percentage points more likely to be enrolled than a “poor” child, but this gap varies from only 4.6 percentage points in Kerala to 38.2 in Uttar Pradesh and 42.6 in Bihar.

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Despite RTE, 70% kids not getting proper education: Expert
One of the main issues is that there haven’t been any provisions implemented from the Right to Education Act after two years of enactment. Click here to read more

Public School Per-Student Spending Increases as State Funding Decreases
If the quality of public schools can be measured by the amount of money spent per student, then U.S. students should be performing fabulously. Click here to read more

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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