Can your child benefit from the education quota?
Hindustan Times, 20 May 2012

The Right To Education (RTE) Act's 25% reservation for economically and socially backward children aims to change this reality and create a balanced classroom; and eventually a more tolerant society. While everyone is looking at how the poor will benefit from quality education, maybe we should see how our children will become better people when they study in more inclusive classrooms.

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Free Bicycles Help Keep Indian Girls in School
ABC News, 21 May 2012

The daily trip to high school was expensive, long and eventually, too much for Indian teenager Nahid Farzana, who decided she was going to drop out. Then, the state government gave her a bicycle. Two years later, she is about to graduate from high school and wants to be a teacher. The eastern state of Bihar has been so successful at keeping teenage girls in school, the bike giveaways have spread to neighboring states. Now the Indian government wants to expand it across the country in hopes it might help improve female literacy.

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RTE: State needs to set aside Rs1,500 crore for 5 years
Daily News & Analysis, 19 May 2012

MUMBAI: To implement the Right To Education (RTE) Act, the state government will have to set aside Rs1,500 crore for the next five years — if it pays around Rs1,100 per student. This amount does not include the infrastructure and administrative expenditures, which may be around Rs25,000 crore in the next five years as per the guidelines issued by the Centre.

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330 unrecognised schools to be closed
The Hindu, 20 May 2012

VIJAYWADA: The State Government has prepared ground to shut down 330 unrecognised schools operating in Krishna district. Criminal cases would be booked against the managements, if the unrecognised schools were opened after summer vacation, District Education Officer (DEO) D. Devananda Reddy warned. The DEO said that in all 220 unrecognised schools were there in Krishna district and 110 schools were running in Vijayawada city. The district administration would close down all the unrecognised schools as per Right to Education Act, he said.

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Mumbai: Schools go for minority tag to avoid 25% quota
The Times of India, 21 May 2012

MUMBAI: After the Supreme Court upheld the Right To Education Act norm, making it mandatory for all private un-aided non-minority schools to reserve 25% of seats for children from " weaker sections" and "disadvantaged groups", the minority development department has been flooded with requests from institutions, seeking minority status.

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Centre plans to train teachers to handle special children
Deccan Herald, 22 May 2012

NEW DELHI: In response to the thousands of children with disability entering regular schools as part of the Right To Education (RTE) Act, the government is planning to train teachers with special skills needed to handle them. “Going by the 2001 census, India had 2.14 crore differently abled children whose numbers going to be around 2.45 crore by 2012. It is more than the population of many countries. We are going to launch a big programme on teacher's training,”

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Private schools will have to bear initial education act quota cost
The Times of India, 19 May 2012

MUMBAI: Private unaided schools providing free and compulsory education to marginalized sections under the Right to Education (RTE) Act might have to absorb most of the financial burden initially. The state government has plans to pay the reimbursement amount to schools in two instalments: The first in July, and the second only at the end of an academic year in April. The state government, however, has not yet made budgetary provisions for reimbursement grants for the current fiscal. Officials said that supplementary grants would be raised during the monsoon session of the state assembly.

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Private schools threaten to close down over below poverty line seats row
The Times of India, 20 May 2012

AMBALA: Owners as well as representatives of private schools across the state on Saturday threatened to lock out schools, demanding immediate withdrawal of Haryana Education Rule 134A, recently notified by the government. The rule binds government schools across the state to admit 25% students from families of economically weaker sections (EWS) category or those having the below poverty line (BPL) status, in nursery and kindergarten levels.

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Integrating Rich and Poor Matters Most
The New York Times, 21 May 2012

Fifty-eight years after Brown v. Board of Education was decided, segregated schools – particularly those segregated by economic status – remain wholly unequal. While the news media routinely shower attention on high-poverty schools that work, research shows that middle-class schools are 22 times more likely to be high performing than high-poverty schools.

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How teacher turnover harms student achievement
Authors: Matthew Ronfeldt, University of Michigan; Susanna Loeb, Stanford University; Jim Wyckoff, University of Virginia

Abstract: Researchers and policymakers often assume that teacher turnover harms student achievement, but recent evidence calls into question this assumption. Using a unique identification strategy that employs grade-level turnover and two classes of fixed-effects models, this study estimates the effects of teacher turnover on over 850,000 New York City 4th and 5th grade student observations over eight years. The results indicate that students in grade-levels with higher turnover score lower in both ELA and math and that this effect is particularly strong in schools with more low-performing and black students. Moreover, the results suggest that there is a disruptive effect of turnover beyond changing the distribution in teacher quality.

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What Does ‘Quality Education Study Show'?
I attended the release of an interesting report, ‘Quality Education Study’. The study tries to assess learning levels of students in Standards 4, 6 and 8. Click here to learn more

Navodaya Vidyalayas help poor students
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, spread across semi-urban parts of the state, have helped poor students to realize dreams of graduating from the IITs. Click here to learn more

New findings link chronic absenteeism to school achievement
When students are not in school they miss opportunities to grow academically, socially and emotionally. Click here to learn more

25% Reservation: A perception study on its implementation and impactWith the enactment of the Right to Education Act (specifically Clause 12 i.e. the reservation of 25% of the entry-level seats in all private unaided schools for government-sponsored Economically Weaker Section (EWS) students. 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]

Please write in with your feedback at [email protected]

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