Only 32% admissions under RTE in state
The Indian Express, 31 July 2012

PUNE: Only 32 per cent admissions have been reported for the students of economically weaker sections in the state under the 25 per cent reservation underlined by Right to Education (RTE) Act. Officials feel that lack of awareness and delay in decision could be the reason behind its poor implementation.

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127 primary students failed by two schools
The Times of India, 29 July 2012

AHMEDABAD: The District Education Office (DEO) office has received complaints from parents that 127 students of primary sections were failed by two schools in Bapunagar despite the Right to Education (RTE) Act directing that no child can be failed in class 1-8. Silver Bell School and Shivalik Primary School in Bapunagar are reported to have failed 127 students of the primary section. These students were given the pass marks and issued school leaving certificates only after the parents agreed to shift to other schools.

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Don’t wait for govt circulars to enforce education Act: J S Saharia
The Times of India, 31 July 2012

MUMBAI: The state education department wants school authorities to actually read the Right to Education Act (RTE) and implement it properly. "We will be holding awareness campaigns for schools in order to enable them to better understand the Act. The Act is complete in itself and it lists what each stakeholder is supposed to do. Schools should not wait for the government to issue circulars for the implementation of the various aspects of the Act," said J S Saharia, additional chief secretary in charge of school education.

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Indian education in a state of emergency: Amartya Sen
The Financial Express, 31 July 2012

New Delhi: Commenting on the state of education and other human development indices in India, Prof Amartya Sen on Monday likened it to a state of ‘emergency’. The Nobel laureate pointed out that not only Japan and Korea but also other South Asian countries like Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand have taken a lead in providing quality education to their people. “While they took a lead... we were left behind and we have paid a huge price for it. While Indians generally do well on high skills related jobs/issues like IT, in the middle skill segment we are very bad. This shows how the fruits of the economy are not widely shared... there is a state of emergency in terms of malnutrition and other aspects of human development. From being the second best in South Asia on the human development index, we are now the second worst and that too thanks to Pakistan.

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Focus on tertiary education
Deccan Chronicle, 31 July 2012

Chennai: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in a recent report about education indicators, has predicted that India and China would account for 40 per cent of all young people with a tertiary education in G20 and OECD countries by 2020. Of the 40 per cent graduates, China will contribute 29 per cent and India, 12 per cent.

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Higher education: India lags behind China despite English language advantage
The Times of India, 27 July 2012

MUMBAI: Despite the English language advantage and the government's enhanced focus on higher studies, India's top educational and research institutes, including the IITs and IIMs, lag Chinese universities in global ranking. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings has nine universities from China in its 2012 list of Top 400 compared with just one from India. Another latest ranking by Guardian Higher Education Network shows nine Chinese universities among top 50 Asian universities, while no university from India makes it to the list. China has been consistently scoring over India in higher education for several years, as reflected even in previous rankings.

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Kendriya Vidyalayas are a model of social inclusion
The Hindu, 31 July 2012

BANGALORE: While the controversy about providing 25 per cent reservation to students from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds in private schools under the Right to Education Act continues, Kendriya Vidyalaya schools might well be an example of how inclusive education can indeed be the norm and an ideal. A member of the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan told The Hindu that they have been providing 15 per cent reservation to Scheduled Castes and 7.5 per cent reservation for the Scheduled Tribes for many years. He said: “We get applications every year and students are chosen by lottery and are exempted from paying fees.”

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Coping with the regular children
The Hindu, 31 July 2012

BANGALORE: Ask six-year-old Kouser how she finds her new school, and she will say she is happy. “I enjoy studying English,” says the Class I student, who has just been admitted to an unaided English-medium school in the city under the 25 per cent quota of the Right to Education (RTE) Act. She did her pre-school in an anganwadi centre.

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More than 242,000 Students Eligible To Participate in Pennsylvania's New Scholarship Tax Credit Program
The Wall Street Journal, 01 August 2012

HARRISBURG, Pa., July 30, 2012 -- New program, which became law last month, expands educational opportunities for state's most disadvantaged students. More than 242,000 Pennsylvania students living in the attendance boundary of 414 of the state's worst-performing schools could be eligible to receive a scholarship to attend the private school of their parents' choice, thanks to a new private school choice program created last month.

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Long-term effects of class size
Authors: Peter Fredriksson, Björn Öckert and Hessel Oosterbeek

Abstract: This paper evaluates the long-term effects of class size in primary school. We use rich data from Sweden and exploit variation in class size created by a maximum class size rule. Smaller classes in the last three years of primary school (age 10 to 13) are beneficial for cognitive and non-cognitive ability at age 13, and improve achievement at age 16. Most importantly, we find that smaller classes have positive effects on completed education, wages, and earnings at age 27 to 42. The estimated wage effect is much larger than any imputed estimate of the wage effect, and is large enough to pass a cost-benefit test.

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SCHOOL CHOICE NATIONAL CONFERENCE

Delivering Education: From Policy to Practice

04 December 2012
The Theatre, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, India

Save the Date!

Waiting for Superman in Lahore: Do poor people need private schools?
After years of watching broken public school systems fail to educate their children, parents in Pakistan and many other parts of the developing world have taken matters into their own hands. Low cot private schools are growing by leaps and bounds, especially in rural areas. Click here to know more

Right to Education Impact: 66000 students get admission into private schools
In Pune, 66,306 out of 2.09 lakh students from the economically and socially weaker sections have received admission into 8,500 private schools in the state under the 25% reservation provided under the Right to Education (RTE) Act. Click here to learn more

Mumbai civic body confesses: We botched primary education
Mumbai’s city government has now come out with a confessional: it has botched primary education, a part of its mandate under the law. 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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