A crisis of implementation
The Indian Express, October 23rd, 2012

On October 3, the Supreme Court issued an order directing state governments to equip all schools with appropriate facilities such as toilets, drinking water, classrooms and teachers within six months to ensure that schools meet the standards set by the Right to Education Act (RTE). This is not the first time the SC has taken a stand on the issue.

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SC issues notice on the Right to Education Act
Mathrubhumi, October 9th, 2012

The Supreme Court Monday issued notice to the central government on a petition seeking exemption for unaided educational institutions from earmarking 25 percent seats for students from the weaker sections of the society. Unaided minority educational institutions are exempted from doing so under the Right to Education Act, 2009, which calls for reserving 25 percent seats for socially and economically backward sections of the society.

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Implement RTE Act fully to ensure child rights
The Hindu, October 19th, 2012

Implementing the Right to Education Act in its entirety will be the way to ensure that children’s rights are not violated, a jury presiding over a public hearing organised in the city by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has said. The seven-member jury made its recommendations at the conclusion of a two-day event, the focus of which was primarily on implementation of the RTE Act, and issues surrounding non- implementation and consequent impact on the rights of children. This included access to schools and hostels, facilities available in these institutions, regulation of private schools and hostels, sexual abuse and corporal punishment.

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Worried parents check procedures for the next year RTE Admission
The Indian Express, October 22nd, 2012

Many parents are already enquiring about how to get their children admitted under Right to Education (RTE) Act for the next academic year.This has compelled the RTE Task Force to form a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) to help parents.

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HSC certificates for vocational students
The Times of India, October 23rd, 2012

The state ministry of higher and technical education has decided to award higher secondary certificates (HSC) to students completing vocational education after Std X. They will also be eligible for admission to undergraduate degree courses.

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Face it, Teachers cloak in Apron to dodge cams
The Times of India, October 21st, 2012

Managements of several private schools in Kerala want women teachers to adopt a dress code to avoid prying eyes of male students. They have suggested teachers wear an apron or an overcoat “to cover themselves properly” in class. There isn’t a formal diktat but it’s the talk of staff rooms after many women teachers noticed students taking pictures of them with mobile cameras.”We have received many complaints of students clicking photographs of teachers in saris while they write on the blackboard. Most of these images find their way to popular social networking sites,” said Kerala CBSE School Management Association president T P M Ibrahim Khan.

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Admitted, but left out
The New York Times, October 19th, 2012

WHEN Ayinde Alleyne arrived at the Trinity School, an elite independent school on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, he was eager to make new friends. A brainy 14-year-old, he was the son of immigrants from Trinidad and Tobago, a teacher and an auto-body repairman, in the South Bronx. He was soon overwhelmed by the privilege he saw. Talk of fancy vacations and weekends in the Hamptons rankled — “I couldn’t handle that at that stage of my life,” said Mr. Alleyne, now a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania — and he eventually found comfort in the school’s “minority corner,” where other minority students, of lesser means, hung out.

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Primary schools set up to adjust the blue eyed?
Kashmiri Reader, October 22nd, 2012

In a revelation that puts a big question mark on the School Education Department’s motive to open schools in every nook and corner of the state, it has come to fore that many primary schools are being set up where there is no need for such schools, only to adjust blue eyed candidates as Rehber-e-Taleem teachers. In one such instance, the Primary school Nai Basti Qaimoh in Kulgam district, which was established in year 2010 under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), allegedly by faking records of students, was closed within two months of its opening.

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Soon history will come alive in class
The telegraph, UK October 22nd, 2012

In The Strange Death of History Teaching, published in 2009, Derek Matthews, an economics lecturer at Cardiff University, reported the results of a short history quiz he had set for 284 undergraduates over a three-year period. Sixty per cent did not know Brunel’s profession; 65 per cent did not know who was the reigning monarch when the Spanish Armada attacked Britain; 83 per cent did not know that Wellington led the British Army at Waterloo; and a staggering 88 per cent could not name a single 19th-century prime minister. Not Disraeli. Not Gladstone. Not Peel.

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Education Crisis in Sri Lanka
Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XLVII no. 43 October 27th, 2012

We, as economists, academics and social activists are deeply concerned about the continuing crisis in the education sector in Sri Lanka. Austerity measures and attacks on social welfare in many countries have been disenfranchising children and youth from education as a central avenue for social equity, leading to protests and social unrest.

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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

Register Now!

Last chance to apply for ipolicy in 2012
ìpolicy for Young Leaders, St. Xaviers College, Mumbai - 8-11 November 2012
ìpolicy for Young Professionals, New Delhi - 23-25 November 2012

Politics K-12
President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, the GOP presidential nominee, tangled over class size, teachers, and education funding during their Monday night debate that was supposed to be exclusively centered on foreign policy. Click here to read more

Innovation in Education
Many of our schools and colleges are still stuck in the industrial age – assembly line methods inform our pedagogy. Schools evolved from a need to feed the factories, bureaucracies and armies with people who could follow instructions and sustain repetitive processes. What was needed was a reliable part that would keep the machinery of the state or organization running smoothly. Schools responded to the needs of the employers of the day and trained students in performing task based activities, in stamina and in discipline. They learnt to respect hierarchies – which represented both power and aspiration. 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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