STUDENT  FIRST! News School Choice
Weekly Update on Education (Issue No 258) 19 Nov 2013
- Abhishek Bhattacharya
Associate, Advocacy
School Choice Campaign
Five benefits of 25% reservation in private schools to Government

As per section 12 of Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 private schools have to reserve twenty-five percent of their seats at the entry level (class I or nursery) for weaker sections and disadvantaged groups. Here are five unstated benefits of section 12 to the Government.

Public financing v public delivery
Evidence of learning outcomes shows that private delivery of education is much better than public delivery. If the government realises this, it will move towards public financing with private delivery. The parents should be given an option to choose between private delivery and public delivery. Competition would ensure that only the best schools survive while the poor quality ones get eliminated.

... read more
Research

Education and Poverty: Confronting the Evidence
Authors: Helen F. Ladd
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management

Abstract: Current U.S. policy initiatives to improve the U.S. education system, including No Child Left Behind, test-based evaluation of teachers and the promotion of competition, are misguided because they either deny or set to the side a basic body of evidence documenting that students from disadvantaged households on average perform less well in school than those from more advantaged families. Addressing the educational challenges faced by children from disadvantaged families will require a broader and bolder approach to education policy than the recent efforts to reform schools.

... read more
Education News
 

15 years on, corporation school teachers’ certificates found to be fake
- The Times of India, 13 Nov 2013
"Their Class 10 and Class 12 marks lists were original, but their certificates claiming they had completed a teachers' training course was fake," an investigating officer said.

Challenges of this ‘single student’
- The Hindu, 12 Nov 2013
Sunil Kamble is the only student pursuing the two-year D.Ed. course at the District Institute of Education and Training (DIET), Dharwad.

Affordable medical education will bring down healthcare costs
- The New Indian Express, 12 Nov 2013
Because of expensive medical education, doctors are constantly thinking about how much they've spent on their training, and patients are made to bear the costs.

Now, free software to set school textbooks in Kerala
- The Times of India, 15 Nov 2013
The Unicode format will give greater benefits to students, especially for the differently abled.

UGC chairman urges state govts to conduct SET for teaching aspirants
- Hindustan Times, 18 Nov 2013
The SET would offer an additional platform to the candidates seeking career as lecturer in colleges and universities in their state, he added.

Poll
Should teachers' salaries and incentives be linked to their performance (students' learning outcomes)?

To vote click here

Factoid
 Of the total enrolment, percentage of enrolment at Secondary Level is about 83 percent.

Publications

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