STUDENT  FIRST! News School Choice
Weekly Update on Education (Issue No 266) 14 Jan 2014
- Kumar Anand
Senior Associate, Research,
Centre for Civil Society
Free Market Fairness in Education, Tomasi Style

John Tomasi in his book Free Market Fairness makes a case for ‘market democratic’ interpretation of social justice, which he sees as a morally superior account of social justice due to its commitment to both economic liberty and a fair distribution of goods and opportunities, as against the familiar ‘social democratic’ interpretations of social justice. Tomasi differentiates between the two regimes in his book as follows,

Social democratic regime types do not protect capitalist economic freedoms as basic constitutional rights. As a result, they empower legislative bodies to create and administer monopolies (or heavily regulated quasi-monopolies) in pursuit of socially desirable goods. The constitutional design of market democratic regime types, by contrast, encourages market-based forms of social construction. The market democratic emphasis on capitalistic economic liberties effectively limits the reach of legislative and administrative bureaucracies with respect to distributive issues.

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Research

TEACHER ABSENCE IN INDIA: A SNAPSHOT
Authors: Michael Kremer, Harvard University and NBER; Karthik Muralidharan, Harvard University; Nazmul Chaudhury, World Bank; Jeffrey Hammer, World Bank; F. Halsey Rogers, World Bank
Journal of the European Economic Association (9/15/04)

Abstract: 25% of teachers were absent from school, and only about half were teaching, during unannounced visits to a nationally representative sample of government primary schools in India. Absence rates varied from 15% in Maharashtra to 42% in Jharkhand, with higher rates concentrated in the poorer states. We do not find that higher pay is associated with lower absence.

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Education News
 

RTE, states’ efforts push up school attendance
- The Times of India, 07 Jan 2014
Between 2006-07 to 2012-13, nationally the teacher attendance though improved to 84.3% from 81.7% at the primary level and 81.3% from 80.5% at the upper.

Right to Education to be reality in JK soon
- Greater Kashmir, 09 Jan 2014
The legislation, presently prepared in the form of an Ordinance by the Higher Education Department, has been cleared by the Planning and Finance Departments and it has now been forwarded to the Law Department for vetting, sources said.

SC declines to interfere with Right to Education law
- Business Standard, 06 Jan 2014
Abhishek Gupta seeking the stay of section 16 of the act argued that RTE makes the learning and teaching process doubtful.

Special education class to develop students talents, potential — Mary Yap
- Mysinchew.com, 06 Jan 2014
The principal of SMK Balung, Matnoor Sima, said students who attended the class are those who were weak in terms of learning, hyperactive and children who have a short attention span.

Poll
Does functional English (written/spoken) make a difference when children from poor families appear for education/job interviews?

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Video
Sugata Mitra: Build a School in the CloudSugata Mitra: Build a School in the Cloud
On stage at TED2013, Sugata Mitra makes his bold TED Prize wish: Help me design the School in the Cloud, a learning lab in India, where children can explore and learn from each other -- using resources and mentoring from the cloud. Hear his inspiring vision for Self Organized Learning Environments (SOLE), and learn more at tedprize.org. Watch this video here.

Publications

RTE ViewpointSkill Vouchers View Point

 
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