Competition and Education Reform
Authors: Eileen Norcross, Jerrod Anderson, and Johann van der Walt
Mercatus Center

Excerpt: Competition is not a state of affairs; it is a process that is defined not by the number of competitors in a market, but by the ease with which potential competitors can enter the market. Instead of introducing competition, federal funding will likely continue to homogenize state education policy rather than encourage flexibility, greater responsiveness, and diversity.

... read more

Five years after RTE, private schools still to be reimbursed
- The Hindustan Times, 07 Mar 2014
In clear violation of provisions of the Right to Education ( RTE) Act, 2009, private unaided schools in the union territory continue to await reimbursement for admissions done under the Act for the past three years.

Subir Shukla: Does measuring outcomes improve accountability in education?
- Business Standard, 06 Mar 2014
In the last few years, the clamour for measuring learning outcomes and using that as a means to ensure accountability has grown louder. In fact the current Five-Year Plan insists that learning outcomes be measurable and be measured. Corporate houses funding various foundations and NGOs are big on learning assessment and look to it as a means of bringing about improvement.

Turkey passes law to shut schools run by Erdogan arch-rival Gulen
- Live Mint & The Wall Street Journal, 01 Mar 2014
Ankara: Turkey’s parliament has passed a Bill to close down thousands of private schools, many of which are run by an influential Muslim cleric locked in a bitter feud with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

India will take around 56 years to achieve female youth literacy: Report
- The Times of India, 10 Mar 2014
NEW DELHI: Literacy is still a distant dream for vulnerable young women. Going at the present pace of development, India will take at least another 56 years to achieve female youth literacy.

CCE has improved scores, not teaching
- The Times of India, 06 Mar 2014
NEW DELHI: School standards in the country remain fairly low with CBSE's subject evaluators rating 49.8% as average and 9.11% in need of improvement . The analysis of schoollevel assessment doesn't paint a rosy picture either. Nearly 35% of schools don't do their summative assessment evaluation strictly as per the board's marking schemes while 38.1% don't use sufficient tasks and tools in co-scholastic assessment.

Education Programs Try to Close Gaps in Myanmar
- The New York Times, 09 Mar 2014
Tourism in Myanmar, formerly Burma, is readying for takeoff, with new hotels, airports and restaurants under construction all over the country. Yet development in places like Inle Lake risks being held back by a major constraint: Decades of isolation and repression under the former military junta have left a shortfall in higher education and vocational training in essential skills, not least a working knowledge of foreign languages.

Crossing borders for a little freedom & quality education
- The Times of India, 10 Mar 2014
PANAJI: It took a while for them to find their bearings, but a couple of monsoons down the line, these students from Afghanistan, who have created a new home in Goa, feel one with the people here.

Publications