Govt to enforce 5-year rule for admissions

From the coming academic year, only those children who have completed five years as on May 31, will be admitted to Class 1. Even a shortfall of one day would prevent the child from entering standard 1, said primary and secondary education Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri.

He said that the law would be enforced strictly to avoid complications in higher education and in seeking jobs.

“A circular has already been issued to all government, aided, unaided and private schools in this regard. If this is adhered to strictly, then no student will appear for the SSLC before completing 15 years of age,” Kageri said.

The issue came under serious consideration after more than 17,000 students who passed out of the SSLC this year had not yet completed 15 years. “This problem will continue for about the next ten years. Hence, students who have already been admitted will be permitted to appear for the SSLC,” Kageri clarified. Read More>>

Right to education

The universal declaration on human rights mentions the right to security, right to honour, equal opportunities on merit basis and right to dignity to every individual in the world. The motto of the MP Human Rights Commission is also equal right to all.  We cannot translate it into reality until and unless all members of the society are concerned about the rights of each other. The protection of individual rights is mutual and this feeling should be cultivated in children right from early age.

Recently the Central Government has framed a new law “Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act-2009. Rules are being framed for its implementation at Central and state government levels. There are a plethora of laws and governments do endeavour to enforce them effectively, but the fact is that all the laws are not enforced in right earnest throughout the country and the citizens do not get their benefit at desired level. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education is such a law that, if implemented properly, people would be inspired to follow not only this but other laws as well voluntarily. This would also help curb the violation of human rights. Human rights are meant for human life. This covers women, men, children and people of all other groups. Thus, the State Human Rights Commission is endeavouring to protect the rights of children. Read More>>

CBI arrests city education baron

The anti-corruption branch of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) here arrested A Balasubramanian, president of Sri Balaji Society  which runs a chain of management, law and degree institutions on charges of cheating the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for securing its approval to the society’s four management institutes.

Three AICTE officials are also under investigation for allegedly helping Balasubramanian secure the council’s approval despite “deficiencies” found by the CBI after an on-site inspection of the society’s academic complex at Tathawade on the Katraj-Dehu road expressway bypass.

CBI’s superintendent of police (ACB) Vidya Kulkarni told reporters that the “deficiencies” found at the Tathawade campus mainly relate to infrastructure not being in proportion to the number of institutions and courses offered by the society. “This included the land, the built-up area, essential facilities like computer labs and library, and even the number of students that are required to be maintained as per the norms,” she said. Read More>>

UP to implement Right to Education Act

Uttar Pradesh will become the first state in the country to implement the Right to Education Act 2009 that calls for free and compulsory primary education to children in the age group of six to 14.

“Uttar Pradesh will be the first state in the country to implement the Act. It will ensure proper and adequate education to the children,” state Education Minister Dharm Singh Saini said in Lucknow. Secretary of the Basic Education department had been directed to initiate process to implement the Act, he added.

The state will require over Rs 14,500 crore to implement the Act. The government will focus on teachers, financial resources, additional classrooms in schools and DIET training in the first phase of its implementation, Saini said.

The department will make efforts to motivate children working in roadside eateries, railways stations and bus stands to enroll in schools. “To attract children, we plan to provide them with food, books and even clothes,” said an official.

Source: Indian Express

Bihar Govt ordered to appoint 35,540 teachers

The Supreme Court Wednesday ordered the Bihar government to appoint 35,540 primary school teachers as per their seniority based on the year they secured their Bachelor of Education or Bachelor in Teaching degrees.

A bench of Justice Altmas Kabir and Justice H.L. Dattu gave the order on a joint lawsuit by thousands of professionally qualified teachers of Bihar, who sought contempt to court proceedings against the state government for not keeping its word given to the apex court in 2007 for appointing them.

The bench asked the government to appoint all the teachers on the basis of their seniority and without taking any examination.

The legal tangle of trained teachers’ appointment dates back to December 2003, when Bihar’s erstwhile Rabri Devi government had advertised vacancies of 35,540 primary teachers in government schools and had proceeded to appoint people who had passed matriculation or higher examinations.

This was challenged by the professionally qualified teachers of Bihar before the Patna High Court. They contended the move would curtail their right to be appointed as primary teachers. They also contended it would violate an earlier apex court ruling, which held that only professionally qualified teachers could be given the teaching job. Read More>>

India calling

HE Open Doors Survey 2009 reveals that while India remains the leading country, for the eighth consecutive year, to contribute the largest chunk of international students to the US there has also been a sharp increase in the number of American students going to study in other countries and India is among them. The survey is conducted annually by the International Institute of Education (IIE) with the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Pointing out the reasons behind the heightened influx of US students to India, Allan Goodman, president and CEO, IIE, says, “India is the world’s largest democracy but probably one which is least understood by Americans. Five to 10 years ago 70,000 Indian students were studying in the US while a mere 700 American students studied in India. Today the number of American students in India has scaled up to 3,000. But this is far from enough. We need more American students and universities to go to India in order to have a better understanding of the country.” The recent survey, which is based on international students enrolment in approximately 3,000 US higher education institutions, shows that Indian students constitute 15.4% of the total international student population in the US. Read More >>

Young parents put child’s education before retirement, health

With education becoming increasingly expensive, young parents are readjusting their lifestyles to ensure their child’s education. A whopping 97% of Bangalore’s young parents say they’re saving primarily for their children’s education.

This was a major finding of research on savings and investment practices by young parents in India by Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB) for Aviva Life Insurance. While 32% parents across the country are avoiding shopping, only 6% of parents in Bangalore are avoiding unnecessary shopping.

Also, 77% in the city opined that cost of education will be sky-high in the future, 62% think they should start savings immediately, and half the population of young parents fears they won’t be able to afford higher education for their children.

The economic slowdown has again played a great role in savings. More young parents are planning for their children and taking up child plan insurance schemes and looking for flexible premiums so that when the market bounces back and their incomes soar, they can pay higher premia. Read More >>

Angrezi, the phoney way

In Andhra Pradesh’s Jeedimetla village, where striking teachers are away from school and headmasters double up as teachers for 300 children from six grades, some students are playing chor police and kho-kho in class. On their cellphones, that is.

Chor police isn’t a common virtual game to the best of our knowledge, and neither do poor rural kids flaunt cellphones in school. So, what’s going on? Well, actually the students are learning English.

To end the Confusion Confounded scenario: the Telugu-speaking ten-yearolds are subjects for a pilot study on the use of mobile gaming for education in rural India. Matthew Kam, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University , and his team are developing these games as part of MILLEE (Mobile and Immersive Learning for Literacy in Emerging Economies), a research project that aims to help poor Indian children acquire English as a second language . With India all set to have 500 million cellphone users by 2010 and the UN estimating that half of all residents in remote areas will have mobiles by 2012, the ‘anytime, anywhere’ learning project will have a guaranteed audience. Read More >>

A Very English affair

Dinesh Kumar, a migrant from Vaishali district in Bihar, is an electrician in Delhi. Though making ends meet is a challenge, he is not willing to
send his two children to a Hindi medium government school where education is free.

The school fees and related expenditure exceed Rs 2,000 per month and form a quarter of the roughly Rs 8,000 that Kumar earns each month. But he is happy to foot the expense. “I want my kids to study in an English medium school. If they don’t know English, what future will they have?” asks Kumar. It is such reasoning that helps explain the huge increase in enrolment in English medium schools, making it now the second largest medium of instruction in schools across the country.

According to estimates, just over 10 per cent of the Indian population speaks English. But, it is a growing number and the rate of growth outpaces most vernacular languages. The big exception is Hindi, which, of course, is in a different league with 41 per cent of the country’s population speaking in that tongue. Read More >>

Many bridges to cross for children in Krishnagiri

In the village of Mundrampatti, in Krishnagiri district, a couple of 17-year-olds are preparing to lobby their village panchayat leader. When I meet them it’s almost 8 pm on a Wednesday and the two teens are consulting with the trainers from the Child Friendly Village project of the district administration and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). N Priya and R Renugopal want their panchayat leader to take up on an urgent footing the need to improve bus services to their village.

Priya has just completed her class XII but has dropped out of higher education. From her village – a couple of kilometres from the state Highway at Mittapally – Priya will have to travel either to Krishnagiri or to Thiruvannamalai. Daughter of agricultural workers, Priya says her parents cannot afford to admit her to private colleges nearby. But with just two bus services, one each early morning and late evening – Priya cannot attend the affordable government colleges either at Hosur, Krishnagiri or Thiruvannamalai. Read More >>