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>>

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

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 >>

Stop child abuse in schools

With two out of every three children, a majority studying in schools, reported being physically abused in India, a child rights organization Friday called for immediate implementation of the proposed safer schools guideline in the country.

On the occasion of International Children’s Day Friday, NGO Plan India held consultation with school authorities, government bodies and other organization to promote safer schools guidelines.

‘We are very keen to put a strategy and mechanism in place where children can attend school and expect a quality learning experience without fear or threats of violence,’ said Amod Kanth, chairperson, Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR).

Affirming his support to implementation of the guidelines on safer school, Kanth said: ‘It is imperative that we accelerate the implementation of these guidelines to ensure that we can provide children with a safe and positive environment in schools.’

The Directorate of Education has recently issued guidelines for reporting mechanisms of child abuse and corporal punishments in schools. Read More>>

Govt may allow private sector investment in education

The Centre plans to allow the (for-profit) private sector set up educational institutions and tap the capital market, thus aiming to plug the funding gap in the education sector. In this regard, the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry has asked Max India Chairman Analjit Singh to prepare a feasibility paper.

HRD Minister Kapil Sibal did so during a roundtable in New Delhi with Singh and other members, including Sunil Alagh, chairman of SKA Advisors, Hari Bhartia, co-chairman and MD of Jubilant Organosys, and Rajendra Pawar, chairman of NIIT.

Singh is one of the founder supporters of Indian School of Business (ISB’s) second campus at the Knowledge City, Mohali and has donated Rs 50 crore for the campus. Other founder supporters include the Bharti, Hero and Punj Lloyd groups.

Analjit Singh’s office confirmed the development, but declined to divulge details. Read More>>

A Longer March

It’s 60 years too late and still, the 2009 Education Act leaves out half of India’s children, says PUJA MARWAHA

I MET 27-year-old Sushila in a Bhandup slum, located about five metres off Mumbai’s railway tracks. A mother of two daughters aged 12 and three, she works as a domestic help in a high-rise on the opposite side of the tracks. “Where I work, they live in such great comfort that they have running water in taps!” says Sushila, for whom collecting drinking water is a daily wading through a broken nullah to access a leaking pipe. The slum dwellers have petitioned the government repeteadly for drinking water taps and electricity, to no avail. “I will live without them,” she says, leaning against rough tin sheets that serve as her home walls. “What I can’t bear is that there is absolutely nothing for my children.”

What Sushila is hinting at is an anganwadi – a government nursery, which in theory provides all 3-6 year olds a safe place to play, learn from a governmentappointed teacher and get a free midday meal. But since Sushila’s slum is ‘unrecognised’, it doesn’t qualify and those who lose out are too young to demand it. Read More>>

Empowering Children through Education

While the rest of the world celebrates Children’s Day on November 20 every year, India celebrates it six days ahead, on the birth anniversary of its most beloved Prime Minister – Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. With the Right to Education Bill passed successfully by our parliamentarians, education has become a fundamental right of children across the country.

However, education is not penetrating the darkest corners of India’s society, due to poor implementation. But at the same time, educationists across the country are doing their bit by stretching a lending hand to the needy and teaching the importance of education in a child’s life.

Sharonee Mullick, principal of Singapore International School (SIS), Mumbai, said, “Even though the literacy rate has gone up in our country, there are large sections of society which are deprived of basic education. It is our duty to step in and share our resources with those who are in need of help.” Read More>>