The majority judgement of a three-judge bench delivered on April 12 substantially upheld the constitutional validity of the Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 and particularly its controversial reserved quota for poor neighbourhood children in private schools. Dilip Thakore report
An uneasy silence has enveloped india’s estimated 80,000 private primary-secondary schools countrywide following […]
s.2.(n) “School” means any recognised school imparting elementary education and includes: (iii) school belonging to specified category and (iv) an unaided school not receiving any kind of aid or grants to meet its expenses from the appropriate government or local authority.
s.3.(1) Every child of the age of six to fourteen years shall have a right to free […]
Article 15 (1). The State shall not discriminate against any citizens on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.
Article 15 (5). Nothing in this article or sub-clause (g) Article 19 shall prevent the State from making any special provision, by law for the advancement of any socially or educationally backward […]
“The word ‘free’ in the long title to the 2009 Act stands for the removal by the State of any financial barrier that prevents a child from completing eight years of schooling (para 5).
Advancement of education is a recognised head of charity. S.3(2) has been enacted with the object […]
Under an innovative scheme devised by Dr Achyuta Samanta, the for-profit KIIT University is a means to a greater end: to fund and grow the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) which offers 15,000 children and youth from 62 tribes, K-postgraduate free-of-charge fully residential education. Dilip Thakore reports from Bhubaneswar
The prime focus area of Dr. Achyuta Samanta, the visionary founder-director of KIIT University and the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS, estb. 1992), is the latter institution which provides free-of-charge K-postgrad education to 15,000 aboriginal children drawn from 62 most backward and neglected tribes of the eastern seaboard state of Odisha (pop. 41 million), […]
Dilip Thakore interviewed Dr. Achyuta Samanta, the visionary founder- director of KIIT University and the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) on the KISS campus in Bhubaneswar. Excerpts:
To have promoted and established KIIT as one of India’s top 20 private universities within 15 years is a commendable and extraordinary achievement. What were the aims and objectives behind […]
I congratulate Dr. Samanta for establishing institutions of character like KIIT and KISS. I urge the students of KIIT and KISS to take a lead in spreading the message of peace and non-violence in the present day strife-torn world — Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, former president of India
Every day, in a rare feat of organisational efficiency and management, 259 Agastya teacher-instructors disseminate hands-on science education to over 4,800 government school children in ten states through its science centre in Kuppam, 28 satellite science centres and 61 mobile science vans, sparking a belated science education revolution in rural India. Summiya Yasmeen reports.
Dilip Thakore interviewed Ravi Venkatesan, the Bangalore-based chief executive of Microsoft India (who was abroad) through e-mail. Excerpts:
It’s well-known that education and healthcare are high priority objectives of your parent Microsoft Corporation Inc, USA. How important are these socio-economic issues for MicrosoftCorporation (India)?
Microsoft Corporation began with the dream of a PC on every desk and in every home. Thirty years ago, this […]
Following recommendations of three expert committees, Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal has given in-principle approval to the country’s show-piece IIMs — hitherto closely tied to the apron strings of theministry — to rationalise their boards of governors, improve faculty pay scales, and establish formal fundraising offices to augment their incomes. Dilip Thakore reports
Although the silver jubilee celebrations of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (estb.1985) were dutifully inaugurated in Delhi on November 19 last year, there seems little awareness or pride in the unique achievements of the world’s largest distance education varsity. Autar Nehru & Summiya Yasmeen report
A historic silver jubilee anniversary — a landmark in the […]
At a crowded press conference held in Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi on June 25, newly sworn-in human resources development minister Kapil Sibal outlined a heavy agenda for radical reform of India’s school and higher education systems. Excerpts:
School Education
• Enactment of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill. Notification of the 86th Constitutional Amendment.
Following the return to power in Delhi of the Congress-led UPA-2 government and the appointment of Congress party heavyweight Kapil Sibal as Union HRD minister, there’s new hope that the education sector, completely bypassed by the socio-economic reform process of the past two decades, will be given top priority. Dilip Thakore reports
Dilip Thakore interviewed Dr. Ranjan Pai, managing director and chief executive of Manipal Education and Medical Group Pvt. Ltd (MEMG), the holding company of all for-profit enterprises of the Manipal Education Group, in his office in Manipal Towers, Bangalore. Excerpts from the 90 minute interview.
For over 50 years the focus of the Manipal Education & Medical Group […]
The entry of the Manipal Education Group, which over the past half century has focused its energies on higher education, into the primary and secondary schools sector, has created a flutter within the somnolent dovecotes of Indian academia, and generated great expectations within India’s 300 million-strong middle class. Dilip Thakore reports
The country’s premier and perhaps only university town, Manipal (pop.28,000) is India’s answer to the university towns of the American Mid West and Britain’s Oxbridge. Though Manipal with its utilitarian PWD-style buildings lacks the defining architecture which distinguishes and characterises Britain’s ancient university towns, there is no denying that it is perhaps India’s only (another […]
Eight young finalists paraded their talent and achievements in magic, rapier fencing, painting, equesterian show jumping, math wizadry and cyber crime detection, at the GS-EW Young Achievers Awards 2008 celebrated in Chennai. Summiya Yasmeen reports
Any doubts that members of a specially constituted jury comprising education professionals, academics and media mavens may have entertained about the capabilities […]
P. Kishore, the promoter-managing director of Everonn Systems India Ltd, (ESIL), was interviewed by Dilip Thakore in Chennai. Excerpts:Everonn Systems India Ltd (ESIL) is a very successful business enterprise doubling its sales revenue and net profit annually. What are the major factors behind this impressive growth record?
I believe the major factors behind ESIL’s rapid growth are […]
The low profile blue-chip Everonn Systems India Ltd is all set to launch a hugely ambitious national education development blueprint which could revolutionise and alter the character of Indian education. Dilip Thakore reports
For the growing minority of thinking citizens who have correctly identified its K-Ph D education system as the Achilles leg (the contagion has […]
“We signed up one month ago (November) to install an Everonn computer centre and ICT system for our class VI-XII students. The initial reaction of our students to Everonn’s computer literacy and computer aided learning is good and there is great excitement within the student community. I am confident that learning outcomes in […]
The fourth annual Tata Consultancy Services-EducationWorld Teachers Awards 2008 attracted 18,000 nominations from 2,500 schools across the country. At a meticulously planned awards ceremony staged in Lucknow, the eight finalists — all women —were showered with cash awards, certificates and mementos. Summiya Yasmeen reports
A mix of emotions — hope, excitement, optimism, anxiety and joy — pervaded the […]
For the purposes of this survey, C fore pollsters defined day schools as K-12 institutions in which the majority of students are day-scholars. Therefore the confusion created by schools such as Bishop Cotton, Bangalore and Loreto Convent, Darjeeling, which once upon a time were predominantly boarding schools but in which the number of boarders have […]
A transnational poll conducted by AlertNet, a humanitarian website of the Reuters Foundation, voted India as the sixth most dangerous country worldwide for children after Sudan, Uganda, Congo, Iraq and Somalia. Dilip Thakore reports
It’s a scathing indictment which ought to have seared the conscience of the nation. but within the indifferent establishment of shining India which […]
Regular readers of this publication are surely well aware that there’s much that is wrong with the nation’s education system shaped by indifferent governments at the Centre and in the constituent states of the Indian Union. Despite the country being blessed or cursed – the jury is still out on this issue – with the […]
The second all-India TCS-EducationWorld Teachers Awards 2007 attracted 25,000 nominations countrywide. At a gala awards ceremony in Chennai, the eight finalists were showered with gifts, cash awards and mementos.Summiya Yasmeen reports
It was a memorable day of triumph and celebration for the eight school teachers who made it to the national final of the second all-India Tata […]
Starting with rudely corrupt government officials and the uncaring accumulative instincts of Indian businessmen, all the way down the social pecking order the ordinary citizen experiences the law’s delay, the proud man’s contumely and the insolence of office on a daily basis. Dilip Thakore reports
For a nation of incorrigible me-first shovers and pushers with seldoma care […]
ASER 2005 — the country’s first independent nationwide survey of rural primary education — confirms deep-seated public suspicion that post-independence India’s elementary education effort has been a massive failure.Dilip Thakorereports
For the small minority of genuine educationists and social scientists as well as for responsible citizens anxious about the future of India’s 415 […]
The year 2005 was remarkable forunprecedentedly frenzied activity in the education sector. Like latter day Rip Van Winkles, India’s somnambulistic politicians seem to have woken to the reality that the rest of the world which was quick to discern the vitally important connection between education and national development, has left the sovereign, socialist, secular, etc […]
Recent judgements of the country’s apex court are being interpreted as a huge blow to the managements of one-five star schools which have sprung up all over the country. Dilip Thakore reports
Despite the unanimously welcomed exit of Union minister of human resource development Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi who was hell-bent on rewriting history and social science textbooks to […]
Despite the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1990) specifically stipulating that the views of children be given due weightage, their opinions on subjects of national importance are seldom solicited. EW compiled their views on the Rs.400 crore India Shining campaign. Summiya Yasmeen reports
It’s widely being hailed as the masterstroke which will sweep the major constituents of […]
In the quarter ending March 2025, NIIT Foundation, a non-profit organisation, achieved remarkable success by certifying 5,28,468 students through their various initiatives. In addition to .....Read More
Reshma Ravishanker All government schools must have fully equipped science labs, a library and sufficient computers for students to learn better, urged a topper of .....Read More
