EducationWorld March 16

There’s no denying that sexual harassment of women in workplaces and public spaces by males in positions of power and authority is unacceptable. It causes great distress to victims and is a violation of human rights, and in the larger context dissuades thousands of talented women from entering the workforce. But it’s also in the […]

Farthest Field: An Indian story of the second world war by Raghu Karnad fourth estate; Price: Rs.550; Pages: 300

The re-telling in recent years of unsung deeds of valour of Indian soldiers and regiments fighting under the flag of imperial Britain during the two World Wars of the 20th century, has opened up a new, illuminating chapter in […]

Over the past nine years, Vidya Vanam, an alternative school providing education to K-IX students of impoverished backward communities living on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border, has miraculously transformed the lives and destiny of tribals and their children:  Hemalatha Raghupathi

Prior to 2007, the Irula tribe and other impoverished backward communities living in 25 villages surrounding the town […]

China’s one-child policy, perhaps the biggest attempt at social engineering in history, came to an end in 2015. Under pressure from an ageing population, the authorities announced last October that couples would be allowed to have two children, scrapping a policy strictly implemented since 1979.

It was widely credited with having prevented 400 million births, although […]

Hundreds of Turkish academics are currently waiting to see if they will be prosecuted or sacked for signing a petition calling for an end to violence in Turkey’s southeast, where government forces are fighting Kurdish separatists. On January 15, 33 scholars who signed the petition were arrested and later released.

Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, branded […]

In 1986 when the quadrennial International Congress of Mathematicians convened at the University of California, Berkeley, almost half of the 80 speakers came from Soviet universities. But a quarter century later, just five of the 170 speakers invited to address the 2010 congress in Hyderabad, India, were affiliated with Russian universities.

The exodus of Russia’s best […]

A preoccupation with technical skills means many Middle Eastern graduates lack broader knowledge and understanding, according to university leaders who called for a re-imagination of liberal arts in the Islamic world.

Robert Whelan, former president of the University of Wollongong in Dubai, told the Times Higher Education MENA (Middle East & North Africa) Universities Summit staged […]

In early 2016, representatives from nine Thai universities visited London in a bid to strike up academic collaborations with UK institutions and, in particular, to establish double, dual and joint degree programmes. Transnational education — where a British university offers courses outside the UK — has become a huge business. There are now 340,000 students […]

In theory, it works perfectly. Rather than oblige parents to send their children to the nearest state-run or funded school, give them a voucher to be spent at a private school of their choice. “The adoption of such arrangements,” argued Milton Friedman way back in 1955, “would make for more effective competition among various types […]

I’m a second year law student interested in making a career in cyber law. Which national law schools offer postgraduate programmes in cyber law?
Sreedhar Iyer, Chennai

The National Law School of India University, Bangalore; NLU, Bhopal, and Symbiosis Law School, Pune offer certificate/PG diploma programmes in cyber law. Job opportunities for cyber law professionals are […]

Cambridge University Press (CUP) unveiled two new digital learning solutions in Bangalore on February 16. According to CUP spokespersons, the digital solutions will make learning maths and upgrading English-learning skills enjoyable for class III-VIII students.

Introducing the learning solutions to representatives of schools, Manish Doshi, vice president (education) of CUP, said Cambridge HOTmaths, originally an Australian […]

Gujarat

Preschools upgradation drive

The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) is all set to revamp 65 balwadis (preschools) of VMC-run primary schools in the city in a phased manner. The objective of the upgradation drive is to provide the 4,160 children enrolled in them with facilities on a par with the best private preschools.

Five balwadis have been […]

“The most effective way to ensure the long-term impairment of India’s entrenched Left-wing ecosystem is to throw open the education market to competition. It is also the cheapest, for it would not require expending government revenue which can be invested to improve India’s national defence and security…”

Rajeev Mantri, co-founder of the India Enterprise Council, on how […]

The Bihar model of cheating in school-leaving board exams, made globally infamous by a photograph showing parents, relatives and well-wishers scaling a four-storey building which went viral a year ago, has evidently impacted the parents, relatives and well-wishers of 6.3 million students currently writing their high school and higher secondary board exams in neighbouring Uttar […]

Under s. 12 (1) (c) of the landmark Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, non-minority private schools are obliged to reserve 25 percent of seats in class I for children from poor households in their neighbourhood and admit applicants selected by the state government. However, the admission process under s. […]

The suicide of three 19-year-old second year women students of the privately promoted SVS Medical College of Yoga and Naturopathy and Research Institute (SVSMCYNRI, estb. in 2008 under the aegis of the SVS Educational and Social Trust) in Villupuram district, Tamil Nadu on January 23, has shocked and angered academics, parents and students across the […]

The second phase of a statewide survey to ascertain the number of out-of-school children in the age group 6-14 (according to the Right of Children to Free & Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, it is the duty of the Central and state governments — especially the latter — to ensure that all children in that […]

Even after a Delhi High Court order of February 16 restored the 20 percent management quota of 6,600 composite private unaided schools offering pre-primary education in Delhi, the scramble for nursery admissions into top-ranked composite schools in the national capital is so intense, that complaints are expected to pour in until the admission process draws […]

I live in Nairobi, Kenya and have been an avid reader of EducationWorld for over four years. I believe your annual EW India school and preschool rankings are rendering extraordinary value to Indian school education. I wish similar league tables were available for Kenya.

But my favourite section in your magazine is the book reviews page. […]

The arrest of kanhaiya kumar, president of the students union of the admittedly leftist Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), on the charge of sedition by the Central government-controlled Delhi police, provided another instance of the BJP-led NDA government’s clampdown on fundamental rights to freedom of speech and expression, under the cover of nationalism. Kumar is accused […]

Right from the start of my career as a self-styled development journalist in Business India and Businessworld more than 30 years ago, I have advocated policy priority for agriculture and rural development. The logic of this advocacy is that the greater proportion of national savings/investment should flow into the most people-intensive sectors of the economy. […]