EducationWorld October 09

The first thing you notice about Karen Allens house is that it is spotless. Even in her teenage boys bedrooms, not a thing is out of place. And her boys, Thomas and Taylor, are polite and engaging. In this household, every chance to learn something new is eagerly seized, explains Mrs. Allen. The Allens are […]

When the poet William Wordsworth declared that the Child is father of the Man, he meant that the gifts of childhood endow adults with some of their finest qualities. These days many governments feel the path to happiness for society as a whole lies through spending on the welfare of its youngest members: their health, […]

The Australian higher education sector is now on a slippery slope, with the University of Melbourne leading the slide to the murky bottom. Melbourne has announced that because of financial losses it will cut 220 full-time academic and administrative jobs. One hundred of those will be voluntary redundancies, and the rest will result from a […]

In the autumn of 1978 the beleaguered Shah postponed the autumnal return of Irans politically disgruntled students to their universities by several months. But when the institutions of learning eventually opened their doors, the students soon poured furiously into the streets in their tens of thousands, until, in the growing mayhem, the Shah fled and […]

The fault lines between Zimbabwes political parties are causing disruption at the opening of the third term in public schools, continuing years of decline in a sector once regarded as sub-Saharan Africas finest. It was hoped the formation of the unity government in February 2009 would resurrect the ailing schooling system, but lack of finance, […]

Against the backdrop of a nationwide loss of confidence in government school education, a question being increasingly debated within the intelligentsia is whether the public interest would be better served if the management of failing government primary-secondaries is chartered or leased, to NGOs and private education providers. Summiya Yasmeen reportsDuring the past 100 days, since […]

In the US, where the concept originated in the free market era of the Ronald Regan presidency, 4,600 charter schools across 40 (of 50) states with an aggregate enrolment of 1.4 million students, are up and running currently. Charters are defined as publicly funded schools freed from some of the rules, regulations, and statutes that […]

At the best of times, the newly-constituted state of Jharkhand (pop. 27 million) is on the outer periphery of the Union HRD ministrys radar in New Delhi. When the Union government announced the promotion of eight new IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) during the Eleventh Plan period (2007-12), an IIT would have been an ideal […]

Kudos to EducationWorld (September) for taking the initiative to rank K-12 schools in India. The parameters are really thorough and tables easy to read. This issue is a godsend to parents looking for an appropriate school for their children. Also the fact sheet which you have introduced, gives another dimension to the perceptual survey.Tanya B. […]

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM)-led Left Front government of West Bengal is experiencing huge embarrassment in the wake of the Calcutta high courts interim order dated September 24, staying the teacher recruitment process begun by the administration in 2006 to appoint 56,000 teachers in the states 52,000 primary schools.Way back in February 2006, the […]

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)-led Tamil Nadu governments three-year old proposal (mooted in 2006 as one of its pre-election promises) to replace the states four (apart from CBSE and CISCE) school examination boards — the Tamil Nadu Secondary School Leaving Certificate Examination, Anglo Indian School Certificate Examination, Matriculation Schools, and Oriental School Leaving Certificate Examination […]

The current debate on higher education has centred on privatisation, reservation, control and governance of Indias universities and colleges. There is little discussion on education quality. Yet some questions need to be posed: Do Indias 21,000 colleges and 430 universities deliver quality education appropriate for a growing and rapidly changing economy? Do college students acquire […]