After a gap of nearly two years, 3,000 aided and 12,000 unaided private schools across Tamil Nadu reopened nursery classes on February 16, following an official order of the DMK-led state government permiting nursery classes, kindergarten, and playschools statewide to restart. This order has brought much needed relief to pre-primary schools, which had […]
With the daily count of Covid-19 cases in West Bengal dipping from 24,000 cases per day in mid-January to 500 on February 13, the state’s hyper cautious Trinamool Congress government announced reopening of all primary and upper primary schools with effect from February 16 — after a 23-months lockdown. The government also greenlighted […]
Against the backdrop of Karnataka (pop.69 million) becoming the first state countrywide to start implementing the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 beginning with higher education last September, the Karnataka Private School Managements Teaching and Non-Teaching Staff Coordination Committee (KPMTCC), which has 7,000 member schools, hosted a two-day national symposium to deliberate the ‘Regulatory […]
On February 27, as Maharashtra celebrated Marathi Language Day on the birth anniversary of popular poet, Kusumagraj, 64,000 mostly Marathi medium private aided schools announced they would abstain from conducting the state government’s forthcoming class X and class XII board exams on their premises. The managements of these schools are on the warpath against […]
If parents and students in India experienced the world’s most prolonged lockdown of schools during the Covid-19 pandemic, the national capital’s citizens claim they experienced the longest schools’ lockdown within India. Now with Covid-19 reduced to a mere epidemic, it’s official that Delhi’s 5,500 K-12 schools which educate 4.5 million children, will restart […]
“This is a country where in a range of exams marks are calculated to the seventh decimal place to decide who will get selected. Every single place where we have an exam, from IIT to CLAT, is pressure ridden because of the law of numbers. So the idea that this exam will be a relief […]
The Tamil Nadu government school teachers Association (TNGSTA) has submitted a petition to chief minister M.K. Stalin to cancel the state’s unique class XI board exams. This exam is scheduled to be written in March-April by 1 million students enrolled in 39,300 government and government-aided schools affiliated with the Tamil Nadu Board of Secondary Examinations […]
For a state that prides itself on its intellectual prowess and cultural refinement, West Bengal (pop.91 million) — or specifically the state’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) government which was re-elected for a third term in May 2021 — is exhibiting a curious reluctance to reopen its schools after an epic 82-week lockdown prompted by the Covid-19 […]
Hitherto one of India’s most secular states with a 8-million strong and prosperous Muslim minority, Karnataka (pop.68 million) is experiencing slow spread of religious communalism with headscarves row.
Since December 31, 2021, six hijab (headscarf)-wearing Muslim girl students of the Government Girls PU College (classes XI-XII), Kundapur in the state’s coastal […]
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is gearing to hit the streets with statewide protests against the incumbent Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government’s proposal to curb the powers of the governor in 11 state government universities. By law and convention, state governors appointed by the Central government, are ex-officio chancellors of all public universities […]
Delhi University: full circle. Inset: Dinesh Singh
The wheel is set to turn full circle for Delhi University (DU, estb.1922), one of India’s largest (82 affiliated colleges and 400,000 students) and most popular universities. In 2013, DU became the first university to introduce four-year arts, science and commerce undergrad programmes.
Within six weeks of reopening senior schools (class IX-XII), colleges and universities after a prolonged 65-70 weeks lockdown because of exaggerated fear of the Covid-19 pandemic, West Bengal’s 92,000 government and 1,500 private schools, 372 colleges and 32 universities have been ordered to shut down again from January 3. A mere two citizens […]
In line with other states such as West Bengal, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, following a sudden spurt in Covid-19 infections triggered by the Omicron variant, Karnataka’s BJP government has ordered an immediate shutdown of primary-secondary schools and switch to online instruction with effect from January 6. Optional on-campus classes are permitted for […]
On December 16, the pune police investigating allegations of malpractice in the recruitment exam of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) held between December 12-20, stumbled upon large scale tampering in the state’s annual teacher recruitment exam.
Investigations into the state’s teacher eligibility test (TET) — a compulsory qualification for college/university graduates […]
Following a prolonged and sustained campaign by EducationWorld, which staged its first international conference on early childhood care and education (ECCE) in 2010 and has been since rating, ranking and awarding the best private pre-primary schools and government-run anganwadi centres in major cities countrywide, the critical importance of ECCE was acknowledged by the high powered […]
Following chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s October 25 declaration that education for class IX-XII students in West Bengal’s 92,000 government and 2,000 private schools, 372 colleges and 32 universities would resume, they were duly reopened on November 16 after the unprecedented 20-month pandemic lockdown. Although education minister Bratya Basu has expressed willingness to reopen […]
Even as the reopening of primary-secondary schools on November 8 after 64-weeks of pandemic lockdown cheered the state’s 21,000 private unaided schools, a new circular of the state’s BJP government directing them to issue transfer certificates (TCs) to students within seven days has proved a dampener. On November […]
The Maharashtra government’s celebrated Wablewadi Zilla Parishad Primary (WZPP) School in Shirur district, Pune, that made headlines for transforming into a state-of-the-art Marathi medium school delivering internationally benchmarked education, is facing a crisis because of political machinations. On November 22, the Pune Zilla Parishad education department suspended its […]
As schools in delhi reopened after an unprecedented closure of 73 weeks (arguably the most prolonged schools closure worldwide) because of the Covid-19 pandemic, there’s looming uncertainty about another lockdown following the discovery of Omicron — a new variant of the novel Coronavirus.
After 19 months of continuous lockdown and dithering over reopening of schools because of fear of Covid-19 contagion, on October 25 the state’s BJP government greenlighted commencement of in-person classes in all 73,238 government, aided and private schools of Karnataka with free mid-day meals for classes I-V children in government schools, beginning November […]
West Bengal’s 92,000 government and 2,000 private schools, 372 colleges and 32 universities will reopen for on-campus classes on November 16. Following chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s declaration to this effect on October 25, an official gazette notification was issued by the state government on October 28 re-starting the massive education system of West […]
The Maharashtra state government’s ill-advised initiative to slash the reimbursement amount payable to private unaided schools admitting students under s.12 (1) (c) of the Right of Children to Free & Compulsory Education (aka RTE) Act, 2009, has boomeranged.
Dattatray Jagtap, director of the school education department, who recommended that the amount […]
Following heavy criticism from Supreme Court for not having devised an alternative examination system for the pandemic academic year 2020-21 after board examinations were cancelled in the wake of the second wave (March-June 2021) of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) […]
On September 6, government and private schools in Karnataka (pop. 68.4 million) reopened for on-campus, in-person teaching-learning for classes VI-VIII children after 18 months of Covid disruption. Two weeks earlier, schools had reopened for classes IX-XII students on August 23. Therefore, all middle-secondary students statewide are back in class and learning normatively, subject to prescribed […]
The turmoil in Visva-Bharati University (VBU, estb.1921), established by Nobel laureate, sage, savant and litterateur Rabindranath Tagore, shows no signs of simmering down despite this being its centenary year — a time for celebration.
On September 15, the Calcutta high court set aside a three-year rustication order issued on August 23 by controversial vice chancellor Bidyut […]
The State’s Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, an alliance of the Shiv Sena, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party, which was hastily cobbled together in November 2019 to shut the BJP out of power in India’s most industrialised state, has made common cause with the DMK government of Tamil Nadu in its opposition to NEET (National […]
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which has been in power in Delhi state since 2015 and against all expectations, has bested the BJP juggernaut in two legislative assembly elections (2015 and 2019) with K-12 education upgradation serving as a major electoral plank, has introduced a Deshbhakti (patriotism) curriculum which will be taught in its 1,028 […]
In an important even if belated development, several blue-chip boarding schools — some of over 150 years vintage and respected around the world — have jointly promoted the Boarding Schools Association of India (BSAI), registered on September 29.
BSAI founding members: policy formulation goal
The prime objectives of BSAI declared in the association’s constitution are […]
“The new National Education Policy is expected to revolutionize the educational sector in India and lay the path for the next 25 years as per the Vision 2047 of prime minister Shri Narendra Modi. He stressed that education has to make each one of us more responsible and become global citizen.” – Dharmendra Pradhan, union education […]
One year after the ambitious National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 was presented to the nation by prime minister Narendra Modi on July 29, 2020, the southern state of Karnataka (pop.68.4 million) has become the first countrywide to implement its higher education reform proposals.
On August 7, the BJP state government issued a circular to […]
AAP’s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal (right) & education minister Manish Sisodia
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which has ruled Delhi state since 2015 and took on and bested the BJP in the state legislative election of 2020 shortly after the saffron party had swept to power in General Election 2019, is perhaps […]
In a classic case of too many cooks, the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government’s grand plans to reopen schools from August 17 onwards has run awry because of divergence of opinion between its two Covid-19 management task forces. Fearing resurgence of the pandemic in the state, […]
Under lockdown to check the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic for over one year, Tamil Nadu’s 37,500 government schools and 12,000 unaided private schools resumed on-campus teaching-learning for classes IX-XII on September 1 subject to maintaining strict Covid protocols and 50 percent capacity, i.e, alternate days attendance. Currently, 4.5 million children are enrolled […]
Established by nobel laureate, savant and litterateur Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) as an abode for students from around the world, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan (VBU, estb.1918) has been mired in controversy and continuous turmoil since Dr. Bidyut Chakrabarty, former professor of political science at Delhi University, assumed office as vice chancellor […]
An estimated 12,000 private unaided schools in Tamil Nadu were given the green light to collect 85 percent of annual fees payable for the academic year 2021-22 by the Madras high court on July 30.
The court’s order was issued with qualifications. The annual fee is payable in six equal instalments by parents who […]
Notwithstanding a large shadow cast by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) which after probing incidents of post-poll violence following re-election for a third term of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in May, has recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe to the Calcutta high court, chief minister Mamata Banerjee remains […]
Almost 15 months after the country’s 1.5 million schools including 450,000 private schools were ordered to shut down by the Central government on March 25, 2020 to check the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, several surveys and reports are highlighting the extensive damage done to children’s education in terms of learning loss and […]
Succumbing to intensifying pressure from parents demanding reduction of private school fees because of income and job losses suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Maharashtra government is all set to slash fees payable in the new academic year 2021-22. On July 28, the state’s cabinet approved an ordinance to enforce a 15 percent […]
The reconstitution of the union council of ministers on July 7 witnessed the induction of 36 new ministers and 12, including several party heavyweights, dropped, taking the effective strength of the council to 78, just three short of the maximum permitted 81. In this reshuffle, both Union ministers of education (Ramesh Pokhriyal and junior […]
Under the stern glare of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), its ideological guardian and mentor, the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre is unlikely to incorporate the comprehensive, sensible and overdue recommendations of the T.S.R. Subramanian Committee Report into its New Education Policy 2016 (see cover story). However, it’s likely to cherry pick some of […]
[embed]https://youtu.be/T8zpdfot4w4[/embed] Dr. Anunaya Chaubey, Provost of Anant National University, is a distinguished academician, artist, and thought leader in education. His artworks explore the mystery of .....Read More
Mita Mukherjee Bringing a big setback to the Mamata Banerjee government in Bengal, the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the Calcutta High Court’s decision to .....Read More
