Arjit Kansal (16), a class XI science student of Delhi’s Maharaja Agrasen School, Pitampura, is the first Indian national to win a Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship, staged annually for the past 14 years. In the 2014 championship held in Disneyland, California, from July 27-30, Arjit bested 123 finalists from 41 countries in the PowerPoint […]
Since September, 200 C fore field researchers have quizzed 2,332 SECA (socio-economic category A) young parents and 795 principals and teachers to rate 173 unitary pre-primaries in ten cities countrywide across ten parameters of early childhood care and education excellence. Here are the Educationworld India Preschool Rankings for the year 2014:
Dr. Geeta Kingdon is chair of education economics and international development at the Institute of Education, University of London
Four years after the Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 became law on April 1, 2010, followed by an inconclusive Supreme Court judgement, there’s still widespread dissatisfaction with the provisions of the Act, its […]
An unapologetically legacy boarding school with a strong emphasis on pomp, circumstance and conservative values, Good Shepherd International School, Ooty has set its sights on competing with the best residential schools worldwide
On October 15-16, Good Shepherd International School (GSIS, estb.1977), Ootacamund (aka Ooty, pop. 100,000) celebrated its 38th Founders […]
A constituent unit of the University of Massachusetts, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth’s seven schools provide 49 undergrad and 20 Masters programmes to 9,053 students
Offering the advantages of sweeping rural and urban vistas and easy access to the Atlantic coast, the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth (UMass-D) is a constituent unit […]
The condition of the great majority of infant citizens of the democratic, socialist and secular Republic of India whose uncaring 200 million-strong middle class harbours super-power ambitions and a seat at the high table for the nation, is so wretched that even those who are obliged to witness it in detail are likely to be […]
THE UNSEEMLY AND HIGHLY politicised war of words which has broken between the opposition Congress and the ruling BJP on the occasion of the 125th birth anniversary (November 14) of Jawaharlal Nehru, does little justice to independent India’s first prime minister. Whatever his other acts of commission and omission, it’s incontrovertible that Nehru dug deep […]
Thank you for the brilliant bumper 15th anniversary issue of EducationWorld. The cover story ‘Wasted years: An abridged history of Indian education’ is extraordinary, succinctly summing up the landmark education developments between 1999-2014.
The past 15 years were much ado about nothing. Lots of promises were made but achievements were few, if any.
Even as a task force of the Union HRD ministry is preparing a paper on ‘National Framework of Ranking of Universities and Colleges Suited to Local Conditions, Circumstances and Requirements,’ an EY-FICCI (Ernst & Young-Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry) report on higher education has advised the ministry to identify 100 higher education […]
Educationists in Mumbai — India’s commercial capital — are up in arms against a Central government July 11 notification which obliges private education providers to pay 12.36 percent service tax.
In September 2013, the Congress-led UPA-II government at the Centre had exempted education institutions from paying service tax on all services to encourage the improvement and […]
A bill prohibiting the promotion of private law colleges tabled in the Tamil Nadu state legislative assembly, has drawn strong criticism from lawyers, and judges across the state.
According to the preamble of The Tamil Nadu Establishment of Private Law Colleges (Prohibition) Bill (TNEPLC (P) B) tabled in the assembly on July 30, “… past experience […]
Prime minister Narendra Modi’s native state Gujarat, which he served as chief minister for three consecutive terms before he led the Bharatiya Janata Party to an epic victory in General Election 2014, has become the first state countrywide to install an e-surveillance system which has the potential to curb mass cheating in secondary and higher […]
The ruling trinamool congress (TMC) government in West Bengal is slipping deeper into the quicksand of the Saradha ponzi scam in which the savings of 1.7 million low-income households aggregating an estimated Rs.20,000 crore were misappropriated by the Saradha Group — a consortium of over 200 private companies — managed by Sudipto Sen reportedly close […]
Since july 14, when the heinous rape of a six-year-old girl child of the upmarket CISCE-affiliated Vibgyor High School was reported in Bangalore, the city has witnessed a spate of child sexual abuse crimes. Over the past five months, nine cases of child molestation/rape have been reported within K-12 schools in the city. According to […]
Haryana education minister Ram Bilas Sharma has invited expressions of interest from the UK government to promote cooperation in the fields of skills development, technology, industrial development, renewable energy and solid waste management, an official spokesman informed the media in Chandigarh on November 13.
The minister made the offer to Baroness Verma, parliamentary under-secretary […]
Bhubaneswar-based educationist and social entrepreneur Dr. Achyuta Samanta is among 15 laureates selected for the prestigious Gusi Peace Prize 2014. The list was announced recently by Gusi Peace Prize International, the Philippines-based awarding foundation. He was selected for the award for his efforts and achievements in “poverty alleviation through education and humanitarianism”, said the announcement.
This sunrise industry has room for youth with electrical and mechanical engineering, IT, physics, maths and aerospace engineering qualifications
After the successful launch of India’s Mars Orbiter Mission by the Bangalore-based Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on November 5, 2013 and its successful insertion into Mars’ orbit on September 24, ISRO became the first Asian agency […]
I want to pursue postgraduate studies in maths after completing my engineering degree next year. Please suggest courses available.
Rajan Narayan, Chennai
You can sign up for a Masters in maths in any of the following disciplines: statistical mathematics, statistical methods, applied mathematics, industrial mathematics, applied statistics, numerical mathematics, pure mathematics and mathematical economics.
Sreyash Sarkar (21), a promising polymath whose interests range across poetry, art, writing, music and engineering, who was in his hometown Kolkata for a fleeting visit, is currently a third-year student of electrical and electronics engineering at Bangalore’s RNS Institute of Technology. Last month (November) Sense of Elsewhere, a Vancouver (Canada)-based magazine acclaimed him ‘poet […]
India’s higher education sector is adrift. Resource inadequacy, quality deficit and policy opacity are ruining our 35,000 undergraduate colleges and 700 universities. Although some of these institutions — especially the universities of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras — were established in the 1850s, not even one Indian university (IITs included) has ever been ranked among the […]
Over the years, the subject of children’s play time has become a combustible issue. Curiously, parents tend to get more upset over their child’s on-field playing time — or lack of it — than children themselves. I think it’s because many parents have the attitude: “I’ve invested in my kid’s sports education and I expect […]
The Lives of Others; Neel Mukherjee random house); Price: Rs.425; 528pp
Though bested against all expectations by Richard Flanagan in the final round of assessment for Britain’s prestigious Booker Prize 2014, Neel Mukherjee’s second novel The Lives of Others made literary headlines as the front-runner until the last mile. In recent years, the […]
Where would you place education on your national list of priorities?
Among the top three. All our problems and social disparities — poverty, unemployment, poor sanitation and hygiene, poor health and lifestyles, malnourishment, increasing criminality — are rooted in the national failure to universalise primary […]
WITH THE PROLIFERATION OF educational technology, online courses, and a range of enrichment offerings, parents and educators are confronted with a bewildering array of options for fulfilling the academic needs of students. This challenge is amplified for those with international mindsets and looking for ways to ensure that their children are competitive with students worldwide.
The Supreme Court’s scathing November 20 order passed against Ranjit Sinha, director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), while hearing an application filed by the Delhi-based Centre for Public Interest Litigation, directing Sinha to recuse himself and not “interfere in the 2G spectrum investigation and trial”, has confirmed the worst fears of the tax-paying […]
Sightsavers India, also known as the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind, has officially opened applications for its 2025 India Fellowship Programme, aimed at addressing .....Read More
A conflict has emerged between the department of school education and literacy and the office of the chief electoral officer over the deployment of school .....Read More
RTE Act lunacies and lacunae
Dr. Geeta Kingdon is chair of education economics and international development at the Institute of Education, University of London
Four years after the Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 became law on April 1, 2010, followed by an inconclusive Supreme Court judgement, there’s still widespread dissatisfaction with the provisions of the Act, its […]