Analysis
In the wake of the controversy over the Nehru/Ambedkar cartoon in NCERT textbooks, Havovi Wadia and Arun Kumar point out the folly of seeing children as empty vessels and passive absorbers of information, incapable of engaging actively with the learning process
Rakesh Shukla examines the recent Supreme Court judgment on the Right to Education, which clarified that the obligation on un-aided non-minority schools to admit 25% children from disadvantaged groups is a reasonable restriction on the fundamental right to carry on a business or occupation
Around 17,282 habitations in India do not have a primary school within 1 km, 148,696 government schools still do not have a building, 165,742 have no drinking water, 455,561 schools have no toilets, and around 114,531 primary schools are single-teacher schools. Where does that leave the Right to Education, which has been notified by only 9 states 15 months on?
After the passage of the Right to Education Bill, elementary school education is now compulsory, and free. But several questions remain, including how children outside the 6-14 age-group will be covered, and how the neighbourhood schooling system will be implemented
“Ragging” is not a rite of passage or a bit of fun and games. It is a serious crime and should be regarded and dealt with as such by students, teachers, parents and law enforcement agencies, says Kalpana Kannabiran
If anybody knows about education for a sustainable future it's young Kelechütsü and Megozokho in Khonoma, Nagaland. They are free to learn as and what they will, without fear of examinations and admissions, with the freedom to experiment with a curriculum that reshapes itself every day
