EDUCATION - 2004 - Indian Social Institute

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witnessed one of the most heinous crimes, which forced the people of this coutry to hang their heads in shame. (Indian Express 19.10.04) 26 TH October HRD to probe Joshi’s KV clearance (11) NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 25: ANOTHER Murli Manohar Joshi decision has been reversed by Arjun Singh's Ministry, now enforcing the detoxification drive with excessive zeal. Ninety-seven Kendriya Vidyalayas, all launched during Joshi's tenure, reportedly do not fulfil necessary conditions and the Ministry says it does not know whether it can fund them in the future. The HRD Ministry has now referred the case of these schools to the Cabinet. What is worse is that indirectly the Ministry has accused Joshi of impropriety by saying that these schools were sanctioned with orders issued by the then HRD Minister's office and with little consideration for norms. In fact, Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh has directed that "responsibility should be fixed for this major lapse". Singh has reassured parents that the future of the children would not be affected in any way. But in all likelihood, Joshi's role in permitting these schools to come up would be probed. The Ministry has even described the very setting up of these schools as "a whimsical and arbitrary use of power". The government said the ministry did not have the "necessary sanction either from the government or the executive committee of the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan to start these schools". (Indian Express 26.10.04) 29 th October Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan a national agenda: Arrjun Singh (11) NEW DELHI, OCT. 28. The Union Human Resource Development Minister, Arjun Singh, today described the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) initiated by his predecessor, Murli Manohar Joshi, as a "national agenda" which should not be affected by political differences. Addressing a conference of Education Ministers from all States and Union Territories here, Mr. Singh said that the SSA was the heart and soul of the education system and urged all States to implement it on a mission mode. Stating that the money collected through the education cess was being parked in a non-lapsable fund, he said: "We have to go beyond paying platitudes and prove ourselves in making SSA a success as we cannot take shelter under excuses of resource crunch anymore." During the discussions, some Ministers made out a case for continuing with the ongoing pattern of funding even after the Tenth Plan Period wherein the Centre picks up 75 per cent of the bill on SSA with each State giving the remaining 25 per cent. Mr. Singh assured them that he would take up the issue with the Planning Commission during the mid-term appraisal of the Tenth Plan. Under the current scheme, the States will have to pick up 50 per cent of the expenditure from the Eleventh Plan. Responding to his plea that political differences be kept out of the SSA, the Ministers including those from parties outside the United Progressive Alliance committed themselves to the universalisation of elementary education. (Hindu 29.10.04) 8 th Nov. Ordinance to help minority education (11) New Delhi, Nov. 7: The Centre is planning to bring an ordinance soon to facilitate affiliation of minority educational institutions to Central universities. The step is part of the efforts by the government to ' improve the education standard among minorities. The proposed ordinance has already been drafted by the law ministry. The Union human resources development ministry is I currently looking into the ordinance before it is sent to the Cabinet for its approval. The issue of the ordinance is likely to come up in the next meeting of the Cabinet, HRD ministry officials said. According to officials, since there were only few Centrally-affiliated universities in the country, the government's efforts would initially have a limited focus. The proposed ordinance is a step in the direction to fulfil the promises made by the UPA government in the common minimum programme. In the CMP, the government has promised to amend the Constitution to establish a commission for minority educational institutions that would provide affiliation for minority professional institutions to Central universities. After taking charge, HRD minister Arjun Singh had held a series of meetings to gather views on ways of improving quality of minority educational institutions. (Asian Age 8.11.04)
9 th Nov. India again gets red grade (11) NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 8: INDIA has done it again. In its Global Monitoring Report, the UNESCO has ranked the country with 34 others in the lowest category. The report was released in Brasilia tonight. It means that despite the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the UNESCO feels that India would not be able to ensure that every child goes to school by 2015, the target date set for UNESCO's "education for all" goal. This year, as before, the UNESCO has prepared an EDI index or "Education For All Development Index". India is ranked 105th. But the country can take heart from the rankings of some of its sub-continental neighbours. Bangladesh comes 107th, Nepal 110th and Pakistan 123rd. The number of countries in the UNESCO list totals 127. A number of developed countries where education for all was achieved long ago are not included in the study. A few other developing countries have been omitted because of lack of data or faulty statistics. What is interesting is that the island nation, Maldives, is ranked 20th in the list. And China, with a larger population than India, takes the respectable 54th rank. (Indian Express 9.11.04) 10 th Nov. Female teachers get a raw deal in India: Report (11) New Delhi: The 2005 Education For All Global Monitoring Report, which focuses on I the theme of " quality of education" not surprisingly emphasizes the role of teachers. Sadly, India conies out in a poor light on this count as well. For instance, the report has been critical of India's efforts towards improving gender parity among students, which it says is in part a direct consequence of the gender distribution in the teaching profession. While female teachers constitute a huge 90 % at the pre-primary level, this ratio - shows a drastic fall to 36 % at the primary level. Contrast this to about 80 % in Western Europe and 54% in China. At the secondary and tertiary levels as well, female teachers constitute just 34% and 37% respectively of India's teacher population. The report cites studies that show Bangladesh has improved its female enrollment and literacy ratios due an increase in the proportion of female teachers. There is also interesting data on the student-teacher ratio. The report says that research, though not conclusive, shows that reducing the size of classes has a positive impact, especially for children of disadvantaged social groups. India has a student teacher ratio of 40:1 at the primary level, which is much more than the 'ideal' class size. The report does not spell out what the ideal size would be, but here are some pointers. The global average at the primary level is 22:1, while developing countries average 28:1. (Times of India 9.11.04) 12 th Nov. Cabinet clears panel on minority education (11) New Delhi: In a step towards promoting education among minority communities, a national commission is being set up to grant direct affiliation of minority educational institutions to a scheduled university. The government on Thursday announced that it would promulgate an Ordinance to achieve this objective. The establishment of such a commission would help in safeguarding the constitutional guarantee to minorities regarding setting up and administering educational institutions of their choice, finance minister P Chidambaram said after a meeting of the Union cabinet. The scheduled universities for this include six affiliating Central universities — University of Delhi, North Eastern Hill University, Pondicherry University, Assam University, Nagaland University and Mizoram University. The three-member commission would comprise a chairman, who should be a high court judge, and two other members. All the members should, as far as possible, be chosen from among the minority communities. The term of the members of the commission, including the chairman, would be five years. The commission would advise the Central or any state government on any question relating to the education of minorities that may be referred to it. (Times of India 12.11.04) 21 st Nov. Education scheme for girls in 18 districts (11) BANGALORE, NOV. 20. Sixty-five educationally backward blocks have been identified in 18
Page 1 and 2: EDUCATION - 2004 Compiled & Edited
Page 3 and 4: GUWAHATI, FEB. 4. The Axom Sarba Si
Page 5 and 6: Anger against profound illiteracy (
Page 7 and 8: The Central officials brought up a
Page 9 and 10: 8 th April 20% reservation likely i
Page 11 and 12: HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi no
Page 13 and 14: Secondary Education, the Union Publ
Page 15 and 16: New Delhi, May 22: The new human re
Page 17 and 18: y his ministry "which puts the stud
Page 19 and 20: NEW DELHI, JUNE 1. The Bharatiya Ja
Page 21 and 22: agree with. "These books were not w
Page 23 and 24: handing over higher education to ma
Page 25 and 26: College, at a press conference here
Page 27 and 28: CABE, somewhat smaller in size had
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Page 31 and 32: Another TN school catches fire, non
Page 33 and 34: anch of a nationalised bank to that
Page 35 and 36: 11. The notices were issued after h
Page 37 and 38: the situation is the same in almost
Page 39 and 40: A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has sought corpo
Page 41 and 42: transparent manner," the release ad
Page 43 and 44: anners inviting applications for ad
Page 45 and 46: shades of saffron and ask the autho
Page 47 and 48: function in his hometown of Vadnaga
Page 49 and 50: egarding minority education in the
Page 51: The evaluators compared learning le
Page 55 and 56: other Central government institutes
Page 57 and 58: she added. According to sources, ex
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EDUCATION - 2004 - Indian Social Institute

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