[Offtopic] Schools in India

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Hi all,

In India in 2005, "25 per cent of children in 2005 left school before 
reaching Grade Five, and almost half left before reaching Grade Eight."

--
"Tens of millions of Indian children to benefit from new Right to 
Education Act"

01-04-2010  ©UNESCO & B. O'Malley 

<http://www.unesco.org/en/education/dynamic-content-single-
view/news/tens_of_millions_of_indian_children_to_benefit_from_new_right_to
_education_act/back/9195/cHash/1e5a43f420/> (snip)


A ground-breaking Right to Education Act has come into force in India, 
legalising the right to free and compulsory schooling for all children 
between the ages of 6 and 14.

UNESCO welcomed the historic 'Right of Children to Free and Compulsory 
Education Act 2009', which came into force on April 1st 2010.

Apart from legalising the right to education, the act places the onus on 
governments and local authorities to provide schools, and sets out 
standards and norms covering numbers of teachers, training and curricula. 

It includes a plan to train more than one million new teachers in the 
next five years and retrain existing teachers.  

According to UNESCO’s 2010 Education for All Global Monitoring Report 
there are an estimated eight million Indian children and young people 
between the ages of six to 14 out-of-school, the majority of them girls. 

Between 2000 and 2005, primary school enrolment in India increased by 
22.5 per cent overall, and by 31 per cent for girls alone. 

But despite this leap, some 25 per cent of children in 2005 left school 
before reaching Grade 5, and almost half left before reaching Grade 8.   

Bringing these children, who often belong to disadvantaged groups such as 
migrants, child labourers or children with special needs, into school and 
retaining them and providing trained teachers and relevant curricula, 
will be a major challenge, Mr Parsuramen said.   

Instrumental in driving the bill forward has been Minister of Human 
Resource Development Mr Kapil Sibal who is also President of the Indian 
National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO.   

UNESCO New Delhi Director Mr Parsuramen paid tribute to him and Prime 
Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh for their “unflinching commitment to the 
strengthening of education in India.”  

Speaking after introducing the Bill Mr Sibal said: “We are trying to make 
India a knowledge hub in 15-20 years.  This bill is the first step in 
that direction. We want to see India rise.  The world is looking at India 
with hope”.   

Without India, the world cannot reach the Millennium Development Goal 
(MDG) of having every child complete primary school by 2015.

--

Cheers people
Stephen Loosley
Registered Teacher