ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

Primary EducationSubscribe to Primary Education

Migrant Children and ‘Free’ Education in India

Schooling of migrant children in India is compromised for various reasons, such as their mobility, disadvantaged backgrounds, and exclusionary experiences of schooling. Such contexts and experiences of migrant families and children are in stark contrast to how their aspirations and motivation are dominantly imagined by education functionaries of the state and the non-governmental organisations. Using narratives from the city of Bengaluru, this article throws light on the aforesaid discord, thereby highlighting the complex placement of migrant children with respect to inclusionary frameworks of schooling and education in India.

What’s Ailing Primary Education in Rural India: A Case Study of a Government-run Primary School in Allapur Village, Telangana

Almost a decade after the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 was passed, it becomes pertinent to review and analyse the levels of implementation of the RTE Act, 2009 and constraints in its effective implementation. This study observed an increase in the overall enrolment rates in a government-run primary school in Allapur village in Telangana; however, the lack of basic amenities like toilets, safe drinking water and unhygienic surroundings is a matter of concern. The quality of education was far behind as there was a shortage of teachers, lack of innovative practices of teaching, reluctant school administration authorities and lack of motivation from the parents. These problems need to be addressed to promote the right for quality education for each child. We learned from the observations that providing a school building and midday meals is not the solution. What is needed is a focus on how to make the community realise the importance of quality education in primary years and instil the habit of using toilets and safe drinking water to maintain proper hygiene in the foundation years.

Democratic Politics Should be Concerned With Early Childhood Education

Things in the education sector are clearly changing before our own eyes, and yet, they do not seem to gain much visibility in our democratic politics. Drawing on empirical evidence from classrooms in Anganwadis and private pre-school centres, three arguments are presented here.

Examining the Draft National Education Policy, 2019

This paper on the draft National Education Policy 2019, examines its timeframe and the possible implications of its implementation in terms of the overlapping categories of gender, caste, and class identities. It also focuses briefly on issues of language and the way in which historical precedents are invoked. This is followed by a discussion on the wide-ranging changes envisaged in higher education. I suggest that the document needs far greater scrutiny than it has received so far, and that a hasty implementation will have grave consequences, diluting if not reversing the serious and painstaking attempts that have been made to democratise the contexts, and contents of education for decades.

Silenced and Marginalised

An attempt has been made to demonstrate the linkages between the socio-economic-cultural marginalisation of children and their educational marginalisation. This is achieved through a thick description of the living and working conditions of the children, and the interplay between the factory, residence, school, market, family and other support systems, in order to gauge the social reality of these children.

Beech ka Raasta

This field study from Sirohi district, Rajasthan, reveals that, faced with staff shortages, resource constraints and mountains of paperwork, officials and teachers of the primary education department employ a variety of innovations that they term beech ka raasta to deal with challenges and meet targets. This article examines the strategies employed by the lower-level bureaucracy to get the job done in the jugaad framework, suggesting that these tactics are not employed to subvert policy but rather to implement it in the spirit of seva.

Buying into the Aakash Dream

The low-cost Aakash tablet and its previous iterations in India have gone through several phases of technological changes and ideological experiments. Did the government prioritise familiarity and literacy about personal technological devices over the promise of quality mass education generated by low-cost devices? 

Derailing Right to Education in Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh has one of the lowest enrolment rates for economically weaker section and disadvantaged category children under the 25 percent reservation clause in the RTE Act. Yet the state government has issued multiple regressive notifications that inhibit these children from seeking admission under this clause. These notifications not only fail to satisfy the equality principle under the Indian Constitution but are also beyond the jurisdiction of the parent statute. 

Aided Programmes or Guided Policies?

This article reviews the structure, functioning, impact and implications of the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP), in Karnataka. Assessed against the mandate of the programme and its validity in the field, the article calls attention to the limitations of the programme and to its impact on the state's policies for education.

Primary Schools in West Bengal

The Delivery of Primary Education: A Study in West Bengal  (The Pratichi Education Report)  by Kumar Rana, Abdur Rafique and Amrita Sengupta (with an Introduction by Amartya Sen); TLM Books in association with Pratichi (India) Trust, New Delhi, 2002; pp 127, Rs 150.00 ($5.0).

Himachal Pradesh : Critical Issues in Primary Education

Primary education has made impressive strides in Himachal Pradesh. These have been due to investments made in the sector, the relatively less iniquitous social structure in rural areas and greater opportunities available to women. However, the increased attraction of private schools offers new challenges to government-run schools, where processes directed at improving the quality of education are yet to take root.

Education : Wheel Turns Full Circle

Wheel Turns Full Circle Early this January the West Bengal government gave a three-month extension to the Ranju Gopal Mukherjee committee with the brief to develop an

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