As India celebrated Akshaya Tritiya on Tuesday, a festival associated with mass weddings, many activists renewed their calls against child marriage. “Raise your voice against child marriage on #AkshayTritiya, an auspicious day for Hindu marriage in India,” UNICEF India said on Twitter.
There are many campaigns around the world against child marriage in India, where the practice remains common despite being illegal. Perhaps the most original one is “The Girl Store” - which some may find is in bad taste. (via ‘Buy a Girl:’ An Unusual Anti Child Marriage Campaign - India Real Time - WSJ)
[INDIA] The National council of teacher education (NCTE) has taken an initiative to reform and revamp teaching education system in the country. Following the implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education-2009, the government is now gearing up to reform the teaching education system with an aim to improve the quality of procedures and practices. Following the exercise, all courses of teacher education like BEd, MEd, NTT (Nursery Teachers Training), BPEd and MPEd will get revised.
Why chess deserves a place in schools.
(via Why chess deserves a place in schools | Jonathan Calder | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk)
Indian culture reflected poorly in school syllabi, finds survey - Hindustan Times
The survey found that texts such as Ramayana, Mahabharata and tales from Panchatantra, Jataka and Hitopadesha were omitted from textbooks but Aesop’s Fables had been included.
“It is shocking that the south and north-eastern parts of India are almost neglected in the textbooks which are overwhelmingly tilted toward central and north India,” said the survey report, which rated books on different parameters such as tradition and culture, history, heritage, Indian thought and spirituality.
Poonam is a Dalit and a girl in India’s poorest state. The odds stacked against her are immense.
(via Remarkable school gives girls from the bottom of India’s caste system new hope - The Globe and Mail)
In Bihar, one of India’s poorest and most populous states, half of the women and a quarter of the men are illiterate, and about 90% of its 104 million inhabitants live in rural areas. Life here is particularly difficult for girls, and one of the greatest hindrances to their development is the simple journey to school. For many, the trip is long, expensive and dangerous.
But here, in rural Bihar, we recently saw that a two-wheeled solution to the problem has been found.
Three years ago the state’s new chief minister Nitish Kumar adopted a “gender agenda” and set about redressing his state’s endemic gender imbalances in an attempt to boost development in one of India’s most backward states. His vision was to bring a sense of independence and purpose to his state’s young women, and the flagship initiative of this agenda is the Mukhyamantri Balika Cycle Yojna, a project that gives schoolgirls 2,000 rupees (about £25) to purchase a bicycle.
[INDIA] In Delhi, children from low-income households are being encouraged to attend school on old buses that have been converted into classrooms. The buses travel to selected points of the city and offer two hours of lessons a day. The scheme is supported by Unicef and the local authorities. (via India’s mobile schools - video | Global development | guardian.co.uk)
![[NEW DELHI] India introduced a cheap tablet computer Wednesday, saying it would deliver modern technology to the countryside to help lift villagers out of poverty.
Developer Datawind is selling the tablets to the government for about $45 each, and subsidies will reduce that to $35 for students and teachers.
Datawind says it can make about 100,000 units a month at the moment, not nearly enough to meet India’s hope of getting its 220 million children online.
(via India announces $35 tablet computer to help lift villagers out of poverty - The Washington Post)](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsrtruJUVI1qb8rnio1_500.jpg)
[NEW DELHI] India introduced a cheap tablet computer Wednesday, saying it would deliver modern technology to the countryside to help lift villagers out of poverty.
Developer Datawind is selling the tablets to the government for about $45 each, and subsidies will reduce that to $35 for students and teachers.
Datawind says it can make about 100,000 units a month at the moment, not nearly enough to meet India’s hope of getting its 220 million children online.
(via India announces $35 tablet computer to help lift villagers out of poverty - The Washington Post)
![[INDIA] In a major leap for India’s education system the country’s Central Board of Secondary Education has decided to go international with a brand new curriculum.Indian education has often been criticized for focusing on rote learning rather than problem solving. Experts say the curriculum in most schools is outdated and disconnected from the actual world.The new program of study, called the CBSE-i will put less emphasis on methods such as memorization and greater focus on developing analytical and communication skills. (via Will a More International Curriculum Help Indian Students? - India Real Time - WSJ)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lscksfMXbX1qb8rnio1_400.jpg)
[INDIA] In a major leap for India’s education system the country’s Central Board of Secondary Education has decided to go international with a brand new curriculum.
Indian education has often been criticized for focusing on rote learning rather than problem solving. Experts say the curriculum in most schools is outdated and disconnected from the actual world.
The new program of study, called the CBSE-i will put less emphasis on methods such as memorization and greater focus on developing analytical and communication skills. (via Will a More International Curriculum Help Indian Students? - India Real Time - WSJ)
[INDIA] A year after the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system has been implemented, and two years since the introduction of the new grading system in schools affiliated to the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE), teachers appear to be groping in the dark.
There are vast variations in the manner in which the system is being implemented.
