Schools or Money-making Institutes?

The Right to Education (RTE) Act gets presidential assent in 2009 and is notified a law – “The Children’s Right to Free and Compulsory Education”.  Six years have elapsed, but what’s the ground reality.  Does every child receive free education, is every child compulsorily admitted to school?  Is the child really learning or is it just a numbers game?  Is education only the prerogative of those who can afford it?  Is education becoming a commercial venture?  Mr. Firoze Hirjikaka’s article questions the core ethos of school education.

 

Parents of kids in Mumbai who go to private schools – and they are rapidly constituting a majority – are up in arms against the frequent fee hikes they are subjected to; not to mention regular “voluntary” contributions towards building funds, school picnics and the like. The agitated group is now holding dharnas in front of the state Education Minister to do something about it.  

Conflict Resolution in Multicultural Societies-The Indian Experience : Jhumpa Mukherjee

Sage Publications (I) Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi; Year:2014; Pages:164; Price:Rs.795

Reviewed by Dr. Usha Thakkar, President, Mani Bhavan Gandhi Sangrahalaya; Former Professor & Head, Department of Political Science, S.N.D.T. Women’s University, Mumbai.

 

The issue of diversity management within multicultural states has acquired serious dimension in our times, especially after the disintegration of Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia in the 1990s.  The quest for recognition of identity has led to severe identity assertion conflicts and movements throughout the world. The conflicts have become more complex and multidimensional.