In an effort to effectively implement the Right to Education Act, the Maharashtra government has decided to link school students’ admission registration numbers to Aadhar card.  According to a government resolution (GR), a campaign to prepare Aadhaar cards for school children will be undertaken from April 27 to June 26.

To execute the plan, the state government has asked the local administration to ensure that school children at the taluka and village levels are issued Aadhaar cards within 60 days and the UID numbers are linked to their school admission numbers.

The GR said that linking of students’ admission registration number to Adhaar card will facilitate tracking of the child in the education system. The government clarified this was being done to ensure the Right to Education Act (RTE) was implemented properly. It will help government verify whether students are enrolled in schools and parents can also be kept in the loop over their child’s educational progress.

Furthermore, block education officers have been asked to compile data relating the number of children with Aadhaar cards and forward it to respective district collectorates. The government has also asked the local administration to publicise the campaign.

The GR said the biggest challenge to ensure success of the RTE Act is to bring non-school going children in the education fold. It may be mentioned that the Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 inserted Article 21-A in the Constitution of India to provide free and compulsory education of all children in the age group of six to fourteen years as a Fundamental Right in such a manner as the State may, by law, determine. Article 21-A and the RTE Act came into effect on 1 April 2010.

 To recognise organisations promoting the habit of reading skills among school going children, The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Center for Knowledge Societies (CKS), today, announced the three winners of the READ Alliance’s Early Grade Reading Innovation Challenge 2014.

The awards took place during the ‘Read Connect 2015: Invest in Children’ event.

Speaking on the occasion, USAID/India Mission Director John A. Beed. Beed said that this initiative will help in the mission of enhancing reading skills of children. “If children are looked after right from a tender age, they are bound to be strong in their reading skills, which will help the society in a large way.

Dr. Aditya Dev Sood, CEO, CKS said, “I’m really proud of the winners this year, but this is just the beginning. We’re looking forward to some really breakthrough educational innovations and technologies coming out of the READ Alliance in the coming year.”

The Centre for Learning Resources, which supports improving language skills for 36000 children from tribal communities, was the first winner. Their programme uses bilingual-home and school languages-audio-visual materials; it requires less teacher input and aims at reaching even higher number of children in coming future. The second winner was Quality Education Support Trust, which aims at improving the language skills of 7000 children from tribal communities, and train them in Marathi. Karadi Path Education Company, which works on the English language skills of more than 30000 urban poor children from predominantly non-English speaking background, was the third winner.

The Read-Engage-Achieve-Dream (READ) is a $3.2 million initiative to help improve the reading skills of millions of primary school age children in India.

Tamil Nadu has close to one-third of all the autonomous educational institutions in the country and the numbers are escalating. Of the 155 colleges with autonomy in the state, only 27 are engineering or architecture institutions, with most offering courses in arts, pure sciences, humanities and management.

Experts say that there are around 80 autonomous arts and science colleges in the state, with the most independent institutions in the Coimbatore region.

“When Anna University, Coimbatore, was given jurisdiction over engineering colleges in the region in 2009, many colleges were awarded the status of autonomous institutions,” education consultant J P Gandhi said.”There was hesitation initially from universities to award autonomous status to colleges affiliated to them but that gradually changed.”

“Autonomy gives colleges the freedom to frame their own syllabus based on market needs,” Sri Krishna Institutions chief executive officer K Sundararaman said. “It also allows them to opt for innovative courses that may be added to the curriculum with approval from the university to which they are affiliated.”

The Human Resourse Development (HRD) Ministry is being pushed by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) to open an investment cell to attract foreign investments in the education sector. This comes in the backdrop where the Foreign Education Providers Bill that could have resulted in setting up of campuses of foreign universities remains shelved.

DIPP secretary has asked departments of school education and higher education to set up their own investment cells. The proposed cell will provide necessary information on a vast range of subjects, such as policies of the ministries, and state governments, various incentive schemes and opportunities available to make it convenient for investors to take decisions.

Foreign education provider (FEP’s India) is the initiative of the Government of India to allow the foreign universities set up their educational campus (colleges and universities) in India. The foreign institutions must have to clear certain parameters financially and academically, before they can establish education in India.

HRD Minister Smriti Irani has decided to focus on a legal framework for allowing foreign universities to set up campuses in India and curb unfair practices by education institutions as part of the human resources ministry’s legislative agenda.

It may be mentioned that as a policy decision, education in India is considered ‘not-for-profit’. In fact, the issue of profit in education is one of the components of the proposed new education policy currently being discussed. The HRD ministry wants the issue of profit in education to be settled before the new education policy is finalized.

“Successive governments have played safe on profit in education. While the private sector investment in higher education has increased with clear profit motive, the government is still holding on to the Supreme Court order that said education is not for profit. Clarity is needed for the idea of investment cell to work,” a media report said.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked all universities to observe June 21 as International Yoga Day, an official statement said has said. Secretary Jaspal S. Sandhu, in a letter dated April 17, said the idea of declaring an International Yoga Day was formally proposed by the prime minister in his maiden address to the 69th UN General Assembly on September 27. In a letter was shared on the UGC website.

The secretary added that the government has decided to give ‘practical effect’ to the resolution by ensuring that the first International Yoga Day is “commemorated in a befitting manner”.

“You are, therefore, requested to kindly observe International Day of Yoga on 21st June, 2015 in your esteemed university and colleges affiliated to your university,” the letter said. “You may also ensure that the promotional films and other Information, Education and Communication (IEC) material on yoga should be distributed,” it added.

The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution last year to observe International Yoga Day on June 21 every year.

It may be mentioned that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had sometime back invited suggestions to mark the first International Yoga Day June 21.

“Share your ideas and inputs on marking the first ever International Day of Yoga, on this MyGov Open Forum. http://mygov.in/groupissue/celebration-of-international-day-of-yoga/show,” he said.