The ‘operation successful, patient dead’ tragicomedy

NCEE co-founder Gurumurthy Kasinathan writes about how centralised examinations are anathema to the spirit and purpose of education. After a brief battle between Education department and schools association, the Karnataka High Court intervened and decided to move ahead with standardized examinations, even though academicians have continuously opposed common examinations, as…

SIAfFRE Formed! Bangalore Declaration

Two Day Workshop to Reflect on The Status of Fundamental Right to Education and The Way Forward APRIL 1&2, 2023     ORGANISERS   South Indian Alliance For Fundamental Right To Education (SIAFFRE) (comprising of) People’s Alliance For Fundamental Right To Education (PAFRE) All India Primary Teachers Federation (AIPTF) National…

Insights from a Study of Middle School Students’ Foundational Mathematics and Language Skills

Introduction 175 students from government higher primary schools in Bengaluru were engaged as part of a study to understand their learning needs in the context of schools being re-opened after the prolonged school closures during the pandemic. The study was conducted through a series of activities wherein students worked individually,…

COVID-19 Learning Loss and Recovery: Panel Data Evidence from India

AbstractWe use a near-representative household panel survey of ∼19,000 primary-school-aged children in rural Tamil Nadu to study the extent of ‘learning loss’ after COVID-19 school closures, the pace of recovery in the months after schools reopened, and the role of a flagship compensatory intervention introduced by the state government. Students…

India’s edtech startups are failing to regulate themselves

In January, after the government issued an advisory asking citizens to be cautious before signing up for online courses, edtech companies had come together to form a self-regulatory body, the India EdTech Consortium (IEC). IEC has identified sales, loans, content, and teacher effectiveness as some of the most important issues…

Byju’s-owned Great Learning under fire for ‘mis-selling’ IIT-Bombay course

Anirudh Singh (name changed), a 34-year old working professional, saw an advertisement for a post graduate programme (PGP) from IIT-Bombay (IIT-B) popping up while he was surfing the internet for executive education programmes. “I clicked on it, and it took me to Great Learning’s page. On the main page, everywhere,…