Education

A team of ninth and tenth grade students from Greenwood High called Flaming Phoenix, recently competed in First Lego League (FLL) International open championship in Bath, UK. We participated in the international round after advancing in the regional and national round. In the international round, there were 94 teams from 36 countries. Flaming phoenix consisting of team members Adithya Uchil, Adithya Vasisht, Akshay B Shivaram, Ratan Shankar, Rachita Rajesh and Sahana Athreya were placed second place in Robot Game and Project Presentation. What is FLL? FLL is an international robotics competition held all around the world, where participants form teams of…

Saturday (10 June 2017) morning saw me at the Kengeri railway station. I was there to see the Science Express - Climate Action Special. This was a special train exhibition that had reached Kengeri the previous day after a 3-day halt at Whitefield. The first thing that met my eyes was a queue that appeared to be almost never ending, especially as it was a serpentine queue spanning at least 2 platforms and an overhead bridge. This was something I had not expected. In my naivety (or should I say arrogance as I had believed that not many would be…

I first met Faiza Aijaaz a month back. Her school in Hyderabad was one of the seven Minority Welfare Schools where our organisation was all set to start working. Faiza was one of the smallest girls in Grade 7, a class of girls aged between 11 and 13. Shy and reserved at first, Faiza turned out to be bright as a button. As a part of vetting the students and the school, our team was to have a short interaction with the girls. During this session – an activity that placed the spotlight on the various physical, emotional and societal…

Pic: Abhilash Matlapudi Pic: Abhilash Matlapudi A new school initiative is in the offing in Whitefield. Troubled by huge hikes in school fees, a few Whitefield parents under the name Citizens Gurukul have decided to setup a school. An account of their recent event by founder trustee Abhilash Matlapudi. When we have good intentions and stay committed, everything will fall in place. This was proven once again, during our 1st-ever Symposium event. We got speakers/panelists, venue, volunteers and required support to pull off a public event like this. It was a pleasant Saturday morning where about 50 parents predominantly from Whitefield and even from…

In the third week of February, a horrifying incident of child sexual assault was reported from a playschool belonging to a popular franchise in Bengaluru. In this particular case, the parents of the child reported the incident with the police and the perpetrator was arrested, the playschool was shut down. The main accused in this case was the school supervisor. Meanwhile, the parents of the victim alleged that the school management had also tried to cover up the matter when they were informed about the incident of sexual assault. A case under The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO)…

The previous three stories in the Right to Education Act series revealed loopholes in the implementation of 25 per cent reservation under RTE - how the schools try to circumvent rules and parents fight to get free education to their wards. The last story in the four-part series reflects what the private unaided schools think about the 25 per cent reservation, and what are the challenges they face in the process. In one of the popular private unaided schools in Bengaluru, a software engineer whose monthly income is above Rs 1 lakh gets a free seat for his child under…

Pic: Nikhil Reddy Ever since the Right to Education Act came into force, a lot of minority educational institutions in Bengaluru have taken shelter under Article 30 of the Indian Constitution, thus seeking exemption from admitting 25 per cent RTE quota students. Article 30 of the Indian Constitution provides constitutional status to the minority institutions and also provides them privileges and immunity, and exempts them from the State Act and Municipal Acts. According to the statistics available with the Minority Education section in the Department of Public Instructions, the number of minority educational institutions that are exempted from RTE this…

A group of 60 students and young professionals in Bengaluru have just embarked on an experiential programme in public policy launched by Young Leaders for Active Citizenship (YLAC), an organization that seeks to create transformative learning experiences to equip young people with skills that enable them to lead change in society. The programme cohort of 60 participants, selected from a pool of over 250 applicants from the city, is a diverse mix of lawyers, chartered accountants, artists, start-up evangelists, social sector professionals, and engineers who have had past educational stints in institutes such as IIMs, IITs, BITS Pilani, Azim Premji…

It’s the school admission season. While many parents are busy admitting their wards to top schools in the city, there are parents from underprivileged sections who too would be aspiring to admit their kids to private schools. While the sky high fees in private unaided schools was a deterrent for these parents to not apply at such schools in the past, the Right To Education (RTE) Act introduced five years ago came as a ray of hope for many. The mandate for every private school to allocate 25 per cent seats under the RTE Act for children from weaker sections…

Even after five years of introducing the 25 per cent free education quota under the Right to Education Act, many hurdles have ensured that the implementation remains a problem. Continued malpractices observed in the implementation of the Act form the majority of them. During the first three years of implementing 25 per cent quota reservation, the major hurdle in the process was a large number of seats allotted remaining vacant. Officials say this was mainly because, single applicant would get admission in multiple schools and there was no system in place to prevent this from happening as the seat allocation…