The Megaphone || Your Fortnightly Briefing on 'Education, Policy & Its Impact'

Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.

Hello.

IA Blog: Gayatree writes about the key insights and her takeaways from a recent survey conducted by us on maternity benefits.

IA Talks: Shrayana Bhattacharya from the World Bank will be joining our CEO, Tarun Cherukuri, on 14th Oct, for a talk about strengthening the social protection architecture in our country. Register here to block your seat.

Education in the times of a pandemic.

The latest in RTE News. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs came out with its latest set of relaxations to the coronavirus lockdown guidelines, with some significant areas opening up.

States can now allow schools to open from October 15 after evolving SOPs of their own. In the last lockdown, only 50% of teachers were allowed to come to school to facilitate online learning, and students from Classes 9 to 12 could come to school voluntarily to clear their doubts.

The Madras High Court has ordered that all private schools in the state wait till November 15 before filling, with general candidates, the vacant seats among those earmarked for the 25% quota under the RTE act.

In Gujarat, a petitioner is claiming that due to poor implementation, over 3.36 lakh deserving students could not get admission under the RTE act.

Delhi HC said that online education was covered under the RTE act and therefore, private schools were mandated to provide the same as part of their responsibilities under the statute. This has surfaced new challenges for smaller private schools that are already reeling under the pressure of the lockdown.

Even as 'quality of education' acts as the prime reason behind parents opting for private educational institutions, teachers and parents are struggling and still not entirely convinced with the pivot to e-learning.

Policy and its impact.

FCRA Bill Parliament passed the FCRA Amendment Bill claiming it would lead to better accountability and transparency for civil society. The International Commission of Jurists says it might be incompatible with international law.

Cautiously Optimistic India’s child mortality rate has declined substantially between 1990 and 2019 but the country, along with Nigeria, still accounted for almost a third of all under-five deaths last year. The gains are encouraging for the country but progress is threatened by the impact of COVID-19.

MGNREGA workers will now get benefits on completion of 90 days even as the pandemic pushes the world's biggest jobs programme to the brink.