For seven years, pensioner Zhang Jingxuan has struggled to keep Zhang Jiuzhou, his 13-year-old grandson, in school, in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

The education cess is rapidly outstripping the Budget allocations for primary education with the latter getting smaller and smaller each year with the allocation for this year even less than 2004-05 w

Aiming at improving the quality of rural education, OneWorld South Asia, in collaboration with British Telecom and Cisco, has launched a pilot project in West Bengal last week for assisting rural teac

Nearly 40 years after the Common School System (CSS) was recommended by the Kothari Commission on education (1964-66), equal, inclusive and free education remains a distant dream even today.

The economy is slowing down, foreign investors have turned wary, and there is an election to be won next year. So, will Finance Minister P. Chidambaram script Budget 2008 for votes or growth?
.SHALINIS. DAGAR

Rs 2.80 a day for fuel makes cooking a challenge Government Primary School, Rukali village, Chhachhrouli, has a total of 14 students. They get Rs 2.80 a day as budget for fuel to cook midday meal whereas cost of cattle dung cake is Rs 1 per cake, firewood is Rs 5 a kg and one kg of coal is available for Rs 22 in market. Cooking midday meal on fuel purchase for Rs 2.80 a day is

THE burden of financing basic education is directly on the tax payer through the 2% education cess. Indications are that for the next financial year (2008-09), the cess will account for a sizeable portion of the Rs 21,100 crore allocated for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the mid-day meal programme. For 2007-08, the cess accounted for 57.7% (Rs 10, 393 crore) of the Rs 17,995.02 crore dedicated for these two programmes. So even as allocations in the Budget for these programmes increase, the gross budgetary support provided for the programmes has been on the decline. The 2% education cess was levied in the Budget 2004-05, ostensibly to ensure that more money flowed into the basic education segment as promised in the UPA government's common minimum programme. The education cess is levied on all central taxes, such as corporate tax, income tax, service tax, custom duty. It is not that the government isn't committed to providing basic education

UPA's thrust on education is massive, says M.A.A. Fatmi The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government has laid thrust on education, M.A.A. Fatmi, Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development has said. Inaugurating the library block of H.M.S. Institute of Technology (HMSIT), near here on Saturday, Mr. Fatmi said the UPA Government would increase allocation to Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan by Rs.10,000 crore and to the mid-day meal programme by Rs. 5,000 crore. He said while the percentage of school dropouts was brought down considerably at the primary level, it remained as high as 63 per cent at the secondary level. Mr. Fatmi regretted that only 9 per cent of those who finished secondary education, entered colleges. Less than 2 per cent got admission into professional courses. "We still need to set up lakhs of polytechnics and thousands of technological institutes,' he said. "We have permitted existing polytechnics to run courses day and night to cater to more aspirants.' Three new Indian Institutes of Technology in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar, and three new Indian Institutes of Science in Maharastra (Pune), Punjab, and West Bengal (Kolkata) were being set up, he said. Sixteen new universities were being formed. There would be at least one Central University in each State, he added. He promised to process the sanction of a new IIT for Karnataka and said: "I will see that it is located in Tumkur.' Mr. Fatmi asked students to give equal priority to sports and academics and said: "If you play well, you will be much inclined to read books.' "Acquisition of sportive spirit when you are young will enable you to become a good leader,' he said, inviting engineering graduates to enter the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies.