richard louv coined this beautiful term - nature deficit disorder from his book 'Last Child in the Woods'- which talks about the increasing disconnect between children and nature that today's society has enforced.
the potential depradations of this disconnect should be obvious even to the casual obs read more

was forwarded an old (1991) commencement address by David Orr with the same title.
he is a professor of environmental studies and has approached this question from his area of expertise.
his list of myths...
1. ignorance is a solvable problem.
2. with enough knowledge and technology we can manage planet Earth.
3. knowledge is increasing and by implication human goodness.
4. read more

Teach For India is a national program that aims to narrow the educational gap in India by placing India’s most outstanding college graduates and young professionals, of all academic majors and career interests, in low-income schools to teach for two years. In the short run, Teach For India will provide a source of dedicated teachers who will work tirelessly to expand, in a measurable way, the educational opportunities available to hundreds of thousands of India’s most underprivileged children. read more

In a major boost to education sector, the Union Cabinet has cleared the long-pending Right to Education Bill, which promises free and compulsory education for children between 6 and 14.

"The Bill has been considered at several levels by the Group of Ministers (GoM). The Cabinet has approved the text of the Bill," Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters here on Friday about the decision of the Cabinet which met last night. read more

Education World has released their annual school rankings.

Personally i dont care for such ratings. but it is out there.

the national knowledge commission and the azim premji foundation have launched the national 'portal' for teachers - www.teachersofindia.org

it was appropriately launched on teachers day.

the quest alliance just concluded the symposium on Education and Technology in Schools in Bangalore last week.

the output (mainly the keynote speeches) is available on this page here. 

i enjoyed reading the keynote address of geetha narayanan.

a new study on home schooling in the UK has been reported in the Guardian.

it comes up with very positive indicators on the efficiencies of home schooling.

the whole article is here. - http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/aug/19/schools.education

the NCERT has made a national curriculum framework - which serves as a guide for the SCERTs to devise their age-wise learning standards/objectives leading to curriculum and leading to teacher resources (aka textbooks).

while this is a good logical approach, there is little information from the SCERTs on the Learning Standards/Objectives that they have designed.

other than kerala, read more

the economist carries a report on the 'swedish model' which is turning out to be very successful in sweden and is likely to get exported out soon to the UK.

the Kunskapsskolan (“Knowledge Schools”) are the new big idea on the education space. read more