Professional Documents
Culture Documents
2. The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog has called for a
review of the provisions of the Right To Education (RTE) Act that stipulate
children who do not perform well cannot be held back up to 8th Class. The RTE
Act aims to provide primary education to all children aged 6 to 14 years. It
stipulates that no child can be held back in a grade, regardless of his
performance, all the way up to the 8th grade. This means that a child is entitled
to an 8th grade diploma even if he cannot recognise a single letter or a number
if he has spent eight years in school. Key Observations The government think
tank pointed out that the purpose behind this provision in the Act was to
minimise drop-out rate as demoralisation from failing a class may result
children to withdraw from school altogether. However, despite good intention,
the provision has a detrimental effect on learning outcomes, since it takes away
the pressure to learn and to compete. So the NITI Aayog called revision of the
RTE Act. The real problem is the quality of education as measurement by
student achievements. The education quality trend between 2010 and 2014 has
been worsening instead of improving performance. The Annual Status of
Education Report (ASER) 2014 report, the proportion of children aged 6-14
years enrolled in school in rural areas has been above 96% for the past six
years but more than 50% of the 5th graders cannot read second standard level
text.
3. Indias factory output, measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP)
has registered 5.7% growth in November 2016 as against 1.9% in October 2016.
It is the fastest growth recorded in more than four years and is largely on
account of a low base effect. It also does not display the negative effects of
demonetisation as production cycles in manufacturing take longer to adjust to
any demand change. Key Facts Manufacturing sector grew by 5.5% in
November 2016. Mining sector output rose 3.9%. Electricity generation sector
increased 8.9%. Capital goods output surged 15%. Consumer durable output
jumped 9.8% Consumer non-durable production increased 2.9% Overall growth
in consumer goods output was 5.6%. About Index of Industrial Production (IIP)
The IIP is compiled and published every month by Central Statistics Office
(CSO) of the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. It
covers 682 items comprising Manufacturing (620 items), Mining (61 items) &
Electricity (1 item). The weights of the three sectors are 75.53%, 14.16%,
10.32% respectively and are on the basis of their share of GDP at factor cost
during 2004-05. The eight Core Industries comprise nearly 38 % of the weight
of items included in IIP. Base Effect: It is basically the consequence of
abnormally high or low levels of inflation in a previous month distorting headline
inflation numbers for the most recent month.