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Tooley, Dixon and Gomathi maintain that private unrecognised unaided schools in Hyderabad, India, catering for children of the poor, provide a better level of education than do their government counterparts. We examine this contention and argue first that Tooley et al.’s conceptualisation of education and its benefits is flawed and second that the evidence selected and provided to prove the empirical side of the case is one‐sided and unrepresentative. We conclude that their case remains unproven and that flaws in the argument and its evidence provide no substantial case for their contention.

The paper analyses the varying meanings of quality in policy discourse since the term’s appearance as an operational element in planning programmes for educational reform, in the Indian context. It argues that the narrowness of meaning now associated with the term has its origins in the management–accountability approach of western donor agencies to third world education, especially as State provided education is increasingly seen as limited to the poor. Such a minimalist conception leads to limiting the possibility of fundamental reform in education.

The term ‘quality’ as used in recent education discourse has its origins in the factory floor and production, as a measure of control of the features of merchandise produced. In the form of measureable specifications, it is used by national bureaucracies and international aid and lending agencies as lending itself to scientific management of and monitoring investments in education. Going back to the concept of ‘quality’ as the essential character of a thing, the paper argues that quality has always been integral to the concept of education, deriving from what is considered worthwhile as an aim or experience in education. The paper traces the history of the term beginning with important changes in the concept of education influenced by education thinkers and moving to the role of the concept in the context of universalisation of education, the growing importance of democracy as a political choice, and economic globalisation. The final section of the paper draws out implications for teacher professionalism, influences onpolicy, the idea of accountability and the place of philosophical perspective and cultural sensitivity in education.

This article explores the ideology of childhood and schooling in an Indian village primary school, in an attempt to understand the importance of authority in the relationship of the teacher to the student, and of discipline in the process of schooling. Ethnographic data from a village school and popular folk literature are analysed and interpreted. The identities of teacher and student are found to be elaborated to include traditional and everyday identities through which pedagogic authority becomes naturalized. The perceived need for discipline emerges from an understanding of childhood-as-play in opposition to adulthood-as-work. Schools are expected to discipline children’s playfulness. Yet the school is not a totalitarian, coercive institution. The children and teachers refer back to and recreate the local ideology while making sense of and giving meaning to their activities in school.

The Baiga are a small tribe inhabiting the forested regions of Central India. They are known for their extensive knowledge of forests and healing. A local pedagogic tradition supports the transmission of this knowledge from expert practitioner-gurus to their chelas or novices. The knowledge system is local and oral. The pedagogic tradition and socialisation which supports its transmission is marked by these qualities as also the subsistence level of production and the lack of centralised authority in the organisation of the tribe, and in children's lives. This paper explores the disjunction between this and formal schooling whose pedagogic practices and curriculum presume a literate tradition: where knowledge is decontextually presented in texts and children are already socialised to accept pedagogic/adult authority. In the present Indian context where there is a growing emphasis on incorporating indigenous knowledges into the school curriculum, the paper raises questions on the epistemological feasibilit...

Dans ce court article, je brosse un bref panorama de ce que je considère comme les phases majeures du curriculum et de l’enseignement indiens, de la période précédant l’indépendance jusqu’à l’époque actuelle. Il s’agit là d’une esquisse rapide d’un pays complexe, à l’histoire complexe. Je n’ai pas développé l’idée du régionalisme, pas plus que je n’ai exploré la question des peuples tribaux d’Inde, qui présentent pourtant une série de problèmes et de questions dignes d’attention. Je n’ai pas ...

In this short note I have developed the outline of what I regard as the major phases in India’s curriculum and teaching, from the pre-independence period to the present day. It is a quick sketch of a complex country with a complex history. I have not developed the idea of regionalism in this sketch, nor have I explored the question of tribal peoples within India, which presents a new set of problems and issues that are also worthy of exploration. I have also not dealt with the questions of te...

Department of Physical and Nuclear Chemistry & Chemical Oceanography, School of Chemistry, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam-530 003, Andhra Pradesh, India E-mail : shyamalapulipaka@rediffmail.com Department of Chemistry, G.V.P. P.G. College of Sciences, Visakhapatnam-530 008, Andhra Pradesh, India Manuscript received online 13 February 2013, revised 29 May 2013, accepted 29 August 2013 The kinetics of the reduction of methylene blue (MB+) by ascorbic acid (HA– ) has been studied in the presence of CTAB/CHCl3 /hexane/water reverse micelles. In the absence of acid, the reaction obeys simple first order kinetics with respect to both the reactants. The second order rate constant in the presence of reverse micelles, kw (0.0360 mol–1 dm3 s –1) was found to be about sixty times greater than that of in aqueous medium, ko (5.33 × 10–4 mol–1 dm3 s–1) under identical experimental conditions. The significant increase is attributed to (i) the concentration effect produced in the reverse micelles and (ii) lower micro polarity of the reverse micelles, which facilitates the reaction between oppositely charged ions. The effect of W (= [H2O]/[CTAB]) atconstant [CTAB] and variation of [CTAB] at fixed W has beenstudied. The kinetics at W10 is explained on the basis of ionic strength. The effect of [CTAB] on rate is also explained in terms of thebinding of the reactants at the micellar interface as shown by the absorption spectra of methylene blue and ascorbicacid.

With the passing of the Right to Education (RTE) bill in the Parliament in August, 2009 and its coming into effect as law from April 2010, the Indian state has finally committed itself to making the provision of quality education to all its children a fundamental right. However, numerous contradictions are evident in the existing schooling scenario in the country, some of which are expected to have immediate consequences on how the Right to Education Act will actually be realised / implemented across the country.

Introduction: Oral health is an essential component of general health in one's life. Oral self practices are very effective in keeping up one's good oral health from an individual's point of view. Such hygienic conditions prevent many oral diseases from happening or control them from damaging oral health adversely. Aim: To investigate the oral hygiene practices and habits among dental students and staff in a dental college. Materials and methods : A survey with the aid of specially designed questionnaire was made anonymously, in order to assess the oral health behaviour among these people. Results : A number of 425 dental students as well as faculty members was investigated. Only 34.9% of students and faculty members are following oral self health habits strictly. It was also observed that the staff members were very much concerned about oral hygiene rather than students were. Conclusion: The results show that dental students need a lot of awareness in their oral self hygiene. Awareness programmes must be conducted frequently to boost up the oral self hygiene practices among them for many good reasons.