India launches Right to Education portal on Aug. 29th, 2013
New Delhi, Aug. 28, 2013: The Centre for Civil Society (CCS) and the Central Square Foundation (CSF), in partnership with FICCI are launching the Right to Education portal (http://righttoeducation.in/) at Federation House, New Delhi on 29 August 2013. Members of Parliament Shri Naveen Jindal and Shri Prakash Javadekar will preside over the event as Chief Guests and launch the portal.
The launch will be followed by an introduction to the RTE portal by Parth J Shah, President of CCS and a panel discussion titled: “RighttoEducation.in: Inform, Engage, Reform”.
Panelists Annie Koshi, Principal of St. Mary’s School and champion of inclusive education; Yamini Aiyar, Director of Accountability Initiative which aims to increase citizen engagement with government functioning and increase accountability in government processes; Ashish Dhawan, CEO of Central Square Foundation and Parth J Shah, President of CCS will explore the importance of RighttoEducation.in to bridge the gap between stakeholders and those who are making policies for these stakeholders. The panel will be moderated by Shoma Chaudhury, Managing Editor of Tehelka.
The RTE portal (http://righttoeducation.in/) is India’s largest online resource for all information related to the RTE. It aims to –Inform: acts as an all-inclusive port of call on RTE-related information and updates from across the country, provides a birds-eye views on the status of implementation of RTE Act in different states including the 25% quota and enables individuals to browse all Supreme Court and High Court judgements on RTE.
Engage: Provides a space for stakeholders to interact, discuss, create, share experiences, and dispel myths regarding the historic Right to Education (RTE) Act. The portal also allows anxious parents to ask questions and get their queries redressed by in-house RTE experts.
Reform: Provides access to reports and case studies on RTE related interventions across the Country to encourage the sharing of best practices and increase accountability and improve governance.
The launch of this portal is an important step towards increasing citizen participation in education governance, and making government processes, decision-making and policy implementation more transparent and accountable which will move us closer to the goal of providing quality education of choice to the children of India.