Education
Before 1976, education was the exclusive responsibility of the states. The Constitutional Amendment of 1976, which included education in the Concurrent List, was a far-reaching step. The substantive, financial and administrative implication required a new sharing of responsibility between the Union government and the states. While the role and responsibility of the states in education remained largely unchanged, the Union government accepted a larger responsibility of reinforcing the national and integrated character of education, maintaining quality and standard including those of the teaching profession at all levels, and the study and monitoring of the education requirements of the country.
The Central government plays a leading role in the evolution and monitoring of educational policies and programmes, the most notable of which are the National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986 and the programme of Action (POA), 1986 as updated in 1992. The modified policy envisages a National System of education to bring about uniformity in education, making adult education programmes a mass movement, providing universal access, retention and quality in elementary education, special emphasis on education of girls, establishment of pace-setting schools like Navodaya Vidyalayas in each district, vocationalisation of secondary education, synthesis of knowledge and inter-disciplinary research in higher education, starting more Open Universities in the states, strengthening of the All India Council of Technical Education, encouraging sports, physical education, yoga and adoption of an effective evaluation method, etc. Besides, a decentralised management structure had also been suggested to ensure popular participation in education. The POA lays down a detailed strategy for the implementation of the various policy parameters by the implementing agencies.
The National System of Education as envisaged in the NPE is based on a national curricular framework, which envisages a common core along with other flexible and region-specific components. While the policy stresses widening of opportunities for the people, it calls for consolidation of the existing system of higher and technical education. The POA lays down a detailed strategy for the implementation of the various policy parameters by the implementing agencies. It also emphasises the need for a much higher level of investment in education of at least six per cent of the national income.
The government has taken a number of major initiatives during the 11th Five Year Plan. Some of the new initiatives in the school and literacy sector and Higher and Technical Education sector include enactment of Right to education, launching of Saakshar Bharat, evolving a national curriculum framework for teacher education, introducing a system for replacement of marks by grades at the secondary stage in schools affiliated to Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) based on recommendations of Yash pal Committee and National Knowledge Commission, establishment of 14 Innovation Universities aiming at world class standards, setting up 10 new National Institutes of Technology , launching of new Scheme of interest subsidy on education loans taken for professional courses by the economically weaker students, academic reforms (semester system), choice-based credit system, regular revision of syllabi, impetus to research, etc.
In order to ensure all-round development in the field of education, the ministry of human resource development was created on 26 September 1985. Currently the ministry has two departments namely: (1) Department of School Education or literacy (ii) Department of High Education which deals with university education, technical education, scholar- ships and promotion of languages, books and copyrights.
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Universities and Colleges
Indian higher education is a highly complex and fragmented system. One of the major reasons for its current dismal state is the presence of multiple regulators with varying quality and standards of monitoring and assessment Under the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) at the Centre the University Grants Commission (UGC) and te All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) have been regulating the majority of the country’s universities, affiliated as colleges, technical and management institutes.
Besides, there are other regulators, including the Bar Council of India (BCI), Medical Council of India (MCI) National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), that set norms and standards for professional courses such as law, medicine and agriculture. State universities and affiliated colleges, which enroll more than 90 percent of India’s student population that avail of higher education, however, must aide by these national regulators as well as align themselves with the state government authorities and their regulations.
India currently has 950 universities which include 412 State Universities, 124 Deemed to be Universities, 53 Central Universities and 361 Private Universities These universities and their affiliated colleges are often criticised for being substandard as they are overwhelmingly underfunded and mired in politics of both the state and the central governments This is because the chairpersons/heads of these institutes are invariably political appointees under the respective University Acts. These are also the institutes regulated by the UGC. Among other issues UGC has been criticised by academics for misutilisation of power and mismanagement of funds (Yash Pal committee 2009 and Hari Gautam Committee, 2015).
Education
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