India’s education system needs its next leap

As the National Education Policy 2020 enters its sixth year, India faces a defining question: can it move beyond political contestation and build an education system that truly fulfils the Constitution’s vision of equitable, high-quality learning for every child?

Independent India, born amidst the trauma of Partition, began its journey with a population of nearly 340 million and a literacy rate of barely 12 per cent. Within two years of Independence, the Constitution placed before the nation an extraordinarily ambitious educational mandate. Article 45 of the Directive Principles of State Policy declared: “The State shall endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years.”

Although this constitutional goal could not be achieved within the prescribed decade, its inspirational force has shaped India’s educational journey. Today, despite the addition of more than one billion people to the population, India’s literacy rate has risen to nearly 81 per cent. This remarkable transformation reflects the enduring commitment of successive governments, educators, and society at large to expand educational opportunities. The framers of the Constitution clearly recognised that education would be the principal instrument for nation-building. It had to embrace India’s extraordinary diversity while nurturing a deep appreciation of its underlying unity. Emerging from the bitterness and human tragedy of Partition, India needed an education system capable of healing divisions, strengthening democratic values, and preparing future generations for rapid social, scientific, and economic change.

Fortunately, the nation benefited from visionary scholars, scientists, and statesmen who undertook a comprehensive review of existing educational structures and formulated forward-looking policies. Their recommendations received the support of political leadership that understood education as the foundation of national development. During the first two decades after Independence, three landmark commissions laid the intellectual foundations of modern Indian education: the University Education Commission (1948-49) under S Radhakrishnan, the Secondary Education Commission (1952-53) chaired by A Lakshmanaswami Mudaliar, and the Education Commission (1964-66), popularly known as the Kothari Commission, led by D S Kothari. Their reports continue to influence educational thinking even today. India formulated its first three comprehensive education policies in 1968, 1986 and 1992, and each one of these has stood India in good stead. The 1968 policy prescribed a common core-curriculum to be studied by both boys and girls.

It may appear a fairy tale to young persons of today that till then, girls were given the option to quit science and maths, and opt for to home science, spinning, weaving, arts and crafts, etc., as science and maths were perceived too tough for the girls. Today, more girls qualify in the much-sought after NEET competition than boys. This is an achievement that deserves a grand national celebration. The nation must be grateful to the eminent physicist and spiritually- endowed educationist DS Kothari.

The May 2026 NEET exam paper leak was a great systemic failure.  It hurt the conscience of the nation. The re-examination was conducted without any blemish. The culprits have been identified and the prime minister has assured strict action in the matter. Instead of creating a national consensus on how to make such exams leak-free, attempts are being made to politicise it. There are daunting challenges before the education system, and these need to be paid far greater attention by all concerned. The NEET paper leak inflicted shame on the system, and created tragic instances of suicides.  Everyone was apprehensive on whether the re-examination could also be compromised! It was successfully completed. The right query should have been: why the machinery was so careless the first time? The academics and scholars free from ideological constraints should have analysed the situation, brought out a plan of action for the government to consider and implement it in all sincerity.  The government could have called a meeting of the Central Advisory Board on Education: CABE; obtained its inputs and presented to the nation the outlines of risk-free examination system. CABE could come out with instructions on issues like teacher preparation and recruitment, curriculum concerns, center-state relationships, the issues of leadership, and much more.  One wishes the concerned organizations seriously plan for the future, devise action plans, and ensure that unscrupulous and uncommitted are dexterously kept miles away from the hierarchy created for the conduct of the exams. One wishes that the elected representatives of the people realize their obligation to deliberate upon educational issues over and above the party lines.

Unfortunately, this is not happening. One wonders whether some senior and seasoned parliamentarians could come together, converge into an informal yet effective Think Tank on Education. They could seriously scrutinize the implementation of the National Education Policy; the NEP-2020. It could be pointed out that this is the task of the Standing Committee of Parliamentarians, so why suggest another creation? What is being suggested is a self-motivated group that could think on educational improvements as their social, cultural and moral responsibility.    They would be guided by their inner conscience, not by any ideology or politics. One is convinced this a pragmatic suggestion. The NEP-2020 was launched six-years ago in July 2020.  Numerous deliberations and unprecedented consultations with the stakeholders clearly established the need for overhauling the education structure in full, ‘including its regulation and governance, to create a new system that is aligned with the aspirational goals of 21st century education’. India has reiterated its commitment to the SDG-4: “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.  To this the policy adds a very significant rider: “...while building upon India’s traditions and value systems”. It would be evident to every alert and active person that it fully resonates with the spirit of education for all promised by the Constitution of India. Are we really true inheritors to it?

One major issue that deserves serious attention of the nation is the fast-increasing divide between the Sarkari Schools and the much-sought-after private schools. Gradually, most of the Sarkari Schools have lost their acceptability, and are now patronised only by those unable to afford a private school. In practice, language learning and the rush for English medium schools remain unresolved. The conditions of teacher education institutions are indeed precarious. While paper leak is a shame, commercialization of teacher education, and also school education, just can’t be tolerated for long. Quality and excellence in educational attainments must receive requisite attention and resources.  The decision makers and their opponents must realise it. There is no alternative to a respectful dialogical intent and initiative at the national level.  Having observed the education system both at the implementation level as also at the policy formulation level for over six-decades, one simply rues he inability of my generation to adhere to the real spirits clearly contained in the Constitution: socio-economic or cultural background of the learner should never hander his education at any stage.

Jane Jacques Rousseau wrote in his immortal treatise on education, ‘Emile’: “How could I become wicked, when I had nothing but examples of gentleness before my eyes, and none around me but the best people in the world.” India’s young persons deserve such an environment. Let those who represent the will of the people of India realise their responsibility, and give them an environment they deserve.

One major issue that deserves serious attention of the nation is the fast-increasing divide between the Sarkari Schools and the much-sought after private schools. Gradually, most of the Sarkari Schools have lost their acceptability, and are now patronised only by those unable to afford a private school

The writer is an educationist, a Padma Shri awardee, and works in the fields of religious amity and social cohesion; Views presented are personal.