History- Education in India

Monastic orders of education under the supervision of a guru was a favored form of education for the nobility in ancient India.^[8] The knowledge in these orders was often related to the tasks a section of the society had to perform.^[9] The priest class, the Brahmins, were imparted knowledge of religion, philosophy, and other ancillary branches while the warrior class, the Kshatriya, were trained in the various aspects of warfare.^[9] The business class, the Vaishya, were taught their trade and the lowest class of the Shudras was generally deprived of educational advantages.^[9]The book of laws, the Manusmriti, and the treatise on statecraft the Arthashastra were among the influential works of this era which reflect the outlook and understanding of the world at the time.^[9]

Apart from the monastic orders, institutions of higher learning and universities flourished in India well before the common era, and continued to deliver education into the common era.^[10] Secular Buddhist institutions cropped up along with monasteries.^[9] These institutions imparted practical education, eg. medicine.^[9] A number of urban learning centres became increasingly visible from the period between 200 BCE to 400 CE.^[11] The important urban centres of learning were Taxila and Nalanda, among others.^[11] These institutions systematically imparted knowledge and attracted a number of foreign students to study topics such as logic, grammar, medicine, metaphysics, arts and crafts.^[11]

By the time of the visit of the Islamic scholar Alberuni (973-1048 CE), India already had a sophisticated system of mathematics and science in place, and had made a number of inventions and discoveries.^[12] With the arrival of the British Raj in India a class of Westernized elite was versed in the Western system of education which the British had introduced.^[13] This system soon became solidified in India as a number of primary, secondary, and tertiary centres for education cropped up during the colonial era.^[13]

Following independence in 1947, Maulana Azad, India's first education minister envisaged strong central government control over education throughout the country, with a uniform educational system.^[14] However, given the cultural and linguistic diversity of India, it was only the higher education dealing with science and technology that came under the jurisdiction of the central government.^[14] The government also held powers to make national policies for educational development and could regulate selected aspects of education throughout India.^[15]

The central government of India formulated the National Policy in Education (NPE) in 1986 and also re-enforced the Programme of Action (POA) in 1986.^[16] The government initiated several measures including the setting up of Navodaya Vidyalaya selective schools in every district, advances in female education, inter-disciplinary research and establishment of open universities. India's NPE also contains the National System of Education, which ensures some uniformity while taking into account regional education needs. The NPE also stresses on higher spending on education, envisaging a budget of more than 6% of the overall national budget.^[16] While the need for wider reform in the primary and secondary sectors is recognized as an issue, the emphasis is also on the development of science and technology education infrastructure.