What has the government done to spread education in India?
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Answer:
1.One of the major educational controversies today refers to the role of the Government of
India in education. Prima facie education is a State subject. Entry 11 of the List II of the
Seventh Schedule to the Constitution lays down that “education including universities, subject
to the provisions of Entries 63, 64, 65 and 66 of List I and Entry 25 of List III” should be a
State subject. But there are some other provisions in the Constitution itself which contradict the
almost absolute delegation of authority suggested by this entry in the State list; and what is
even more significant, the Central Government has since shown an unprecedented activity and
interest in the field of education ever since the attainment of independence. In 1947, it
appointed a University Commission and has since been engaged in evolving common policies in
Higher education such as the introduction of the three-year degree course. This was followed by
a Secondary Education Commission which tried to introduce a number of uniform trends in a
field where the Centre has had hardly any constitutional authority. No Commission was
appointed in the field of Primary education. But the scheme of Basic education was declared to
have gone beyond the stage of experimentation and was also adopted as the national pattern at
the Elementary stage. The interest of the Central Government in Technical education and
scientific research has been too obvious to need any illustration. Besides, an innumerable number
of Committees and Reports have tried to iron out an all-India thought, policy and programme
in almost every sector of education. Of still greater importance is the revival of the Central
grants for education which had been discontinued in 1918-1919. In the period of post-war
reconstruction as well as in the first and second Plans, substantial grants were given to the States
towards the implementation of a large variety of educational programmes. With the adoption of
the technique of Five Year Plans and the creation of the Planning Commission, the real
authority to determine policies, priorities and programmes has now passed on from the States
to the Centre in most sectors of development; and as a corollary to this major shift in all
developmental activity, it is alleged that the, educational progress in the States is now more
dependent upon the financial allocations and priorities decided at the Centre by the Planning
Commission and the Ministry of Education than upon any decision taken by the States at their
own level. In short, the trend to centralisation in policy-making in all fields of education has
been the most dominating note of this period and it has had hardly any parallel in our
educational history except for the brief spell under Lord Curzon.
Explanation: