How the Education System Reflects Societal and Political Ideologies

Education is never politically neutral. In India, every time a government has changed course – economically, culturally, or ideologically – the education system has shifted with it. The curriculum gets rewritten, new policies get introduced, and what children learn in classrooms begins to reflect what the state believes society should look like. This relationship between education and political ideology is not accidental; it is built into the very structure of how the Indian state governs learning.

The structure of India’s education system 🔗

India follows a 10+2 pattern of school education, where students complete ten years of primary and secondary schooling followed by two years of higher secondary education. This pattern, originally recommended by the Education Commission of 1964-66, has remained the national standard and is followed by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and most state boards. Beyond school, students typically pursue a three-year bachelor’s degree, with options in science, commerce, or humanities.

The system operates at three levels: central, state, and local. Education in India is primarily managed through the state-run public education system, which falls under the command of the government at all three levels. The public-to-private school ratio stands at approximately 10:3, which tells us that the state remains the dominant provider of schooling for India’s children.

How governance of education is shared 🔗

One of the clearest ways the political system shapes education is through the question of who controls it. Originally a state subject, the 42nd Constitutional Amendment in 1976 moved education to the Concurrent List, allowing both the central and state governments to legislate on it. This was a deliberate political decision, made during the Emergency period on the recommendation of the Swaran Singh Committee, with the goal of enabling national-level uniformity in educational policy.

Today, both the Union Government and state governments share responsibility for education, but the balance of financial power leans heavily toward the states. States contribute around 85% of the total revenue expenditure on education, while the Centre contributes only 15%. Yet the Centre sets the ideological direction through national policies, examinations, and curriculum frameworks – making this a partnership where financial and policy powers do not always align.

The state’s responsibility in education 🔗

The Indian Constitution places clear obligations on the state regarding education. Under various articles of the Indian Constitution and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, free and compulsory education is provided as a fundamental right to children aged 6 to 14. This right – originally envisioned in Article 45 as a directive principle – was finally made a justiciable fundamental right through the 86th Constitutional Amendment in 2002, which inserted Article 21A.

The Right to Education Act, enacted in 2009, represents a landmark legislation aimed at providing free and compulsory education to all children aged 6 to 14 years in India. It mandates that private schools reserve 25% of seats for economically disadvantaged students and prohibits discrimination in admission based on caste, religion, or gender. This is a direct expression of the state’s constitutional obligation to bridge social inequality through education.

The state’s involvement goes beyond just access. Over the decades, governments have used education to shape social outcomes – from reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes in educational institutions, to affirmative action in admissions. The judiciary has upheld policies aimed at reserving educational seats for marginalized groups, ensuring that political and social equity is reflected in educational access.

National policies and their ideological foundations 🔗

India’s national education policies are not merely administrative documents – they are ideological statements about what kind of society the state wants to build. The National Policy on Education (NPE) 1968, introduced on the recommendations of the Kothari Commission, called for a radical restructuring of the system with a focus on equal educational opportunities, regional languages, and the three-language formula. It was fundamentally a nation-building document, reflecting the Nehruvian belief that education could unify a linguistically and culturally diverse country.

The 1986 National Policy on Education under Rajiv Gandhi placed special emphasis on the removal of disparities and equalizing educational opportunity, particularly for women, Scheduled Tribes, and Scheduled Castes. It introduced the concept of a child-centred approach in primary education and launched the Operation Blackboard initiative to improve primary school infrastructure. This policy clearly reflected the social democratic ideology of the time – using education as a tool for equity and redistribution.

The most recent and comprehensive policy shift is the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. NEP 2020 marks a significant milestone in India’s education system, aiming to transform the country’s educational landscape with emphasis on competency-based progression, holistic education, multilingualism, and technology integration. Its foundational pillars – access, equity, quality, affordability, and accountability – represent both continuity with earlier policies and a new direction suited to a knowledge economy.

How socio-political changes drive educational reforms 🔗

Each major shift in India’s political landscape has left a direct imprint on educational policy. During the 1950s and 1960s, India’s education system was focused on industrialization and nation-building, with policies aimed at promoting technical education, expanding primary education, and creating a more scientifically literate population. The establishment of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) during this period was a deliberate political choice to build a modern, technically capable nation.

The 1990s, with the liberalization of India’s economy, brought a shift towards market-driven education. The government began emphasizing higher education in fields like engineering, medicine, and management. Private institutions multiplied, and the language of “employability” began to dominate educational discourse. This was education responding directly to an economic ideology – one that prioritized market integration over social equity.

Ideological perspectives on nationalism, secularism, and cultural identity impact curriculum content, language policy, and historical narratives taught in schools. Debates over what history textbooks should say, which languages should be taught, and how India’s past should be framed are fundamentally political debates that play out in the education system.

Political parties and curriculum control 🔗

When a political party comes to power, its ideology often drives reforms and policies that directly influence what is taught in schools, the availability of resources, and the way education is delivered. In India, the influence of different political parties can be seen in the evolving curricula, educational policies, and even the language of instruction in schools. A party with a progressive agenda may push for social justice-oriented education; one with a cultural-nationalist orientation may emphasize indigenous history and traditions.

Education’s role in promoting social cohesion and secularism 🔗

India is a country of extraordinary diversity – in language, religion, caste, and culture. The education system has historically been used as one of the primary tools for weaving this diversity into national unity. Secularism is foundational to Indian democracy, and a non-secular state cannot be truly democratic. Education has a direct role to play in maintaining this secular fabric – not by ignoring religious and cultural identities, but by ensuring that no single identity is privileged over others in public institutions.

The Indian Constitution’s Fundamental Duties under Article 51A are particularly instructive here. The 42nd Amendment inserted the duty for every citizen to develop scientific temper, humanism, and the spirit of inquiry and reform. This was a conscious ideological choice by the post-independence leadership – Jawaharlal Nehru is widely credited with coining the term “scientific temper” – to push India toward a culture of rational inquiry and away from superstition and dogma.

Article 51A also calls on citizens to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood transcending religious, linguistic, and sectional diversities, and to value and preserve the rich heritage of India’s composite culture. These are not abstract ideals; they are active goals that national education policies are expected to translate into curriculum design, textbooks, and school culture.

Scientific temper as an educational goal 🔗

Article 51A(h) does not ask citizens to obey science; it asks them to cultivate inquiry, to reform what exists, and to pursue humanism through knowledge. This distinction matters enormously for education. Scientific temper, as a constitutional value, is not just about learning chemistry or biology – it is about developing a habit of questioning, testing evidence, and resisting unfounded beliefs.

NEP 2020 believes that the philosophical purpose of education is to develop good human beings who are capable of rational thought and action, possessing compassion and empathy, courage and resilience, scientific temper and creative imagination, with sound ethical moorings and values. The policy makes scientific temper an explicit learning outcome – not just a by-product of science education, but a goal of the entire educational enterprise.

However, the gap between constitutional aspiration and ground reality remains significant. The prevalence of superstition, illiteracy, and uncritical thinking indicate that the educational system has not yet fully achieved the goal of instilling scientific values in students. Addressing this requires not just curriculum changes but a transformation in how schools encourage questioning, critical thinking, and evidence-based reasoning from early childhood onwards.

The mirror that education holds up to society 🔗

The Indian education system is, in the deepest sense, a mirror of the country’s socio-political aspirations. India’s educational policies have evolved under various political regimes, reflecting shifts in ideology, economic priorities, and societal aspirations – from the dominance of socialist principles in the early decades to liberalization reforms in the 1990s to the holistic vision of NEP 2020. Each of these shifts tells us something important about what the state believed education was for, and what kind of citizens it was trying to produce.

At the same time, education is not just a passive reflection of political ideology – it is also an active force that shapes citizens’ values, social cohesion, and political participation. The education of a citizen is necessary for the success of democracy – educated citizens are better equipped to elect good representatives, hold them accountable, and engage meaningfully in the political process. This is why the state takes such a strong interest in what is taught in schools: education and the political order are mutually reinforcing.

Understanding this relationship is essential for anyone working in education. When you see a new curriculum reform, a change in language policy, or a revised textbook – look beyond the surface. Ask whose values are being promoted, whose histories are being told, and what vision of society the system is being asked to build.

What do you think? If the education system reflects the ideology of the ruling political establishment, can it ever truly be a space for independent and critical thinking? And given India’s diverse social fabric, whose idea of social cohesion should the curriculum promote?

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Policy_on_Education
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_India
3. https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/debate-around-education-as-a-state-subject
4. https://blog.lukmaanias.com/2024/07/04/should-education-be-brought-back-to-the-state-list/
5. https://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2406688.pdf
6. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0149718924001174
7. https://cjp.org.in/secularism-and-the-constitution/
8. https://theleaflet.in/constitution-day-india-needs-to-develop-scientific-temper-spirit-of-inquiry-and-humanism/
9. https://theleaflet.in/civil-justice/what-does-the-indian-constitution-truly-ask-of-its-citizens-when-it-speaks-of-scientific-temper
10. http://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/ijmer/pdf/volume11/volume11-issue6(4)/7.pdf
11. https://forumias.com/blog/answered-article-51-a-of-our-constitution-which-deals-with-fundamental-duties-makes-it-a-duty-of-every-citizen-to-develop-a-scientific-temper-in-light-of-this-discuss-the-progress-made-by-indians/
12. https://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/8247/1/Unit-9.pdf