The Evolution of Education Policies in India: From Independence to Present

India’s journey in shaping its education system since independence in 1947 is one of the most ambitious and complicated policy stories in the world. Starting from a colonial legacy that served administrative needs rather than the masses, the country has steadily worked to build a system that can serve over a billion people across vast economic, linguistic, and geographic divides. The path has been uneven – marked by bold commissions, landmark programmes, persistent inequalities, and ongoing reform efforts. Understanding this evolution helps explain not just where Indian education stands today, but why it got here.

The colonial inheritance and the post-independence starting point
Early commissions and the bias toward higher education
The National Policy on Education: 1968 and 1986
Initiatives to expand access: DPEP and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
The Right to Education Act and constitutional backing
Challenges in higher education: funding, governance, and quality
The National Education Policy 2020: a new chapter
A long road, and work still to be done

The colonial inheritance and the post-independence starting point

When India gained independence, it inherited an education system built primarily to serve British colonial administration. Policies introduced during the British period were largely elitist, urban-centric, and English-medium in character, serving a thin layer of the population while marginalizing indigenous knowledge traditions and rural communities. Illiteracy, particularly in rural areas, remained dangerously high.

After independence, there was remarkable improvement in scientific and technological education and research, but illiteracy continued to remain high. The Constitution of India made education primarily the responsibility of state governments, with the central government coordinating standards – especially in higher education and technical fields.

Post-independence educational policy was grounded in the constitutional ideals of equality, social justice, and democracy, recognizing education as a key tool for social transformation. But translating these ideals into ground-level change took decades, and the early policy focus revealed a critical imbalance in priorities.

Early commissions and the bias toward higher education

In the years immediately following independence, the government set up a series of commissions to chart the course of the education system. The first was the University Education Commission of 1948, under the chairmanship of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, tasked with reporting on university education and suggesting improvements to suit the requirements of independent India. Its focus, as the name suggests, was squarely on higher education.

This set an early pattern. While the Mudaliar Commission (1952-53) addressed secondary education and the Kothari Commission (1964-66) took a more comprehensive view, the overall policy momentum in the early decades strongly favoured higher education institutions. Post-independence, Jawaharlal Nehru linked learning to national development, establishing IITs and IIMs to boost technical skills – institutions that gained global recognition but served a narrow segment of the population.

School education, particularly at the primary level, was comparatively underfunded and underdeveloped. The result was a paradox: India was producing engineers and scientists for the world while millions of children in its own villages had no functional school to attend.

The National Policy on Education: 1968 and 1986

The Kothari Commission’s report, submitted in 1966, became the basis for India’s first National Policy on Education in 1968, which called for a “radical restructuring” and proposed equal educational opportunities to achieve national integration and greater cultural and economic development. It introduced the three-language formula, pushed for compulsory education up to age 14, and called for education spending to be raised to 6% of national income – a target that has still not been consistently met.

The next major milestone came in 1986. The NPE of 1986 called for a “child-centred approach” in primary education and launched “Operation Blackboard” to improve primary schools nationwide. It also introduced the concept of Navodaya Vidyalayas – residential schools aimed at giving talented rural children access to quality education. The policy expanded open university access and set up the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) to serve those who had missed formal education pathways.

The 1986 policy was modified in 1992 under Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, further refining priorities around quality and equity. But despite these efforts, the gap between policy intent and grassroots reality in school education remained wide.

Initiatives to expand access: DPEP and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

The 1990s marked a decisive shift. Recognising that higher-level reforms were meaningless without a functional elementary education base, the government launched the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) in 1994. DPEP came as a centrally sponsored scheme to revitalize the primary education system and was the first programme that aimed to universalize elementary education. It used a district as the unit of planning – a decentralized, area-specific approach that proved influential.

DPEP covered 272 districts across 18 states over several phases, with 85% of project costs funded by the central government and 15% by state governments, with additional support from the World Bank, DFID, and UNICEF. Research showed that DPEP had a meaningful impact on minority children’s enrollment, and it introduced a new model of data-driven, community-engaged planning for primary education in India.

Building on DPEP’s foundations, the government launched Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in 2001 under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. SSA was aimed at the universalisation of elementary education “in a time bound manner,” targeting free and compulsory education for all children between the ages of 6 and 14 – a group estimated at 206 million children in 2001.

The results were significant. The net enrollment rate at the primary level rose from 61% in 1971 to 77% in 1991, and reached 95% in 2020. Research published in peer-reviewed journals found that SSA was associated with long-term gains in adult educational and health outcomes, with longer exposure to the programme yielding potentially higher benefits. Studies also linked SSA-eligible women with lower rates of justifying intimate partner violence – a striking downstream effect of expanded schooling access.

SSA was not without limitations. Initially, SSA focused on strengthening school infrastructure, before shifting to increasing enrollment ratios and later to improving quality of education – but momentum on the quality front was harder to sustain. In 2018, SSA was merged with Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education to form the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, a unified programme covering pre-school through Class 12.

The Right to Education Act and constitutional backing

A major legal milestone came in 2009 with the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, which provided all children aged six to 14 with the right to free and compulsory education in a local school, laying out a rights-based framework with legal obligations on both central and state governments. The Act specified teacher-pupil ratios, school working days, teacher working hours, and qualifications, while prohibiting physical punishment and discriminatory admissions.

The RTE gave SSA the legal force it needed for full implementation. Combined with the 86th Constitutional Amendment (2002) that made education a fundamental right under Article 21A, it represented the strongest legislative commitment to school education since independence – a major correction to decades of relative neglect at the elementary level.

Challenges in higher education: funding, governance, and quality

Even as school enrollment improved, higher education continued to face deep structural challenges. India’s higher education system is plagued by challenges including inadequate infrastructure and resources, uneven quality of education, outdated curricula, a shortage of faculty, and a lack of funding.

The funding gap is particularly stark. Public investment in education stood at 4.6% of GDP in 2023, compared to UNESCO’s recommended 6%. Research spending tells an even more telling story: India’s research expenditure in 2023 was approximately 0.7% of GDP – significantly below the United States at 3.5% or China at 2.4%. This has directly affected India’s global research standing and the quality of postgraduate education.

Governance has been another persistent problem. The National Education Policy 2020 envisions greater institutional autonomy and academic excellence, but achieving these goals requires addressing a complex web of issues – from governance structures and funding mechanisms to academic quality and research output.

Researchers have highlighted a troubling cluster of issues, including the absence of universal access to higher education, limited autonomy for teachers and institutions to innovate, inadequate career advancement mechanisms, the dearth of research and innovation, and substandard governance and leadership at higher education institutions. The Gross Enrollment Ratio in higher education in India is around 27%, still lower than many other developing countries.

The National Education Policy 2020: a new chapter

The most recent and far-reaching policy reform is the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. It proposes a restructured 5+3+3+4 schooling framework, multi-disciplinary higher education, flexible degree pathways with multiple entry and exit options, and the replacement of the University Grants Commission (UGC) with a new Higher Education Commission of India (HECI). The proposed HECI aims to eliminate overlapping oversight and implement a framework that ensures institutions are empowered while being held accountable.

NEP 2020 also sets an ambitious target: raising the Gross Enrollment Ratio in higher education to 50% by 2035. To support this, the policy promotes digital learning platforms like SWAYAM, regional language instruction, and the establishment of the National Research Foundation (NRF) to boost interdisciplinary research funding.

However, critics point to implementation gaps. NEP 2020 did not specifically prioritize allocating funds for higher education; instead, it suggested that public institutions should take the initiative to raise private philanthropic funds – a move that raises concerns about corporate influence in academic research and unequal access. Without a clear, fully funded roadmap, even well-designed policies risk falling short of their goals.

A long road, and work still to be done

India’s education policy journey from 1947 to the present is a story of gradual correction – from an initial tilt toward higher education, toward a stronger (if still incomplete) commitment to universal elementary schooling, and now toward a more ambitious vision of quality and access at every level. Programmes like DPEP and SSA genuinely transformed enrollment figures and gave millions of children a seat in a classroom. The RTE Act provided legal muscle. NEP 2020 is the most comprehensive reform blueprint yet, addressing both school and higher education in an integrated way.

But the challenges are real and persistent. Public spending remains below UNESCO benchmarks, governance in higher education is complex, teacher shortages affect quality at every level, and rural-urban divides in both infrastructure and learning outcomes continue to shape who benefits from policy reforms. The gap between policy design and implementation on the ground is a defining challenge that each successive government has struggled to close.

What do you think? India’s early education policies clearly favoured higher education over school-level learning – do you think this imbalance has been fully corrected today, or does it persist in subtler forms? And given the persistent funding gap, what should be the government’s first priority: expanding access further, or concentrating resources on improving the quality of what already exists?

References

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Table of Contents

The colonial inheritance and the post-independence starting point 🔗

Early commissions and the bias toward higher education 🔗

The National Policy on Education: 1968 and 1986 🔗

Initiatives to expand access: DPEP and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 🔗

The Right to Education Act and constitutional backing 🔗

Challenges in higher education: funding, governance, and quality 🔗

The National Education Policy 2020: a new chapter 🔗

A long road, and work still to be done 🔗