EDUCATION IN INDIA

Elementary Education Higher Education Scholarships and Awards Secondary Education Right to Education Act Loan /Aid for Education Adult Education

Elementary Education
Education has been a thrust sector ever since India attained Independence. The year 2010 was a landmark year for education in the country. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, representing the consequential legislation to the Constitutional (86th Amendment) Act, 2002, was enforced with effect from 1st April, 2010. The RTE Act secures the right of children to free and compulsory education till completion of elementary education in a neighbourhood school.
The government introduced the District Primary Education Programme in November 1994 to regulate the elementary education system in India. The programme aims at operationalising the strategies for achieving UEE through district specific planning and disaggregate target setting.

Elementary Education
There are other programmes for compulsory elementary education, especially for girls. The Kasturba Gandhi Shiksha Yojana aims at establishing residential schools for girls in all districts, which have a particularly low female literacy rate. Institutes like National Bal Bhavan encourage children to pursue activities as per their liking, and thus enhance their creative potential. Other programmes such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the Mid-Day Meal Scheme have been introduced with the intention of attracting more children (and parents) towards literacy.

Elementary Education
The RTE Act, 2009 lays down norms and standards relating to pupil teacher ratios, buildings and infrastructure, school working days and teacher working hours.

Higher Education
Since ancient times, India has been a centre of excellence in the field of higher education. Nalanda, Vikramashila and Takshashila were few of the oldest universities in the world and were the most renowned seats of higher education during their time. Students' from far off countries came to study in these universities. Today India has one of the largest higher education systems in the world and also some world-class institutions for higher education.

Higher Education
The present system of higher education dates back to Mountstuart Elphinstone's minutes of 1823, which stressed on the need for establishing schools for teaching English and the European sciences. Subsequently, the universities of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras were set up in 1857, followed by the university of Allahabad in 1887.

Higher Education
The first attempt to formulate a national system of education in India came in 1944, with the Report of the Central Advisory Board of Education on Post War Educational Development in India, which recommended the formation of a University Grants Committee, which was formed in 1945 to oversee the work of the three Central Universities of Aligarh, Banaras and Delhi. After independence, a full-fledged Ministry of Education was established on 29th August 1947.

Higher Education
In 1952, the Union Government decided that all cases pertaining to the allocation of grants-in-aid from public funds to the Central Universities and other Universities and Institutions of higher learning might be referred to the University Grants Commission (UGC). The UGC was formally established in November 1956 as a statutory body of the Government of India through an Act of Parliament for the coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of university education in India. In order to ensure effective region-wise coverage throughout the country, the UGC has decentralised its operations by setting up six regional centres at Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bhopal, Guwahati and Bangalore. The head office of the UGC is located in New Delhi.

Organisations involved in the higher education system of the country

University Grants Commission (UGC) has the unique distinction of being the only grant-giving agency in the country which has been vested with two responsibilities: that of providing funds and that of coordination, determination and maintenance of standards in institutions of higher education. Some of the statutory professional councils include: All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) Distance Courses Institutes Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR) Bar Council of India (BCI) National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI)

Organisations involved in the higher education system of the country

Medical Council of India (MCI) Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) Dental Council of India (DCI) Central Council of Homeopathy (CCH) Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) Union Ministry of Human Resource Development is responsible for improving the overall education scenario of the country as well as planning and implementing various programmes and policies of the government related to education. Provisions of the Constitution of India having a bearing on Education Autonomous Organisations of Department of Higher Education

Scholarships and Awards

As an acknowledgement of brilliance, scholarships form an excellent means to pursue higher education, without feeling the pinch of the high tuition fees demanded in most courses. The following links give you a list of National Scholarships.

National Talent Search (NCERT)

Children form the major human resource, and no Country can afford to ignore the development of this segment of society. The National Council for Educational Research and Training promotes educational development both in quantitative and qualitative terms, and makes special efforts to remove disparities and equalize educational opportunities for all students. NCERT acknowledges and appreciates educational brilliance in students through the National Talent Search Scheme (for Regular Students) and National Talent Promotion Scheme (for School Dropouts). It also seeks to applaud artistic distinction through the Chacha Nehru Scholarships for Artistic and Innovative Excellence. For complete details on each of the above schemes, click on the following links.

National Talent Search (NCERT)

National Talent Search Scheme (for Regular Students) National Talent Promotion Scheme (for School Dropouts)
Chacha Nehru Scholarships for Artistic and Innovative Excellence

Olympiads
The Olympiads signify excellence in education and an undoubted knowledge base. India has the following Olympiads to appreciate such talent in students.

National Cyber Olympiad National Science Olympiad National Mathematical Olympiad Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education Olympiad

Secondary Education
Secondary Education serves as a link between the elementary and higher education, and plays a very important role in this respect. A child's future can depend a lot on the type of education she/he receives at the secondary level. Apart from grounding the roots of education of a child, Secondary Education can be instrumental in shaping and directing a child to a bright future. The Secondary level of education includes children between the age group of 14-18 years, studying in classes 9-10 leading to higher secondary classes of 11 and 12.

Education under the administrative control of the Union Department of Education are:

A host of programmes and organisations that support Secondary

National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) Central Institute of Education Technology (CIET) Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) Central Tibetan Schools Administration (CTSA)

Right to Education Act

Education is a fundamental human right, essential for the empowerment and development of an individual and the society as a whole. According to the UNESCO's Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2010 , about 135 countries have constitutional provision for free and non-discriminatory education for all. In 1950, India made a Constitutional commitment to provide free and compulsory education to all children up to the age of 14, by adding this provision in article 45 of the directive principles of state policy. With the 86th Constitutional amendment on 12th December 2002, Article 21A was amended by the Constitution in order to introduce Right to Education as a fundamental right. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act finally came into force on 1st April 2010. The Act provides for free and compulsory education to all children in the age group of six to fourteen years. It is now a legally enforceable duty of the Centre and the states, to provide free and compulsory education.

The Act has the following major provisions

Every child between the age of six to fourteen years, shall have the right to free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school, till completion of elementary education. For this purpose, no child shall be liable to pay any kind of fee or charges or expenses which may prevent him or her from pursuing and completing elementary education. Where a child above six years of age has not been admitted to any school or though admitted, could not complete his or her elementary education, then, he or she shall be admitted in a class appropriate to his or her age.

The Act has the following major provisions

For carrying out the provisions of this Act, the appropriate government and local authority shall establish a school, if it is not established, within the given area, within a period of three years, from the commencement of this Act. The Central and the State Governments shall have concurrent responsibility for providing funds for carrying out the provisions of this Act.

The Act has the following major provisions The Act has the following major provisions
This Act is an essential step towards improving each child's accessibility to secondary and higher education. The Act also contains specific provisions for disadvantaged groups, such as child labourers, migrant children, children with special needs, or those who have a disadvantage owing to social, cultural, economical, geographical, linguistic, gender or any such factor. With the implementation of this Act, it is also expected that issues of school drop out, out-of-school children, quality of education and availability of trained teachers would be addressed in the short to medium term plans.

The Act has the following major provisions The Act has the following major provisions
The enforcement of the Right to Education Act brings the country closer to achieving the objectives and mission of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Education for All (EFA) and hence is a historic step taken by the Government of India.

Loan /Aid for Education

Education is central to the development in any country. Every government levies policies in the National and State level to ensure that this basic need of the population is met through appropriate public and private sector initiatives. With a gradual reduction in government subsidies higher education is getting more and more costly and hence the need for institutional funding in this area.

The scope of education has widened both in India and abroad covering new courses in diversified areas. Development of human capital is a national priority and common enterprise should be that no deserving student is denied opportunity to pursue higher education for want of financial support. Loans for education should be seen as an investment for economic development and prosperity. Knowledge and information would be the driving force for economic growth in the coming years.

Objectives of the Scheme

The main emphasis of the Educational Loan Scheme is that every meritorious student though poor is provided with an opportunity to pursue education with the financial support from the banking system with affordable terms and conditions. No deserving student is denied an opportunity to pursue higher education for want of financial support. In short, the scheme aims at providing financial assistance on reasonable terms:

to the poor and needy to undertake basic education. to the meritorious students to pursue higher/professional/technical education.

The scheme could be adopted by all Commercial Banks. The scheme provides broad guidelines to the banks for operationalising the educational loan scheme and the implementing bank will have the discretion to make changes suiting to the convenience of the students/parents to make it more customer friendly.

Adult Education
After India's independence, several schemes and campaigns like the Community Development Programme and the Sarva Shiksha Mohim were launched by the Government, to accelerate the process of spread of literacy. An inter-ministerial project called Farmers' Training and Functional Literacy was launched, to popularise high yielding varieties of seed among farmers through Adult Education. A scheme called Functional Literacy for Adult Women (FLAW) was started in 1975-76, to boost the literacy rate among women. A two-pronged approach for the universalisation of elementary education and universal adult literacy was adopted for achieving total literacy. Over the years, National Policy on Education has given an unqualified priority to programmes for eradication of illiteracy, particularly among women. The Government has decided to follow an integrated approach to literacy. This means that the Total literacy Campaign and the Post Literacy Programme operates under one literacy Project. This approach would allow the illiteracy problem to be tackled in a holistic manner.

Adult Education

As a result of the efforts under the literacy campaigns, the literacy rate in the country has increased from 18.33 per cent in 1951 to 65.38 per cent in 2001. Thus, in five decades, the literacy percentage had grown by 47.05 per cent or by an average of 9.41 per cent per decade. According to the 2001 Census male literacy was 75.85 per cent and female literacy 54.16 per cent.