EDUCATIONAL POLICIES OF CENTRAL GIVERNMENT

Through the 42nd Amendment Act of 1976, education were transferred from State to
Concurrent List.

The National Policy on Education (NPE-1968)

• First such policy had come in 1968 under Indira Gandhi government. The
government then set up a 17 member Education Commission under UGC
chairperson DS Kothari {Kothari Commission}. On the basis of recommendations of
Kothari Commission, the first National Education Policy was released in 1968.
• Key highlights of 1968 NPE:
• Compulsory education for all children up to the age of 14
• Better training and qualification of teachers.
• Pay more attention on learning of regional languages, outlining the three language
formula: English, Hindi and Regional language
• Study of Sanskrit language
• The NPE of 1968 also include increase in education spending to six percent of the
national income

National Education Policy, 1986

• The 1986 policy was issued during tenure of Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minister and it
was updated in 1992 when PV Narsimha Rao was prime minister.
• This policy focussed on modernization and role of IT in education.
• More attention was paid on restructuring the teacher education, early childhood
care, women’s empowerment and adult literacy.
• It also accepted autonomy of universities and colleges, something which was
resisted in past.
• For primary education the NPE called child-cent red approach, and operation
Blackboard was launched.
• Under this policy the Open University system was expanded with the Indira Gandhi
National Open University, which has been created in 1985.
• Three national level entrance exams:
o JEE
o AIEEE
o SLEEEE: state level engineering entrance exams

Draft National Education Policy 2019

• The Committee for Draft National Education Policy (Chair: Dr. K. Kasturirangan)
submitted its report on May 31, 2019. The Committee was constituted by the
Ministry of Human Resource Development in June 2017.
• The Right to Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act): Currently, the RTE Act provides for free
and compulsory education to all children from the age of six to 14 years. The draft
Policy recommends extending the ambit of the RTE Act to include early childhood
education and secondary school education. This would extend the coverage of the
Act to all children between the ages of three to 18 years.

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 • It states that there should be no detention of children till class eight. Instead,
schools must ensure that children are achieving age-appropriate learning levels.
• The current structure of school education must be restructured on the basis of the
development needs of students. This would consist of a 5-3-3-4 design comprising:
(i) five years of foundational stage (three years of pre-primary school and classes one
and two), (ii) three years of preparatory stage (classes three to five), (iii) three years
of middle stage (classes six to eight), and (iv) four years of secondary stage (classes
nine to 12).
• Therefore, the draft Policy recommends that multiple public schools should be
brought together to form a school complex. A complex will consist of one secondary
school (classes nine to twelve) and all the public schools in its neighbourhood that
offer education from pre-primary till class eight.
• draft Policy recommends that teachers should be deployed with a particular school
complex for at least five to seven years. Further, teachers will not be allowed to
participate in any non-teaching activities (such as cooking mid-day meals or
participating in vaccination campaigns) during school hours that could affect their
teaching capacities.
• According to the All India Survey on Higher Education, the Gross Enrolment Ratio
(GER) in higher education in India has increased from 20.8% in 2011-12 to 25.8% in
2017-18. . It aims to increase GER to 50% by 2035 from the current level of about
25.8%.
• Therefore, it proposes setting up the National Higher Education Regulatory Authority
(NHERA).
• Higher education institutions will be restructured into three types: (i) research
universities focusing equally on research and teaching; (ii) teaching universities
focusing primarily on teaching; and (iii) colleges focusing only on teaching at
undergraduate levels.
• The draft Policy recommends establishing a National Research Foundation, an
autonomous body, for funding, mentoring and building the capacity for quality
research in India.
• Creation of a National Education Commission or Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog, as an apex
body for education, to be headed by the Prime Minister.
• The Draft Policy reaffirmed the commitment of spending 6% of GDP as public
investment in education.
• The Committee observed that less than 5% of the workforce in the age-group of 19-
24 receives vocational education in India. This is in contrast to 52% in the USA, 75%
in Germany and 96% in South Korea.
• All school students must receive vocational education in at least one vocation in
grades nine to 12
• The proposed Higher Education Institutions must also offer vocational courses that
are integrated into the undergraduate education programmes. The draft Policy
targets to offer vocational education to up to 50% of the total enrolment in higher
education institutions by 2025, up from the present level of enrolment of well below
10% in these institutions.
• Therefore, it recommended that the medium of instruction must either be the home
language/mother tongue/local language till grade five, and preferable till grade
eight, wherever possible.

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 • To promote Indian languages, a National Institute for Pali, Persian and Prakrit will be
set up.

Eklavya Schools
• Eklavya schools will be established for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Schedule Tribe (ST)
students by 2022 on the lines of Navodaya schools. It will provide training in sports
and skill development. It will also have special facilities for preserving local art and
culture.

Diksha scheme
The government of India will soon launch the learning portal DIKSHA to upgrade the
teaching skills and will initiate the integrated B.Ed programme.

PG Scholarship Scheme – This PG Scholarship Scheme is awarded to full time GATE / GPAT
qualified students. All the qualified students admitted to M.E./ M. Tech/ M. Arch and
M.Pharma courses in AICTE approved Institutions and Colleges are eligible. The PG
Scholarship Scheme beneficiaries gets Rs. 12,400 per month per student.

National Doctoral Fellowship (NDF) – This NDF Scheme admits full time meritorious
research scholars by providing research fellowship to students. All those who want to seek
admission to Ph.D. in AICTE approved Technical Institutes / University Departments for
carrying out research in thrust areas.

Pragati Scholarship Scheme – Pragati Scholarship / Contingency is awarded to meritorious

girls taking admission in AICTE approved Technical institution at Degree/ Diploma. Total
4000 scholarship are given @ Rs. 30000 as tuition fee reimbursement and Rs. 20000 as
incidentals each year.

Saksham Scholarship Scheme – Saksham Scholarship / Contingency is awarded to

differently abled students taking admission in AICTE approved Technical institution at
Degree/ Diploma. Total 1000 scholarship are given @ Rs. 30000 as tuition fee
reimbursement and Rs. 20000 as incidentals each year.

Prerana Scheme for Preparing SC / ST Students for Higher Education – There is an acute
shortage of faculty in engineering & polytechnic colleges. The problem can be addressed by
promoting degree students of pre-final and final year to go for post graduate courses.
Prerana Scheme aims at providing financial support to institutes who are willing to put extra
efforts for encouraging and training SC/ST students for GATE/GPAT/CAT/CMAT and GRE.
The broad objective of the scheme is to help aspiring SC/ST students seeking higher
education through admission test like GATE/GPAT/CAT/CMAT/ TOEFL/ IELTS and GRE.

Samriddhi Scheme for SC / ST Students for Setting Start-Ups – Looking at the poor job
availability in the market, it is necessary to provide opportunities for SC/ST students to start
their own enterprise. The broad objective of Samriddhi Scheme is to help SC/ST students is
in designing, launching and running their own business/startup through entrepreneurship

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development programme after formal education is over/during their education as per
AICTE’s startup policy.

Support to Students for Participating in Competition Abroad (SSPCA) – The objective of the
SSPCA Scheme is to provide travel assistance registration fees to a team of minimum 2 to 10
students for attending competition at international level in order to encourage engineering
students to improve their field of technical education.

Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS) – Objective of PM Scholarship

Scheme is to build up capacities in youth of J&K, educate, enable and empowering them to
compete in normal course, enhancing and boosting employment potentials in students of
J&K. Total 5000 scholarship are given @ Rs. 100000/- as Maintenance Charges and academic
fee as Rs. 30000/- to General Degree, Rs. 125000/- to Engineering Degree & Rs. 300000/- to
Medical Degree each year.

Smart India Hackathon 2019 – Smart India Hackathon is a unique initiative to identify new
and disruptive digital solutions for solving the challenges faced by our country under the
program of Smart India Hackathon 2017. This event was held on 1st – 2nd April 2017 for 36
hrs non-stop competition. 9544 technology students, 598 problems statements, 29 different
central govt. ministries, 26 different Nodal centres & funding of Rs. 3 Lakh per team for 100
qualified teams.

M.TECH Projects as Internship with Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) – The main
objective of the scheme is to nurture an innovation ecosystem that benefits the
technologically deficient MSMEs and technical institutes both. 408 Small and Medium
Enterprises have given requirement of 738 Technology students.

Operation Blackboard : a scheme has been implemented by the Indian Government as per
the recommendation produced by NPE during Rajiv Gandhi's reign in 1987. The most
important objectives of Operation Blackboard were improvement in the quality of primary
education: Reducing rate of wastage and stagnation: To attract all children, especially girls in
primary education, so that the dream of education can be realized for all. This plan was
mainly focused on providing at least two classes in each primary school; Special toilets for
girls and boys; Appointing at least fifty percent female teachers of the total teachers.

District Primary Education Programme (DPEP): In order to revive primary education

system and to achieve the goal of universalization of the primary education. The District
Primary Education Programmme (DPEP) was started in 1994. DPEP adopted for adopting
universal approach, improving retention and learning achievements and reducing
inequalities among social groups. The main aims of this program are reach to primary
education by formal/non-formal stream for all children, to trim down differences in
enrolment of the children, drop-out rates knowledge attainment among gender and group
of weaker section of the society to less than 5 per cent, to reduce dropout rates for all the
children to less than 10 per cent and to rise average achievement rate 25 per cent by
measured by measured baseline level and ensure attainment of basic literacy and the
numeracy competencies and the minimum of forty per cent in other competencies by all
primary education children.

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Mid-Day Meal Scheme: Government of India was launched the National Program of
nourishment Support for Primary Education (NP-NSPE) on 15th August, 1995. The essential
or main objective of the scheme is to help get better the effectiveness of elementary
education by improving the dietary status of children of primary school. Initially, this
scheme was implement in 2,408 blocks in the country so that the students could be fed food
in five sections from one to one in the schools run by food, government aided and local
body. From 1997-98, the scheme of MDM was executed in all over India. Under this scheme,
all the children enroll in course/class 1 to five contain a ripe Mid-Day Meal with three
hundred calories and twelve grams of protein. In October 2007, in this scheme, 3,499
educationally backward classes were included in the upper primary classes from six to eight
students.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan SSA has been implemented since 2000-
2001 in order to facilitate various intervention for worldwide access and retention,
interventions of different types to get better the quality of contravention gender in social
category interventions and learning in primary education ensure that here is considerable
improvement in children’s levels of learning achievement at the primary level and upper
primary level.

National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level (NPEGEL): This scheme was
implement in the educationally backward blocks and addresses the needs of girls who are
“in” as well as “out” of school in 2003. The plan (NPEGEL) likewise contacts young ladies
who are enlisted in school, yet don't go to class frequently. It underlines the duty of
instructors to perceive defenseless young ladies and give careful consideration to bring
them out of their condition of defenselessness and stay them from dropping out.

Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) was a scheme which started in July 2004. Under
this scheme residential schools set up for the girls of the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes,
the Other Backward Classes and Minority Communities at the upper primary phase. This
scheme is being execute in the educationally backward areas of the country where the
female literacy rate is below the national average literacy rate and gender gap in the literacy
rate is above the national average. This scheme preserves at least 75% seats of the total for
girls from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, the Other Backward Classes or Minority
Communities, and for the remaining 25% priority is given to the girls of the below poverty
line families.

The Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA): With a financing pattern of 75:25
between the Center and the States, a scheme sponsored by the Central Government was
launched in 2009-10. The most important objectives of this scheme are: (1) to raise the
minimum level of education till class X and to make secondary education entire. (2) To
recognize good quality secondary education with focus on Science, Mathematics and
English. To (3) educing gender, social and regional interval to get better enrollment, dropout
and retention.

Scheme/Plan to set up 6000 Model Schools at the Block Level: Scheme/Planning to setting
up model schools 6000 at the block level this scheme envisages to make available excellence

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education to the capable rural children by establishing an excellent level of excellent level of
benchmark of 6000 model schools per school per block rate. The targets of this plan are (1)
each square has no less than one great quality senior optional school. (2) To have a pace
setting part. (3) To experiment with imaginative educational modules what's more, teaching
method. (4) To set up a model in school foundation, educational modules, assessment and
school administration.

Plan of vocationalisation of Secondary Education at +2 level: This is a halfway supported

plan of vocationalisation of Secondary Education accommodates broadening of instructive
open doors in order to improve singular employability, lessen the befuddle amongst request
and supply of talented labor and gives another option to those seeking after advanced
education

Plan of ICT @ School : The Information and Communication Technology in School Plan was
propelled to give chances to optional stage understudies to for the mainly part produce
their ability of ICT aptitudes and influence them to learn through PC helped learning
process. The Scheme offers help to States/Union Territories to build up empowering ICT
foundation in Government and Government support optional and higher auxiliary schools.

Right to Education Act 2009: The Right of Children to (RTE) Act, 2009, which speaks to the
main performing imagined under Article 21-A imply that each child has a opportunity to full
time basic training of adequate and reasonable quality in a formal system of school
education which fulfill assured basic standard and gauges. Article 21 and the RTE Act
became effective on 1 April 2010. The RTE Act provide for the:

(i) Right of children to free and compulsory education till completion of elementary
education in a area school.

(ii) It clarifies that ‘compulsory education’ means compulsion of the suitable government to
grant free elementary education and make sure compulsory admission, attendance and
completion of elementary education to every child in the 6 to 14 age group. ‘Free and
compulsory’ means that no child shall be liable to receive any kind of fee or charge or
operating cost which may avoid him or her from pursue and finishing elementary education.

(iii) It makes provision for a non-admitted child to be admitted to an age suitable class.

(iv) It specifies the responsibility and appropriate duties of governments, local authorities
and parents in providing appropriate and free compulsory education, and also distributes or
allocation financial and other responsibilities between central and state governments.

(v) It presents students' teacher ratios (PTRs), materials and human resources, teacher-
working hours, school work days as well as the standards and standards laid down in the
land.

(vi) It provide for balanced employment of teachers by ensure that the specific pupil
teacher ratio is maintain for every school, rather than presently as an average for the State
or District or Block, thus ensure that there is no urban-rural inequality in teacher postings. It

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also provides for ban of employment of teachers for non-educational work, other than
decennial census, election to local authority, state legislatures and parliament, and tragedy
assistance.

(vii) It provide for selection of suitably trained teachers, i.e. teachers with the necessary
entry and academic credentials.

(viii) It provides for the development of the course in accordance with the values
established in the Constitution, and will make sure the development of the e child, build on
the child's knowledge, ability and talent and free the child from fear, trauma and anxiety. It
also provides a child centered learning and child friendly system of education.

Comprehensive Education for Disabled at Secondary stage (IEDSS): The plan for
comprehensive training for the handicapped has been begun from the year 2009 to the
Secondary Stage (IEDSS). This plan replaces the past plan of incorporated training for kids
with handicaps and will offer help for comprehensive instruction of youngsters with
inabilities in IX-XII classes. The primary point of this plan is to empower impaired
understudies, subsequent to finishing an eight-year grade school, to seek after four years in
front of auxiliary tutoring in a comprehensive and able condition.

Education channels
A programme for utilization of satellite communication technologies for transmission of
educational e-contents through 32 National Channels i.e. SWAYAM PRABHA DTH-TV has
been launched. Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET)-NCERT is the national
coordinator for one DTH TV channel i.e., Kishore Manch (#31) and has started feeding a
24x7 educational TV channel by July 9, 2018. Besides, NIOS is running five channels for
teachers, for secondary and senior secondary levels and for sign language.

Interactive content for students

A single point repository of e resources called e- PATHSHALA containing NCERT textbooks
and various other learning resources has been developed for showcasing and disseminating
all educational resources including textbooks, audio, video, periodicals, and a variety of
other print and non-print materials.

Innovations in classroom study

The Government has launched Rashtriya Aavishkar Abhiyan (RAA) programme on
09.07.2015, to motivate and engage children of the age group of 6-18 years in science,
mathematics and technology through observation, experimentation, inference drawing,
model building, etc. both through inside and outside classroom activities.

International exposure
Government of India has decided to participate in the programme for International Students
Assessment (PISA) to be conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) in 2021.
PISA is a competency based assessment which unlike content based assessment, measures
the extent to which students have acquired key competencies that are essential for full
participation in modern societies.

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Equality in education
The Central Government has launched an integrated scheme for school education named as
Samagra Shiksha, w.e.f. 2018-19 which subsumes the three erstwhile Centrally Sponsored
schemes of school education i.e Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha
Abhiyan (RMSA), and Centrally Sponsored Scheme on Teacher Education (CSSTE).

Quality education
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Act, 2018 has been
notified on January 11, 2019. The said Act provides to empower the appropriate
government to take a decision as to whether to hold back a child in class 5 or in class 8 or in
both the classes, or not to hold back a child in any class till the completion of elementary
education. The Act seeks to improve the learning levels of children and will lead to greater
accountability and improvement in the quality of education.

Minimum qualification of teachers

Section 23(2) of the RTE Act has been amended to extend the period of in-service training
for untrained elementary teachers to March 31, 2019 in all the states and UTs.
As per the above amendment, all untrained in-service teachers working in government,
government- aided, and private un-aided schools should acquire minimum qualification as
laid down by an academic authority, authorized by the Central Government, by March 31,
2019.
The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) was entrusted to conduct this training
through ODL (Open Distance Learning) mode. The online D.El.Ed. course has been started
from October 3, 2017 and completed on March 31, 2019.

National Achievement Survey (NAS)

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) conducts periodic
national surveys of learning achievement of children in classes 3, 5, 8 and 10. Four rounds of
National Achievement Survey (NAS) have been conducted so far for class 5 and three rounds
for classes 3 and 8. These reveal improvement in learning achievement levels of pupils, in
identified subjects from first round to fourth round.

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