Preface

I am not a scholar of Indian history, nor do I follow closely developments in the Indian state. However, as someone born in India I have, since 2007, visited India every year, and have become increasingly interested in the politics and possibilities of educational reform in India. In 2007, I went to India because I was told of a fascinating new policy experiment which, I was assured, had the potential of far reaching consequences for the Indian system of education. This experiment involved the creation of a commission which was expected to explore the ways in which India should reform its knowledge systems in order to more fully participate in the emerging global economy.

The National Knowledge Commission (NKC) brought together some of brightest public intellectuals in India, led by an IT entrepreneur, Sam Pitroda. While the Commission did not have a large budget, its power lay in the fact that it reported directly to the Prime Minister in a series of short policy papers rather than a large report, as is normally the case. As I understand it, this innovative structure for the development of policy was designed not so much as to make a large number of recommendations but to change the policy discourses in India concerning the relationship between knowledge and education.

To a large extent, this experiment has been successful in encouraging robust policy discussions that had been hoped for. These discussions have also led to a flurry of reform activity. Since the NKC concluded its work in 2007, much has been achieved with regard to educational policy in India. Most notably, public funding for education has increased significantly. Salaries across the India system of education have been increased, making careers in universities more attractive. Strong incentives now exist for university-based researchers to forge linkages with industry and research centers. New funding is now available to enable greater access to higher education in rural and regional areas, leading to a massive growth in the number of new private tertiary colleges – and also to the emergence of new educational entrepreneurs.

Some of the bureaucratic rigidities in the system are also now reduced, giving universities greater freedom – enabling them to develop, to some extent, their own curricula and forge collaborative links with industries. Both private and public universities have been given autonomy to develop their own admissions systems, processes of course evaluation, review and credits, and accountability mechanisms. To rejuvenate a culture of research, the Indian Government has established a National Science and Engineering Research Board, along with a National Knowledge Network that it is hoped will ensure greater broadband connectivity.

In the schools sector, too, reform has been pursued with greater vigor. India is well on its way towards achieving its Millennium Goal targets. New schools have been established around the country to meet the growing demand for education and the rising aspirations of students. Efforts have been made to ensure greater equality of educational opportunity, through a whole range of affirmative action programs. For example, the School Lunch Program, designed to provide children from lower socio-economic backgrounds with a midday meal, has been extended. The Right to Education Act, enacted in 2009, has made education, to a minimum set of norms, a fundamental right for every child between the ages of 6 and 14. At policy level, new discourses of child-centered education, human rights and social inclusivity have been embraced.

As significant as these initiatives are, the Indian system of education remains in the doldrums, however. While access to education has clearly expanded, and while programs of affirmative action have enabled marginalized students to participate in formal education, the quality of education remains uniformly poor. Good education is still only available to students from richer families. Educational inequalities are no longer due to lack of access but rather to unequal provision and outcomes. In many parts of India, students go to schools but learn very little. The quality of teaching is mostly poor, as indeed is the quality of teacher preparation. In poorer schools, teachers do not have opportunities to renew their skills. Petty corruption remains rife.

So while the Indian system of education has expanded greatly, and while it remains committed to the principles of social equity, its performance leaves much to be desired. From the perspective of educational researchers the disconnect between the high aspirations of India’s youth and the poor outcomes of the vast majority of the nation’s schools needs explanation, as does the fact that while Indian education systems are not short of reform efforts, these reforms seldom produce effective and sustainable outcomes. Not only are reforms inhibited by various structural barriers but they also become entangled in bureaucratic politics that appears to have become a permanent feature of Indian democracy. Arguably the neoliberal approaches to reform have made things worse.

In this special issue of Policy Futures in Education, the authors, drawn from both India and abroad, discuss a wide range of issues concerning the promise, politics and possibilities of educational reforms in India. They analyze recent policies, describe various reform initiatives and explore some of the reasons why reforms are so very difficult to implement and sustain in India. Nevertheless, most of the authors approach their analysis from the perspective of a commitment to educational equality and social justice and remain optimistic about policy futures in Indian education. The papers demonstrate complexity but do not abandon hope. In Raymond Williams’s words, their interest is in ‘making hope practical’.