The British government, taking guidelines from Lord Macaulay in 1835 to establish a state through education, introduced English language in education, started a revolution in the history of the country, introduced Western customs and traditions in culture and started distancing us from our mother tongue. Macaulay Minutes were issued to provide education in different languages, cultures and dialects. The historical Macaulay Minutes (1835) are called a document of cultural imperialism due to which education became soulless and mechanical due to the break with our rich moral values; clerks and jobbers started becoming professional employees. The interest in teaching and learning from education decreased. Gradually, under the British Empire, education was made a tool (weapon) of the state, under which an education system was established to fulfill political interests. This started major changes in the education system.
In 1882, William Hunter placed the education system under the District Boards and Municipal Committees, under which arrangements were made to provide primary level education to the common people. The medium of instruction was kept as mother tongue. After this, after the bloody Jallianwala Bagh massacre, new changes were started in the country by bringing education under public welfare, for which the main work was done by Bretton Budds in 1944 after the end of the world war and after coming out of the field of arms manufacturing and choosing the field of public welfare. In this, taking education as an important field, work was done to expand and take education to the common people. Thus, education started coming within the reach of the common people and to a limited extent it worked for public welfare.
In 1952-53, the Government of India implemented Mudaliar’s recommendations in secondary education, which was named the Secondary Education Commission. Its aim was to produce good citizens, earn a living, develop leadership qualities, human ethics, vocational skills, and personal development. This was based on the age group of eleven to seventeen years.
After this, the recommendations of the Kothari Commission were implemented in 1968, which was named ‘National Development and Education’ (1964-66). Under this, it was made mandatory to spend 6 percent of the budget of the domestic product on education, which has never been spent till date, but the education budget was kept less than 3 percent. Under the Kothari Commission, it was made necessary to provide free and compulsory education for all, the medium of regional mother tongue, the implementation of the three-language formula (regional, Hindi and English), the elimination of regional disparities in educational facilities, the expansion of scientific education, agricultural and industrial education, and the improvement of secondary and higher education to provide education for all. They built the education structure under the 10+2+3 formula. The Commission suggested to arrange five rooms for five classes and five teachers to strengthen primary education. Emphasis was placed on strengthening primary education to strengthen education. He said that the fate of the country will also be shaped by the classrooms; the kind of classrooms there are, the same will be the fate of the country. Kothari also recommended good and reasonable salary scales to keep the teachers financially free and satisfied. He recommended that the work of making the syllabus should be made according to the diversity of different regions instead of the government. He gave the model of common schools for the children of all classes of people but it was never implemented.
During the Emergency, the Government of India made the 42nd Amendment and removed education from the subject of the states and made it a subject of the Concurrent List (Centre and States). Under this, under the Education Policy of 1986, the Ministry of Education was made the Ministry of Human Resource Development. Under the new economic policies, from 1991, the government of Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh decided to end India as a welfare state under the conditions of the World Bank for taking loans, under the guidelines of the International Monetary Fund. With this, the public welfare departments were to be freed from government control and transferred to private boards and corporations. Gradually, including the education department, 10 percent of the posts were to be abolished every year, 10 percent of the posts were to be kept vacant, DA and other allowances were to be frozen, ad hoc and contract recruitment was to be made, pay commission was to be abolished, pension scheme was to be linked to the share market, etc. Under the decisions of the GATT and the World Trade Organization, patent rights were implemented for new research and education. According to the PPP model, education was made a commodity of buying and selling by creating joint educational institutions of the private public and giving it to private hands. Today’s education has become a commodity of the market instead of public and social interests. In the dark era of the 1980s and 90s, government institutions were weakened and private institutions were expanded and recognized. Government institutions were deprived of essential needs and facilities by cutting the education budget. Education was commercialized by giving freedom to private schools, colleges and universities. Thus, education is becoming very expensive and is becoming out of reach of the common and middle class children.
In the era of Corona, the National Education Policy passed by the Central Government in 2020 was implemented. Under this policy, two main agendas were implemented; first, corporatization of education and second, Hindutva leanings. These can be called the central government’s increasing steps towards fascism. On this line, Hitler opened separate communal and special schools in Germany and Mussolini opened separate communal and special schools in Italy.
The central government is spreading Hindutva by changing the syllabus and books under the National Curriculum Framework in 2023. In this, the past and history were shown to be infatuated with which suits the imperialists and capitalists. The common people fall into its trap. The communal changes and distortions in the syllabus
It has been done. Mythology has been mixed up by making history. Scientists like Darwin and Lamarck have been removed from the syllabus by making illogical changes. References to the Mughal Empire and Islam have been eliminated. With this, the history of the Sikh Gurus has automatically been removed from the syllabus. References to social and political movements have been removed.
Therefore, to save the destruction of education, there is a need to raise a movement on the lines of the Delhi Kisan Morcha against corporate and Hindutva communalism. By taking the struggle forward against the central and state governments, institutions with schemes of different names should be closed for the establishment of common schools. Children of all government leaders, officers, employees and teachers should be admitted in government institutions. The Allahabad High Court has decided in this regard. Efforts should be made to mobilize the public for free education.
