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for the State to implement Article 21A by enacting the cent of class V children in rural India cannot read class II
Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education texts and 69 percent of class V students can’t solve simple
(RTE) Act, 2009, mandating the State to provide free division or multiplication sums. Likewise, industry reports
and compulsory education to all children aged between that the great majority of 10 million graduates certified
six to 14 years. annually by India’s 52,081 undergrad colleges and 1,338
In higher education, the Central government enacted universities are not sufficiently qualified for employment
the 93rd Constitution Amendment, 2006, enabling the commensurate with their qualifications.
State to decree reservations for socially and education- Nevertheless your editors merit credit for some success
ally backward classes in private educational institutions, in moving the needle of public policy. For instance, our
including schools. In 2014, after the BJP-led NDA gov- continuous advocacy of the critical importance of profes-
ernment was voted to power at the Centre, an overdue sionally administered early childhood care and education
Skill India Mission was launched to accelerate vocational (ECCE) — EW convened the first international ECCE Con-
and skills education. More recently, in July 2020, a new ference in 2010 and several national conventions thereafter
National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 was promulgated and also began ranking India’s best preschools in 2010 —
after an interregnum of 34 years, based on the recommen- paid off with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020
dations of the K. Kasturirangan Committee. NEP 2020 mandating three years of compulsory ECCE for all chil-
mandates comprehensive and sweeping reforms of the dren countrywide. Similarly, strident advocacy of invest-
education system from preschool to university. ing school and tertiary education students with vocational
Yet, despite much sound and fury and lip service to education and training (VET) has resulted in VET being
education reform and your editors’ persistent advocacy accorded high importance in NEP 2020.
for 26 years, as faithfully tracked by the Annual Status of In a photo-essay in the pages following, we present
Education Report (ASER) of the independent Pratham 11 major landmark initiatives of Indian education of the
Education Foundation (estb.1994), there’s been inching period 1999-2025. In our opinion they have changed the
progress in the direction of making education the #1 item direction — even if not outcomes — of pre-primary to Ph
on the national agenda. According to ASER 2024, 51 per- D education in India.

NOVEMBER 2025 EDUCATIONWORLD 33