Course Coordinator and Team:                   SES Faculty

Email of course coordinator:                       pcbabed@aud.ac.in 

Pre-requisites:                                               No

Course Description:

The purpose of the course is to familiarise the beginning students of education with the development of India’s education system focussing on school education policy context. Education is framed within broader historical, socio-political, and economic factors encompassing educational programmes, policies, and initiatives. This course will engage the future teachers with such framing of India's educational system, by reflecting on its broad contours, and identifying key developments, factors, and actors.

Course Objectives:

• Familiarise the students with education in India focusing on its historical development
• Initiate the students into thinking about the contemporary concerns of access, equity and quality in education.
• Develop a basic shared vocabulary in education

Course Outcomes:

• Identify and explain at an introductory level the education policy directions, issues and challenges and debates in the Indian context.
• Demonstrate familiarity with the historical and social factors shaping contemporary education.

Brief description of the modules:

Module 1: Forms and practices of education in pre-colonial India

This module aims to introduce the different forms of indigenous education prevalent in pre-colonial India. It will offer students a glimpse of the diverse cultural- educational ideas, practices and institutions. From multiple perspectives the students will explore the unique features of and problems embedded in these educational forms and practices.

Module 2: Modern education in British India

This module discusses the broad contours of the modern education system in British India. Students will explore the aims, demands and reforms in education in India in this period, engaging with the underlying assumptions of the modern education policies and systems.

Module 3: Access, equality and quality concerns in post-independence India

This module delves into the complex landscape of education in post-independence India. Focussing on educational context and challenges in the post-independence context, the module explores the dynamics of access, equality, and quality in the Indian education system and inherited legacies of the colonial past.

Module 4: Education, development and market

This module will examine the intersection of education, development and market, following the liberalisation policies and the evolution of education in India. Spanning from the early 1990s to the present, the module will discuss how liberalisation reforms shaped by the pressures of the global knowledge economy have influenced India's educational policy and landscape.

Assessment Plan

Assessment	Weightage
Assignment 1: Project based policy documents	30%
Assignment 2: Class quiz	30%
Assignment 3: End-term	40%

Readings:

• Acharya, P. (1978). Indigenous vernacular education in the pre-British era: Traditions and problems. Economic and Political Weekly, 13(48), 1981–1988. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4367149
• Rao, P. V. (2020). Beyond Macaulay: Education in India, 1780-1860. Routledge. (Chapter 1, 14-44).
• Gandhi, M. K. (1933). Hind Swaraj. Navjivan Publishing House. (Chapter 18: Education, 5 pages)
• Kumar, N. (2012). India’s trials with citizenship, modernisation and nationhood. In Brockliss, L., Sheldon, N. (Eds.) Mass Education and the Limits of State Building, c.1870–1930. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230370210_12
• Naik, J. P. (1979). Equality, quality and quantity: The elusive triangle in Indian education. International Review of Education, 25(2/3), 167–185. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3443729
• Govinda, R. (2011). Who goes to school? Exploring exclusion in Indian education. Oxford University Press. (Chapter 1)
• Selected excerpts for policy documents: NPE 1968, NEP 1986, Kothari Commission, NCF 2005, Learning without burden report, 1993.
• Govinda, R. (2022). India: Learning in the margins: Reflections on Indian policies and programs for education of the disadvantaged. In D. A. Wagner, N. M. Castillo and S. Grant (Eds.), Learning, marginalization, and improving the quality of education in low-income countries: https://books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp.0256.09.pdf
• Sadgopal, A. (2016). “Skill India” or deskilling India: An agenda of exclusion. Economic and Political Weekly, 51(35), 33–37. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44004643
• Selected excerpts from policy-related documents: RTE Act 2009, NEP 2020, NCF 2022-23.