The Routledge Companion to Primary Education in India

R. Govinda is Distinguished Professor, Council for Social Development, New Delhi. He is the former vice chancellor of the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), India. He has previously taught at the M.S. University of Baroda, Institute of Education, University of London, and the International Institute for Educational Planning, Paris. He has authored and edited several books on education, including Community Participation and Empowerment in Primary Education in India, Who Goes to School: Exploring Exclusion in Indian Education, India Education Report: Progress of Basic Education and India’s Social Sector and SDGs: Problems and Prospects. His current areas of research interest include primary education, decentralized management, leadership development, policy analysis, human rights and democracy.

List of tables ix

List of Acronyms xi

Preface xiv

Prologue xix

1 The Beginning: After the Beautiful Tree 1

2 The Baroda Experiment 13

3 Gokhale’s Bill 39

4 The Mysore Regulation: Right Step Gone Wrong 59

5 Colonial Legislation on Compulsory Education 73

6 Colonial Primary Education: Anatomy of Failure 140

7 Mass Education and the Macaulay Story 163

8 Gandhi’s Challenge and the Unfulfilled Promise 172

9 The Last Decade: As the Raj Recedes and India Rises 193

10 Towards Becoming a Republic: Envisioning Education for Independent India 206

11 New Beginning: After Independence 220

12 The First Decade: Foundations for Education in New India 235

13 Planning for Universal Elementary Education: Promise and Performance 262

14 Purpose of Primary Education: From Literacy Focus to Learning Crisis 287

15 National Education and the Nationalist Agenda 304

16 Work and Education: Perennial Disconnect 318

17 Rise and Fall of Non-Formal Education 326

18 Legislating School Participation: The Compulsion Conundrum 342

19 Education of the Girl Child: Rhetoric and Reality 360

20 The Primary Teacher: A Story of Fractured Identity 385

21 Education as a Fundamental Right: Reluctant Embrace 409

22 Act in the Making: Seven-Year Labour 423

23 Rights Framework in Action: The Promise and the Predicament 441

24 Then and Now: Mass Education Not a Mirage 455

Index 469