Central Lesson: Editorial on the Pitfalls of Centralisation of Education
04 August 2024 | The Telegraph
One decision of the Emergency should be celebrated. Even though the Narendra Modi-led government never fails to repeat that the Congress was responsible for this dark period and has also named June 25 Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas, the Union education minister endorsed the 1976 decision to shift education from the state list to the concurrent one. The system since Independence had upheld federalism. On the practical level, it had allowed states to forge their own path in educating young people according to their needs in a regionally, ethnically and linguistically diverse country. Putting education on the concurrent list meant collaboration between states and the Centre, which could be a good thing if Central interventions were balanced with the understanding and practice of the states. But if the government at the Centre tended to grab the entire space of thought, policy and method in the name of creating a single system, the point of concurrence would fail and the independence of states be eliminated…