Education in India has a diverse and vibrant history, evolving through different eras from ancient vedic epochs to the modern day, where earlier knowledge was imparted verbally and vocationally through the Gurukul system.[1] This traditional form of education focused on holistic development, including spiritual, intellectual, and physical training. Shishyas used to live with their

With the dawn of Buddhism and Jainism, educational institutions like Nalanda and Takshashila emerged as global schools of learning and attracting scholars from all over the world. These ancient universities played a significant role in the dissemination of knowledge and the development of various disciplines. However, the arrival of Islamic rulers in India brought new influences, leading to the establishment of madrasas and the introduction of subjects such as Persian, Arabic, and Islamic theology.

Modern education system which we follow today was established by the Britishers in 1830 on the recommendation of Lord Thomas Babington. In this system, classroom learning concept was introduced and education is conducted in English only which focused more on Science and Mathematics and learnings of Philosophy, Ethics, Moral Values, Metaphysics were dropped from this education system. The intention behind this system was to produce a class of educated Indians to assist in the East India Company's administration. Albeit it also paved the way for the widespread dissemination of modern education throughout the country.

Evolution of the Legal Regime
The journey of the right to education in India is a testament to the country's struggle for social justice and equitable access to opportunities. This right, which today is enshrined as a fundamental right in the Indian Constitution, has its roots in a complex historical context that spans the colonial era to the post-independence period. The evolution of this right reflects the dynamic interplay between colonial policies, nationalist aspirations, constitutional debates, and judicial activism, culminating in the establishment of education as a fundamental right under Article 21A.

British Era:
The East India Company had all the administrative powers in India from 1600 to 1858 [2] (after which the rule was taken over by the Crown, when the British Raj began) but there were no development in the education of Indians till 1800s. Till then the administrators of EIC in India, kept Indians ignorant, then one gallant Major-General Sir Lionel Smith stated that impart of education will expand the minds and the Mussalmans against the Hindus and so on could come at a halt.

Then, the Charter Act of 1813 was framed [3] and set apart one lac of rupees. It was their intention that the Government of India would make a survey of the indigenous educational institutions and do something for their preservation. The Christian Missionaries played a significant role by educating people, but mainly to convert people to Christianity.

In 1835, Thomas Babington Macauley [4] wrote in his Minute dated the 2nd of February, that the funds that were set apart, were not only to be used for reviving literature but also to inculcate the knowledge of sciences [5] and he gave various recommendations related to it. The English Education Act of 1835 was passed to reallocate the funds.

The cornerstone of a modernised educational system in India which has endured through the time was laid by the Education Despatch of 1854, by Charles Wood, the President of the Board of Control, to Dalhousie, the Governor-General of India. [6] Wood's Despatch worked on the change in the upliftment of women through education which brought self-confidence and courage in them to face the challenges.

In 1882, the Hunter Commission's recommendations played a pivotal role in enhancing both the scope and quality of primary and secondary education in India. The Government's grants-in-aid system, which supported the establishment of secondary schools managed by private entities, broadened access to education for students. Consequently, this improved the educational standards in India, particularly by granting educational rights to underprivileged groups, such as religious minorities and disadvantaged communities. [7]

The Government Resolution on Educational Policy in 1913 marked a significant shift by emphasizing vocational and technical education while also promoting greater Indianization of the educational system. The Sadler Commission (1917-19) conducted a detailed investigation into higher education, particularly focusing on Calcutta University, and recommended implementing a 12-year school system prior to university education.

Later, the Hartog Committee Report of 1929 addressed challenges of wastage and stagnation in primary education, underscoring the importance of improving efficiency and quality. Finally, the Sargent Plan of 1944 proposed a post-war blueprint for educational development, aiming to achieve universal, compulsory, and free primary education within 40 years.

Education System in India post 1947:
The seed for free and compulsory elementary education which was sown by the britishers during their reign in India was grown into a seedling after the Constitution of India came into force in 1950. The provisions which talk about free and compulsory elementary education are enshrined in:

Part IV: Directive Principles of State Policy [8]:

• Article 39(f): The State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing that children are given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and against moral and material abandonment.
   
• Article 41: Right to work, to education and to public assistance in certain cases | The State shall, within the limits of its economic capacity and development, make effective provision for securing the right to work, to education and to public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement, and in other cases of undeserved want.
   
• Article 45: Provision for early childhood care and education to children below the age of six years | The State shall endeavour to provide early childhood care and education for all children until they complete the age of six years.

Furthermore, in Forty-Second Amendment Act, 1976, Entry-(12) Education was shifted from the State List to the Concurrent List. Despite more than 50 years since independence, the directive in Article 45 has yet to be fully realized. Child labour remains prevalent in hazardous industries, such as fireworks manufacturing.

In Mohini Jain v. State of Karnataka [9], A resident of Uttar Pradesh contested a notification from the Karnataka government that allowed private medical colleges to impose elevated fees on students who were not assigned 'government seats'. The Supreme Court of India determined that the imposition of a 'capitation fee' by private educational institutions infringed upon the right to education, which is derived from the right to life and human dignity, as well as the right to equal protection under the law.

In the absence of a specific constitutional provision, the Court interpreted the right to education as essential for the realization of the right to life as outlined in Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. Furthermore, the Court asserted that private institutions, functioning as agents of the State, are obligated to guarantee equal access to higher education and to prevent discrimination in its delivery.

In Unni Krishnan, J.P. & Ors. v. State of Andhra Pradesh & Ors. [10]., the Supreme Court ruled that there is no fundamental right to a professional degree under Article 21. However, it recognized that, 44 years after the Constitution's adoption, the previously non-justiciable right to education for children up to the age of 14 had become legally enforceable. For individuals above the age of 14, the right to education depends on the state's economic capacity and development, as outlined in Article 41.

As the Supreme Court has pointed out in MC Mehta v. State of Tamil Nadu [11], "...the stark reality is that in our country like many others, children are an exploited lot. Child labour is a big problem and has remained intractable, even after about 50 years of our having become independent, despite various legislative enactments...prohibiting employment of a child in several occupations and avocations."

Tapas Majumdar Committee for set up in 1999.
During the government of Late Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the seedling of educational system in India was further grown into a sapling when Tapas Majumdar Committee for set up in 1999.

The Tapas Majumdar Committee [12] assessed the total additional funding required, beyond the existing public expenditure on elementary education (EE), to achieve universalization of EE by 2007-08. This estimation covered a ten-year period from 1998-99 to 2007-08. The Committee also proposed a phased plan for this additional public spending over the decade.

The Committee calculated that the extra expenditure necessary to achieve Universal Elementary Education (UEE) would amount to Rs 1,36,922 crore over the ten years, based on the norms of two classrooms and two teachers per school, gradually reaching a 30:1 pupil-teacher ratio by the tenth year. This estimate also considered teacher salaries as revised after the Fifth Central Pay Commission.

Additionally, the Committee emphasized that even children from the poorest segments of society should receive an education of a quality comparable to the best available. It strongly recommended against any national scheme for recruiting para-teachers and urged the active facilitation of genuine community participation in school affairs. According to a statistic of Government of India, 2000 [13], the literacy rate was 18.33% in 1951 and 52.51% in 1991, in which the number of females was approximately fifty per cent of males. Hence, there was a need to change these statistics and more enrolment of students, especially females and backward classes.

The Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment Act 2002) inserted three amendments to provide for the education and welfare of children.

First, Article 21A casts obligation upon the State to provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age old 6 to 14 years in such manner as the State may, by law, determine. amendment was inspired by the Directive Principles contained in Article 45 of the constitution which provided that the "State shall endeavour to provide childhood care and education for all children until they complete the age of 6 years".

To achieve this objective in the Directive Principles the statement of objects and reasons of this amendment acknowledge that in spite of strenuous efforts made to fulfil this objective, the ultimate goal of providing universal and quality education remain unfulfilled. The amendment bill was introduced in Parliament in 1997. It was scrutinized by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resources Development and this subject was also dealt with by the Law Commission of India (165th Report).

Secondly, the 86th Amendment also substituted a new article for Article 45 which provides that the State shall endeavour to provide early childhood care and education for all children until they complete the age of 6 years.

Thirdly, the amendment also added a further clause in Article 51A which enjoins a parent or guardian to provide opportunities for education to his child or, as the case may be, ward between the age of 6 and 14 years.

Post 86th Amendment, 2002:
The 86th amendment received the assent of the President on 12 December 2002 and came into force on 1 April 2010. Also, the separate legislation, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, serves as supplemental to Article 21A, ensuring that every child has the right to receive free elementary education of satisfactory and equitable quality in a formal school that meets basic essential norms and standards.

Article 21A and the RTE Act became enforceable on 1 April 2010. The title of the RTE Act emphasizes the terms "free and compulsory." "Free education" means that no child, except one whose parents have chosen a school not funded by the Government, is required to pay any fees, charges, or expenses that could hinder their ability to pursue and complete elementary education.

"Compulsory education" places a duty on the Government and local authorities to provide, secure, and ensure the enrollment, attendance, and completion of elementary education for all children in the 6-14 age group. This legislative shift marks India's transition to a rights-based framework, imposing a legal obligation on both Central and State Governments to implement this fundamental child right, as enshrined in Article 21A of the Constitution, in line with the provisions of the RTE Act.

Albeit there was a directive in Part IV as Article 45, but after the amendment of the constitution in 2002 and the insertion of right to education in Article 21A in the Part III (which made it justiciable), the sapling of the education system is now a fully blooming plant in India.

Conclusion
Did we succeed? Well, yes! According to the data of World bank Group 2023 [14], the gross enrolment ratio [15] in India is 112% which is incredible, and it means that the people other than six to fourteen years of age, but it could also mean that there are a lot of adults who lack the basic primary education. The Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalayas, and other well-supported schools in some states illustrate that government-funded schools are adequately resourced and effectively managed, which is one of the reasons for more than hundred per cent enrolment in elementary schools.

Upon this the Supreme Court observed that most fundamental rights are empty vessels into which each generation must pour its content in the light of its experience. [16] Interpretation and application of constitutional law and human rights has never been limited by the supreme court only to the 'black letter of law'. Expressive meaning of such rights has all along been given by taking recourse to creative interpretation which led to the creation of new rights. And, as we know that right to free and compulsory elementary education has been made a fundamental right and it's justiciable and enforceable in the court of law, albeit it took more than fifty years after independence.

References:

1. In India during the Vedic period (1500 to 800 BCE), a gurukul (literally, "house of the teacher") and studied primarily religious teachings and traditional scriptures, as well as politics and science. Education was imparted by word of mouth, though manuscripts made of palm leaves were used in later periods, Boarding School, by Sanat Pai Raikar; Britannica
2. Changes in Legislative Authority, parliament.uk
3. Basu, Baman Das. History of education in India under the rule of the East India Company. Calcutta: Modern Review Office [1922], 1867, pg.18
4. The First Law Member to the Executive Council of the Governor General of Bengal, 1833.
5. Mondal, A., 2021. The Lord Macaulay's Minute, 1835: Re-examining the British Educational Policy. Academia Letters, pp.1-5
6. Ghosh, S.C., 1975. Dalhousie, Charles Wood and the Education Despatch of 1854. History of Education, 4(2), pp.37-47
7. Vitthal, A.P.S.A., The Development of Modern Education in India under the British Rule and its impact. Scholarly Research Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies, P.70.
8. Constitution of India, 1950
9. AIR 1992 SC 1858 at 1864: (1992) 3 SCC 666
10. 1993 AIR 217
11. AIR 1997 SC 699, 701
12. Ministry of Human Resource and Development, 1999, https://cprindia.org/wpcontent/uploads/2023/04/Tapas-Majumdar-Committee-Not-the-original-copy.pdf
13. Venkatanarayanan, S., 2015. Economic liberalization in 1991 and its impact on elementary education in India. Sage Open, 5(2), p.2158244015579517.
14. School enrollment, primary (% gross) – India, UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). UIS.Stat Bulk Data Download Service. Accessed April 24, 2024 - https://uis.unesco.org/bdds
15. Gross enrollment ratio is the ratio of total enrollment, regardless of age, to the population of the age group that officially corresponds to the level of education shown. Primary education provides children with basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills along with an elementary understanding of such subjects as history, geography, natural science, social science, art, and music., Metadata Glossary, World Bank Group
16. Pg. 46, D.D. Basu, Shorter Constitution of India