India is divided into 28 states and 7 “Union Territories”. The states have their own elected governments while Union Territories are ruled directly by the Government of India, with the President of India appointing an administrator for each of the Union Territory. As per the constitution of India, school education was originally a state subject that is the states had complete authority on deciding policies and implementing them. The role of the Government of India (GoI) was limited to coordination and deciding about the the standards of higher education. This was changed with a constitutional amendment in 1976 so that education now comes in the so-called as concurrent list. That is, school education policies and programmes are suggested at the national level though the state governments have a lot of freedom in implementing programmes. Policies are announced at the national levels periodically. The Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), set up in 1935, continues to play a lead role in the evolution and monitoring of the educational policies and programmes
There is national organization that plays a key role in developing policies and programmes, called the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) that prepares a National Curriculum Framework. Each state has its counterpart called as the State Council for Educational Research and Training .These are the bodies that essentially propose various educational strategies, curricula, pedagogical schemes and evaluation methodologies to the states' departments of education. The SCERTs generally follows guidelines established by the NCERT. But the states have considerable freedom in implementing the education system.
The National Policy on Education 1986 and the Programme of Action (POA) 1992 envisaged the free and compulsory education of satisfactory quality for all children below 14 years before the 21st Century. The government committed to earmark 6% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the nation for education, half of which would be spent on primary education. The expenditure on Education as a percentage of GDP also rose from 0.7 percent in 1951-52 to about 3.6 percent in 1997-98.
The school system in India has four different levels: lower primary (age 6 to 10), upper primary (11 and 12), high (13 to 15) and higher secondary (17 and 18). The lower primary school is divided into five “standards”, upper primary school into two, high school into three and higher secondary into two standards. Students have to learn a common curriculum largely (except for regional changes in mother tongue) till end of the high school. There is some amount of specialization possible at the higher secondary level. Students throughout the country have to learn three languages (namely, English, Hindi and their mother tongue) except in regions where Hindi is the mother tongue and in some streams
There are mainly three streams in school education of India. Two of these are coordinated at the national level, of which one is under the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and was originally meant for children of central government employees who are periodically transferred and they may have to move to any place in the country. A number of “central schools” (named Kendriya Vidyalayas) have been established for the purpose in all the main urban areas in the country, and they follow a common schedule so that a student going from one school to another on a particular day will hardly see any difference in what is being taught. One subject (Social Studies, consisting of History, Geography and Civics) is always taught in Hindi, and other subjects in English, in those schools. Kendriya Vidyalayas admit other children also if seats are available.
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