Education in India
Aerial view of IIT Guwahati—one of the seven
Indian Institutes of Technology declared as
Institutes of National Importance by the
Government of India.
Education in India has a history stretching
back to the ancient urban centres of learning
at Taxila and Nalanda. Western education be-
came ingrained into Indian society with the
establishment of the British Raj. Education in
the Republic of India falls under the control
of both the central government and the
states, with some responsibilities lying with
the centre and the state having autonomy for
others. The various articles of the Indian con-
stitution provide for education as a funda-
mental right.
India has made huge progress in terms of
increasing primary education attendance rate
and expanding literacy to approximately two
thirds of the population.[1] However, educa-
tion is still far behind developing countries
such as China or Thailand. Most children
never attend secondary schools.[1] An optim-
istic estimate is that only one in five job-
seekers in India has ever had any sort of vo-
cational training.[2]
Three Indian universities were listed in
the Times Higher Education of the world’s
top 200 universities: Indian Institutes of
Technology, Indian Institutes of Manage-
ment, and Jawaharlal Nehru University in
2005 and 2006.[3] Although, no Indian uni-
versity made to the top 300 of the Chinese
conducted [Academic Ranking of World
Universities] in 2006.[4] However, six Indian
Institutes of Technology and Birla Institute of
Technology and Science - Pilani, were listed
among the top 20 science and technology
schools in Asia by Asiaweek.[5] The Indian
School of Business was ranked number 15 in
global MBA rankings by the Financial Times
of London in 2009[6] while the All India Insti-
tute of Medical Sciences has been recognized
as a global leader in medical research and
treatment.[7]Similarly,
the National Law
School of India University situated in Ban-
galore is often considered to be the best law
school in South Asia and a pioneer in legal