Education system in India - The School System

With a constitutional amendment in 1976 Education has become the part of the concurrent list. The implications of making education a concurrent subject is that both the Centre and the States can legislate on any aspect of education from the Primary to the University level. That is, education policies and programmes are suggested at the national level and implemented through the respective state governments.  Policies are announced at the national level periodically through the Ministry of Human Resource Development. The Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) continues to play a lead role in the evolution and monitoring of educational policies and programmes at national level. 

National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT)prepares a National Curriculum Framework (NCF). Each state has its counterpart called the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT). These bodies propose educational strategies, curricula, pedagogical schemes and evaluation methodologies. The SCERTs generally follow guidelines established by the NCERT. But the states have considerable freedom in implementing the education system. 

The school system in India has four levels: Lower Primary (LP), Upper Primary (UP), High School (HS) and Higher Secondary Schools (HSS). The lower primary school is divided into five "standards", upper primary school into two, high school into two and higher secondary into two (ie.5+3+2+2). Students have to learn a common curriculum largely (except for regional changes in mother tongue) till the end of 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). 

There are mainly three streams in school education in India. Two of these are coordinated at the national level, of which one is under the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). The second central scheme is the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE). The third steam of school system is the State Schools. Each state in the country has its own Department of Education that runs its own school system with its own textbooks and evaluation system. The curriculum, pedagogy and evaluation methods are largely decided by the respective SCERT's of the states, following the national guidelines prescribed by the NCERT.