The Indian freedom struggle focussed on the liberation of the Indian people from the British Raj and the establishment of a system of self-governance for the Indian people. One of the manifestations of this fundamental idea was the enactment and adoption of the Constitution of India on November 26, 1949. On the anniversary of its adoption, it begins to discuss how this unique document has had a deep and pervasive influence on various facets of our lives in this country. Of all these realms of day-to-day life, the impact that the Constitution has had on education cannot be understated.
Global consensus has evolved over the last many decades of discourse on human rights that States have a constitutional obligation to take positive action to enforce and implement rights such as health and education. While more seasoned constitutional democracies like the United States have some constitutional discourse on education, the relatively recent Constitution of India, 1950 included a limited set of rights to education in the context of cultural and linguistic protections.
However, the impetus for such an articulation lies in an idea to democratize education by making it accessible to students from diverse communities. In this context, the Constitutional text on education marks a sharp shift away from treating the state as the sole provider and recognises the role of private endeavors in education.
In the immediate aftermath of independence and the associated chaos of partition and border disputes, the focus of lawmakers was clearly on other aspects of governance. Education was categorized as a matter for state action, and was encapsulated as a part of cultural rights, especially for minority communities in relation to religion and language.
recognized the duty of the State to provide for education, but also envisaged private education endeavors in the language of rights. While there was a recognition of the potential for education to be a vehicle for growth and development at a macro-level, the framers of our Constitution also identified the need to offer protections to culture and language through the medium of education.
Today, however, when we speak of education in constitutional law, we observe a robust framework of constitutional jurisprudence that addresses this issue from different perspectives. With the evolution of the prevailing socio-political climate, there has been an increasing recognition being afforded to the belief that education is the proverbial silver bullet for emancipation.
The Constitution plays a crucial role in education by promoting diversity, addressing marginalisation, and conservation of culture for minority communities through education. Today’s Indian Constitutional jurisprudence has promoted the cause of educational rights for all stakeholders in the process, ranging from the State to parents, learners, and even educational institutions.
The constitutional landscape of education has changed significantly since 1950. Some key changes are – (i) imposing obligations on the state to secure elementary education for all children between 6 and 14 years under Article 21 A, (ii) inclusion of affirmative action in education for educationally backward classes of citizens under Article 15(4) and economically weaker sections under Article 15(6), (iii) the judicial incorporation of education as a part of the right to life and liberty under Article 21 by the Supreme Court and (iv) suo motu initiatives taken by High Courts to secure implementation of the Right to Education Act, 2009.
Successive litigation has addressed equality, protection of identity, and addressing core educational issues such as the autonomy of education institutions. Educational litigation has resulted in placing and justifying obligations on private educational institutions as key stakeholders in removing barriers to education. The rights of parents and students to school choice have been upheld as a part of free speech protections.
The role of merit in admission to educational institutions has been the subject of constitutional dispute. There have been significant tensions on the constitutional classification of minority and non-minority institutions. One way to read this judicial discourse is in the context of disputes over constitutional text.
However, the flip side of this view is constitutional articulations on social rights such as education allow citizens to assert their rights in a democratic manner. Despite educational litigation being fraught with contestations, one may appreciate the remarkable forethought in the original text of the Constitution of India, 1950.
At the core of it, the Constitution made us key stakeholders and ensured that we had a claim over this important social good both as individuals and communities. This democratisation of education through constitutional means is celebration-worthy.
