India

Historical Evolution: Education always evolves out of historical and cultural contexts. India's current educational system is a product of centuries-old dualities that characterize the genius and decadence of an ancient but wounded civilization. Speaking to the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education, India's Minister of Resource Development and Science and Technology, Murli Manohar Joshi, asserted the centrality of education to the Indian heritage. "Pursuit of integral knowledge and liberation, which has been a constant endeavor of Indian culture, is also the central objective of education," Joshi told the conference (1998). Joshi further addressed the connection between education and the preservation of culture:

Education is also visualized as an evolutionary force so that each individual is enabled to evolve from purely material consciousness towards superior planes of intellectual and spiritual consciousness. Education is also perceived as a bridge between the past, present, and the future and as a means by which the best of the heritage is transmitted to the new generations for its further progression. (Joshi 1998)

India has the world's oldest and largest education system. Its antiquity and diversity are reflected in the roots of cultural norms and institutions that go back to a distant and venerable past. It is believed that the world's first university was established in Takshila in 700 B.C. It was a center for higher learning that attracted about 10,500 students who studied nearly 60 subjects.

The ruins of Nalanda University, southeast of Patna, reflect India's prestigious status for the 10,000 pupils and 2,000 teachers who came there from all over the world between the fourth and twelfth centuries. Hieun-Tsang, the famed Chinese traveler-scholar, studied and taught at Nalanda. His writings offer a vivid and authentic account of India's political and social realities that prevailed around the fifth century. Nalanda saw the rise and fall of empires that built several shrines and monasteries. King Harshwardhan endowed a college of fine arts. Both Nagarujuna and Dinnaga—a Mahayana philosopher and the founder of the school of logic, respectively—taught here.

If Takshila and Nalanda are any testimony, educational standards and knowledge development had reached an epitome of excellence that subsequently vanquished in the wake of social and political changes. Caste, religion, gender, and class have always determined the content, context, and delivery of educational goals and programs. As attitudes toward these things change, so does education.

Population: India is home to roughly one-fifth of the global population and is the world's largest democracy. The latest provisional results of Census 2001 indicate that India has become the second most populous country in the world after China. In the decade between 1991 and 2001, India produced more people, but also a more even ratio of men to women and a higher literacy rate.

According to the Express News Service, the population of India in early 2001 was 1,027,015,247, reflecting a growth since 1991 of 181 million people. While the country's share of global population increased by 16.7 percent, its growth rate actually declined by 2.52 percent. The sex ratio was 944 females to 1,000 males, a significant increase from 1991. The largest states are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Bihar.

The News Service also reports that illiteracy began in 2001 to decline for the first time in over 50 years. Overall, 75.9 percent of males and 54.2 percent of females are literate, reflecting a decrease in the gap between male and female literacy. Literacy varies greatly by region: Kerala reports a literacy rate of 90.9 percent, while Bihar maintains a literacy rate of only 47.5 percent.

India as the world's largest educational system is both a model and case-in-point for planners and academics addressing the issues and problems of a developing nation. The system serves nearly 1 billion people with limited resources and unlimited demands.