Review Of Various Education Commissions And Their Recommendations In India during “Pre-Independence”

Abstract

The origin of the present system of education which is prevalent in this country today can be traced to the beginning of the nineteenth century when a controversy had been raging over the issue whether oriental learning and science should be spread through the medium of Sanskrit, Arabic or Persian or Western sciences and literature be spread through English as the medium of instruction. The Government conducted surveys of the then prevalent systems of education with a view to re-organising education to suit the needs of the times. Consequent on Macaulay's Minute regarding the educational policy of the future, Lord William Bentick's Government issued a communiqué wherein it was stated " that the great object of the British Government ought to be the promotion of European literature and science among the natives of India; and that all the funds appropriated for the purpose of education alone". The Government Resolution, however, stated that provision should be made for the continuance of schools and colleges where indigenous learning was being imparted.