Major National Education Policies and Sponsored Schemes

India’s education sector is shaped by constitutional provisions, national policy frameworks and centrally sponsored schemes that work together from early childhood to higher education. For Prelims revision, the focus is on the key policy shifts, implementing schemes, funding patterns and measurable targets that recur in current affairs and static questions.

Evolution of National Education Policies

• Constitutional basis: The 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1976 shifted education from the State List to the Concurrent List, allowing both the Centre and states to legislate on it.
• Right to education: Article 21A, inserted by the 86th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2002, provides free and compulsory education for children aged 6–14 years as a Fundamental Right.
• Legal backing: The Right to Education Act, 2009 gives effect to Article 21A.
• NEP 1968: Based on the Kothari Commission, it proposed the 10+2+3 structure and aimed to raise public spending on education to 6% of national income.
• NEP 1986: It emphasised equal educational opportunity and led to the 1992 Programme of Action.
• Operation Blackboard: This initiative under the NEP 1986 framework focused on strengthening school infrastructure and basic facilities.
• NEP 2020: It introduced the 5+3+3+4 structure for ages 3–18 and set a target of 100% Gross Enrolment Ratio in school education by 2030.

Samagra Shiksha and PM SHRI

• Samagra Shiksha: A centrally sponsored integrated scheme covering pre-school to Class 12.
• Integration: It combines Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan and Teacher Education.
• Coverage: The scheme supports school access, equity, quality improvement and teacher-related interventions under one umbrella framework.
• Extension: The Ministry of Finance temporarily extended the scheme till September 30, 2026.
• Next cycle: The period 2026–27 to 2030–31 is under appraisal by the 16th Finance Commission.
• PM SHRI: The Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India scheme is a centrally sponsored scheme for 2022–23 to 2026–27.
• Outlay: It has an outlay of ₹27,360 crore for developing 13,092 schools as model institutions aligned with NEP 2020.
• Funding pattern: The scheme is shared 60:40 with most states, 90:10 with northeastern and Himalayan states, and 100% for Union Territories without a legislature, Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas.

PM POSHAN and Foundational Learning

• PM POSHAN: Formerly the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, it provides hot cooked meals to Bal Vatika and Classes 1 to 8.
• Extension: The scheme is temporarily extended under existing cost norms till September 30, 2026.
• Monitoring: Real-time reporting has covered 143,324 schools across participating states and Union Territories.
• Daily meals: The scheme is serving over 5.52 million meals daily.
• Possible expansion: An advisory committee proposed introducing a light breakfast under the scheme.
• School coverage proposal: The proposal also suggested extending the scheme to Class 10 immediately and to Class 12 within five years.
• NIPUN Bharat: The mission aims to ensure foundational literacy and numeracy for all children by Grade 3 by 2026–27.
• Scope proposal: A 2026 proposal seeks to extend NIPUN Bharat’s scope up to Class 5.

ULLAS and Adult Literacy

• ULLAS: The Nav Bharat Saaksharta Karyakram is a centrally sponsored scheme for 2022–2027.
• Target group: It aims at functional literacy for 5 crore non-literate individuals aged 15 and above.
• Certification norm: A state or Union Territory is declared fully literate when its adult literacy rate crosses 95%.
• Ladakh: It became the first Union Territory to be declared fully literate in 2024.
• Mizoram: It became the first state to be declared fully literate in 2025.
• Jammu & Kashmir: It was declared fully literate on September 4, 2026, with an adult literacy rate of 98.43%.

One Nation One Subscription

• ONOS: The One Nation One Subscription is a Central Sector Scheme.
• Phase-I: It is operational for calendar years 2025, 2026 and 2027.
• Outlay: The scheme has an outlay of ₹6,000 crore.
• Access: It provides unified digital access to more than 13,000 scholarly journals from over 30 international publishers.
• Beneficiaries: The access is available to 1.8 crore students, faculty and researchers.
• Institutions: More than 6,300 eligible government institutions are covered under the scheme.

Key Prelims Takeaways

• Concurrent List: Education was moved to the Concurrent List by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1976.
• Fundamental Right: Article 21A guarantees free and compulsory education for children aged 6–14 years.
• NEP 1968: It recommended the 10+2+3 structure and higher public spending on education.
• NEP 2020: It replaced the older school structure with 5+3+3+4 and aims for universal school enrolment by 2030.
• Samagra Shiksha: It integrates elementary, secondary and teacher education support into one scheme.
• PM SHRI funding: The scheme follows 60:40, 90:10 and 100% funding patterns depending on the category of institution or state.
• ULLAS benchmark: Full literacy certification under ULLAS requires adult literacy above 95%.