ABSTRACT
The chapter engages directly with policy text(s) while tracing policy shift(s) from NPE 1968 to 1986 and then subsequently to the now-debated Subramanian Committee Report (NEP 2016) in the direction of non-state stake-holding, with particular emphasis on the privatisation of schooling. The central argument is that both the stance of the state and the neoliberal assault on education are in conflict with the constitution’s vision of elementary education. The policy trends of lack of thrust on elementary education as a public good, increasing privatisation of school education and indifference to increasing hierarchies of schooling is exacerbating the class divisions underlying Indian education, with worrying outcomes.
