6. WOOD’S DESPATCH, 1854

In 1854, Charles Wood prepared a despatch on an educational system for India, considered as the Magna Carta of English Education in India which was the first comprehensive plan for the spread of education in India. The recommendations of Wood’s Despatch are as follow

• It asked the Government of India to assume responsibility for the education of the masses, thus, repudiating the ‘Downward Filtration Theory.’
• It systematized the hierarchy from Vernacular Primary Schools in villages at the bottom, followed by Anglo-Vernacular High Schools and an affiliated college at the district level and affiliating universities in the presidency town of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras.
• It recommended English as a medium of instruction for higher studies and Vernaculars at the school level.
• It laid stress on women and vocational education and on teachers’ training.
• It laid down that education imparted in government institutions should be secular.
• It recommended grants in aid to encourage private enterprises

The ideals and methods of Wood’s Despatch dominated the field for five decades, which saw rapid Westernisation of the education system in India, with educational institutions run by European headmasters and principals

In 1857, the universities of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras were set up. Further departments in education were started in all provinces. An agricultural Institute at Pusa and Engineering college at Roorkee was started