There has been great progress in the last decade in primary education in India. As, India is also a signatory to the Millennium Declaration, adopted by 191 United Nations members's states in September 2000, and the plan of Action of a World Fit for Children has been central to the focus of India, which envisage achieving universal access to free and compulsory education by 2015. India has taken several initiative programmes, policies and practices to reach educational goals in the nation especially over the last decade and a half. The central focus of the paper is to identify successful and unsuccessful country efforts to move towards achievement of the universal goals of primary education in India started under the flag of international campaign of “Education for All”. The primary education is the foundation of learning for life, it ensures whether the child will become a good citizen or not.
The gender, caste and demographic disparities in primary education have markedly reduced at national, state and at grass root levels. But challenges like universal enrolment, universal retention, dropout rate and quality education are still big hurdles in achievement of universal goals of primary education in India, which demands strong political will, and administrative dedication of the educational authorities. An attempt has been made to in this paper to discuss the policy initiatives by Government of India to achieve Education for All” initiative under MDGs (Goal 2), to throw light on the success achieved, challenges faced and remedies for the achievement of 100% enrolment and retention rate in primary education to achieve the goals of universal primary education in India.
Millennium Development Goals, Education for All, Primary Education, Educational Growth
