Hereditary Education Policy - Legacy

Legacy

The Modified Scheme of Elementary Education even after being dropped had the unintended consequence of bringing primary education to hundreds of thousands of school children in Tamil Nadu. Rajaji's successor Kamaraj was ever mindful of the fact that it was the issue of primary education that caused his predecessor's downfall. Knowing the public opposition to Rajaji's scheme he took the diametrically opposite approach in providing education to Tamil Nadu's children - imparting free and compulsory education till the age of 14. He set up a commission under R.M. Alagappa Chettiar to examine the means for providing compulsory primary education. Instead of sending children away from the school, the committee recommended active Government intervention to bring more children into the schooling system by building new schools and abolishing school fees. This approach was successful and by the end of Kamaraj's tenure as Chief Minister in 1963, enrollment in primary schools had been doubled.