committed to national service and development. Only then will education be able to play its vital role in promoting national progress, creating a sense of common citizenship and culture, and strengthening the national integration. This is necessary if the country is to attain its rightful place in the comity of nations in conformity with its great cultural heritage and its unique potentialities.
4. The Government of India accordingly resolves to promote the development of education in the country in accordance with the following principles:
(1) Free and Compulsory Education: Strenuous efforts should be made for the early fulfilment of the Directive principle under Article 45 of the Constitution seeking to provide free and compulsory education for all children up to the age of 14. Suitable programmes should be developed to reduce the prevailing wastage and stagnation in schools and to ensure that every child who is enrolled in schools successfully completes the prescribed course.
(2) Status, Emoluments and Education of Teachers: (a) Of all the factors which determine the quality of education and its contribution to national development, the teacher is undoubtedly the most important. It is on his personal qualities and character, his educational qualifications and professional competence that the success of all educational endeavours must ultimately depend. Teachers must, therefore, be accorded an honoured place in society. Their emoluments and other service conditions should be adequate and satisfactory having regard to their qualifications and responsibilities.
(b) The academic freedom of teachers to pursue and publish independent studies and researches and to speak and write about significant national and international issues should be protected.
(c) Teacher education, particularly in-service education, should receive due emphasis.
(3) Development of languages: (a) Regional Languages. The energetic development of Indian Languages and literature is a sine qua non for educational and cultural development. Unless this is done, the creative energies of the people will not be released, standards of education will not improve, knowledge will not spread to the people and the gulf between the intelligentsia and masses will remain if not widen further. The
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