The Wood’s Dispatch of 1854 and its main objectives and recommendations
After the renewal of the Company Charter in 1853, the British Parliament examined the progress of education in India. In 1854, the Court of Directors of the East India Company in London sent an educational despatch to the Governor-General in India to examine and suggest reforms as a Charter of Education, also known as Wood’s Dispatch of 1854.
Objectives of Wood’s Despatch:
Imparting Knowledge: Providing knowledge of Western education and information about Western culture to Indians.
Educating Natives: Create a class of public servants by educating native Indians.
Improving Moral Character: Promote intellectual growth while simultaneously strengthening their moral integrity.
Recommendations of Wood’s Dispatch
Medium of Instructions: Wood’s Despatch recommended English as the Medium of Instruction in higher studies and vernaculars in the school level.
Grants-in-Aid System: The Educational institutions founded by private bodies were to be encouraged by government grants.
Establishment of Public Instruction: A Department of Public instruction under the charge of the Director in each of 5 provinces to review and submit an annual report.
Establishment of Universities: A University should be set-up on the lines of London University in each Presidency town of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras.
Vocational and Teachers Training: It emphasised the importance of vocational instruction and the need for technical schools and colleges. Institutions for the training of teachers were to be set up. Female education was to be encouraged.
Female Education: The Dispatch recommended for the promotion of women’s education.
Wood’s Dispatch elevated modern education in India through its comprehensive important educational reforms. It explicitly stated that education for Indians must never be disregarded and placed the entire burden of obligation on the company. The Dispatch offered Indian education a new direction and thus it is considered the “Magna Carta of Education” in India.