New Delhi: The Union Education Ministry under the Narendra Modi government has, over the last decade, been at the centre of several political standoffs and faced repeated criticisms for policy decisions – involving not only the ministry itself but also various organisations under it. Recently, it came under the spotlight following the backlash against the University Grants Commission (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026, and the Class 8 social science textbook published by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), which included references to “corruption in judiciary”.While the Supreme Court intervened in both instances – to stay the UGC Equity Rules, 2026, and impose a complete ban on the NCERT’s Class 8 social science textbook – the ministry has seen many other sudden reversals since 2014. For instance, it has featured in several cabinet reshuffles, and four different ministers have led it – Smriti Irani (2014-2016), Prakash Javadekar (2016-2019), Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (2019-2021) and Dharmendra Pradhan (2021-present).While Irani was transferred after a contentious two-year tenure during which campuses erupted in protest, the ministry has since repeatedly been forced to roll back decisions and faced criticism – over paper leaks, the saffronisation of education through school textbooks and growing privatisation at the cost of publicly funded education. Now, it is minister Pradhan who draws flak for its functioning and policy decisions.The Wire examines eight developments over the last decade that have cast a shadow over the ministry’s functioning and the Modi government’s handling of education.Smriti Irani’s contentious tenure and transferSmriti Irani was the first to head the ministry under the Modi government in 2014. Then known as the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry, her tenure began with the scrapping of the contentious Four Year University Programme (FYUP) introduced in Delhi University by Kapil Sibal, HRD minister in the Congrses-led United Progressive Alliance government. The programme had faced strong opposition from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s student wing. The four-year programme has since been reintroduced under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.In 2016, Irani faced criticism following Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula’s death by suicide. Amid campus protests, Irani questioned Vemula’s caste certificate and presented disputed claims in parliament. She also supported the arrests of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya on charges of sedition.File photo: A student demands the resignation of then education minister Smriti Irani following the death of Rohith Vemula, on January 27, 2016.While Irani delivered a dramatic speech in Parliament defending her ministry as nationwide debate raged over criminalising dissent on campuses following Vemula’s death, the government eventually moved her to the relatively low-profile textiles ministry in an attempt to minimise political damage.UGC Equity Rules 2026 stayed after backlashWhile the education ministry has seen four ministers in the last eleven years, it has been Pradhan’s tenure after Irani that has remained the most contentious. In the last 18 months alone, the ministry under Pradhan has been forced to undertake a series of rollbacks.On January 29, the Supreme Court stayed the University Grants Commission (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026, which had triggered anger among upper-caste groups – considered a key support base of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).The court’s stay order, which described the rules as capable of misuse, came amid widespread protests, resignations within the party, and petitions challenging the Modi government’s equity rules, notified by the UGC under a court-monitored process to address caste-based discrimination on campuses. Pradhan’s assurances that the rules would not be misused did little to assuage concerns.NCERT book banJust weeks after the UGC rules row, on February 26, the Supreme Court imposed a ban on the Class 8 social science textbook published by NCERT, which included references to “corruption in judiciary”, and issued show-cause notices to the secretary of school education in the Union Ministry of Education and the NCERT director.The ban came after the court took suo motu cognisance following concerns raised by senior lawyers in open court. NCERT issued a statement acknowledging that the content was “inappropriate” and attributing it to an “error of judgment”.Pradhan has vowed action, while media reports cited sources saying Prime Minister Modi has sought accountability.Draft UGC rules 2025Last year, on January 6, Pradhan released the draft UGC (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment & Promotion of Teachers and Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education) Regulations, 2025, which faced criticism from opposition-ruled states as an attempt to reduce their powers.The draft introduced a new selection process for vice-chancellors, allowing chancellors – i.e., state governors appointed by the Union government – a greater role in appointments.Seven states passed a 15-point joint resolution opposing the draft rules as well as the grading of higher education institutions under the National Education Policy 2020, arguing that the proposals violated India’s federal structure.Following the backlash, the Union government informed Parliament that it had extended the deadline for feedback till February 28, 2025. The final notification of the rules remains pending.Also in 2025, the Union government’s decision to restructure the Senate and Syndicate of Panjab University led to student protests, forcing the government to roll back its decision within a week after issuing four notifications between October 30 and November 7.NEET, paper leaks and the role of the NTAIn June 2024, the UGC-NET examination was cancelled, with Pradhan admitting that a paper leak had occurred.The role of the National Testing Agency (NTA), established in 2018 and mandated to conduct major examinations – including Joint Entrance Examination (JEE-Main) for admission to undergraduate engineering programmes in the National Institutes of Technolgy and other institutions, and the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) (NEET-UG) for medical admissions — has since come under increased scrutiny.A report by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports in December 2025 noted that in 2024 alone, at least five of the 14 competitive examinations conducted by the NTA faced major issues.“It has been brought to the notice of the Committee that in the year 2024 alone, of the 14 competitive examinations conducted by the NTA, at least five faced major issues and, as a result, three examinations – viz. UGC-NET, CSIR-NET and NEET-PG – had to be postponed. One examination, viz. NEET-UG, saw instances of paper leaks, and another examination, i.e., CUET (UG/PG), saw its results postponed. In JEE Main 2025 held in January 2025, at least 12 questions had to be withdrawn due to errors noted in the final answer key,” the report said.The committee recommended that the NTA “needs to quickly get its act together”.School textbooks as tools to saffronise educationThe education ministry has also faced criticism over allegations that NCERT textbooks have been used to saffronise education.Prakash Javadekar, who became HRD minister after Irani’s transfer in 2016, presided over syllabus rationalisation measures that were officially aimed at reducing students’ academic burden. In 2017, Javadekar stated that NCERT would work towards giving students a better understanding of Bharat and its “glorious past”.Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan at an event to mark 150 years of national song “Vande Mataram” at Ramjas College, University of Delhi. Photo: PIB via PTI.This was followed by a series of contentious deletions and additions, although NCERT functions as an autonomous organisation advising the ministry on school education. Since then, NCERT textbooks have dropped Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and introduced several revisions highlighting figures considered close to the BJP, while critics have alleged the removal of political and historical material.In 2023, the Class 12 history textbook dropped chapters on the Mughal empire, the 2002 Gujarat riots and popular movements. In 2024, the Class 12 political science textbook accorded prominence to the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, while references to the demolition of the Babri Masjid were deleted from three sections. In 2025, a new controversy emerged after an NCERT Class 8 textbook described the reigns of several Mughal emperors as brutal and intolerant, accompanied by disputed explanatory notes.School closures, reduced public spending and push for privatisationAt the same time, there has been a growing push towards privatisation in school education over the last decade. In a written reply to Lok Sabha last year, the government stated that the number of government schools declined from 11,07,101 in 2014-15 to 10,17,660 in 2023-24, while the number of private schools increased by 42,944 – from 2,88,164 to 3,31,108 during the same period. Critics argue that this trend undermines the Right to Education (RTE) Act, which guarantees elementary education as a fundamental right for children aged six to fourteen.A similar trend has been observed in higher education. The number of private universities increased to 407 in 2019-20 from 276 in 2015-16, according to the All India Survey of Higher Education (AISHE) 2019-20.According to the latest AISHE survey (2021-22), of the 1,168 universities registered, 685 are government-managed (240 central and 445 state), 10 are private deemed (aided), and 473 are private unaided institutions. Overall, around 59% of university-level institutions registered under AISHE belong to the government sector.Also read: Misreading the Data: An IIM Udaipur Study and the Myth of Caste DominanceIn February last year, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports flagged the government’s “retreat from public education and the increasing influence of neoliberal policies”, noting that many universities – particularly central institutions – rely heavily on contractual staff.While the BJP’s 2014 manifesto promised expenditure of 6% of the gross domestic product (GDP) on education, Scroll.in reported that between 2014 and 2024, the Union government allocated an average of only 0.44% of GDP annually to education.Hindi imposition under NEPOpposition-ruled states have remained locked in a tussle with the Union government over the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) and the proposed three-language formula.While the Union government has informed Parliament that “no language will be imposed on any state”, states such as Tamil Nadu and Kerala have opposed the policy, accusing the BJP government of advancing a long-term agenda to impose Hindi.Members of Parliament from Tamil Nadu have also alleged that funds allocated to the state under the PM SHRI (PM Schools for Rising India) scheme were diverted to other states due to the DMK government’s opposition to the NEP.