India, March 6 -- Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's legacy in the education sector is the Sarva Shiksha (now Samagra Shiksha) Abhiyan in 2001 and the landmark constitutional introduction of Article 21A, mandating free and compulsory education for children aged six to 14 years during his tenure in 2002. The Article enshrined elementary education, covering grades I to VIII in schools, as a fundamental right. Fast forward 22 years since then, four-fifths of grade III students cannot read a grade II text, and three-fourths of the grade III students cannot do a basic grade II subtraction while the enrolment ratio in primary (grades I to V) is near 100%, and lower secondary (VI to VIII) is a healthy 90%.

For years, education governa...