The Magna Carta of English Education in India is “Wood’s Dispatch”. It promotes the fashion of Western Education in India.
Wood’s Dispatch is an act which is implemented by British rulers before the Independence of India in the year 1854. The Wood’s Dispatch act was presented by ‘Sir Charles Wood’ to the East India Company of British. During that time, Charles Wood was the Secretary of State for India. He proposed and promoted Western Education in India. Due to this, the Charter Education Department was established in every department.
This act recommended the construction of separate departments for administration for education in each State. The institutes were also established for training teachers of all classes in schools, maintain the existing government schools and colleges, the establishment of new middle schools was also introduced, initiation of grant in aid to schools, increase educational attention to vernacular schools.
By following Wood’s Dispatch Act, the Education Departments were established in many States. Initially, in 1857 the Universities were open at Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras by following the model of the University of London. After that, two more Universities were added, in Punjab in 1882 and in 1887 at Allahabad, famously known as, the University of Punjab and University of Allahabad respectively.
Charles Wood has been the ‘Chancellor of the Exchequer’ from 1846 to 1852. After that, he became the President of the ‘Board of Control of the East India Company’, and in 1854, he sent the Wood’s Dispatch to Lord Dalhousie the Governor General. The word ‘Magna Carta’ is a Latin Word which stands for ‘Greater Charter’ meaning the ‘Great Paper’. The act has various provisions which worked effectively at a lower level of education, as well as, with various demerits as well.