India Needs a National Education Service

In our last piece, we discussed the need for a separate education budget. But the conversation can’t stop at allocation. A bigger budget, even a dedicated one, won’t move the needle if it isn’t tied to a professional team mandated to execute it. Policy without people to implement it is just paperwork. We need increased spending on education and a system built to deliver on that investment - a National Education Service that can turn vision into reality.

If we have a dedicated cadre for economists, why not for the educators who shape the future of every other profession?

India’s education system has grown; Literacy has risen from 12 percent in 1947 to nearly 77 percent today. Enrolment is high. School infrastructure is expanding. The Right to Education is enshrined in law. And yet, something foundational remains missing: a structured, professional system to support our teachers. Over the decades, India has produced policy after policy emphasizing teacher quality as central to educational transformation - from the Kothari Commission in 1966 to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. However, implementation remains fragmented, training is underfunded, and career pathways are vague. What’s missing is not insight but budget and institutional architecture.

If India is serious about reforming education, it must create a National Education Service (NES) - a dedicated cadre of educators, school leaders, academic specialists and public education managers with the same seriousness, structure and national vision as the Indian Economic Service (IES).

The IES was established in 1961 when India recognized that economic governance needed more than generalist administrators. Financial planning requires technical expertise. The result was a professional service of economists embedded across ministries and planning bodies.

This was not bureaucratic indulgence. It was strategic planning. If the economy warranted such investment in talent, why not education, the system that builds the people who make the economy?

What would the NES Do? An Indian Education Service would be designed to elevate the entire teaching and learning ecosystem. NES officers would be selected through national examinations and interviews, like the IAS or IES. Their training would go beyond theory to include pedagogy, leadership, contextual understanding and public systems management.

These officers would be deployed at district, state and national levels as teachers, academic leaders, curriculum developers, training mentors, policy advisors, assessment designers, and research leads.

Every officer would be assigned to districts or thematic portfolios with clearly defined goals, whether improving foundational literacy, enhancing teacher training or leading curriculum reform. Their work would be reviewed not through paperwork alone but via measurable learning outcomes, capacity-building indicators and peer evaluations.

NES officers would also play key roles in institutions like SCERTs, DIETs, NCERT, and NCTE, creating a system where field experience meets policy design. The NES would break the long-standing divide between bureaucrats and educators by creating a hybrid class of reflective practitioners and public servants.

One of the most significant gaps in the current system is that teacher qualification is often a one-time event. A B.Ed. degree at 23, followed by decades of classroom work with little structured support or skill renewal. That’s not how serious professions operate.

Doctors are licensed. Chartered accountants update their certifications. Commercial pilots log a minimum number of hours and assessments. Teaching, too, must adopt a model of lifelong learning.

An NES framework could mandate periodic license renewal every five years, backed by at least 100 hours of certified professional development. Rather a penalty, this is a quality assurance mechanism and an investment in our students.

Countries like Finland, Australia, and Singapore show that investing in a broader education ecosystem of research, policy and innovation yields better outcomes, from teacher retention to public trust. The NES aims to do the same for India.

India needs education professionals with real classroom experience to drive systemic reform. Yet, spending lags behind ambition. Against a 6 percent GDP target, allocations remain at 3.5–4 percent with teacher training often the first to be cut. The shortfall is unjust.

It’s time to build the system that builds the nation. We need to move beyond symbolic praise for teachers and give them a structure that supports growth, accountability and dignity. We need to create career pathways that attract the best minds to teach and lead education from the front. Build the cadre. Build the system. Build the future.

(The author is a learning and development professional. Views personal)