Education is separated into preprimary, primary, middle, secondary and higher levels. Primary school includes children of ages six to eleven, organized into classes one through five. Middle school pupils aged eleven through fourteen are organized into classes six through eight, and high school students ages fourteen through seventeen are listed in classes nine through twelve. Higher education includes technical schools, colleges, and universities.

India’s official goal for education since freedom in 1947 has been to ensure compulsory education for all up to age 14. A deficiency of money and effort put into primary education, has hampered the achievement of that goal. At freedom 25 % of males and 8 % of females were literate. In 2001 those figures had been raised to 80 % of males and 66 % of females—73 % of the overall population. The government invests comparatively more in secondary and tertiary schools, particularly colleges and universities. There was no serious political demand for primary education until the 1990s, when a grassroots movement arose to organize volunteers and conduct campaigns for universal adult literacy.