Regarding Wood's Dispatch, which of the following statements are true? 1) Grants-in-Aid system was introduced. 2) Establishment of universities was recommended. 3) English as a medium of instruction at all levels of education was recommended. Select the correct answer using the code given below:

Statements 1 and 2 are true, and statement 3 is false, so the answer is A) 1 and 2 only.

• Statement 1 (correct): Wood's Despatch of 1854, often called the Magna Carta of English education in India, introduced the grants-in-aid system. It encouraged private and missionary schools by paying them on the basis of results and standards.
• Statement 2 (correct): The Despatch recommended universities at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras on the model of London University. They were set up in 1857.
• Statement 3 (wrong): The Despatch did not make English the medium at all levels. It favoured vernacular languages as the medium of instruction at the primary and secondary stages, and reserved English mainly for higher education.

The core concept is the shift from Orientalist to Anglicist education policy, and the Despatch's balance between English and vernacular languages. For Mains, this connects to the continuing debate on mother tongue instruction, which NEP 2020 revived by recommending home language or mother tongue as the medium at least up to Grade 5.

Trap: Aspirants often assume that the Despatch made English the sole medium, because of its famous emphasis on English literature. Read the vernacular provision carefully before marking statement 3 as true.