Despite its reiterations on equality, fundamental rights and quality education for all, the emphasis of the National Curriculum Framework on Indian tradition and the collapsing of value education and religious education puts on hold the possibility of education emerging as an enabling tool for women's empowerment. The article revisits, briefly, the vision and policy framework of the New Education Policy of 1986 with regard to women's education, analysing the effect of progressive policy rhetoric on the actual writing of school textbooks, particularly those relating to language teaching.
