Education is the process of acquiring knowledge, skills and values. It is a lifelong process of learning and is influenced by many factors including social, emotional and physical development. Education has many forms and can be informal or formal, with some education taking place outside school. A person’s education may take place at home, in the workplace or in a community setting and may be directed by an individual or organized school system. According to Aristotle, “Education is the process of training man to fulfil his aim by exercising all the faculties to the fullest extent as a member of society”. According to Socrates, “Education means the bringing out of the ideas of universal validity which are latent in the mind of every man”.  The main purpose of education is to develop rationale thinking, enhance of knowledge and self-sufficiency. Legal education has an important role in directing and moderating the social change forming an inexorable part of the society. Such education must be imparted with proper teaching methods so that the real essence of the subject is known. In this article, we shall discuss status of legal education in India.

Teachers are the one who shapes the character, calibre, and future of an individual. Thus, teachers of legal education should have the skills of interpretation, communication, research, problem solving, drafting and analysis for the purpose of incorporating them in the minds of the future legal professionals. Legal education means taking knowledge as well as skills in the subjects of law to be prefect in the profession of legal systems. A lawyer can become an outcome of such education.

Purposes of Education:

There are various perspectives and viewpoints on the purposes of education, some of them are as follows:

• Knowledge and Intellectual Development: Education can help individuals acquire knowledge, skills, and abilities that enable them to master the subject they choose to pursue. Knowledge and intellectual development should start with learning the fundamentals and then progressing to relevant or worthwhile topics. The main focus to help students learn to think critically, solve problems, and understand complex concepts.
• Personal Development: Personality development involves becoming conscious of oneself. It includes all your characteristics, including your strengths and weaknesses. Self-confidence is the most vital aspect of personality development. Education can help individuals develop their communication skills, emotional intelligence, social skills, a sense of responsibility, and fostering creativity, curiosity, and a passion for learning. School interactions, extracurricular activities, inter-class, and interschool competitions develop a student’s personality. With the help of knowledge, students can engage in productive conversations with their peers.
• Social Development:  Education can prepare individuals to participate in society by teaching them how to interact with others, respect diversity, and engage in civic life. This includes developing communication, managing emotions, teamwork, leadership, and cultural awareness skills. Students who have practised cooperation, compromise, and communication usually achieve greater success than those who have not. These skills can be developed by doing team activities, projects, role plays, discussions, and playing sports.
• Economic Development: The true purpose of education in this context should be that students pursue an education to get employment or to enhance the quality of earnings of their current employment. This includes the development of practical skills and competencies and the preparation of students for particular careers or further education. 
• Civic Engagement and Awareness of Global Issues: The world is shrinking, and local and global awareness empowers students to acquire the knowledge, skills, and values, and become well-informed and active citizens who can change the world around them.

The conclusion that can be derived from the above is that one of the purposes of education is to teach students how to think and apply the acquired knowledge in a creative and productive way. This is how they will prepare themselves for all the challenges that await them, because knowledge is the key to success.

Purposes of Legal Education:

According to the Indian Law Commission, “Legal education is a science that imparts to students knowledge of specific principles and legal provisions to enable them to enter the legal profession.” Producing lawyers with a social conscience is the primary goal of legal education. But in the modern era, legal education ought to be seen as a tool for social design as well as a means of producing lawyers.

The progress of high quality legal education is a prerequisite to high quality legal practitioners. Legal education involves the education of laws generally to lawyers before entry into law profession. Law of a society is the standard of its social values The need to assess and revise the curricula and methodologies of law courses with an objective to upgrade them for meeting the new challenges and the needs of the society is felt worldwide. The main purposes of legal education are as follows:

• To inculcate the ability to make use of law, to analyze it and to criticize it as a member of the legal community.
• To guarantee the individual freedom and the development of society, solidarity and strengthening of rule of law.
• To produce high quality legal practitioners.
• To serve the society by imparting to law students general and cultural education making them good law abiding citizens.
• To bring out among students the aptitude, interest, commitment, skills and knowledge necessary to perform variety of roles in society including works for socially excluded people and the poor at the local level, to espouse the cause of justice.
• To prepare legal professionals as also good citizens including legislators, judges, policy makers, public officials, civil society activists having altruistic feelings and sense of social service.
• To help rapidly growing nation to update its legal education mechanism to suit to the requirements of the competitive world.

In Manubhai Vashi v. State of Maharashtra AIR 1989 Bom 296 case, the Supreme Court held that the Legal Education System should be able to meet the ever-growing needs of the society and should be thoroughly equipped to furnish to complication of various situations.

History of Legal Education in India:

The history of Legal education in India is as older as her education system. India has a recorded legal history starting from the Vedic ages and some sort of civil law system may have been in place during the Bronze Age and the Indus Valley civilization.

In the verdict period, the legal education can be seen as the concept of Dharma and Nyaya. The Justice was administered by the king or their appointees. The Guiding force for the king was the upholding of Dharma. There were the time when law was a part of ethics, religion, morals and values, philosophy and consciousness. The Ethics and philosophy was having an important role for explaining social problems and giving directions resole these problems and which is not adequately appreciated today. The Legal practitioners indigenously known as pleader or Niyogies who were representing parties in litigation from the time of ‘Manu Smriti’.

During the Mughal period, the idea of legal representatives emerged.  The concept of ‘Vakil’ was introduced by the Mughal period when someone was appointed as representative to present one in the court.

In the British India, from time to time many statutes were enacted for legal education and profession like, Regulation Act of 1773, Legal Practitioners Act, 1873 in which it stated that, only those can practice who had taken degree of Law. The first concrete step for direction of organizing legal profession was taken through Regulation Act, 1773 which empower to enroll as advocate. Advocates were as barristers of England and Ireland but the Vakils were Indian Practitioners. The pattern of legal education which is in vogue in India was transplanted by the English, after the establishment of their rules in India. The Formal Legal education in India came into existence in 1855 when first professorship of law was established at Government Eliphiston College in Bombay & Madras and Hindu College at Calcutta. At that time primary aim of legal education was equip law student so that they could help the lower courts and High Court in the administration of justice by enrolling themselves as Vakils or becoming judicial officers. In the year, 1857 legal education was introduced as a subject for teaching in three universities in the presidency town of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay. The language of the British statutes being English, so any Indian who learnt English could study law and was considered qualified to practice the profession.

Present Legal Education in India:

Traditionally universities in India offered Legal education as a three years graduate degree. The eligibility requirement for the Bachelor of Law was that the applicant already has a Bachelor’s degree in any subject from a recognized institution. The legal education was imparted only at law departments in the university system and through affiliated law colleges. Now some institutions also offer an integrated five years BA-BL course after twelve years of schooling.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Bar Council of India (BCI) are the two main regulatory bodies responsible for maintaining the quality of legal education in India. The course content for these courses is decided by the universities with guidelines from the bar council of India, under the Advocates Act. The legal education is imparted at different levels, namely, law Universities, government law colleges, private law colleges (government aided) and private law colleges (non-aided). Imparting practical skills to law students is a compulsory component of legal education in all the institutions imparting the legal education. The University Grants Commission approved one-year LL.M. courses in India on 6 September 2012 and the 2 guideline for the same was notified in January, 2013. “We have an immense problem with the faculty, especially with more than 900 plus law schools all over the country, we suffer for want of faculty. The curriculum needs to be regulated and we will have to gradually upscale and upgrade,”

The Bar Council of India, Rules provide for compulsory and optional subjects to be taught in the LL.B course Rule (9) (1) lists 6 subjects for Part- 1(compulsory): Rule 9 (2) lists 21 subjects for Part 11 (compulsory). Rule 9(3) lists 15 subjects (optional) out of 3 which three have to be selected. A fresh UGC Model Curriculum was prepared by the Curriculum development committee constituted by UGC in 2000 which was circulated to various universities for revision of their law courses.

A National Law Universities (NLS) establishment has a great role in reforming the legal education in India. The various Law schools offer a multi-disciplinary and combined approach to legal education. NLS has offered five years law course within the successful completion of an integrated course named as B.A., LL.B (Honours) be granted. Then the next NLU was set up in the year 1997 in Bhopal. It was followed by NALSAR University in the year 1998.

CLAT is the reforming of Law entrance exam in the Legal Education. The Common Law Admission Test was came into an existence for bring together the law entrance system in India like other courses.

Today, India have the largest number of Legal Professionals in the whole world. A law student with all his/her desired skills, inherent interest has a vast range of opportunities available in the legal professional. Now in India, legal Education is completely different from what it was in last decade.

Challenges Faced by Indian Legal Education:

The quality of legal education in India has been a matter of concern for a long time, with issues such as inadequate infrastructure, lack of qualified faculty, and poor quality of teaching cited as major problems. In recent times, the legal education system has been facing challenges such as a lack of practical training and exposure, inadequate research, and a lack of focus on the needs of the legal profession. The UGC and the BCI have made efforts to improve the quality of legal education, such as setting standards for accreditation and curriculum and providing funding for legal education institutions. However, these efforts have not been able to address all the issues related to the quality of legal education in India. Some major shortcomings or challenges faced by our legal education system are as follows:

• Easy Entry in Legal Education: It has been observed that when a student fails to get admission in a medical, engineering, Commerce etc. they choose for law as the last resort. In this Law College which is the part of the mushroom growth plays an important role to degrading the standard of legal education by filling their vacant seats by taking huge donations which creates the casual atmosphere and approach which decrees the enthusiasm of students as well as the teachers which causes degradation of environment of legal education in India.
• Mushroom Growth of Law Colleges: Legal education has nowadays emerged as a promising business activity for the law institutions which are mostly run by politicians, builders and industrialists. The mushroom growth of law colleges resulted in ill-equipped law college with dull rooms, lacking in adequate faculty and some of them in short duration of evening classes. The main problem is that the team of Bar Council and the university which is responsible for the inspection of colleges seeking permission to start law courses.
• Lack of Infrastructure: Bar Council of India in its Rules( Legal Education Rules,2008) has made the provision of infrastructure under Rule 1129 Schedule III where provisions for adequate library with online database, reading room even size of class room is mentioned. This problem has also been suggested by the CJI T S Thakur to Bar Council to Shut those law college which lack in appropriate infrastructure
• The Irrelevant Syllabus: The legal curriculum in India has been criticized for being outdated and not reflective of the changing legal and social landscape. Even after being asked by the UGC Committee and Bar Council of India for upgrading of syllabus of law courses here remain a lack of uniformity in law curriculum of different Universities. Further the inclusion of too many subjects in the syllabus has diluted the concept of teaching skills and research orientation.
• Shortage of Good Teachers: Many law schools in India have been criticized for having poor quality of teaching, with inadequate resources and infrastructure, and a lack of well-trained and motivated faculty.  Generally, law colleges fail to attract talented law professional for joining as teachers in their institution. The requirement of requiting the NET qualified applicants as lecturers has invariably limited the choice of appointing good teachers. Also selection committees, in different universities are restricted to make free judgments of the quality of teacher.
• Old Teaching Facilities and Techniques: The law schools are still accustomed to the age old method of teaching through lectures in a class room. No heed is paid to these suggestions and recommendations made by the committees assigned the role of upgrading education.
• The faulty Examination System: The true value of any curriculum can only be realised if the knowledge is put to the test in a controlled environment. Law school examinations must be rigorous to eliminate misconduct. The nature of the questions must be analytical, requiring students to develop the law in the form of application rather than the duplication of law and cases found in textbooks. This phase would ensure that students use their critical thinking skills to respond to the questions.  But, the laws schools adopt the traditional examination pattern. The malady of covering a part of the prescribed syllabus and fallacy of memorizing the selected questions rules the roost. The grade card of students is reflection of their ability to mug up few topics instead of their analytical and practical attributes.
• Lack of Practical Training: The majority of the college curriculum is built on theory, which students find uninteresting. As it has been observed by the Apex Court in V. Sudeer v. Bar Council of India, AIR 1999 SC 1167 case that practical training should be mandatory to all universities in imparting legal education prior to getting his degree of law and Bar Council of India has function to promote the standard of legal education in consultation with universities.
• Poor Attendance: The Attendance is another factor which plays an important role in degradation of legal education India. As per rule 4 of Bar Council of India (Part IV), “The student shall be requested to put minimum attendance of 66% of lecture on each of the subject as also at the moot courts practical training course. The provision of compulsory attendance is been observed that it remains on paper only and hardly it is enforced. Due to of these kind of practices a large number of students are joining Law (LL.B) course without a serious objective.
• Use of Regional Language: Language is set to as important factor for good litigant or legal practitioner, college located at rural areas some time adopt regional language as medium of instruction and examination too. Several private institutions govern education in regional languages. As a result, several candidates in particular states get admitted to universities despite their inability to communicate effectively in English. 
• Lack of Research: Faculty members should encourage students to conduct research and write persuasive memos on projects allocated to them, and they should place an embargo on plagiarised projects. Plagiarism has an impact on academic writing quality. Due to the teacher’s lackadaisical approach toward reviewing the projects, the majority of the projects submitted by students are plagiarised. Professors frequently award top grades to all students, regardless of whether or not the student finished the project assigned to him. This has given the students who study hard and deliver their projects on time a negative perception.
• Problem of Placement: Students usually complete their placement with a lawyer, NGO or a corporate house. The law students are expected to learn the skill of reading and maintaining case files, legal research, drafting and client interviewing and counselling. Students are required to maintain a diary of their visits to lawyer’s chamber and courts recording the work they did there and the proceeding observed. Their diaries and their preparation for the mock trail and mood court do reflect their learning from placement. Practical training in law schools imparted though choosing one of these methods or their combination, namely, legal and clinic, class based lectures and simulation, and external placement.
• Globalization: Globalization makes it increasingly difficult for legal study to be contained within the territorial boundaries of national legal systems. The operation of formal State law can be understood by taking into account the proliferation of supranational sources of law such as those emanating from the European Union or WTO. Sovereignty at the international level is being undermined by greater acceptance of interference in the internal affairs of states egg through the doctrine of humanitarian intervention. While traditional jurisprudence focused exclusively on municipal and public international law; globalization requires notice of other forms of legal ordering, such as the sue generis legal order of the ED.

Solution to Challenges Faced by Legal Education in India:

• Develop Physical infrastructure and financial resources: The law schools in India have to recognize the need for creating sound physical infrastructure and for developing research projects and should take initiatives to encourage faculty members.
• Promotion of Philanthropic Initiatives in Field of Legal Education: Initiatives to encourage philanthropy are required for promoting excellence in legal education and research in the country. Efforts ought to be made by all stakeholders, including the law schools, the bar, the bench, the law firms and corporations for promoting philanthropic initiatives in legal education and research.
• Qualified Teachers and Research Aptitude: Good teachers and researchers in the law schools is also a great required in legal education to motivate the students and impart better education of law, including clinical legal education.
• Slowing Privatization of Legal Education: The privatization of legal education has resulted in mushrooming of law colleges resulting in the degrading of Indian image of legal education at internationally.
• Collaboration with Foreign Law Universities: Collaboration with international law schools to gain access to their law reports, case laws, research papers, and other materials can help to improve this proficiency. Law schools such as NLSIU Bangalore, NALSAR Hyderabad, and NLU Delhi, among others, have collaborated on teaching, research, and offering world-class legal education, and the results have been positive.
• Producing Qualified Lawyers for the Globe: Our aim should be to produce lawyers who will be most sought after professionals to appear in foreign countries. When multinationals establish firms in India, they too will require the services of lawyers whose competence is comparable to the best anywhere. The law schools in the country should also have special topics dealing with the Corporate, Taxation and Bankruptcy laws of different countries. The curriculum should be designed to equip the students for handling problems that involved more than one legal system.
• Change in Curriculum: Professional ethics should be made a compulsory course. The case methods and problem methods should be made compulsory and must carry more marks than theory. Parting in mood courts, mock trials and debates must be made compulsory and marks awarded.
• Practical Approach of Course: Practical training in drafting pleadings, contracts can be developed in the last year of the study. Students’ visits to the courts are made compulsory so as to provide greater exposures. The legal education committee should lay down norms for the conduct of theses examination.

Conclusion:

For making legal education more effective and legal profession more competitive and value oriented, the global or transnational curriculum should be developed keeping in view the challenges of globalization; high technology crimes and changing concept of sovereignty. The teaching methodology should be upgraded and the combination of lecture method, case study method and Socrates method along with tutorials and other modern techniques of imparting legal educations such as power-point presentations, audio-visual demonstrations, video conferencing etc. There is need for original and path breaking legal research to create new legal knowledge. Lawyers must be trained to specialize in international trade practices, comparative law, conflict of laws, international human rights law, environmental law, gender justice, space law, bio-medical law, bio-ethics, international advocacy etc., The law schools must improve their library facilities to include use of computers and internet so that the students and faculty are able to draw regularly from the internet sources. The law students need to enhance their ability to argue, explain and convince points of law. Good command over spoken and written language, effective oral skills, diction and extensive reading are pre-requisites that go without saying. The task of a teacher is not only to fill in the students with contents of his narration but to bring out the hidden talent in the students. The legal education must be socially relevant and justice oriented. Teaching in the modern world is a well-developed profession marked by ranks of teachers which characterize the hierarchy in the teaching community. Progress, for a teacher, would naturally mean moving up this ladder of hierarchy.