Charles Wood (later 1st Viscount Halifax) was a British politician who in 1854 issued the landmark Wood's Despatch called the "Magna Carta of Indian Education."
Wood's Despatch (1854) recommended:
- Establishment of universities in Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras (implemented 1857)
- A graded school system: primary, secondary, and collegiate levels
- Government schools in each district
- Teacher training through Normal Schools
- English as medium of higher education; vernacular languages at lower levels
- Opening of education to women
- Grants-in-aid to private and missionary schools
He later served as Secretary of State for India (1859–1866) after the British Crown took over from the East India Company.
