In this paper I analyse how critical Indian policy texts engage with and argue for child-centred approaches to education. Summarising the context in which these texts were written, and drawing on philosophical debates surrounding child-centred education, I examine what the current emphasis on these ideas implies for classroom practice and the role of teachers. I explain why long-standing debates on the philosophical underpinnings of child-centred education should be brought to bear on the manner in which policy texts employ these ideas, even though child-centred ideas do represent a significant departure from traditional practice. These discussions help make explicit the limitations of the manner in which child-centred ideas are adopted in the texts, troubling their unproblematic acceptance of the child-centred vision. The absence of such discussion risks foreclosing substantial discourses on the role of teachers, and in particular, teachers' autonomy and the relationship between knowledge and action in the context of teaching.