ACTIVITIES IN COMMON AND CLEARING HOUSE FUNCTIONS
In this chapter, is included an account of various activities. undertaken by the Ministry, not covered by the earlier ones, These activities include policy formulation, development planning, budgeting, encouragement to the progressive use of Hindi, reservation of posts in the services for scheduled castes/tribes and other backward classes, and student welfare measures. Some of them pertain to the Departments of Education and Culture in common.
Also included in this chapter is an account of the clearing house functions followed during the year. One of the important functions of the Union Ministry of Education is to act as a clearing house of information on all matters relating to educational development. The Ministry, accordingly, collects, compiles and publishes educational statistics, bring out journals and other published material on education and culture, in Hindi and English. A Students' Information Service in the Ministry attends, to enquiries about facilities for higher education in this country and abroad.
A: ACTIVITIES IN COMMON Meetings of the Committees of the Central Advisory Board of Education and Conference of State Education Secretaries and Directors of Education.-The Standing Committee and the following other committees of the Central Advisory Board of Education met at New Delhi on 16th and 17th July, 1976 :
(i) Universalisation of Elementary Education :
(ii) Implementation of the 10+2+3 pattern ;
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(iii) Non-formal Education ; and
(iv) Youth Services.
The meetings were preceded by a Conference of the Secretaries and Directors of Education of States which was convened to discuss the agenda of the meetings of the committees of the CABE and place their recommendations before the committees. The Union Education Minister also held an informal meeting with the State Education Ministers on the evening of 16th July, 1976. A gist of the resolutions adopted is given in the following paragraphs.
Mid-term Appraisal of Fifth Plan.-The resolutions on midterm appraisal of 5th Plan highlighted how the programmes in the various educational sectors had suffered on account of inadequate financial allocations. Nothing that the draft Fifth Plan document represented the first intensive effort made to implement the recommendations of the Education Commission (1964-66). the Committee went on to point out that the likely final outlay for Education in the Fifth Plan may not be very different from that in the Fourth Plan, and that, for this reason, the educational situation at the end of the Fifth Plan may well be a slide back over the situation recorded at its commencement. On a note of warning about the implications of this for the nation as a whole, the Committee urged enhancement of resources for education during the remaining two years of the Fifth Plan.
New System of Educational Statistics.-In this resolution the Committee emphasised the need for improving the situation in the collection of educational statistics.
Non-formal Education.-In this resolution, the Committee corrected certain conceptual misunderstandings prevailing in regard to non- formal education, and proposed four priorities, namely :-
(i) Non-formal education support for Economic Programme ;
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(ii) Non-formal education for family planning efforts
(iii) Programmes for children, youth and women to meet their minimum learning needs; those for youth paying special attention to employment preparation ; and
(iv) Programmes for agriculturists, landless labourers, and industrial and rural workers, so that the country's balanced economic progress is accelerated.
The resolution called upon each State to prepare a plan of non- formal education, and to identify appropriate programmes at the district level so that the programme could be developed on a nation- wide basis in, the Sixth Plan.
New Pattern of School and College Education.-The Committee noted that 12 States, and seven Union Territories had so far implemented the 10 + 2 + 3 pattern of education, 7 States and two Union Territories proposed to adopt it in the next two years, and that the remaining three States had the matter under consideration. In view of the slow progress in implementation, the Committee recommended introduction of Central assistance in the remaining years of the Fifth Plan for implementing the new pattern to ensure that all the States effectively adopted it by the end of the Fifth Plan. The Committee further urged the States to take energetic and positive steps to vocationalise the higher secondary stage, and recommended that Central assistance proposed in the draft Fifth Plan be made available to the States.
Youth Programme.-The resolution on Youth Programmes laid special emphasis on the commitment of youth 'in national contingencies', and highlighted the important role assigned to the Nehru Yuvak Kendras in respect of the various youth programmes designed by the Centre and the States. The resolution recommended the continuance of the National Integration Samitis/Camps and Planning Forums which should be organised in a manner that they serve the objectives behind their establishment. The resolution also called for a high priority to be given
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to physical education and sports, and recommended greater emphasis on popularisation and promotion of indigenous and inexpensive games and sports.
Elementary Education.-In this resolution the committee pointed out that the additional enrolment in elementary education during the first three years of the Fifth Plan were so low that they had not even kept up with the growth of the population. The bulk of the children now out of school consisted of girls, children of the scheduled castes and tribes, and children of weaker sections like the landless labourers. The efforts made in many states to provide non-formal education to children in the 6-14 age-group were still on a small scale and could not make any appreciable dent on this major problem. Besides, most of the funds made available for elementary education were utilised for programmes of expansion only, with the result that very little was being done for improving quality. The resolution accordingly urged that intensive steps be taken on both fronts during the remainder of the Fifth Plan so that the targets originally proposed could still be reached. The committee recommended that a Centrally-sponsored scheme for the promotion of elementary education 'be introduced without any delay.
Higher Education.-In this resolution, the Committee noted that in the Fifth Plan Period there had been considerable restraint on the expansion of enrolment in the field of higher education and recommended that the allocations indicated in the Draft Fifth Plan for the UGC and the counterpart funds in the State Plans, should not be reduced, so that the programmes of quality improvement and of restructuring of courses which had been already initiated were successfully implemented.
Fifth Five-Year Plan and Annual Plans.-The Fifth Five-Year Plan was finally approved by the National Development Council in September, 1976. As against a total provision of Rs. 1726 crore for education in the Draft Plan, the outlay finally approved for education is Rs. 1285 crore which is 3.3 per cent
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of the total Plan outlay for the country. The sector-wise distribution of the outlay is :
(Rs. in crores)
Outlay Percen-
tage of
Total
1. Elementary education 410 31.9
2. Secondary education 250 19.5
3. University Education 292 22.7
4. Special education 18 1.4
5. Other programmes 122 9.5
6. Technical education 156 12.1
7. Art and culture 37 2.9
1285 100
Out of the total outlay, the provision for the Central sector is Rs. 405 crore and that for the State sector is Rs. 880.
For 1976-77, the total Plan outlay for the educational programmes was Rs. 252.81 crore of which the sum of Rs. 78.70 crore was for Central and Centrally sponsored schemes and an amount of Rs. 174. 11 crore was provided for the State and Union Territory schemes. While the anticipated expenditure in the Central Sector was Rs. 86.19 crore for 1976-77, it was Rs. 183 crore in the case of State Plans. The major programmes included by the State Governments in the Plans for 1976-77 were the expansion of elementary education, the 10+2+3 pattern of education, vocationalisation, work experience, quality improvement programmes for secondary and higher education, programmes of youth services and non-formal education for the age-group 15-25.
Planning Commission approved an outlay of Rs. 315 crore for 1977- 78. Annual Plan of which Rs. 218.5 crore will be in the States sector and Rs. 96.5 crore In the Central Sector. At the time of the review of the central budget provision for Education including Culture in the central budget has been reduced to Rs. 91.6 crore. The Commission had approved an
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outlay of Rs. 696.52 crore for education for 1977-79. The provision for 1977-78 forms 43.1 per cent of the approved outlay of Rs. 697 crore for the last two years of the Plan. In view of the limitation of the resources, expansion programmes at the elementary stage have been restricted to the barest minimum. Provision has been made for continuing schemes and for a few new programmes considered to be of a very high priority. Efforts have been made to provide funds in the State Plans for meeting their matching share in respect of the development programmes of UGC for universities and colleges in the States.
Budget Estimates : Department of Education.-The total budget provisions for 1976-77 and 1977-78 for the Department of Education in the Demands for Grants concerning the Department are as under :
(Rs. in lakh)
Particulars Budget Revised Budget
1976-77 1976-77 1977-78
Demand No. 26 (Renumbered 28)
Department of Education-
Secretariat of the Department, includ-
ing the Pay and Accounts Offices,
hospitality and entertainment and
discretionary grant of the Education
Minister 143.41 147.62 157.59
Demand No. 27 (Renumbered 29)
Education-
Provision for general education, other
revenue expenditure of the Depart-
ment, including provisions for grants-
in-aid to States/Union Territories on
Central and Centrally sponsored Plan
schemes and also provision for loans
for construction of hostels, etc. and
other educational loans for Central
and Centrally sponsored scheme 16,812.48 16,706.13 18,779.11
TOTAL 16,955.89 16,853.75 18,936.70
To meet the excess expenditure in the Revised Estimates 1976-77 is against the Budget Estimates 1976-77 in Demand No. 26-Secretariat, a supplementary grant of Rs. 8.90 lakh
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has been sought. Under the General Demand No. 27 also, a token supplementary grant of Rs. 1,000 each for the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, has been asked for.
Budget Estimates : Department of Culture.-The budget provisions for 1976-77 and 1977-78 for the Department of Culture are as under :
(Rs. in lakh)
Particulars Budget Revised Budget
1976-77 1976-77 1977-78
Department of Culture 752.61 729.70 895.98
Demand No. 101 (Renumbered 102)
Archaeology 605.09 586.99 679.99
Demand No. 102 (Renumbered 103)
TOTAL 1357.70 1316.69 1575.97
Audit Observations and Inspection Reports.-In accordance with the recommendations made by the Public Accounts Committee in its 215th Report on the Action Taken by Government on the Recommendations of the PAC contained in their 169th Report (5th Lok Sabha), the Ministry continued its concerted efforts to clear the outstanding audit observations and inspection paras. It also issued instructions to all subordinate formations in the matter of speedy clearance of outstanding audit observations and inspection paras and asked for quarterly progress reports indicating their disposal. As against 5,677 audit observations made up to March, 1974 but outstanding on 31st August, 1974, and 5,278 inspection paras which were included in the Comptroller and Auditor General's Report for the year 1973-74, the Ministry cleared 2788 audit observations and 3771 inspection paras till, 31st March, 1975. Efforts are being continued to clear the remaining outstanding observations and paras.
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Departmentalisation of Accounts.-In accordance with the policy of the Government, schemes for departmentalisation of accounts in the Departments of Education and Culture were introduced from 1st October, 1976. The major objective of departmentalisation of accounts is to improve the financial competence of the Ministries and to make accounts an effective toot of management, using the timely and accurate flow of financial, and accounting information, for programming, budgeting and, evaluation of various activities and for the optimum utilisation and efficient monitoring of resources, as well as effective exchequer control.
Similarly, in accordance with the accepted policy of the Government in this regard, the scheme of Integrated Finance was also implemented from 25th October, 1976 when the Integrated Financial Adviser joined the Ministry. This step is expected to improve the cohesion between the administrative and financial wings of the Ministry leading thereby to an increased tempo in the developmental activities of the Ministry.
Observance of Orders regarding Reservation in Services for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.-A special cell functions in the Ministry to ensure that reservation orders relating to the appointment of members of the Scheduled Castes/Tribes in the Departments of Education and Culture are strictly observed. During the year under report, rosters were inspected by this cell to verify whether in accordance with the reservation orders vacancies were properly located and filled. Inspection reports were also drawn up in the prescribed form and copies sent to the Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. According to the procedure adopted in the Ministry, proposals for dereservation of posts require the specific approval of the Education Minister.
Progressive use of Hindi.-The Ministry including the Departments of Education and Culture regularly circulates to its officers and the various sections within its control, in addition to its attached and subordinate offices, the administrative instructions issued by the Government regarding the full implementation of
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the official language policy and the statutory requirements relating to it. The Ministry keeps a regular watch on the progress of all the programmes in this regard.
Quarterly Progress Report.-Progress in 1976-77 was watched and reviewed, inter alia, through quarterly progress reports obtained from the various divisions and the attached and subordinate offices. The reports were scrutinised, consolidated, and sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Correspondence in Hindi.-Under the administrative instructions, letters received in Hindi from individuals as well as from State Governments have been replied to in Hindi.
Noting and Drafting in Hindi.-According to the bilingual policy, every Central Government employee is free to use Hindi or English for his official work. However, all the officers and staff in the Ministry and its attached and subordinate offices are requested from time to time to encourage their Hindi-knowing staff to use Hindi for their notes and simple drafts. About 80 per cent of the staff of the Department of Education has working knowledge of Hindi which is partially used in noting and drafting in 39 sections.
Translation of Statutory Manuals, Forms and other Procedural Literature.-So far, 187 forms and manuals of the Department of Education have been translated into Hindi.
Translation of Acts and Statutes.-The work relating to translation of Acts and Statutes has been completed.
Maintenance of Separate Registers for Letters Received in Hindi.- All sections in the Departments of Education and Culture maintain separate diary registers for letters received in Hindi and specific entries are made about the replies sent in Hindi. Where replies are not sent in Hindi or are not considered necessary, suitable explanation is given by the section concerned.
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Official Language Implementation Committee.-Official Language Implementation Committees have been set up in the Ministry and in six of its subordinate offices. These committees hold quarterly meetings and review the progress of use of Hindi for official purposes at these meetings. The minutes of the meetings are sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Official Languages, for information. It has not been considered necessary set up such committees in other subordinate offices, whose total staff strength happens to be small.
Issue of Bilingual Circulars in Hindi.-Special care, is taken to see that letters received from Hindi-speaking States are invariably replied to in Hindi. Circulars meant for general information are issued bilingually.
Training of Employees in Hindi.-On a review made recently about the officers and members of the staff who either had Hindi as a subject in their higher secondary examination or had passed Pragya examination conducted by the Ministry of Home Affairs, it was found that approximately 80 per cent officers and staff belong to these two categories and have a working knowledge of Hindi. Besides, 34 persons were deputed for the various Hindi teaching classes. Special care is taken to see that the persons so nominated attend the classes regularly. Special attention is also being paid for the training of employees in Hindi typewriting and Hindi stenography.