 BASIC, SOCIAL AND AUDIO-VISUAL
 EDUCATION

Five-Year Plan of Educational Development

The Ministry of Education have initiated a number of projects for improving the quality and standard of education at Primary, Basic and Adult level, of teacher-training courses and textbooks, for securing a better library service for the country, for the production of suitable literature for children and adults and for the promotion of Audio- Visual education.

Intensive Educational Development

Under the Scheme of Intensive Educational Development that. was designed to work out sound techniques of Basic and Social education from the Primary to the Post-graduate (Training) level, within compact selected areas, a budget provision of Rs. 39,00, 000 has been made during 1955-56 for sanction to various State Governments for the establishment or development of various institutions according to an approved and integrated pattern. (Demand No. 19)

Expansion of Basic Education

The Government of India sanctioned a scheme for the expansion of Basic education under which States are being given financial assistance for programmes of expanding Basic education for the following items:-

(a) Establishment of new Basic Training colleges;

(b) Conversion of existing Training into Basic institutions;

(d) Conversion of existing schools into Basic;

(e) Training of Craft teachers;

(f) Introduction of crafts into schools; and

(g) Preparation of teaching materials in Basic schools.

The Central assistance is given at the rate of 30% of the total additional expenditure incurred by a State for the implementation of the scheme. Items relating to conversion of existing schools into Basic schools are given preference-75% of the total available re- sources being utilised for this purpose and the remaining 25% for opening new Basic schools. (Demand No. 19)

National Institute of Basic Education

With a view to helping the development and expansion of Basic education on sound lines, the Ministry has decided to set up a National Institute of Basic Education. The Institute is expected, to begin functioning towards the end of the current financial year. It will conduct research in all problems relating to Basic education including training of workers at the higher level such as Inspectors, Administrators and Supervisors. It will work in cooperation with Basic teacher-training institutions in the country and act as, a clearing house of information on various issues that may be referred to it by governments and institutions. (Demand No. 19).

Standing Committee of Central Advisory Board of Education on Basic Education

A special Basic Education Committee was set up in 1955 as a Standing Committee of the Central Advisory Board of Education to advise the Government of India and State Governments on matters pertaining to Basic education. The Committee has held three meetings and made valuable recommendations that have been taken up for implementation by the Government of India and State Governments. (Demand No. 16)

Assessment Committee

To assess the progress of Basic education and advise on its further development, an Assessment Committee was appointed to go round various States and make an on-the-spot study of Basic institutions in different parts of the country and to hold discussions with educationists and workers in the field. The Committee has completed its tour and submitted an interim Report. (Demand No. 16).

Scheme 6-Assistance to Voluntary Educational Organisations,

In the first Five-Year Plan, the Government of India included a scheme for financial assistance to voluntary educational organisations working in certain significant fields in the country.

Such financial assistance is given to organisations to improve and/or expand their activities in the following fields: -

(i) Basic education.

(ii) Social education.

(iii) Nursery education.

(iv) Vocational and Educational Guidance.

(v) Juvenile Delinquency.

In special cases, other projects in the field of education approved by the Government were also considered.

The financial assistance was given on a sharing basis, the Central Government bearing up to 66% of the non-recurring and' 50% of the recurring expenditure. The remaining expenditure was borne by the State Government and/or the organisation concerned.

During 1955-56, a sum of Rs. 16,10,094 was sanctioned up to, November, 1955 for projects in Basic and Social education, out of which a sum of Rs. 11,23,074 was paid in instalments. In respect of other projects, a sum of Rs. 10 lakhs has been proposed in the budget estimates for 1956-57. (Demand No. 19)

Programme to Relieve Educated Unemployment

The Government of India framed a scheme of educational expansion as an emergency measure to deal with the problem of' educated unemployment. It was proposed under the scheme to employ up to the end of the first Five-Year Plan 88,000 educated persons to work as teachers and Social education workers-80,000 in rural areas as Primary school teachers and 8,000 in urban areas as Social education workers. A sum of Rs. 1,18,00,193 has been sanctioned to various State Governments during the current year up to December, 1955. The target of employing 80,000 teachers has been practically achieved. Of Social education workers 921 were appointed up to 1954-55 and 1078 have been allotted during 1955-56 to the State Governments who asked for them. Central assistance under this scheme will continue up to 1957-58. (Demand No. 19)

Scheme to Appoint District Social Education Organisers

The Ministry of Education have for some time past been of the opinion that there are certain drawbacks in the present framework of Social education and that there is no integration of the, work now being done in the Community Project and National Extension Services areas with the programmes of Education Departments. To remedy these defects, the Government of India have included in the first Five-Year Plan of Educational Development, a scheme for the appointment of District Social Education Organisers and a beginning has been made with the provision of 70 District Social Education Organisers. In order to assist the State Governments in implementing the scheme, the Government of India have decided to meet 50% of the salaries, allowances, etc. of the District Social Education Organisers. Since the entire

country will be covered with Community Project/National Extension Service Blocks by the end of 1961, about 320 District Social Education Organisers will have to be appointed by the end of the second Five- Year Plan.

So far the Ministry have sanctioned 46 District Social Education Organisers and Five Directors of Social Education for various States at an expenditure of Rs. 64,2220. (Demand No. 19)

Children's Literature

Recommendations from all State Governments were invited for the award of prizes of Rs. 500 each to authors of the best books for children in all Indian languages. Sixteen State Governments sent in their recommendations-84 books in eleven languages and these are under examination by the Ministry. The awards are expected to be announced by the end of the year 1955-56.

Besides sharing with State Governments the cost of production of suitable books for children, the Ministry is producing through private agencies model books for children two of which are under production. (Demand No. 19)

Literary Workshops

During the current year, the Government of India are organising four literary workshops each for children and for neo-literate adults on a monolingual basis. Four workshops are being organised in Assam, Andhra, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi to train authors in the technique of writing for children. Four other workshops for neo-literate adults are being organised in West Bengal, Bombay, Madras and Travancore- Cochin. (Demand No. 19)

Social Education Literature

The Ministry have continued their programme of encouraging the production of suitable books for neo-literate adults by the award of prizes to authors of the best books in all Indian languages and by the purchase of 1,000 copies of each book. In the second competition for these books, over 900 books were entered in Assamese, Bengali, Gujrati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu etc. Out of these, 42 books were selected for awards of Rs. 500 each. A further selection of the best five among these books has been made for five additional awards of Rs. 500 each.

Under another scheme, the Ministry shares expenditure on the production of literature by State Governments. A sum of Rs. 46,160 has been sanctioned during this year by the Ministry

to six State Governments for the production of books for neo-literate adults and for children.

Research into the spoken vocabulary also helps the production of suitable literature for adults. Two Vocabulary Research Units were set up in Travancore-Cochin and Andhra and a sum of Rs. 4,458 was sanctioned for this purpose.

By arrangement with the Ford Foundation and Unesco, the Ministry acquired the services of Dr. Rudolf Flesch, an American exponent of the technique of writing 'for the masses and Mr. P. Martin Smith, National Secretary of Adult Education in New Zealand. The visits of these two experts were arranged to Social education Organiser Training Centres, Block Development Officers" Training Centres, Centres for training Social education Workers, Universities, Schools of Social Work, Community Projects and Organisations. working for the promotion of Social education in, the country. In addition, Mr. Smith visited a few Physical education and Labour Welfare centres. The institutions visited by these experts utilised their services both flow consultative purposes as well as for lectures and discussions. (Demand No. 19)

Library Development

Since Libraries are essential for the education of the people, the Ministry are encouraging the establishment of State as well as District libraries. The District libraries maintain a circulating service to the libraries within their areas, besides serving as public libraries for District Headquarters. So far grants have been sanc- tioned for the establishment of nine State libraries and 126 District Libraries. Libraries also form an integral scheme in the selected areas of intensive educational development.

The Ministry assisted Unesco in the Organisation of an Inter- national Seminar on the Development of Libraries in Asia. The Seminar was held at Delhi from 6th-26th October, 1955. As a. result of the recommendations of this Seminar, the Government of India contemplate the appointment of a committee to advise on library development. (Demand No. 19)

Delhi Public Library

The, Delhi Public Library has considerably expanded its acti- vities during the last year. In 1955, the Library and its mobile van issued 4,27,068 books.

The agreement under which the Library received financial assistance from Unesco ceased to be operative on 31st March, 1955. From 1955-56 onwards, it has been decided that the Library will be run as a Central Government project for a period of three years.

A grant of Rs. 1,00,000 has already been sanctioned by the Government of India for the Library during the current year. (Demand No. 19)

Establishment of Janata Colleges

Under another scheme, the Mysore State Adult Education Council is to establish one Janata College in every District of Mysore State during the years 1955-56 and 1957-58. Financial assistance for these projects has been received from the Ford Foundation, which has agreed to pay $ 2,30,000 for the scheme over a period of three years and paid during the current year $ 77,000. A sum of Rs. 2,63,600 has been advanced to the Mysore State Adult Education Council for the implementation of the Scheme. (Demand No. 19)

National Fundamental Education Centre

The Ministry of Education has decided to set up a National Fundamental Education Centre for:-

(a) Training of personnel in the field of Social education;

(b) Research into the problems of Social education; and

It has been decided to appoint District Social Education Organisers. Since it is very important, that the District Social Education Organisers should be fully trained to meet their respon- sibilities, the National Fundamental Education Centre will give a high priority to this work.

Besides training and research functions, the National Fundamental Education Centre will also produce various kinds of teaching aids and organise conferences, seminars, etc. The project has been approved for inclusion in the Second Five-Year Plan. (Demand No. 19)

National Book Trust

The Government of India have decided to set up a National Book Trust in order to encourage the production of good literature and to make such books Available at moderate prices to libraries, educational institutions and the public generally.

In furtherance of the above objects, the Trust shall publish or assist in the publication of cheap editions of:-

(a) the classical literature of India,

(b) translations of famous books from foreign languages;

(d) standard works of Indian authors;

(e) standard books in the educational, scientific, artistic and other fields of knowledge;

(f) works of living authors; and

(g) reproductions of Indian paintings, sculptures and other art treasures.

The Trust will publish books in Hindi and other languages recog- nised in the Constitution of India. It may also publish books in foreign languages.

The details of the Scheme for the establishment of the Trust are being worked out and the Scheme is expected to be finalised in the near future. (Demand No. 19)

Audio-Visual Education

A sum of Rs. 65,000 was provided for the current year to cover the purchase of films, filmstrips, equipment etc.

During the year under review, 210 new films and 170 filmstrips, besides equipment, were added to the library. The Preview Committee held 51 meetings and previewed 250 films. The library enrolled 200 educational institutions as members against 35 last year, bringing the total to 743. 7,868 films were issued to member institutions during the calendar year.

The National Board for Audio-Visual Education reconstituted to provide greater representation to Central Ministries, State Gov- ernments, importers and producers of audio-visual aid in the country, held its second meeting on May 17 and 18, 1955, at Delhi and was attended by 19 members. The Board inter-alia made recomMendations for the development of Audio-Visual education, particularly in regard to the drawing up of suitable schemes for the second Five-Year Plan. The proceedings of the meeting are under print.

Of the 12 films under production by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on behalf of this Ministry, two have been released, while the remaining, at various stages of production, are expected to be completed shortly. Twelve new subjects for films have been approved for the 1955-56 production. The synopses for seven have been prepared and passed on to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

Four educational films entitled Education for Life, Adult Literacy, Secondary Education and Education Through Crafts have been taken up for production through the Technical Cooperation Mission to India. Of these, Education for Life has been completed and its prints distributed to State Governments and Social Education Centres.

Of 15 subjects suggested to the Technical Cooperation Mission for the production of filmstrips, the text and art work of three filmstrips have been approved. Material for six additional filmstrips prepared by Technical Cooperation Mission was also approved-

The Technical Cooperation Mission to India have made a gift of 500 educational films to the Central Film Library. These films were selected by the Ministry.

A sum of Rs. 3,000 was paid as grant-in-aid to Miss Marie Seton, a lecturer of the British Film Institute, London, who came. to India at the invitation of the Ministry. She delivered lectures to educational institutions and film societies on film appreciation in. a number of cities. She also conducted a one-week film seminar at both Bombay and New Delhi. (Demand No. 19)

Development Schemes of Audio-Visual Education

A sum of Rs. 1,30,000 was provided during the year 1955-56 for, the development schemes of Audio-Visual education in India.

BASIC, SOCIAL AND AUDIO-VISUAL EDUCATION