ANNUAL REPORT 1964-65

 INTRODUCTORY

During the year 1964-65, the Ministry of Education not only maintained the tempo of its normal work but also recorded a number of notable developments in its organisation and activities. In November, 1963, the two Ministries of Scientific Research and Cultural Affairs and Education were merged to form the Ministry of Education with the Department of Education and the Department of Science. These two Departments were later abolished in February, 1964 by a Presidential Order to form a composite Ministry of Education. The Social Welfare Division, which formerly formed part of the Ministry of Education, has since been transferred to a new Department of Social Security in the Ministry of Law created by the Presidential Order dated 14th June, 1964.

2. Scope and Functions.-In the field of education, the scope and functions of the Union Government are limited in view of the fact that, under the Constitution, education is the direct responsibility of the State Governments. However, there are subjects included in the Union List of the Constitution for which the Union Government have the sole executive responsibility. These are maintenance of the Central Universities and institutions of national importance declared as such by Parliament by law, Union agencies and institutions for professional, vocational or technical training or for promotion of special studies or research, and the co-ordination and determination of standards in institutions of higher education or research.

2.1. Though education is essentially a State responsibility, one of the directives of the Constitution enjoins that the `State' shall endeavour to provide for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of 14 years. According to the spirit of this directive, the Union Government share the responsibility of the State Governments in the matter of spreading elementary education. According to another directive of the Constitution the `State' is required to promote educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people which also increases the responsibility of the Union Government for the educational development of the country as a whole. Emphasis is also laid, in the Constitution, on the need for economic and social planning, as mentioned in the Concurrent List, one of the essential aspects of which is educational planning.

2.2 One of the special directives of the Constitution enjoins upon the Union Government the duty of developing, enriching and spreading the Hindi language. In the implementation of this directive, the Ministry of Education has an important role to play. As a federal agency the Ministry is also responsible for collection and dissemination of educational information for the country, as a whole and for all programmes of international collaboration in the field of education, science and culture.

2.3. These obligations of the Union Government are discharged by the Ministry of Education through the various programmes of activities, pilot

projects and research conducted on the one hand by the Ministry of Education and on the other through the agency of different bodies like the University Grants Commission, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the National Council of Educational Research and Training, the Central Hindi Directorate and some other similar organisations financed and/or administered by the Union Government. The responsibilities of the Union Government in the State sector of education are discharged through a broad-based system of grants-in-aid to the respective State Governments for developing their educational programmes. The efforts of the Union Government, since independence and particularly since the commencement of the Constitutuon, have accordingly been mainly directed towards ensuring the development of such a national policy and programme of education as can help, to the fullest possible extent, in the early realisation of the educational objectives that the nation has set for itself.

2.4. In the field of cultural activities, the efforts of the Union Government, through the years after independence, have been directed not only towards conserving, unearthing and rediscovering the ancient cultural heritage of this country, but also towards assuming some direct responsibility for promoting arts and culture. The cultural programmes implemented by the Ministry emphasise such activities which express and promote the basic unity of Indian culture, contribute towards the promotion of emotional integration among people in various parts of the country and bring the rural and urban people closer to one another. Besides maintaining and developing the few cultural institutions of national importance which were in existence before independence, the Union Government have since set up new institutions to provide guidance in the various fields of arts, letters, dance, drama, music and culture at an all-India level, and have carried on an extensive programme of strengthening voluntary organisations in different fields of culture.

2.5. The Union Government have an extensive programme of cultural relations with many countries of the world. Through an exchange of cultural delegations and exhibitions, and through participation in international programmes in the field of arts this programme aims at projecting India's cultural heritage abroad and at bringing to India the cultural heritage of other countries. The programmes are planned in collaboration with the Indian Missions abroad and the Ministry of External Affairs.

3. Organisation.-The Ministry was re-organised into five Bureaux and four Divisions. The Bureaux are those of (i) School Education; (ii) Higher Education; (iii) Scholarships; (iv) Planning and Ancillary Educational Services and (v) Languages, Literature and Fine Arts. Each Bureau is under the charge of a Joint Secretary/Joint Educational Adviser. These Bureaux are further divided into Divisions and Units. Besides these Bureaux, four Divisions viz. (i) Physical Education and Recreation, (ii) External Relations, (iii) Scientific Research and (iv) Administration function as independent Divisions under the charge of a Joint Secretary/Joint Educational Adviser. The organisation of the Ministry is given in the `Chart'.

3.1. Besides the divisions mentioned above, the Ministry of Education functions through several attached and subordinate offices; and the pace of its various programmes and activities is supplemented by the efforts made at non-official level by a few autonomous organisations, financed wholly by the Ministry of Education. A list of all such offices and organisations is given at Annexure I.

3.2 In accordance with one of the recommendations of the Estimates Committee, a very careful review of the `Standing Charge' of the grant of the Secretariat of the Ministery was conducted during the period with the assistance of Economy Committee. Accordingly, in the estimates proposed by the Ministry a cut to the tune of Rs. 2.06 lakh in the Revised Estimates for 1964-65 and Rs.3.12 lakh in the budget estimates for 1965-66 was made.

4. The Advisory Bodies.-The Ministry of Education is guided in its policy and programme in the various fields of education and culture by advisory bodies set up for the purpose of aligning expert and public opinion with its activities, wherever possible. In the field of education, the main advisory body is the Central Advisory Board of Education which was established in 1935. The Board consists of representatives of the Union and State Governments (generally the State Education Ministers or Directors), representatives of the universities and Parliament, and distinguished educationists of the country, with the Union Education Minister as the ex-officio chairman, and the Educational Adviser to the Union Government as ex-officio member. The Board thus provides at the highest level, a common platform where the representatives of the Union and the State Governments can meet and take joint decisions on educational policies and programmes.

4.1. Apart from the Central Advisory Board of Education, the Ministry has had to set up over the course of years, several other committees in the field of education and culture for dealing with specific problems in greater detail. A list of important advisory bodies which functioned during the whole or part of the year 1964-65 is given at Annexure X. The work of such advisory bodies is reported in their proper context in the relevant chapters of this report.

5. Third Five Year Plan and the Advance Action for the Fourth Plan.The drafts of the Annual Plans of the States and Union Administrations for the year 1965-66 were considered by the Working Groups in the light of the achievements made during the current and previous years of the Plan. The recommendations included proposals for advanced action for the fourth Plan which were considered necessary in the various sectors of education.

5.1. Elementary Education.-Continuous efforts have been made to expand educational facilities for children in the age-group 6-11. This has resulted in a larger enrolment in primary schools than anticipated at the beginning of the third Plan. It is now expected that against the original target of 152.95 lakh children, the additional enrolment at the end of third Plan at this stage will be 162.20 lakh. The enrolment in this age-group at the beginning of the third Plan was 349.87 lakh and this is expected to rise to 481.53 lakh in 1964-65 and is estimated to rise further to 512.07 lakh at the end of the Plan. This will bring the percentage of school-going children in this age-group at the end of the third Plan to 77.8 against the original target of 76.4. For the middle schools (age-group 11-14) the Plan envisages an additional enrolment of 35 lakh children. It is now expected that by the end of the third Plan 40.92 lakh additional children will be enrolled in this age-group. There were 67.04 lakh pupils in this age-group at the beginning of the third Plan. By 1964- 65, this number is expected to rise to 99.70 lakh and by the end of the Plan, the enrolment is likely to go up to 107.96 lakh. This will bring at the end of the third Plan the percentage of children attending schools in this age-group to 31.6 as against 22.5 at the end of the second Plan.

5.2. Secondary Education.-There has been phenomenal growth in the enrolment in secondary schools during the third Plan. The indications are that the additional enrolment of pupils in classes IX-XI which was estimated originally at about 16.48 lakh will increase to 23.2 lakh at the end of the third Plan. The enrolment in these classes which stood at 29.6 lakh pupils at the beginning of the Plan is expected to rise to about 47 lakh in 1964-65 and further to 52.4 lakh at the end of the Plan.

5.3. Higher Education : There has been a significant expansion in the field of higher education during the first four year of the current Five-Year Plan. The number of universities and the institutions deemed to be universities under the University Grants Commission Act 1956 has respectively increased from 46 and 3 at the end of the second Five-Year Plan period (1960-61) to 62 and 9 at the end of the fourth year of the third Five-Year Plan period (1964-65). During this period i.e., 1960-61 to 1964-65, the number of colleges and total student enrolment in higher education have also increased, the former from 1537 to 2297 (provisional) and the latter from 10.48 lakh to 15 lakh (provisional). The Union Government continued to maintain and develop the four Central Universities, besides coordinating and maintaining standards in higher education. Ad-hoc grants-in-aid were given to voluntary educational organisations for development purposes. Some programmes of international cooperation for the development of certain aspects of higher education were operated and the scheme of rural institutes continued to develop. Financial assistance of the Union Government was mainly directed towards the twin objectives of enabling universities and other institutions of higher education to meet the challenge of unprecedented expansion on the one hand and the urgent needs to improve the quality of the education on the other.

5.4. Technical Education.-In all industrially advanced countries technical education has received much attention because of its immediate utility in securing economic prosperity for the people. Since India attained independence in 1947, the Union Government continued their programme of financial and other assistance to technical institutions for various schemes under the Five-Year Plans. In order to meet defence requirements and the demand for engineers and technicians for the Five-Year Plans the revised target for admission to degree courses have been set at 25,000 and for diploma courses at 50,000.

5.4. 1 On the recommendation of the Board of Post-Graduate Engineering Studies and Research, 38 centres (other than the Institutes of Technology) have been selected for development for the Master's degree courses and post-graduate diploma courses in a wide range of subjects.

6. Education Commission.-With a view to advising the Government on the national pattern of education and on the principles and policies for the development of education at all its stages and in all aspects, except legal, medical and adult education, an Education Commission under the Chairmanship of Dr. D. S. Kothari, Chairman, University Grants Commission, was set up in October, 1964, to survey the entire field of educational development and to have a comprehensive review of the country's educational system. The Commission consists of sixteen members (11 Indian and 5 Foreign). In addition eleven foreign experts of repute and standing in the educational as well as scientific field have also agreed to act as Consultants to the Education Commission. The Unesco, the British Council and the

U.S.A.I.D. have assisted in securing the services of these foreign experts. The list of members/consultants of the Education Commission is at Annexure VI.

6.1. The Commission has been asked to submit its final report not later than 31st March, 1966. Where immediate implementation of certain programmes is necessary, the Commission may also submit, from time to time, interim reports dealing with limited sectors or problems of education. The Commission has formed itself into 12 task forces each dealing with a different aspect of education; experienced educationists all over the country are associated with the working of the respective task forces.

6.2. The budget provision for the current year for this Commission is Rs. 4 lakh.

7. All-India Educational Service.-It is proposed to constitute an All-India Educational Service. All the State Governments except the Government of Maharashtra have agreed to the formation of the Service. A Resolution in this connection is likely to be moved in the Rajya Sabha in the next session of the Parliament by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The service will consist of two Branches viz. the General Educational Branch and the Technical Educational Branch. It will include all posts with mainly administrative duties in both the Branches.

8. Fourth Five-Year Plan.-A preliminary Report of the fourth Five Year Plan in the field of education was prepared by the Working Group set LIP for this purpose. In the light of the recommendations of the National Development Council, the schemes proposed to be included in the fourth Five-Year Plan of Education are being reviewed and revised.

9. Budget.-As against the total sanctioned grant of Rs. 102.73 crores (including the provisions made by the Ministry of Education in the Demands operated by the Ministries of Home Affairs and Finance) for 1964-65, the revised estimates have been fixed at Rs. 98.40 crores. It is proposed to include a provision of Rs. 116.67 crores in budget estimates for 1965-66.