EDUCATION IN UNION TERRITORIES
The Government of India bear a special responsibility for education in the Union Territories. The territories of Goa, Daman and Diu and Pondicherry have their own legislatures and exercise powers specified in the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963. Delhi has a Metropolitan Council and an Executive Council which function according to the provisions of the Delhi Administration Act, 1966. The other territories namely Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and L.M. & A Islands have no legislatures.
Tripura and Manipur were also Union Territories but with effect from 21st January, 1972 these territories have become full Hedged States. Two new Union Territories have also been created with effect from this date. They are Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram.
An account of the educational activities in the Union Territories during the year is given in the following paragraphs,
There are 161 educational institutions in this territory, comprising 1 Government Degree College, 1 Teachers Training School, 9 Higher Secondary Schools, 20 Senior Basic Schools, 127 Junior Basic Schools, and 3 Pre-Primary Schools with a total enrolment of 20,077 (11,646 Boys and 8,431 girls). The total number of Teachers is 886 (598 males and 288 females),
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trained teachers being 656 (443 males and 213 females). Education up to Higher Secondary stage is free. Out of 17,966 scholars at the school and college level 10,519 are males and 7447 females. The media of instruction at the primary stage are Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Nicobarese, English and Karen. Books prescribed by the Directorate of Education, Delhi, in Hindi and Urdu media are used at the primary stage while books prescribed by the Central Board of Secondary Education are used in Higher Secondary Schools. Mid, day meals up to class VIII are provided to all the Children at the rate of 0.20 paise per working day to students. Free books are provided to students who parents have an income less than Rs. 2,000/- per annum. Hostel facility exists in Middle and Higher Secondary Schools for children coming from rural areas. Hostellers are given stipends at the rate of Rs. 30/- per month to meet expenses of meals etc. Free travel concession by bus or ferry is provided to those students coming from rural are as up to the Higher Secondary stage.
Out of 9 Higher Secondary Schools, facilities for teaching Science exist in 5 Higher Secondary Schools and these are well equipped with Science Laboratories Physics, Chemistry and Biology are being taught as separate subjects and books published by the NCERT are being used.
There is one Junior Basic Teacher Training School at Port Blair. The intake capacity of the school has been increased to clear the back-log of untrained teachers. Programme for training not only for Primary school teachers but all the teachers has been chalked out under the guidance of the NCERT. The fresh candidates will be awarded a stipend of Rs. 50/- per month per head.
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There are Scheduled Tribes only and no Scheduled Castes in this Territory. There is one Higher Secondary School, 4 Senior Basic Schools, 23 Junior Basic Schools and one Pre-Primary School in the Nicobar group of Islands. A Junior Basic School at Little Andaman provides facilities to Onge children. The enrolment is 1819 (1214 Boys and 605 Girls). A sum of Rs. 1,230 lakhs has been approved under the Plan for Welfare of Backward Classes out of which 0.365 lakh has been allocated for the additional facilities for the education of the Nicobarese. Books and Stationery are to be supplied free of cost to the tribal school going children. 0.80 lakh has been approved for Sports and Games. Two merit scholarships in each class in each school-one to a boy and the other to a girl will be awarded to the tribal students. Hostel facility for the students coming from rural areas and studying in Middle and Higher Secondary stages is provided at the Higher Secondary School, Carnicobar and the Senior Basic School, Champion at Mancowrie. Stipend at the rate of Rs. 30/- per month is paid to the hosteller plus additional stipend at the rate of Rs 10/- per student staying in the hostel. At present only four tribal students are prosecuting post-higher secondary education, Post- Higher Secondary Scholarships are awarded to these students. Reservation of jobs in all categories of posts has been made for the students belonging to Scheduled Tribes.
Extension Officer has been appointed. Three Extension There are 33 Literacy Centres in the Island. One Lady Officers under the C.D. Blocks are also working for the promotion of programmes of Adult Education including Literacy, Libraries and reading rooms.
In 1971-72 the expenditure on general education is estimated to be Rs. 24.39,000 for Plan schemes and Rs. 50,00,000 for
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non-plan schemes. In 1972-73, the expenditure is expected to, be Rs. 24,39,000 for Plan schemes and Rs. 53,00,000 for Non-Plan items.
The Union Territory of Chandigarh continued to make rapid progress during the period under report in the field of education. S. Man Mohan Singh, I.A.S., continues to be the Secretary Incharge, Education Department and Mrs. H. M. Dhillon, Principal, Government College for Men, Chandigarh, as the Director Public Instruction in addition to her own duties.
The budget of the Department increased on revenue side as, under:
Actual Revised
expendi- Estimates
ture 1971-72
1971-72
(Rs. in (Rs. in
thousands) thousands)
Non-Plan 1,04,31 1,43,25
(Proposed)
Plan 6,45 9,46
Enrolment
The enrolment at various stage as compared to the previous year
stood as under.
1970-71 1971-72
Stage
Class I-V 25,700 28,200
Classes VI-VIII 11,600 12,100
Classes IX-XI 6,900 6,800
Higher Education 14,600 15,900
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The enrolment at the secondary stage showed a downward trend due to the fact that the Panjab University decided to make students who passed the Higher Secondary Part I eligible to join Pre-university class in the colleges. Consequently a number students of this category joined colleges direct.
Three Nursery and 6 new primary schools have been started. Two Primary Schools in rural areas have been upgraded to middle standard, and one Model High School has been started. All the primary schools have been started in the villages or labour colonies so as to provide educational facilities to the children of the poor sections of society.
In order to cope with the additional enrolment, 50 additional posts of teachers and 4 of lecturers were provided. Out of these 20 posts of teachers have been given by the Government of India, under their Crash Employment Programme for the educated unemployed.
In order to ease the problem of accommodation an amount of Rs. 12.00 lakhs was earmarked out of the Capital Project Plan outlay. With this money 3 new double section primary school buildings and extension to 2 existing buildings was sanctioned. Work has since been started on 3 buildings.
As regards the rural areas a survey was undertaken to assess the position of buildings and it was found that the position is not satisfactory. Accordingly a special project for construction of school buildings was under-taken. Under this project the funds lying in the buildings fund pool with the DEO and the schools were utilised. The Block Development Officer, Chandigarh has also been co-opted in this project. The local village panchayats are required to provide matching funds for this purpose. Under this project work was to be undertaken in 11 village schools. The work has been completed in 5 schools.
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A special survey was undertaken with a view to finding out the deficiencies in the school plant and steps have been taken to remove deficiencies as far as possible.
(i) Library books worth Rs. 12,500 have been given to, 8 schools; (ii) Science equipment worth Rs. 22,500 to 11 schools have given to strengthen their science laboratories. (iii) Furniture is being provided for about 2000 children in schools. This will remove the deficiency to a large extent. (iv) A phased programme for providing telephones to Government High/ Higher Secondary schools was undertaken. New connections have been given to 8 such schools so far. (v) The scheme of work experience has been started in 2 schools. The students at the middle stage will have to undertaken some craft in these two schools. If the experiment proved a sucess, the scheme will be extended to the other schools. (vi) Under the milk feeding programme 10,500 children at primary stage continued to be covered. (vii) So far as Colleges are concerned, an amount of Rs. 1.14 lakh has been provided for library books, science equipment to strengthen them further. (viii) The project of school-complex was started last year. Under this project nuclei schools have started helping the satellite schools. These institutions have started sharing physical facilities and efforts are being made that the sharing of ideas and teaching techniques also takes place. The co-ordination of this project has been entrusted to the State Institute of Education, Chandigarh. (ix) The J.B.T. institute for women has been closed due to large scale unemployment amongst J.B.Ts. The in-service training programme is attended to by the State Institute of Education & Extension Service Centres. The Regional Institute of English continued to provide in- service training in English to teachers drawn from Punjab, Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
The Skating Rink was completed and thrown open to the public. The new building for the State Yoga Organisation has
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been completed and it is likely to be occupied soon. The Third All India Hockey Tournament was organised in September/October 1971. Teams of repute participated in the tournament. The All India Women's Hockey Tournament was also organised in Chandigarh. Besides a number of other coaching camps and tournaments were held. This is giving a great fillip to the promotion of sports in the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
A grant of Rs. 50,000 was given to a private Girls College for starting science classes. This eased to a great extent the problem of science education to girls.
All out efforts are being made to promote educational activity within the available resources.
There are 137 primary schools and 4 pre-primary schools in the territory. There is co-education Lit all stages of education in all schools. Post-matric and pre-matric scholarships are granted regularly to candidates coming forward for the same to receive higher education outside the territory. Free education up to the S.S.C. stage of education is provided. Free mid-day meals are supplied to all existing 137 primary schools along with 4 pre-primary schools. Free supply of textbooks notebooks, slates etc., to pupils of primary schools and secondary schools is supplied by the Administration. Free supply of clothes is also made to the pupils of primary schools of S.C., S.T. and those from economically backward classes. Medical treatment is given to the poor and needy pupils of primary and secondary schools after the Annual Inspection.
There are 8 Government Social Welfare Hostels including one Ashram type school at Rakholi run by the Administration.
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A girls' hostel at Khanvel is also run by the Administration where S.C., S.T. and economically backward girls are admitted. Lodging and boarding facilities are provided free of cost by the Administration.
Four High Schools (3 full-fledged and 1 up to Std. X High) are run by the administration and all the science materials have been supplied to all the High Schools.
Primary and Secondary teachers have been deputed for PTC and B. Ed. training.
In 1971-72 the expenditure on general education is estimated to be Rs. 4,00,000 for Plan schemes and Rs. 1,00,000 for non-plan items. The corresponding figures for 1972-73 are Rs. 4,50,000 and Rs. 11,00,000 respectively.
There are 6 Nursery Schools (Pre-primary Schools) 19 Primary Schools, Middle Schools, 4 High Schools, One Higher Secondary School and One Balwadi attached to Junior Basic School for girls in this Union Territory. Total number of children on rolls is 7277 as against 712.1 in the year 1970-71.
There are three Senior Basic Schools. Four Junior Schools are functioning exclusively for girls. A separate Girls section for High School classes has been opened in High School, Kal-
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peni during 1969-70. There is a Girls' Hostel functioning at Kalpeni attached to the High School. Separate Girls section for the Hostel at Kavaratti is also functioning. Free boarding and lodging are provided in all the hostels of the 7277 students on rolls 2767 are girls as against 2692, in the year 1970-71. The practice of posting a sufficient number of lady teachers in mixed schools is continued.
General Science is taught in all schools as a compulsory subject. To spot brilliant students in Science at the Higher Secondary stage the Science Talent Search Scheme has been implemented. Under this scheme a Science Fair was organised in the Higher Secondary School, Kavaratti in October 1971. Promising students are given special instruction in Science by qualified teachers during holidays and out of school hours.
The grant of scholarships and lumpsum grants have been continued as in the previous years. Education in free at all stages in the Union Territory. Facilities for education up to the higher secondary stage alone are available in this Union Territory at present. The students desiring to take up University, professional and technical courses are got admitted in the institutions on the mainland. There are 175 scholarships holders in the institutions on the mainland studying for various courses like collegiate and professional courses and 379 scholarship holders studying in the high/higher secondary schools in the islands. They are all given scholarships for undergoing higher education on the mainland over and above full fee concession. Students studying in pre-degree/B.A./B.Sc. classes, Medical and Engineering courses in government college and residing in the hostels attached to the colleges on the mainland are allowed actual expenses instead of scholarships. The students accommodated in island hostels are also allowed hostel expenses. Textbooks and writing materials are supplied free.
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of cost to all students studying in island schools. Free midday meals are given to all the school children in the Nursery, Junior Basic and Senior Basic section.
The inhabitants of this Union Territory are all. Muslims classified as Scheduled tribes. All the facilities provided by this Administration are meant for them only.
Adult education classes are conducted in the islands under the Social Education Pilot Project Scheme to eradicate illiteracy. This scheme also envisages Women Welfare programme. Youth Welfare programme and training in health habits. Reading Room-cum-libraries are established in all the islands to cater for the needs of neo- literates and others as well.
In 1971-72 the expenditure on general education is estimated at Rs. 4,42,000 for Plan Schemes, and Rs. 16,91,000 for Non-Plan Schemes. For 1972-73 the expenditure is expected to be Rs. 5,24,000 for Plan Schemes, and Rs, 20,00,000 for Non-Plan Schemes.