OTHER EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL ACTIVITIES
An account of the other educational and cultural activities distinct from the main schemes, pursued during the year, is presented in this chapter.
2. National Awards for Teachers.-The scheme, instituted during 1958-59 with the object of raising the prestige of the teaching profession and giving public recognition to distinguished primary and secondary school teachers, is being continued during the third Five- Year Plan. The awards for 1963-64 were distributed by the President of India at a special function held in Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi, on 22nd November, 1963. Forty-five primary and 40 secondary school teachers received the awards.
3. National Foundation for Teachers' Welfare.-To promote the welfare of the teachers generally and to alleviate distress among teachers and their dependents in indigent circumstances a National Foundation for Teachers' Welfare was set up under the chairmanship of the Union Education Minister. As in the last year, the 5th of September, 1963, was observed as the Teachers' Day for the purpose of raising funds for the National Foundation for Teachers' Welfare and creating national consciousness for the cause of teaching profession.
4. Promotion of Gandhian Philosophy.-The scheme for inculcating a proper appreciation and knowledge of Gandhiji's life and thought among school and college students in the country is being continued during the third Plan. Kumari Manubehn Gandhi conducted her lecture tour in the secondary schools of Punjab during October and November, 1963. Arrangements are similarly being made for her to give talks to the secondary school pupils of Mysore State during the months- of February and March, 1964. Under a similar scheme sponsored by the Ministry several universities in India are organising lectures on Gandhiji's life and thought, the entire expenditure on which is met by the Union Government. During 1963-64 such lectures have already been delivered by Shri R. R. Diwakar at the Banaras Hindu University and by Shri Kaka Saheb Kalelkar at the University of Jammu and Kashmir. The final grant of Rs. 50,000 has further been sanctioned to the Gandhian Institute of Studies, Varanasi.
5. Moral and Religious Instruction.-The Standing Commitee on Moral and Religious instruction under the chairmanship of Shri Sri Prakasa selected suitable literature on moral and religious instruction for educational institutions. It has also suggested the publication of certain books on the subject. An amount of approximately Rs. 16,000 has been spent on this scheme till the end of January, 1964 during the current year.
6. Education of Tibetan Children.-The Tibetan Schools Society was established in 1961 with the object of providing facilities for the education of Tibetan refugee children. It is an autonomous organisation and its expenses are met from the grant given by the Union Government and from the donations received from other sources. The Society maintains five residential schools at Darjeeling, Mussoorie, Simla, Dalhousie and Pachmarhi.
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These schools provide free education, free board and lodging and medical facilities. The Society also runs day schools in the Tibetan refugees' settlements in NEFA and in the States of Mysore, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab, and Jammu and Kashmir. The total number of pupils in these schools is about 3,500. The medium of instruction is English, and Hindi is taught from Class IV onwards.
7. Fellowships and Scholarships for Tibetan Refugees.-The scheme for the award of fellowships and scholarships for the refugee Tibetan Lamas and undergraduate Lama students continued during 1963- 64. Eleven highly learned Lamas-3 at the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, Gangtok, 3 at the Sanskrit University, Varanasi, one each at the Universities of Delhi, Calcutta and Visva-Bharati, and one each at the Government Sanskrit College, Calcutta and at the Asiatic Society, Calcutta-are engaged in research and other scholarly activities under the Union Government fellowship scheme at Rs. 300 per month each. Twenty-four Lama students-5 studying at the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, Gangtok, 11 at the Sanskrit University, Varanasi, and 8 at Nav Nalanda Mahavihara, Nalanda-continued to receive scholarships at Rs. 100 per month per head. Eight Ladakhi students studying in Delhi have been granted scholarships during 1963- 64 at Rs. 60 per month per head to continue their studies at higher secondary school level.
8. Educational Delegations To and From Abroad.--Owing to emergency the main programme of activities under this scheme has been held in abeyance. The budgetary allotments for this scheme are meant for clearing the pending bills relating to the previous delegations.
8.2. During the period, however, a 7-man delegation from India under the leadership of Shri G. K. Chandiramani, Joint Educational Adviser participated in the Commonwealth Conference on the Teaching of. Science in Schools held in Ceylon from 9th to 21st December, 1963. The Third Commonwealth Education Conference will be held in Canada in the month of August, 1964. An Indian delegation will be attending it.
9. Clearing House Functions.--One of the major functions of the Union Ministry of Education is to serve as a clearing house of ideas and information in all fields of educational activity. This function is discharged through the agency of three sections, namely, Information, Statistics and Publications, maintained in the Department of Education. These provide for the dissemination of educational information relating to statistics and facilities, for study at home and abroad and publish reports, periodicals and other literature pertaining to the fields of education and culture. An outline of their activities during the period is given in the three sub-sections that follow.
A. INFORMATION SECTION 9.2. For better dissemination of information relating to important courses of study in India and abroad latest informative data were, compiled and furnished to the students' advisory bureaux attached to universities and State Governments. A journal entitled, `Educational Facilities in India and Abroad' has also been brought out, for circulation amongst the bureaux and committees attached to universities in India. Besides, the usual work relating to meeting public enquiries in the educational field continued apace.
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B. STATISTICAL SECTION 9.3. The main functions of the Statistical Section are to collect, maintain and interpret educational statistics, to bring out statistical publications, to disseminate statistical information about education and to undertake all such activities as may be required to improve the quality of the educational data.
9.3.2. Collection of Statistics : During the year, the collection of educational statistics for 1961-62 from all the State Governments was completed. Collection of statistics for 1962-63 was under way. Statistics for 1961-62 were received from most of the universities. Collection of statistics from universities for 1962-63 was also taken up.
9.3.3. Statistical Enquiries : During the year under review, 136 major enquiries were attended to. The enquiries, apart from having a wider coverage, were more detailed than the previous year.
9.3.4. In-service Training Courses in Educational Statistics : To improve the reliability and timely supply of statistics, the Section has been extending technical assistance to the States and universities to organize short in-service training courses in educational statistics for the benefit of their staff. Financial assistance is given to the universities at the rate of 50 per cent of the total expenditure on such courses. Under this scheme, courses were organised during the year in the Universities of Poona, Andhra, Jammu and Kashmir, Bombay and Karnatak. A proposal for holding a course in Gorakhpur University has been under consideration. It has been decided to give 100 per cent grants to the States and Union Territories to cover the expenditure incurred on travelling and daily allowances of the trainees who will attend such courses during 1964- 65.
9.3.5. Seminar : The Second National Seminar on Educational Statistics was held at New Delhi from 24th January to 1st February, 1964.
9.3.6. Statistical Publications : A significant activity that was started in 1962-63 and continued during the year related to the issuing of Quarterly Bulletin, in cyclostyled form, giving brief accounts of the latest educational developments in the States. This activity will continue during 1964-65. A list of the publications brought out during the year is given in Annexure VI.
C.PUBLICATIONS SECTION 9.4 This Section is the main publishing agency of the Department of Education, although a few publications are also brought out by other units. Besides bringing out publications on different aspects of education and culture the Section also brings out journals.
9.4.2. Journals : The section continued to bring out the three quarterly journals of the Department, namely, `The Education Quarterly', `Secondary Education' and `Youth', but with reduced print order, curtailing their free distribution drastically, due to emergency. `The Education Quarterly' entered its sixteenth year of continuous publication, 'Secondary Education', eighth year and `Youth', seventh year, during the period.
9.4.3 The two quarterly journals, `Cultural Forum' and its Hindi counterpart, `Sanskriti' that were till recently the journals of the erstwhile Ministry of Scientific Research and Cultural Affairs, are now the concern of the Department of Education. `Cultural Forum' entered its sixth year of con-
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tinuous publication and `Sanskriti', fifth year. `Cultural Forum' has made great strides in regard to its contents as well as quality of production. Efforts, are already afoot to raise the standards of the other journals with a view to increasing their utility and coverage.
9.4. Publications : A list of the publications-educational and cultural-brought out during the period is given in Annexure VI.
10. Promotion of Important Publications.-Under this head can be grouped three significant activities of the Department of Education of the Ministry, namely, (1) publication of rare manuscripts, (2) preparation of `Who's Who' of persons who took part in the freedom struggle, and (3) preparation and publication of the `History of Freedom Movement'. These are indicated in the paras that follow.
10.2. Publication of Rare Manuscripts : Under this programme, on the recommendations of the Indology Committee-that was set up to meet the keen demand for indological research in the country following the revival; of Indian culture after independence-grants are given to registered voluntary institutions and State Government institutions to enable them to bring out critical editions of rare manuscripts and to prepare catalogues of manuscripts available with them. During the period, financial assistance to the extent of approximately Rs. 37,000 has been given to different institutions for the publication of rare manuscripts and catalogues of manuscripts.
10.2.2. A seminar on "Manuscriptology and Textual Criticism" was held at Bangalore on November 3-14, 1963. Attended by about 40 scholars from various universities and institutions dealing with indological subjects, the Seminar intended to make an extensive study of both the theoretical and practical aspects of the problems connected with manuscriptology and textual criticism.
10.3. Preparation of "Who's Who" of Persons who Took Part in the Struggle for Freedom : Under the scheme of the preparation of "Who's Who", financial assistance is being given to the State Governments generally at 33-1/3 per cent of the approved expenditure on the entire work, subject to a ceiling of Rs. 6,000 per annum for two years or Rs. 12,000 in all. The grant is raised to the extent of 50 per cent in some cases on merits. The following grants were paid in this regard to the State Governments till 31st December, 1963, during 1963-64 :
Rs.
(1) Andhra Pradesh 3,026
(2) Assam 3,600
(3) Kerala 1,371
(4) Maharashtra 3,317
(5) Mysore 3,223
(6) Orissa 1,362
(7) Punjab 6,000
(8) Rajasthan 2,393
(9) Uttar Pradesh 6,000
TOTAL 30,292
10.4. History of Freedom Movement : The work of writing the History of Freedom Movement in India has been entrusted to Dr. Tara Chand M.P. The work on the second volume of the History of Freedom Movement is expected to be completed very shortly. The third volume is expected to take another two years.
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11. Copyright.-The Copyright Act 1957 (14 of 1957) provides for the establishment of the Copyright Board for adjudicating on certain matters specified in the Act. The present Copyright Board was reconstituted for another term of three years with effect from 21st January, 1962 with the following members :
1. Shri P. Satyanarayana Rao-Chairman
2. Shri B. N. Lokur, Secretary, Ministry of Law- Member
3. Shri A. K. Ghosh, Secretary, (Deptt. of Science), Ministry of Education-Member
Shri T. S. Krishnamurti, Registrar of Copyright is the Ex-officio Secretary to the Copyright Board.
11.2. Up to 31st December, 1963, the Copyright Board held 14 meetings so far to dispose of 15 cases. Three more cases are pending before the Copyright Board. The copyright of 2,939 works comprising 2,032 literary including 9 foreign works, 904 artistic works and 3 cinematograph films including 2 in the name of American firms, were registered by the Copyright Office until 31st December, 1963.
11.3. During the year 1963, the Government of India extended the operation of the Copyright Act, 1957 to the works of Norway, Finland, Bermuda, North Borneo, Zanzibar, Greece, Bahamas, Virgin Islands and Peru. At the invitation of the Government of India, the Inter-Governmental Copyright Committee set up under the auspices of Universal Copyright Convention 1952, and Permanent Committee for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works under the Berne Convention, held joint session simultaneously at New Delhi from 2nd to 6th December, 1963. India is a member of both these committees.
12. Plan Co-ordination Unit.-The Plan Co-ordination Unit of the Department of Education continued its activities of coordinating the work of the Ministry with regard to Central and State educational development schemes under third Five-Year Plan. As in the previous years, three-fourths of the allocated Central grants on State programmes for 1963-64 are being released by the Ministry of Finance in the form of monthly ways and means advances. These will be adjusted against the payment sanctions to be issued by the Unit in March, 1964.
12.2. Actual figures of expenditure for 1962-63 programmes were received from the States and adjustments, recoveries of arrear payments in the grants already sanctioned were communicated. to the Ministry of Finance (Department of Expenditure) for issuing consolidated sanctions.
12.3. The Working Group on General Education for the formulation of schemes for the fourth Five-Year Plan was set up in June, 1963 in consultation with the Planning Commission with the following terms of reference :
(i) to make a critical review of the progress of the programmes and schemes in the third Plan period;
(ii) to assess, in the light of the current trends and other available data, the position likely to be reached at the end of the third Plan period; and
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(iii) to formulate proposals for the fourth Plan in the perspective, wherever possible of a 15-year period 1966-81.
The Working Group includes, besides senior officials of the Ministry of Education, officials from the Planning Commission and educationists from the States.
12.4. The Working Group has set up committees/sub-groups to deal with various sectors of education and the reports of these committees/ sub-groups have been coordinated and sent in the form of a preliminary report for the fourth Five-Year Plan to the Planning Commission.
12.5. The State Governments have also been requested to set up similar Working Groups to function in close collaboration with the Centre,
12.6. A Conference of Education Secretaries was convened in June, 1963 for the mid-term appraisal of the third Five-Year Plan and based on the deliberations of this Conference and on the data sent by the various State Governments, the Unit brought out a publication, "Mid- Plan Appraisal of Schemes of General Education-1961-64", a brief note on which appears in chapter I of this Report.
12.7. The Draft Plans for 1964-65 from all the States and Union Territories were received, examined and the Ministry's comments on them communicated to the Planning Commission. These comments have been discussed by the Advisers of the Planning Commission with the State Governments and the outlays are likely to be finalised shortly.
13. Grants to Hostels, Institutions and Organisations outside India.Since 1947, the Government of India have been maintaining the Indian Students' Hostel, Guilford Street, London. A provision of (pond) 1,425 exists for 1963-64. The same amount has been provided in the High Commission's budget for 1964-65.
13.2. A sum of (pond)750 has been sanctioned to the School of Oriental and African Studies, London for 1963-64 and this amount has been provided in the High Commission's budget for 1964-65.
13.3. A sum of Rs. 7,500 has been paid to the Ceylon Estate Workers' Education Trust for 1963-64. The same amount has been provided for 1964-65. This Trust, which was started by the then Indian Representative in Ceylon, provides educational facilites to the children of Indian origin in that country.
13.4. A provision of Rs. 18,000 exists for financial assistance to educational institutions in Nepal for 1963-64. Rs. 25,000 have been provided for 1964-65 for the purpose.