ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
Universalisation of Elementary Education (UEE) 5.1.1 Provision of free and compulsory education to all children until they complete the age of 14 years is a Directive Principle of the Constitution of India. Since 1950 determined efforts have been made towards the achievement of this goal. Over the years there has been a very impressive increase in the number and spread of institutions as well as enrolment.
5.1.2 The National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986, and its Programme of Action (POA) gave unqualified priority to UEE and introduced many innovations. First, the emphasis was shifted from enrolment per so to enrolment as well as retention. Secondly, the NPE, 1986 sought to adopt an array of meticulously formulated strategies based on micro-planning, to ensure children's retention at school. Thirdly, the NPE, 1986 recognised that unattractive school environment, unsatisfactory condition of buildings and Insufficiency of instructional material function as demotivating factors for children and their parents. The Policy, therefore, palled for a drive for a substantial improvement of primary schools and provision of support services. To this end, the scheme of Operation Blackboard was conceived. Fourthly, the NPE, 1986 commanded the adoption, at the primary stage, of a child-centred and activity-based process of learning. Fifthly, the NPE, 1986 and its POA postulated a large programme of restructuring of teacher education. The NPE, 1986 also sought to address the most difficult aspect of access, viz., access to education of millions of girls and working children. A large and systematic programme of Non-Formal Education (NFE) was introduced as an integral component of the strategy to achieve UEE.
5.1.3 A positive externality of the Total Literacy campaigns, has been that in many districts covered by the campaign there has been an upsurge in the demand for primary education. This has confirmed the need to pay more attention to the "demand side" in strategies for achieving UEE and highlighted the need for a disaggregated approach to the problem of UEE.
5.1.4 Significant developments have taken place in the area of learner achievement. The NPE, 1986 provided for laying down Minimum Levels of Learning (MLL). MLL have been laid down for the primary stage with the intention of reducing the curriculum load and making it more relevant and functional for those children who have no support for learning at home or outside the school. It is now acknowledged that UEE cannot be accepted as having been achieved unless children passing out of school acquire MLL; achievement has come to be assigned equal importance alongwith access and retention.
5.1.5 Another important development was the World Conference on Education for All (EFA) held in March 1990, in Jomtien,
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Thailand. In order to harness increased donor interest in the basic education, as a result of the Conference, it was decided to formulate comprehensive basic education projects in educationally backward States. EFA Projects have been taken up in Bihar and Rajasthan with external assistance.
5.1.6 The NPE, 1986 was reviewed during 1990-92 and certain modifications necessitated by the developments since its adoption were effected. The Revised Policy Formulations (RPF) brought about following modifications :
i) Achieving essential levels of learning has been specifically incorporated as one of the thrust areas.
ii) Scope of Operation Blackboard (OB) was enlarged to provide three reasonably large rooms and three teachers in every primary school; it was also decided to extend OB to the upper primary stage.
iii) It was specifically laid down that at least 50 per cent of the teachers recruited in future should be women.
iv) Taking a realistic view of the enormous task of achieving UEE in its entirety (access, retention as well as achievement), the RPF envisage that free and compulsory education of satisfactory quality should be provided to all children upto 14 years of age before the commencement of the twenty-first century.
v) Taking note of the effectiveness of the Mission mode in social sectors, particularly literacy, the RPF envisage launching of a national mission to ensure the achievement of UEE by the year 2000.
5.1.7 In the Eighth Plan the strategy for UEE envisages adoption of disaggregated target setting and decentralised planning. The attempt would be to prepare district-specific, population-specific plans for UEE within the broad strategy frame of Microplanning through people's participation and introduction of Minimum Levels of Learning (MLL) in schools to improve learner achievement. Microplanning will provide the framework for universal access and universal participation while MLL would be the strategy frame for universal achievement. The Department of Education is formulating an IDA assisted project for funding district primary education projects on these lines with preference being given to educationally backward districts and districts where Total Literacy Campaigns have generated a demand.
5.1.8 Over the years, the Centre and the States have made considerable investments in promoting elementary education. The Fifth All India Educational Survey reflects that 94.06 per cent of the rural population was served with primary schools/sections within a walking distance of one kilometre and 85.39 per cent of them was served with middle school/section within a distance of
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three kilometres. Furnished below is a Table which brings out the status of expansion of elementary education since 1950-51.
Expansion of Elementary Education since 1950-51
(Rs. in lakhs)
1950-51 1991-92
Number of primary schools 2.20 5.66
Number of middle schools 0.14 1.52
Enrolment in classes I to V 191.5 1015.8
of boys 137.7 592.2
of girls 53.8 423.6
Enrolment in Classes VI to VIII 31.3 344.5
of boys 25.9 214.5
of girls 5.4 130.0
Enrolment in Classes I to VIII 222.8 1360.3
of boys 163.6 806.7
of girls 59.2 553.6
5.1.9 Despite this level of expansion of education, vast ground is yet to be covered for fulfilling the constitutional mandate of UEE. Drop-out rates are significant: retention of children in schools is low : wastage is considerable (in 1987-88 drop-out rates were 46.97 in classes I to V and 62.29 in classes I to VIII). There are striking disparities in access to elementary education - disparities as between regions, rural and urban areas, boys and girls, the affluent and the deprived and the minorities and the others. The clientele to be serviced in the age-group of 5-14 is of the order of eighteen crores, constituting about twenty-seven per cent of the population, according to 1981 Census.
Operation Blackboard 5.2.1 The scheme of Operation Blackboard was started in 1987-88 to bring about substantial improvement in facilities in primary schools with the aim of improving retention. It has three interdependent components, namely, provision of (i) a building comprising atleast two reasonably large all-weather rooms with a deep verandah and separate toilet facilities for boys and girls (ii) atleast two teachers in every school, as far as possible one of them a woman, and (iii) essential teaching-learning material including blackboards, maps, charts, toys and equipment for work experience. Funds for construction of school buildings are provided mainly from rural development schemes. Funds for the other two components are provided by the Department of Education. The scheme envisaged coverage of
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primary schools in all the blocks/municipal areas in the country in a phased manner.
5.2.2 In order to operationalise the revised policy of the government regarding school facilities the following three subschemes are proposed under Operation Blackboard during the Eighth Plan :
i) Continuation of the ongoing Operation Blackboard to cover the remaining schools identities in the seventh Plan.
ii) Expansion of the scheme of Operation Blackboard to provide three teachers and three class rooms to Primary schools where enrolment exceeds 80.
iii) Extension of the scope of Operation Blackboard to upper primary schools.
5.2.3 Data on achievements under Operation Blackboard till 1992-93 is presented in the following table :-
Operation Blackboard : Achievements
1987-88 1988-89 1989-90 1990-91 1991-92 1992-93
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)
Amount spent 110.61 135.73 126.93 150.09 175.63 99.14
(Rs. in crores)
No. of Blocks 1703 1795 578 843 960 500
covered
No. of schools 1.13 1.40 0.52 0.39 0.68 0.60
covered
(in lakhs)
Percentage of 21.00% 26.40% 9.90% 7.35% 12.74% 11.00%
Primary schools
covered
Posts of primary 36891 36327 5274 14379 26840 16000
teachers
sanctioned
Minimum Levels of Learning (MLL) 5.3.1 The strategy to improve learning acquisition in schools focuses attention on what is happening in the classroom, and seeks to bring the principles of equity and quality to bear upon it. The strategy aims at laying down learning outcomes expected from basic education at a realistic., relevant and functional
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level, and prescribing the adoption of measures that will ensure that all children who complete a stage of schooling achieve these outcomes. These outcomes define the MLL.
5.3.2 The following are the different steps for introduction of MLL in schools: (i) an assesment of the existing level of learning achievement; (ii) a definition of the MLL for the area and the time- frame within which it will be achieved; (iii) reorientation of teaching practices to competency based teaching; (iv) an introduction of contiguous, comprehensive evaluation of students learning; (v) review of textbooks and revision, if required; (vi) provision of inputs as necessary including provision of physical facilities, teacher training, supervision and evaluation, etc., to improve learning acquisition of MLL.
5.3.3 The aim of the MLL strategy is also to provide to the system a measure for performance and efficiency analysis. The endeavour will be to monitor learning achievement to direct greater resources where levels of learning are lower and to consicously accelerate the pace of development in the needy areas, thereby reducing the disparities and equalising standards. Ultimately this will lead to improvement of the quality and the performance of the system.
5.3.4 During 1991-92, the Ministry provided financial assistance to 18 projects under the scheme 'experimental and innovative projects' for implementation of MLL programme. These projects covered 2000 schools, 3,00,000 students and 8,000 Teachers. A sum of Rs.69 lakh was given to them for conducting their activities. These projects have also continued their activities during 1992-93. A small team of resource persons has been constituted to provide necessary guidance to the project directors. This team will also assist in providing intensive orientation to teachers and state personnel. In addition, action has been initiated to prepare and distribute test items to complete the Item Bank for all the three subjects.
Scheme of Operationalising Micro-Planning 5.4.1 Micro- Planning, a process of designing a family-wise and child-wise plan of action for education has been conceived as a major strategy for achieving the Universalisation of Elementary education (UEE). The main objective of the scheme of Micro-Planning is to ensure that every child regularly attends school or NFE centre and completes at least five years of schooling or its equivalent at the non-formal education centre and also achieves essential minimum levels of learning.
5.4.2 The three essential aspects of UEE namely access, participation and achievement are the main tasks of micro-planning. The important components of the scheme include : participatory planning with community involvement, decentralization of administrative functions, improvement of school facilities, adoption of MLL strategy and convergence of services in the area.
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5.4.3 The activities proposed to be undertaken are environment building, survey to ascertain educational needs, formation of Village Education Committee (VEC) for involvement of community, enrolment drive training/workshop for VEC members, teachers/volunteers, opening of new schools/NFE centres and appointment of additional teachers/shikshakarmis based on assessed educational needs, and monitoring and evaluation.
5.4.4 The scheme will be implemented through District Shaksharta Samitis (District Literacy Societies), DIETs, SCERTs and Non- Government Organisations (NGOs).
Non-Formal Education 5.5.1 The role of non-formal part-time education in providing education to working children, and children in habitations without schools has been recognised since the Education Commission of 1964-66. During 1979-80, the scheme of Non-formal Education (NFE) was introduced as an alternative strategy to impart education to children, who for various reasons cannot attend formal schools. The NPE envisaged a large and systematic programme of NFE to achieve UEE. The scheme was revised in its content and emphasis in 1987-88. Although its focus is on the ten educationally backward States, namely, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, it has been extended to cover urban slums, hilly, tribal and desert areas and areas with concentration of working children in the other States as well. Under the scheme, central financial assistance is given to the States/ Union Territories in the ratio of 50:50 and 90:10 Centre-State sharing basis for running general (co-educational) and exclusively for girls centres respectively. Assistance to the extent of 100 per cent is provided to voluntary agencies for running NFE centres for experimental and innovative projects and District Resource Units.
5.5.2 The revised NFE scheme has been visualised as a child-- centred and environment oriented system to meet the educational needs of the comparatively deprived geographical areas and socioeconomic sections of society. Other features of the scheme are its organisational flexibility, relevance of curriculum, diversity in learning activities to relate them to the learner's needs and de- centralised management. The programme is being implemented on a project basis, generally co-extensive with the community development block, each project having about 100 NFE Centres.
5.5.3 Particulars of achievements under the programme during the year 1992-93 (anticipated by 31.3.1993) are given in the following Table :-
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Non-Formal Education : Achievements
1992-93
1. Amount spent (Rs. in crores) 57.00
2. NFE Centres brought to function 2.45
(in lakhs) cumulative
3. Number of NFE centres exclusively 0.82
for girls (in lakhs) cumulative
4. Number of voluntary organisations approved 425
for NFE programme (cumulative)
5. NFE centres brought to function by 28000
voluntary agencies (cumulative)
6. Number of experimental innovative projects 60
approved (cumulative)
7. Estimated enrolment (in lakhs) 68.25
8. Number of District Resource Units 25
9. Number of States/UTs covered 18
5.5.4 NCERT has been involved in the development of teaching- learning material of a standard quality in conformity with MLL designed to suit learners needs. NCERT has been sanctioned a project for the development of training modules. Under this project, NCERT has trained key persons in each State nominated by the State Government, who in turn are responsible for training the NFE supervisors and instructors. In this way multi-level training personnel has been made available to provide technical and administrative support to NFE field functionaries.
5.5.5 Six research institutes have been engaged to conduct the external evaluation of the scheme in 8 States, viz., Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The institutes are likely to submit their reports during the current financial year 1992-93.
5.5.6 A project "Computerised Planning for Education" (COPE) is being implemented to develop a Management Information System (MIS) for Non-formal Education. The project covers the entire State of Madhya Pradesh.
Teacher Education