GENERAL REVIEW

1.01. Prof. V.K.R.V. Rao assumed charge of the Ministry of Education and Youth Services from the afternoon of the 14th February, 1969. He is being assisted by Shri Bhakt Darshan, Minister of State and Smt. Jahanara Jaipal Singh, Deputy Minister.

10.02. Scope and Responsibilities of the Ministry :

Under the Constitution of India, education is essentially a State subject. But several responsibilities are also vested in the Government of India. The Union Government, for instance, is directly responsible for the Central universities, for all institutions of national importance, for co-ordination and maintenance of standards in higher education, scientific and technical education and research, for the enrichment, promotion and propagation of Hindi, for the welfare of Indian students abroad and for cultural and educational agreements with other countries. The Union Government has special responsibilities for the education of the weaker sections of the community and social and economic planning which includes educational planning as a concurrent responsibility. In addition, the Government of India has also several implied responsibilities in Education which continue to be a national concern. Apart from 'education' as such, the Ministry is also directly in charge of cultural programmes (including the Archaeological Survey of India), games and sports at the national level, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in which the Union Education Minister is the ex-officio Vice-President and four major surveys, viz., the Survey of India, the Anthropological Survey of India, the Botanical Survey of India, and the Zoological Survey of India. It is the coordinating authority for Unesco and operates the Indian National Commission for Co-operation with Unesco.

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A: NATIONAL POLICY ON EDUCATION

1.03. There has been a demand, for some years past, that the Government of India should lay down and implement a National Policy on Education which necessarily implies the adoption of certain common objectives and common major programmes for educational development in the country as a whole. The need for such a policy is obvious because education is a major tool of national development and a continuing national concern. That is why, when the Report of the Education Commission was received, the Government of India discussed it with the State Governments, the universities and in both Houses of Parliament and issued a Government Resolution on National Education Policy (1968).

1.04. What role can the Government of India play in imple- menting the National Policy on Education? As the Constitution now stands, education is essentially a State subject. Views have been put forward, on several occasions, to make education at least a concurrent subject or, at the very least, to make higher education a concurrent subject. But these proposals have not found support with the State Governments. Even on academic grounds, there is a view that, in a vast country like India with all its diversities, it is better to keep education as essentially a State subject rather than to make it concurrent or Central. There is, therefore, no possibility, in the near future, of any being made in the Constitutional position and educational polices and programmes will have to be based on the assumption that education will be a national concern but a State subject of responsibility. This basic situation did not become apparent in the twenty years following the attainment of independence in 1947 because (1) the same Political Party was in power both in the Centre and in the States, and (2) of the availability of large funds for grants by the Centre to the States for specific educational programmes. But this situation disappeared with the elections of 1967 and the new policy is one of eliminating or reducing Centrally- sponsored schemes in the field of education. At the present moment, therefore, the Government of India can

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operate an educational policy only on the strict Constitutional basis stated above, and without the inducement of specific and significant grants. There also does not seem to be any likelihood of a major change being made in this position for some years to come. The implementation of an educational policy for the country can, therefore, be done, at present, in the following ways:

(1) By securing the concurrence of the State Govern- ments through persuasion by personal contact and through organisations like the Central Advisory Board of Education, the National Board of School Textbooks or the National Board of Adult Education;

(2) Through research, pilot projects, and similar pro- grammes which will help in formulating and implementing agreed policies or initiating new policies;

(3) Through grants-in-aid under a Centrally-sponsored scheme.

1.04. Implementation of National Education Policy:

The efforts made to implement the National Policy on Education will have to be reviewed against this background.

1.05. After the issue of the Government of India Resolution on the National Policy on Education, three major steps had been taken in 1968-69:

(1) As a large majority of programmes in the National Policy on Education were to be implemented by the State Governments, the Resolution was sent to them for necessary action. It was recognized that the Resolution was advisory and not mandatory on the State Governments. But it was hoped that the State Governments would adopt and implement this policy.

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(2) It was also decided that this Policy should be adopted as the basis of the Fourth Five-Year Plan in Education, both in Central and State sectors.

(3) The programmes with which the Government of India was concerned were taken up for implementation in the Ministry.

1.06 One major difficulty faced in this regard must be mentioned: the paucity of finances. IN the draft Fourth Five-Year Plan, the total provision proposed for education was Rs. 1,210 crore or 7 per cent of the total outlay. In the Plan as it has now been finalised, education gets only Rs. 840 crore or 5.8 per cent of the total Plan outlay. This is the lowest ever given to Education. The main reason is that sectors like Agriculture, Irrigation, Power, Industry and Family Planning have been accorded a higher priority. In the Central sector, the cut been accorded a higher priority. In the Central sector, the cut has not been very large-a provision has been made for Rs. 271 crore as against the draft proposals for Rs. 326 crore. But in the State sector, the cuts have been drastic. A provision has been made only for Rs. 569 crore as against the draft proposals of Rs. 884 crore. The axe has fallen very heavily on primary education in particular and generally on all programmes of qualitative improvement. This paucity of allocations will impede any vigorous drive to implement the National Policy on Education.

1.07 General Review of the Development:

In 1969-70, which is the first year of the Fourth Five-Year plan, a major task which was attempted was to review all that had been done earlier to implement the National Policy on Education. This was done through a series of meetings in the Ministry as well as through three important conferences, namely (1) the Conference of Vice-Chancellors on April 21-23, 1969 at New Delhi under the joint auspices of the Ministry and the UGC, (2) the Conference of State Education Secretaries on May 21- 22, 1969 at New Delhi and (3) the Conference of Directors of Education/Public Instruction on May 28-30, 1969 at Bangalore. As a result of

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this review, the implementation of several programmes was energized, the details of some other programmes were worked out and they were initiated and several programmes were added to give a broader base and deeper meaning to the National Policy. Consequently, despite the limitations mentioned above, considerable progress was made in implementing the National Policy on Education as will be seen from some of the highlights. of this year's activities which are indicated in the following paragraphs.

1.08. Development of Languages:

A large number of programmes were launched or intensified in the development of languages among which the following deserve mention:

(1) Intensification of the programmes for the promotion and propagation of Hindi;

(2) Increased attention paid to the promotion of Sanskrit;

(3) Provision made, for the first time, to assist the Hindi speaking States to teach other Indian languages as. a part of the three-language formula;

(4) Scheme of prizes to Indian writers who will write a book in any Indian language other than their mother tongue;

(5) Establishment of the Central Institute of Indian Languages at Mysore to promote the development of all Indian languages through inter-linguistic research;

(6) Four regional language centres for the training of language teachers of which one has already been started ; and

(7) Preliminary steps taken to introduce new and dynamic methods of teaching languages in a short time through modern devices like language laboratories.

The details of these and allied programmes will be found in Chapter VIII.

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1.09 Book Promotion :

Allied to this is the area of book promotion which also received great attention and emphasis. Some of the major programmes developed in this area included the following.

(1) Intensification of the programme of producing university-legel books in Indian languages including the special programmes developed for the production of core books at the national level, coordination of the programmes for the Hindi-speaking States, training of translators and special arrangements for the production of Urdu books;

(2) Further development of the collaborative schemes with UK, USA and USSR for production of cheap editions of university-level books;

(3) Introduction of a new scheme of subsidy to Indian authors for university-level books;

(4) Expansion of the book-production programmes of the CSTT;

(5) Expansion of the programmes of the National Book Trust and especially the introduction of schemes of Nehru Bal Pustakalaya and Adan-Pradan under which standard works from every Indian language included in Schedule VIII of the Constitution will be translated in other languages;

(6) Expansion of the programmes of the National Book Development Board; and

(7) Establishment of the National Board of School Text-books, the creation of a Department of Textbooks in the NCERT and development of a programme to provide the State Governments with more adequate facilities for printing

The details of these and other allied programmes will be found in Chapter IX.

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1.10. Higher Education :

The programmes or higher education were also given emphasis.

(1) The appointment of the Vice-Chancellor of the Jawaharlal Nehru University was made to enable the university to make a start. It was inaugurated by the President of India on 14th November, 1969 which would have been the 80th birthday of Pandit Nehru. It has since taken over the Institute of Russian Studies and arrangements have also been finalized to take over the Indian School of International Studies. In its first Convocation, the graduates of the Institute of Russian Studies received their degrees. Plans for the development of the university on certain unique lines are under preparation. A site of 1000 acres has been acquired and is being developed.

(2) The recommendations of the Gajendragadkar Com- mittee on the Banaras Hindu University, intended for immediate action, were fully implemented after passing the necessary legislation. Dr. K. L. Shrimali was appointed as the new Vice-Chancellor and a special grant-in-aid has been made available to the university for improving its student services.

(3) A substantial increase was made in the allocations to the University Grants Commission, especially with a view to improving amenities and welfare services for students.

(4) The Report of the Review Committee on Rural Insti- tutes which was submitted during the year has been examined and is under implementation.

(5) The introduction of the National Service Programme in 40 selected university centres with a coverage of 40,000 students and provision for its further intensi- fication during the next year.

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The details of these programmes will be found in Chapters III and X.

1.11. Technical Education:

The major events in technical education were the steps taken to improve the employment situation among engineers, to improve the quality of engineering institutions and to relate them more closely to industry. In particular, it is proposed to bring about radical changes in polytechnic education by reorganising their courses and training programmes so that educational institutions and industry become joint collaborators in economic development. It is also proposed to initiate a large programme for the design and manufacture of scientific instruments to minimize dependence on imported equipment. The details of the programmes evolved will be found in Chapter IV.

1.12. Upgrading Science Education at the School Stage:

A strong impetus has been given to the improvement in teaching. science at the school stage. The Government of India concluded an agreement with the Unicef and Unesco for reorganising the teaching of science at the school level. In the first phase, the National Council of Educational Research and Training was engaged in preparing new syllabi and textbooks for science teaching at the primary level. Textbooks, teachers' guides and a kit of laboratory science equipment have been prepared. It is now proposed to try out the textual material and laboratory equipment in about one thousand primary schools in the States at the rate of about 60 schools in each State commencing from the academic year 1970-71. Preliminary arrangements for equipping the schools and for training the teachers has already been made after discussions with the States. The first phase of the programme involves an assistance of about two million dollars (Rs. 1.5 crore) in the form of equipment and expert guidance from the Unicef and Unesco. This will be followed by another 8 million dollars (Rs. 6. crore) worth of assistance when the scheme is extended to secondary schools in the States. The expected expenditure on the scheme during 1969-70 is of the order of Rs. 50 lakh. The Planning Commission had agreed that this

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amount would be treated as an addition to the State Plans. It is expected that a further sum of Rs. 100 lakh will be spent on it during 1970-71. At the secondary stage, a new science syllabus and a set of books based on the new syllabi are under preparation. This is being tried out in selected secondary schools, particularly in teh Central Schools, during the current year. It is envisaged that the new books will be introduced in secondary schools throughout the country with suitable modifications to suit local conditions before the end of the Fourth Plan.

1.13. Sports Talent Search Sholarships:

The discovery and development of talent of all types is a national concern. An important step taken during the year from this point of view was to finalise a scheme of Sports Talent Search Scholarships to be awarded to students for proficiency in sports at the national and State level competitions of the value of Rs. 25 p.m. each are proposed to be awarded in 1970-71.

1.14. Youth Services:

A programme of Youth Services was prepared during the year and is proposed to be launched from 1970-71. It may be pointed out here, however, that it was not possible to obtain financial resources for the programme on an adequate scale-the allocation for the Fourth Five-Year Plan is only Rs. 5 crore and that for 1970-71, only Rs. 35 lakh. The scale of operation of the programme will, therefore, remain restricted.

1.15. Adult Education :

It is proposed to launch a more intensive programme of adult education. A National Board of Adult Education has been established. A new scheme for the grant of financial assistance to voluntry organizations has been prepared. A Directorate of Adult Education is proposed to be established and a programme of adult education sponsored and supported by the universities will be launched for the first time.

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B: OTHER IMPORTANT PROGRAMMES DEVELOPED

1.16. National Integration.-

Apart from the vigorous steps taken to implement the National Policy on Education, several new and important programmes were developed during the year. Among these mention must be made of National Integration in which the Ministry of Education and Youth Services has a very important promotional role to play. The programme has been promoted through several schemes like language development or book promotion to which reference has already been made. In addition, some other important activities have been reported in the paragraphs that follow.

1.17. Action on the Recommendations of the National Integration Council:

The Standing Committee of the National Integration Council at its meeting held in October, 1968. recommended the setting up of a number of committees, representing specialised groups to act as spearheads for a mass movement in the cause of national integration. This Ministry, was accordingly asked to set up a few committees with such objectives as (i) to examine syllabi, curricula and textbooks with a view to emphasising values that would promote unity and mutual tolerance and excluding material that tends to promote ill-will and hatred between groups and communities on any grounds whatsoever; and (ii) to recommend measures for eliminating, from the organizations of students and teachers any narrow and communal feelings and to imbue them with a sense of national purpose and fraternal feelings. To give effect to the first, a National Board of School Textbooks has been established, as stated ealier. For the second, two committees, as indicated below, have been established: