 OTHER EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES

The following gives an account of some of other activities conducted by the Ministry of Education.

1. Educational Delegation to and from India.-

The Ministry of Education organises exchange of educational information, literature and delegations between India and other countries of the world.

During September-October, 1961, a three-member delegation of Indian educationists visited the USSR for a period of three weeks to study the Soviet school system. It was led by the Joint Educational Adviser in the Ministry of Education and included the Directors of Education of Punjab and Madras.

During October-November, 1961, a 15-member delegation of students and teachers from different institutions of Nepal visited India. They visited educational institutions and places of cultural interest. They were also presented a set of books on Indian education and culture. A student teacher delegation from Sikkim was also in India in February, 1962.

2. National Awards for Teachers.-

The scheme of national awards for teachers was instituted by the Ministry during 1958-59 with the object of raising the prestige of the teaching profession and giving public recognition to distinguished primary and secondary teachers for the meritorious services rendered by them to the community in their professional life and it is being continued during the third Five-Year Plan. In 1961-62, eighty-five awards-44 for primary teachers and 41 for secondary teachers-were conferred by the Vice-President of India, upon teachers selected from all over the country at a special function organised by the Ministry at New Delhi on 31st October. 1961.

3. Conference of World Confederation of Teaching Profession.-

The Ministry assisted the World Confederation of Teaching Profession to hold its session at Delhi. The Conference was held in July/August, 1961, and was attended by 70 representatives of various countries.

4. Emotional Integration Committee.-

To consider how the fissiparous tendencies manifesting themselves in the country can be counteracted, the Ministry of Education constituted a committee in May, 1961, under the chairmanship of Dr. Sampurnanand to examine the role of education in

promoting emotional integration in national life and to suggest suitable programmes in this regard. The members are: Smt. Indira Gandhi, Prof. T, M. Advani, Prof. Hiren Mukerjee, Shri M. Henry Samuel, Prof. M. N. Srinivas, Bhai Jodh Singh, Shri A. E. T. Barrow, Shri Asoka Mehta, Shri A. A. A. Fyzee, Shri K. Kuruvila Jacab and Dr. B. S. Haikerwal. The terms of reference of the Committee are: (i) to study the role of education in strengthening and promoting the processes of emotional integration in national life and to examine the operation of tendencies which come in the way of their development; and (ii) in the light of such study, to advise on the positive educational programmes for youth in general and the students in schools and colleges in particular to strengthen in them the processes of emotional integration.

The Committee submitted its preliminary report to the Ministry in November, 1961, which is now being examined. The final report of the Committee is awaited.

5. Education of the Tibetan Children.-

With the influx of Tibetan refugees, the problem of their education attracted the attention of the Government. An autonomous society, registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, has been formed to arrange for the provision of educational facilities for the children of displaced Tibetans. The Education Minister is the chairman of the Society and its members include representatives of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Ministries of External Affairs, Finance and Education.

During 1961, residential schools were established at Simla, Mussoorie and Darjeeling. A local executive committee consisting of the Tibetan principal of the school, the Deputy Commissioner of the district, two nominees of the Central Committee and one representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama was set up for each of these schools.

6. Promotion of Gandhian Philosophy.-

The Ministry of Education instituted during the second Five-Year Plan, a scheme to inculcate a proper appreciation and knowledge of Gandhiji's life and thought among students. It has been decided to continue the scheme during the third Five-Year Plan period.

Kumari Manuben Gandhi continued her lecture tour in schools during the current year and sets of selected Gandhian literature were presented to some institutions of higher learning in the country. The programme for the third Five-Year Plan envisages the continuance of Kumari Manuben Gandhi's lectures in selected secondary schools of the States and Union Territories not covered so far, supply of Gandhian literature to educational institutions, lectures of eminent persons on Gandhiji's life and thought in various Indian universities and collaboration with selected non-official organisations interested in the promotion of Gandhiji's ideals and teachings

in the country. Under this scheme, it is also proposed to assist the setting up of the Institute of Gandhian Studies at Varanasi.

7. Promotion of Inter-State Understanding.-

This scheme was started during 1959-60 with the object of promoting a wider appreciation of the cultural and emotional unity of the country among the students and it will be continued in the third Five-Year Plan. The actual programmes to be implemented will be determined on the receipt of the recommendations to be made by the Sampurnanand Committee in its fuller report.

8. Expansion of N.C.C. Units in Public Schools.-

Expenditure on the provision of N.C.C. Units in the State schools is borne jointly by the Ministry of Defence and the State Governments concerned. In the public schools, the State Governments' matching contribution is borne by the Government of India. During the third Five-Year Plan, the Scheme is proposed to be extended to cover a number of residential schools also. These schools will be those which have been selected by the Ministry of Education under its Merit Scholarships Scheme and those which will be selected under the scheme of educational assistance to children of Central Government employees as recommended by the Second Pay Commission. The Scheme has been finalised by the Government of India and its implementation is to commence during the year 1962-63.

9. Scheme for Grants-in-Aid for Approved Research Projects.-

The scheme for the promotion of research in problems connected with secondary education was initiated in 1953-54 and continued throughout the second Five-Year Plan. The purpose of this scheme is to create research-mindedness in the educational institutions in the country. Under this scheme grants on 100 per cent basis are given to the teacher-training institutions, departments of education in universities and other recognised institutions for carrying out research on educational problems selected by them and approved by the Ministry. Its scope has since been enlarged to include research in pre-primary, primary and Basic education.

To date, 53 research projects have been sanctioned to various institutions. Out of these, 40 projects have been completed. Reports of 17 projects have been printed; five are under print; four have been rejected and reports of ten projects are being edited. Five projects were abandoned due to unsatisfactory progress and eight projects are continuing. In addition to these 53 projects, 32 projects are under consideration.

This scheme has been transferred to the National Council of Educational Research and Training since 1st December. 1961, and will now be implemented by that body.

10. Loans.-

The scheme of granting loans for the construction of hostels for training institutions and for secondary schools which was included in

the Central sector in the second Five-Year Plan has been transferred to the State sector during the third Five-Year Plan. Some budget provision is, however, being made to honour past commitments.

On the recommendations of the University Grants Commission, a scheme has been included in the third Five-Year Plan for loans to State Governments for the construction of hostels for affiliated colleges with a total allocation of Rs. 40 lakh. The expenditure incurred on this scheme will be debited to the Plan allocation of the University Grants Commission during the third Plan. Loans amounting to Rs. 3,50,000 were sanctioned to the State Governments of Andhra Pradesh, Madras and Mysore. The last instalment of Rs. 5,000 was also released direct to the Dev Samaj College for Girls, Ambala City.

A scheme for advancing loans to voluntary organisations for the construction of hostels in big cities for the benefit, mainly, of college students had been included in the third Five-Year Plan, with an allocation of Rs. 8,00,000. On the recommendations of the Central Advisory Board of Education, the Ministry of Education has agreed to provide grants instead of loans to these organisations for the construction of hostels. Under the scheme, financial assistance would be provided to voluntary educational organisations who are prepared to run the hostel on a no-profit basis. The grant-in-aid from the Central Government will be limited to 50 per cent of the total estimated cost in the case of men's hostels and 75 per cent in the case of women's hostels, subject to a ceiling of Rs. 1,00,000. The remaining expenditure will be borne by the State Government and/or the institution concerned. The hostel constructed under the scheme shall be open for admission to all citizens of India without any distinction of religion, caste, race, place of birth, language or any of them. The hostel will admit students from more than one State studying in the university/colleges situated in the city. Proposals under the scheme have been invited.

11. Clearing House Functions.-

One of the major responsibilities of the Government of India is to serve as a clearing house of ideas and information in education. This function is partly discharged through (a) the construction and working of the advisory boards or councils, (b) the holding of seminars, workshops, etc. on different subjects and (c) the appointment of ad hoc committees, study-groups or commissions, referred to separately in their appropriate context. In addition to these, the Ministry also maintains three sections-Information, Statistics and Publications- whose main function is to look after clearing house responsibilities of the Government of India.

A. INFORMATION SECTION

During the year under review, the Section had to handle about 9,000 enquiries from members of the public, students, teachers, parents, educational institutions, Government bodies, national and international organisations

and foreign governments on various aspects of education in India and abroad. About 1,500 persons visited the library of the Section for information and guidance in regard to educational facilities in India and abroad.

Cyclostyled material containing information regarding facilities available in various field of education in India and abroad was compited and furnished to all students' advisory bureaux/committees in India. These bureaux/ committees were also supplied with copies of publications which were received from foreign countries. Information on thirty educational topics was collected and compiled/revised during the year under review.

In order to bring up-to-date the information available in the Section with regard to educational facilities in various countries, about 100 brochures and other relevant publications were obtained from embassies in

India of the respective countries. These embassies have also agreed to include the name of this Ministry on their free mailing list of similar brochures to be issued in future.

B. STATISTICAL SECTION

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 that may be required to improve the quality of the educational data.

(i) Collection of Statistics.-

During the year, the collection of statistics for 1958-59 and 1959-60, both from the State Governments and the universities, was completed and that for 1960-61 taken up. The discrepancies in the statistic for 1958-59 were reconciled and those in the statistics for 1959-60 were being scrutinised.

(ii) Publications.-

The following publications were brought out during the year under review:

1. Education in the States, 1957-58

2. Education in India, 1956-57-Vol. I

3. Education in India, 1956-57-Vol. II

4. Directory of Institutions for Higher Education in India, 1961

5. Education in Universities in India, 1957-58

(iii) Statistical Enquiries.-

During the year under report, 105 major enquiries were attended to. The enquiries, apart from having wide coverage, are becoming more and more detailed.

(iv) In-service Training Courses in Educational Statistics.-

To improve the reliability and timely supply of statistics, the Section has been giving technical assistance to the States and universities to organise short in-service training courses in educational statistics for the benefit of their Staff. Financial assistance is also given to the universities at the rate of 50 per cent of the total expenditure incurred on travelling and daily allowances of the trainees in such courses. Under this scheme, courses have been organised during the year by the Universities of Saugar, Calcutta, Gujarat, Ranchi, Vikram and Bihar. Besides, proposals for holding short courses. in the Universities of Andhra, Madras, Punjab and Banaras are under consideration.

C. PUBLICATIONS SECTION

The Section is the main publishing agency of the Ministry, although a few publications are also brought out in other units.

(i) Journals.-

The Ministry of Education brings out four quarterly journals: (1) The Education Quarterly (fourteenth year of publications (2) Secondary Education (sixth year of publication); (3) Youth (fifth year of publication); and (4) the Indian Journal of Educational Administration and Research (second year of publication).

(ii) Other Publications.-

A complete list of all the publications brought out during the year under review by the Ministry of Education is given in Annexure IV.

12. Plan Co-ordination Unit.-

The Plan Coordination Unit of the Ministry continued its activities of coordinating the work of the Ministry with regard to Central and State educational development schemes under the second and third Five-Year Plans. The proposals received from the States and Union Territories for the programme of the year 1962-63 were discussed in the Education Working Group meetings. Grants amounting to Rs. 17.63 crores were sanctioned to the States as Central assistance for 1961-62 programmes.

A Conference of State Education Secretaries and Directors of Public Instruction/Education was organised on June 15 and 16, 1961 for considering the various measures which should be taken to secure effective implementation of the education programmes in the third Five-Year Plan. The report of the conference has since been published.

13. Recruitment of Teachers for Service Abroad.-

During the year under report, requests for the services of Indian teachers were received from a number of countries, viz. Afghanistan, U.S.S.R., Uganda, Sudan, Nigeria, British Guiana, libya, Iraq, Mauritius, UAR and the Democratic Republic of Germany.

Selection of teachers for service in Afghanistan, Libya, UAR, USSR and Nigeria has been completed.

14. Central Secretariat Library.-

The Ministry of Education has the administrative control of the Central Secretariat Library. The Library is organised in five sections: (1) The Main Library; (2) The Education Library; (3) The Indian Languages Library; (4) The Periodicals Section; and (5) The Government Publications Sections.

The volume of work during the year is, to some extent, represented by the following statistics:

Accessions:-

Books-over 8,000

Documents including Pamphlets--over 15,000

Periodical Titles--over 800

Reference Queries: 20,000

Loans: 2,80,000 (This figure does not include the number of publications consulted in the various sections of the Library.)

Bibliography: Nearly 50 bibliographies on several topics relating to education as also other subjects were compiled.

In addition to the normal work of reference and loan of publications to the offices of the Government of India and their employees, the Central Secretariat Library brought out a number of useful publications. These include: (a) Monthly List of Additions to Books; (b) Monthly List of Additions to Documents; (c) Current Library Literature (monthly) consisting of select articles from Library Science and allied periodicals; (d) Current Administration Literature (bimonthly) consisting of select articles from Public Administration and allied periodicals; (e) Current Education Literature (fortnightly) consisting of abstracts of select articles from foreign educational weeklies and Indian newspapers; (f) Education Index (monthly) consisting of articles from educational periodicals published in India; (g) Education Abroad (bimonthly) consisting of abstracts of select articles from nearly 70 foreign educational periodicals; and (h) Indian Education Abstracts (quarterly) consisting of abstracts of select articles from Indian educational periodicals. These publications have helped to improve the purposeful use of the Library and to receive, in exchange, 295 educational periodicals, Indian and foreign, thus saving rupee and foreign exchange funds.