ELEMENTARY AND BASIC EDUCATION
UNIVERSAL, FREE AND COMPULSORY PRIMARY EDUCATION Owing to non-availability of funds, it was found that it would nor be possible to reach the goal set out in Article 45 of the Constitution within the prescribed period. It was therefore decided, in consultation with the Planning Commission that the period of universal, free and compulsory education up to 14 years should be broken up into two stages and that the first stage, i.e., the introduction of universal, free and compulsory education for all children of the age-group 6-11 should be reached by 1965-66 at the latest. This recommendation was endorsed by the Conference of State Education Ministers and the Central Advisory Board of Education and approved by the Cabinet.
Accordingly, the State Governments. and Administrations of Union Territories were requested to send their estimates and programme for introducing free and compulsory education. for all children in the age group 6-11. On the basis of the estimates received, it was found that an expenditure of the order of Rs. 300 crores will be required for providing. free and compulsory Primary education during the Third Five-Year Plan This proposal has been approved by the Central Working Group on Education for the Third Five-Year Plan and has been incorporated in the Education Plan for the country.
One of the main requirements for the successful implementation of the programme of universal compulsory primary education is to train a large number of teachers. The Ministry of Education, therefore, took up, this important and urgent matter with the Planning Commission and the Ministry of Finance and obtained their concurrence to a scheme for producing an adequate number of trained teachers for appointment during the Third Five-Year Plan by increasing the intake capacity of existing training institutions and by opening additional institutions, where necessary. Under this scheme, Central grant on a 100% basis is being given to State Governments and Union Territories for expanding teacher training facilities. According to estimates prepared by the State Governments, the total requirement of additional teachers during the Third Five-Year Plan. to implement the programme of free and compulsory primary education comes to about five lakhs, This programme envisages regular training for about half of these additional teachers. For the remaining, short orientation courses of eight to ten weeks' duration are to be arranged. An attempt will also be made to train as many women teachers as possible under this programme.
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In order to pay special attention to the quality and contents of this training, the following points have been emphasised:-
(a) The training provided should be on the Basic pattern only;
(b) the normal qualification for admission into these institutions should be matriculation or post-Basic or higher secondary, although it may be found necessary for some time to make some relaxation in this regard in the case of women teachers or in some specially backward areas; and
(c) the duration of training should be two years as far as practicable.
Administrative approval of the Government of India has been com- municated to State Governments for an expenditure of about Rs. 2.74 crores during 1959-60. The scheme will be continued during 1960-61 and Central assistance will continue to be given on a 100% basis.
Model Legislation for Introducing Free and Compulsory Primary
Education A Model Legislation for compulsory education, prepared in consultation with the Ministry of Law was placed before the All- India Council for Elementary Education for consideration. The views and the suggestions of the Council on the draft will again be taken up with the Ministry of Law for suitable revision, if necessary. It is hoped that the Model Legislation will be sent out shortly to the State Governments for guidance.
The Government of India being responsible for the administration- of the Union Territories, the Ministry of Education have decided to introduce a bill in Parliament for Compulsory Education in the territories of Himachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura. A draft bill drawn up for the purpose in consultation with the Ministry of Law, has been referred to the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Finance. With the final approval of the bill by the Union Cabinet, it will be introduced in Parliament.
A separate bill for compulsory education in the territory of Delhi has also been processed in consultation with the Ministry of Law. After due observance of the procedures, it will also be finally introduced in Parliament.
States/Union Territories Schemes of Pre-Primary, Elementary, Basic
and Women's Education (Elementary Stage) According to the revised procedure introduced last year regarding Central assistance to State Government for the implementation of their Educational Development programmes under the 2nd Five-Year Plan, lump sum ways and means advance to the extent of three-fourths of the admissible Central assistance for all sectors of development are being released
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by the Ministry of Finance in regular monthly instalments beginning in May, 1959. The amount of Central grants admissible to State Govern- ments for any category of schemes will be calculated during the fourth quarter of the year on the basis of actual progress achieved by them during the first three quarters and estimated expenditure during the fourth quarter. Group-wise sanction of grants will be issued accordingly at that time.
The Administrations of all the Union Territories were advised to go ahead with the implementation of all the schemes in this group within their financial competence and refer only such schemes to this Ministry for administrative approval-and expenditure sanction as are beyond their powers.
Project on School Buildings Improvement The purpose of this project is to provide technical assistance for improving the design, construction and improvement of school buildings utilising indigenous building material to the maximum.
Towards this objective, a team consisting of an U.S. expert, an architect and an officer of this Ministry was appointed, which, after careful study and discussions through seminars and with the State Governments for a period of two years, has submitted a report. The report which is under print will be available shortly. In addition to this, certain literature known as Rip-books have also been produced and some 30,000 copies were distributed all over the country with the idea of stimulating interest in and emphasising the importance of planning and construction of school houses.
Embodying the idea suggested in these books, film-strips have also been prepared and copies of the same have been supplied to all the State Governments and Union Territories for exhibition.
Another step taken under this project is the creation of nucleus libraries for consultation purposes in each of the States and Union Territories. Books and materials, with an exclusive bearing on the subject are being made available as a gift-from abroad to each of the libraries.
Scheme of Relief of Educated Unemployment and Expansion of Primary
Education According to the information received so far in respect of the above scheme the State Governments of Andhra Pradesh, Bombay, Kerala, Madras, Mysore, Rajasthan, West Bengal and the Administrations of Tri- pura and Manipur have appointed their quota of teachers for 1958-59 while the State Government of Uttar Pradesh and the Himachal Pradesh Administration will be appointing their quota for 1958-59 during the year 1959-60
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Improvement of Science Education in Elementary Schools On the basis of the suggestions made by the State Governments and the All-India Council for Elementary Education in their second meeting, the proposal was finalised and the State Governments were asked to implement the same in not more than one area comprising 100 elementary schools, in their respective States, from 1st October, 1959. The Government of India will bear the entire expenditure up to a certain ceiling for various items. Central assistance will be available for the current year from the date of commencement of the scheme for a period of six months only. This will be further subject to a ceiling of Rs. 7,000 for the current year for each State/Administration with liberty to the State Government/Administration to divide the expenditure on the recurring and non-recurring items up to certain ceilings mentioned in the scheme.
A sum of Rs. 75,000 has been provided for 1959-60 and Rs. 1,25,000 for the year 1960-61.
Orienting Primary Schools Towards the Basic Pattern A National Seminar on 'Orienting Primary Schools towards the Basic Pattern' was held at Allahabad on 11-13th May, 1959. Directors of Education of the State Governments and Union Territories participated in this Seminar. The Seminar discussed the various problems connected with the orientation programme and suggested ways and means to implement it. The Seminar recommended among other things that the programme should be completed either by the Second Five-Year Plan or in the earlier part of the Third Five-Year Plan. Some of the salient features of the rural teacher training scheme initiated by the Ministry of Community Development and Cooperation were also incorporated in the orientation programme. The Seminar also recommended that the entire expenditure for the teacher training programme should be borne by the Government of India and other expenditure including the provision of equipment and literature to the oriented schools should be met by the State Governments. The Seminar also felt that, in order to introduce some of the prominent features of Basic education particularly the programmes selected for the purpose of orientation, heavy expenditure need not be incurred and that the maximum cooperation of the community should be enlisted.
Recently, the Planning Commission has agreed to treat a limited portion of the orientation programme as a Centrally sponsored scheme during the Second Five-Year Plan. The scheme has so far been imple- mented by the State governments with such savings as were available out of their own Plan provision.
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Establishment of Post-Basic Schools The scheme provides for grants to be given to the State governments and the voluntary organisations for the establishment and improvement of Post-Basic schools. Grant is also available for upgrading the Senior Basic schools to Post-Basic schools. Regarding grants to State governments for the establishment of Post-Basic schools, requests from the States of Bombay, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, who have included the scheme in their Educational Development Plans, are under consideration during the current year. As for assistance to voluntary organisations, a grant of Rs. 3341 was paid this year as a second instalment of grant, to the Rayat Shikshan Sanstha, Satara, Bombay. Five more applications from voluntary organisations in the States of Bombay, Madras, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan (one in each State) are under consideration. The revised budget estimate of grants to State governments is Rs. 1,50,000 and that for the voluntary organisations Rs. 70,500 for the year 1959-60.
Central Basic School, New Delhi It is proposed to establish at New Delhi an urban Basic school of the Higher Secondary grade. The Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, Delhi Branch, is being entrusted with the responsibility of starting this school. The actual site is, however, yet to be decided.
National Institute of Basic Education The progress of work of the Institute during the period under review has been as follows:
Research Research on the following projects was completed and draft reports were prepared:
(i) Developing general framework of correlated syllabus for Basic Schools.
(ii) Evolving targets for craft work for the various grades of Basic schools
Work on the following research projects continued :
(i) Comparative costliness of Basic and non-Basic education
(ii) Analysis and evaluation of language readers for class 1 and 2 of Basic schools of Hindi speaking States
A new research project on "Analysis and evaluation of some integrated syllabi" was taken up.
Suggestions regarding topics on which research should be taken up were invited from Directors of Education and Principals of Post- Graduate
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training institutions. The suggestions are being analysed and classified. Abstracts were prepared of some research works completed in some institutions. Information about research being done in other parts of the country is being collected and abstracted with a view to publishing them for the benefit of persons interested in such research.
Training The following programmes were completed during the year under review:
(i) Two-week workshop-cum-refresher course in the technique of correlation for Principals of Under- Graduate training institutions and lecturers of Post- Graduate Basic training colleges.-Forty-two delegates and observers from various parts of the country participated in the workshop.
(ii) One-week conference of Headmasters and Inspecting Officers of eleven proposed Model Basic Schools of Delhi at the request of the Delhi Municipal Corporation.-The Conference discussed various measures to be adopted for the successful working of the proposed Model Basic schools.
(iii) Symposium on 'Organising Basic Education in Urban Areas The participants in the symposium included Members of Parliament, Officials of the Ministry of Education, Planning Commission, Delhi Municipal Corporation and other institutions.
(iv) National short-term training course for Administrators in Basic education.-All the States and Union Territories were represented in the course that ran for a fortnight. Various important administrative problems regarding the expansion and improvement of Basic education were taken up for thorough discussion group-wise and seminar-wise.
Production of Literature The following publication were brought out:
(i) BUNIYADI TALIM-a quarterly journal of Basic Education. Four numbers of 1959.
(ii) Basic Education Abstracts: One number.
(iii) Fibre Craft.
(iv) Hindi translation of 'Basic Activities for Non- Basic Schools
(v) Report of proceedings of the first course for Basic education administrators held in November-December 1958 (Mimeographed).
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The following publications are in the press and are expected to be out shortly:
(i) Basic Education Abstracts.
(ii) Basic Education Bibliography.
(iii) Measuring Educational Potentiality of Crafts.
(iv) Difficulties of Basic school Teachers.
(v) One number of 'BUNIYADI TALIM'.
Improving Current Practices The action programme taken up for a Rural Basic school in Delhi continued and one year's work was completed. The draft report of the progress made has been prepared. A workshop of the teachers of the school was organised again to discuss the problems of breaking the syllabus into activity units and of improving the other functions of the school.
Advice and guidance to the model schools established by Delhi Corporation, continued to be given as and when requests were received from the institutions.
Clearing House Function As the collection of detailed statistics regarding the progress of Basic education from the States usually takes a long time, a proforma incorporating such items for which information could be readily available with the States was evolved and sent to the State governments. The information from most of the States has been received.
It has been decided to prepare directories of post-Graduate Basic training institutions and post-Basic schools in the country. For this, detailed proformas have been evolved for 'collecting information.
Guidance and Advice One Unesco Fellow from Iran was attached to the Institute for one week for the study of the programmes of Home Science in the Elementary schools of India. Similarly, a batch of sixteen education officers from Cambodia visited the Institute to understand the concept, technique and progress of Basic education.
The revised budget estimate for the Institute is Rs. 1,63,400 for 1959-60.
Production of Literature and other Material for Basic Education A programme was formulated in 1957-58 under the Second Five-Year Plan, for encouragement of production of suitable literature and craft material required by students and teachers of Basic schools. The Plan Provision of this scheme has been reduced from Rs. 10 lakhs to Rs. 1.50 lakhs. It is proposed therefore to reduce the budget provision for 1959-60 from Rs. 2.00 lakhs to Rs. 1.00 lakh.
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An expenditure of Rs. 62,000 has been incurred during the year 1959, and an expenditure of Rs. 38,000 is expected to be incurred during the period January 1960 to March, 1960.