INTRODUCTORY
 

In November 1963, the two Ministries of Scientific Research & Cultural Affairs and Education were merged to form a combined Ministry of Education with two Departments--the Department of Education and the Department of Science. The two Departments were later abolished with effect from the 29th February 1964, by a Presidential Order and the, present composite Ministry of Education came into being, under the charge of an Education Minister assisted by two Deputy Education Ministers and One Minister of State, whose post now ceases to exist with effect from 29th October 1965. The Social Welfare Division, which formerly was part of the Ministry of Education, was transferred to the new Department of Social Security under the Ministry of Law created in accordance with the Presidential Order dated the 14th June 1964. During the year 1965-66, the Ministry of Education not only maintained the tempo of its normal work but also recorded a number of notable developments in its organisation and activities.

2. Scope and Functions.-In India, under the Federal Constitution education for the most part is managed by the State Governments. The Union Government have responsibility for the maintenance of four Central Universities, institutions of national importance and others for professional, technical and vocational training and for promotion of research and coordination and determination of standards in higher education or research. The Directive Principles of the Constitution enjoin on the Union Government to provide free and compulsory education to children up to 14 years of age, to develop, enrich and spread the federal language, Hindi, as also to develop other modern Indian languages. As a federal agency, the Ministry is also respon- sible for collection and dissemination of educational information for the country as a whole and for all programmes of international collaboration in the field of education, science and culture.

2.1. These obligations of the Union Government are discharged by the Ministry of Education through the various programmes of activities, pilot projects and research conducted on the one hand by the Ministry of Education and on the other through the agency of different bodies like the University Grants Commission, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the National Council of Educational Research and Training, the Central Hindi Directorate, the Indian Council of Cultural Relations and other similar organisations, financed and/or administered by the Union Government. The responsibilities of the Union Government in the State sector of education are discharged through a broad-based system of grants-in-aid to the respective State Governments for developing their educational programmes. The Union and State Governments work together in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of the various programmes.

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3. Organisation.-The Ministry is at present organised into 12 divisions and a few units. The work relating to libraries has been centralised and placed under a new Division. The division, are headed by Deputy Secretaries/Deputy Educational Advisers. A copy of the Administrative Chart of the Ministry is attached. A list of subordinate offices of the Ministry and the autonomous organisations under its administrative control is given in Annexure I. The Staff Inspection Unit of the Ministry of Finance is at present assessing the staff requirements of the Ministry.

4. The Advisory Bodies.-The Ministry of Education is guided in its policy and programme in the various fields of education, science and culture by advisory bodies set up for the purpose of aligning expert and public opinion with its activities, wherever possible. In the field of education, the main advisory body is the Central Advisory Board of Education which was established in 1935. The Board consists of representatives of the Union and State Governments (generally the State Education Ministers), representatives of the universities and Parliament, and distinguished educationists of the country, with the Union Education Minister as the ex-officio chairman, and the Educational Adviser to the Union Government as ex-officio member. The Board thus provides at the highest level, a common platform where the representatives of the Union and the State Governments can meet and take joint decisions on educational policies and programmes.

4.1. Apart from the Central Advisory Board of Education, the Ministry has had to set up over the course of years, several other boards and committees for dealing with specific problems in greater detail. A list of important advisory bodies which functioned during the whole or part of the year 1965-66 is given at Annexure VII. The work of such advisory bodies is reported in its proper context in the relevant chapters of this report.

5. Fourth Five Year Plan.-The total outlay for Education in the fourth Plan has been tentatively fixed by the National Development Council at Rs. 1,260 crore which has been distributed among various stages of education, viz., Elementary Education-Rs. 398.50 crore, Secondary Education-Rs. 279.17 crore, University Education-Rs. 132.45 crore, Scholarships-Rs. 55.00 crore, Social Education-Rs. 71.00 crore, Technical Education-Rs. 252.70 crore, Cultural Programmes-Rs. 16.18 crore and Others-Rs. 55.00 crore.

5.1. During the fourth Plan, the enrolment drive will be intensified at the elementary stage to bring the maximum number of children in schools towards the achievement of the Constitutional Directive. At the secondary stage, science education, vocational education and diversification of courses, have been given due emphasis to make education terminal at this stage. At the university stage, admission would be restricted to those who cm really benefit by higher education. Schemes of qualitative improvement will receive the highest priority in all sectors of education. Special measures for girls'

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education have been included to accelerate girls enrolment in order to remove disparity between boys and girls. It is proposed to link education more intimately with other programmes of economic development during the fourth Plan. There will be a bias to manual work and productivity at all stages.

6. Present Progress and Further Targets in various Sectors

6.1. Elementary Education.-Efforts to expand educational facilities for children at the primary stage have been continued throughout the third Plan. According to the present information, as against the original target of 152.92 lakh children, the additional enrolment in classes I to V at the end of the third Plan is expected to be 165.02 lakh, Thus it is expected that the number of school-going children in these classes will rise at the end of 1965-66 to 514.67 lakh. This will bring the total percentage of school-going children in the age-group 6-11 at the end of the third Plan to 78.5 against 62.3 at the end of second Plan. For the middle stage (Class VI-VIII), the target of additional enrolment during the third Plan was 35 lakh children. It is now expected that 43.77 lakh additional children will be enrolled in these classes. Thus the enrolment at this stage at the end of 1965-66 is likely to go up to 110.33 lakh. This will bring the percentage of children attending schools in the age-group 11-14 to 32.4 as against 22.4 at the end of the second Plan.

6.1.1. Provision has been made in the fourth Plan for an additional enrolment of 19 million children in the age-group 6-11 and 8 million children in the age-group 11-14. This will bring the percentage of school-going children in the age-group 6-11 to 93.1 and in the age-group 11-14 to 47.4. Special measures are being taken to enrol more girls, and it is expected that the percentage of their enrolment to their population in the age-group 6-11 will be 81.5 by 1971. In the age-group 11-14 the corresponding percentage will rise, to 29.6.

6.1.2. Besides enrolment of additional school-going children, the Union Ministry of Education has incorporated a large number of schemes for the qualitative improvement of schools. These include conversion/orientation of primary schools to Basic type, improving the working of the existing Basic schools, giving a work-bias in all other elementary schools and improvement of teacher training institutions. With a view to bring about increased enrolment at this stage, mid-day meals will be supplied in a much larger number of elementary schools. Besides, free supply of textbooks will be made to poor and needy children. Since no improvement can succeed without adequately trained teachers, efforts will be made to clear the backlog of untrained teachers by correspondence courses and by increasing the intake capacity of the existing training institutions.

6.2. Secondary Education.-The increase in enrolment at the secondary stage during the third Plan has been phenomenal. At the end of the second

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Plan there were 30.17 lakh students in classes IX-XI. This number is expected to rise to 53.76 lakh at the end of the current Plan. A substantial provision has been made at the secondary stage for providing vocational courses of a terminal character (including agricultural courses). Nearly 40 per cent of the outlay in this sector has been apportioned for the various schemes of improvement and diversification of courses at this stage. Besides, a provision of Rs. 28.50 crore has been made for the development of science education in this sector.

6.3. Women's Education.-The Union Government is making concen- trated efforts to advance the education of girls and women. AS a, result of several steps taken by the government to encourage women's education during the third Plan, it is envisaged that by the end of the Plan 56.4 per cent of girls at the primary stage, 17.0 per cent at the end of middle stage will be in schools. The progress in enrolment of girls in secondary schools has also been satisfactory. The number of girls in classes IX-XI was 5.53 lakh at the end of the second Plan and this is expected to rise to 11.50 lakh at the end of third Plan. The percentage of girls in the age-group 14-17 at the secondary schools will be 7.7 per cent.

6.3.1. For the acceleration of girls' education an allocation of Rs. 26.10 lakh (Rs. 25 lakh for States and Rs. 1.10 lakh for Union Territories) has been made under the Advance Action Programme of the fourth Plan.

6.4. Higher Education.-The total enrolment at the university stage ( other than technical and professional) is likely to increase from 7.32 lakh to about 12 lakh by the end of the Third Plan. A target of 5 lakhs of enrolment has been fixed for this sector during the fourth Plan. At the university stage, there will be more emphasis at consolidation. During the fourth Plan, generally no new university is proposed to be established. Instead, University Centres would be set up, each within a complex of colleges with an enrolment of about 10,000, where facilities for academic work of university standard are made available in respect of libraries, laboratories and teachers. A provision of Rs. 10 crore has been made in the fourth Plan for this purpose. In addition, a provision of Rs. 20 crore has been made for the improvement of affiliated colleges,

6.5. Technical Education.-In the field of technical education, a total provision of Rs. 250.70 crore has been proposed with a view to increasing the output of engineers and technicians for meeting the requirements of development of various sectors. Sufficient provision has been made for expanding training capacity of a large number of existing engineering and technical institutions and for the establishment of 6 large-sized engineering colleges and 18 polytechnics in different parts of the country,

6.6. Cultural Relations.-The Union Ministry of Education continued to develop closer and deeper cultural relations with other countries both at governmental and non-governmental levels and supported and strengthened the programme of Unesco in education, science and culture. Today,

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India has cultural relations with nearly 80 countries and spends about Rs. 5 million annually. Through an exchange of cultural delegations and exhibitions and participation in international programmes, efforts have been made to project India's cultural heritage abroad and to bring to India the cultural heritage of other countries.

7. Education Commission.-With a view to advising the Government on the national pattern of education and on the principles and policies for the development of education at all stages and in all aspects, except legal and medical education, an Education Commission under the Chairmanship of Dr. D. S. Kothari, Chairman, University Grants Commission, was set up in October, 1964, to survey the entire field of educational system. The Commission consists of sixteen members (11 Indian and 5 foreign). In addition, eleven foreign experts of repute and standing in the educational as well as the scientific field are. acting as consultants to the Commission. The Unesco, the British Council and the USAID have assisted in securing the services of these experts from abroad.

7.1. The Commission formed itself into twelve task forces and a number of working groups, each dealing with a particular aspect of education. Experienced educationists from all over the country have been associated with these working groups and the task forces. The Commission has visited almost all the States in the country to gather firsthand information and it is expected to submit its report by the 30th June, 1966.

8. Indian Educational Service.-All the State Governments have agreed in principle to the formation of the Indian Educational Service. The Service will consist of two branches, viz., the General Educational Branch and the Technical Educational Branch. It will include all posts with mainly administrative duties in both the branches. A Resolution regarding the constitution of the Service was moved and adopted in the Rajya Sabha at its sitting on the 30th March 1965. The State Governments/ Union Administrations have now been requested to intimate the number and details of the posts proposed to be included in the Service and to give their comments on the tentative scheme prepared for the constitution of the Service.

9. Review of Standing Charges.-The budget estimates for the year 1966-67 relating to the grant of the secretariat proper, including the standing charges, were discussed in detail, at a meeting of Secretary, Joint Secretary and officers of the Associated Finance in connection with the general 15 per cent cut in the budget estimates which were consequently reduced considerably, The Secretaries Committee also reviewed the estimates. As the budget estimates for 1966-67 had been reviewed by the Secretaries Committee, no further review of the standing charges by the Internal Economy Committee of the Ministry was considered necessary.

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10. Budget.-In accordance with the general economy measures, the grant for the secretariat of the Ministry has been reduced. The relevant budget and revised estimates for 1965-66 and 1966-67 are as follows :

             Budget for          Revised Estimates        Budget Estimates
             1965-66                  for 1965-66         for 1966-67
             Rs. 91,26,000            Rs. 83,71,000       Rs. 82,74,000
        
                                          

10.1. As against the total sanctioned grant of Rs. 123.87 crore for the Ministry as a whole (including the provisions made by the Ministry of Education in the Demands operated by the Ministries of Home Affairs and Finance) for 1965-66 both under Plan and non-Plan, the revised estimates have been fixed at Rs. 127.91 crore. It is proposed to include a provision of Rs. 109.85 crore in the budget estimates for 1966-67.

(6A)

(6B)