INTRODUCTORY
The Ministry of Education functioned under the charge of an
Education Minister assisted by two Deputy Education Ministers. Shri
M.C. Chagla relinquished charge and Shri Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed assumed
charge of the portfolio of Education on 13th November, 1966. After
the General Elections Shri Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed relinquished charge on
12th March, 1967 and Dr. Triguna Sen assumed charge of the portfolio
of Education on 16th March, 1967. He is being assisted by two
Ministers of State, Prof. Sher Singh and Shri Bhagwat Jha Azad. Work
relating to the Muslim Wakfs Act, 1954, Wakf properties under the
administration of evacuee Property Act, 1950, and the administration
of Dargah Khawaja Saheb Act, 1955 which was transferred to the
Ministry of Education from the Ministry of Irrigation and Power under
the Presidential Order dated 14th November, 1966, was subsequently
transferred to the Ministry of Law (Legislative Department).
2. Scope and Functions:
Under the Constitution of
India, education is mostly managed by the State Governments. The
Union Government is responsible for the maintenance of four Central
Universities and institutions of national importance, for promotion of
research, and co-ordination and determination of standards in higher
education and research. A Directive Principle of the Constitution
enjoins on the State to provide free and compulsory education to
children up to 14 years of age. The Union Government, under Article
351 of the Constitution, is also responsible for developing and
promoting Hindi language along with Sanskrit and other Indian
languages.
3. The Union Government is also responsible for the collection
and dissemination of educational information for the country as a
whole and for all programmes of international collaboration in the
fields of education, science and culture.
4. These obligations of the Union Government are discharged by
the Ministry of Education through its various programmes of
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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.
5. Organisation:
The work in the Ministry had been re-
organised into 14 Divisions and 9 Units. The Divisions are headed by
Deputy Secretaries/Deputy Educational Advisers. A copy of the
Administrative Chart of the Ministry is attached at the end. Besides,
the Ministry has a number of attached and subordinate offices and
autonomous organisations under its administrative control, of which a
list is given in Annexure I.
6. Education Commission:
The Education Commission appointed
by the Government of India in 1964 under the chairmanship of Dr. D.S.
Kothari submitted its report on June 29, 1966. The report has
provided the basis for widespread discussion at all levels, regarding
the reconstruction of the educational structure in the country. The
implementation of the, crucial recommendations of the Commission, a
common endeavour of the State Governments and the Centre, occupied
priority attention in the Ministry.
7. Fourth Five-Year Plan:
The approach to education during
the Fourth Five-Year Plan period is three-fold: (i) to remove the
present deficiencies in the system and link it more purposefully to
social and economic development of the country, (ii) to improve
standards and quality at all stages, and (iii) to extend educational
facilities to meet social urges and economic needs.
8. The Working Group on General Education, set up to assess the
educational needs of the country, recommended an
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outlay of Rs. 2,600 crore on education during the fourth Plan.
Against this, an allocation of Rs. 1,400 crore was proposed in
October, 1964. It was subsequently reduced to Rs. 1.260 crore in
September, 1965 and then to Rs. 1,210 crore in August, 1966. Of this,
an amount of Rs. 326 crore was in the Central and Centrally sponsored
sectors and Rs. 884 crore in the State sector.
9. Some of the main priorities in various sectors of education
in the fourth Plan as it stands at present are indicated below.
(i) Pre-primary Education:
Attention to be paid to
strategic areas, such as training of teachers and production of
teaching materials.
(ii) Primary and Middle School Education:
(a) Efforts to be
made to provide further facilities for the education of children in
the age-groups 6-11 and 11-14 with a view to fulfilling the
Constitutional directive of universal education at an early date.
About 93 per cent children of the age-group 6-11 and at least 45 to 50
per cent of the children of the age-group 11-14 to be brought to
schools. (b) Effective measures to be taken to reduce wastage and
stagnation. (c) Efforts to be made to remove the present disparity
between the enrolment of girls and boys by providing incentives in the
form of mid-day meals, free supply of textbooks, school uniforms for
poor children, etc. Special steps to be taken to increase the supply
of women teachers, viz., construction of quarter for women teachers in
rural areas and separate sanitary blocks for girls in schools, etc.
(d) Special programmes to be taken up for the training of teachers,
such as improvement of the existing teacher training institutions,
organisation of in-service training courses, etc. (e) Basic education
to be strengthened by developing carefully selected schools and
introducing in others work-oriented curricula and citizenship
training. (f) Condensed and part-time courses to be arranged for those
who are forced to leave the schools for economic reasons.
(iii) Secondary Education:
(a) The main emphasis at this
stage, among other things, to be on diversification of courses. (b)
Science education to be expanded and improved. (c) To
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remove the existing imbalance between the enrolment of girls and boys.
(d) Special programmes to be developed for the training of teachers,
viz., correspondence courses and in-service training courses, summer
science institutes, etc.
(iv) University Education:
(a) With a view to utilising
effectively the limited financial resources, university centres to be
set up instead of opening new universities. (b) At this stage, the aim
is to limit the, number of students going in for arts and commerce
courses. Efforts to be made to provide additional facilities in arts
and commerce through evening colleges and correspondence courses. (c)
The proportion of science students to be increased from, 40 per cent
to 50 per cent. (d) Intensive efforts to be made to improve the
condition of affiliated colleges which cater to about 85 per cent of
the college population.
(v) Technical Education:
(a) programmes in technical
education to be geared to build up the engineering personnel required
for the fifth and subsequent Plans on the basis of optimum utilisation
of engineers and other technical personnel. (b) Expansion of
facilities for degree courses in engineering and technology to be
secured by expansion of selected colleges and institutes. At the
diploma level, additional facilities to be created both by expansion
of the existing institutions and by establishing new ones. Facilities
to be organised in industrial complexes so that technical education
can secure the co-operation of industry. (c) Emphasis to be laid on
the development of part-time and correspondence courses in engineering
and technological subjects.
(vi) Social Education:
(a) The high rate of illiteracy
among the adult population to be wiped out through a massive programme
of adult education based on the active support of the community at
every level. (b) Libraries and reading rooms to be provided on an
adequate scale to prevent relapse of neoliterates back into
illiteracy.
(vii) Qualitative Improvement:
Much greater emphasis to be
given to the improvement of quality of education at various levels
through (a) improvement in the quality of teacher education; (b)
provision of adequate and better equipment in educational
institutions; and (c) development of new curricula, preparation of
textbooks, teachers' guides and other instructional materials.
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10. 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, wherever possible, public opinion with its
activities. 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.
11. Apart from the Central Advisory Board of Education, the
Ministry has set up, over the years, several other boards and
committees for dealing with specific problems in greater detail. The
work of such advisory bodies, where necessary, is reported in its
proper context in the relevant chapters of this report.
12. Education Ministers' Conference:
A Conference of
Education Ministers of States and Union Territories met at Madras in
June, 1966. Important items discussed at the meeting, inter alia,
included: (i) fourth five year Plan of general education, (ii) school
education including improvement of teacher training, science
education, etc., (iii) social education including adult literacy, and
(iv) technical education in the fourth Plan-approach and programme.
13. Review of Standing Charges:
The budget estimates for
the year 1967-68 relating to the grant of the Secretariat
proper,including the standing charges, were discussed in detail in a
meeting of the Internal Economy Committee. As against the budget
estimates of Rs. 69.09 lakh the revised estimates and budget estimates
relating to the standing charges only have, with the assistance of
Associate Finance, been arrived at Rs. 74.88 lakh and Rs. 80.52 lakh
respectively.
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14. Budget:
The budget and revised estimates for the
year 1966-67 and budget estimates for the year 1967-68 relating to,
the grant of the Secretariat proper as a whole, are as under:
Budget Estimates for 1966-67 Revised Estimates for Budget Estimates for
1966-67 1967-68
Rs. 82,74,000 Rs. 88,05,000 Rs. 94,14,000
15. As against the total sanctioned grant of Rs. 111.91 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 the year 1966-67, both Plan and non-
Plan, the revised estimates for 1966-67 and budget estimates for 1967-
68 proposed to be provided amount to Rs. 114.48 crore, (provisional)
and Rs. 130.40 crore (provisional) respectively.
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