ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
Universalisation of Elementary Education 5.1.1 universalisation of Elementary Education is a constitutional mandate. Article 45 of the Constitution stipulates free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of 14 years. Inspite of concerted efforts and considerable investments by the Centre and State Governments in promoting elementary education, the target of Universalisation of Elementary Education has not been achieved. The Revised National Policy on Education 1992 now stipulates that this target should be achieved before the turn of the century.
5.1.2 The table below brings out the status of expansion of elementary education since 1950-51 :
1950-51 1992-93
Number of primary schools 2.20 lakhs 5.72 lakhs
Number of Middle schools 0.14 lakhs 1.53 lakhs
Enrolment of Classes I to V 19.15 million 105.40 million
of boys 13.77 million 60.5 million
of girls 5.38 million 44.9 million
Enrolment in classes VI to VIII 3.13 million 38.7 million
of boys 2.50 million 23.7 million
of girls 0.54 million 15.00 million
Enrolment in classes I to VIII 22.28 million 144.1 million
of boys 16.36 million 84.2 million
of girls 5.92 million 59.9 million
5.1.3 Despite this level of expansion of education, vast ground is yet to be covered for fulfilling the constitutional mandate of UEE. Drop out rates are significant; retention of children in schools is low; wastage is considerable (In 1988-89, drop out rate were 46.97% in classes I to V and 62.29% in classes I to VIII). There are striking disparities in access to Elementary Education disparities as between regions, rural and urban areas, boys and girls, the affluent and the deprived and the minorities and the others. The clientele to be serviced in the age-group of 6-14 is of the order of 153 million as on 1st March 1991 constituting about 18 per cent of the total population, of this 51 per cent were boys and 49 per cent were girls. While the Fifth All India Educational Survey reflects that 94.06 per cent of the rural population was served with primary school/section within a walking distance of one kilometer and 85.39% of them was served with middle school/sections within a distance of three kilometres.
5.1.4 The extant policy and its Programme of Action gives unqualified priority to the programme of Universalisation of Elementary Education with focus on
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girls and disadvantaged groups. The salient features of the Revised POA are :-
- The emphasis has been shifted from enrolment per-se to enrolment as well as retention and achievement. The POA puts it crisply, "Enrolment 'by itself is of little importance if children do not continue beyond one year many of them not seeing the school for more than a few days."
Education policy has admitted that school would not reach all children, particularly girls and working children whose participation in school system is thwarted by socioeconomic parameters. It calls for introduction of a large and systematic programme of non- formal education as an integral component of the strategy to achieve UEE with enough flexibility to enable learners to learn at their own pace and at the time convenient to them.
- Local area planning with disaggregated target setting and decentralised participative planning has been emphasised. The focus has shifted from educationally backward States to educationally backward districts. A host of measures both on the supply side and the demand side, mobilisation of community support and enlisting of NGOs to supplement higher financial outlays have been recommended.
5.1.5 The national targets for the 8th Plan have been identified as:
A. Access i) Universal enrolment of all children, including girls and persons belonging to SC/ST;
ii) Provision of primary school for all children within one kilometre of walking distance and of facility of nonformal education for school drop-outs, working children and girls who cannot attend schools;
iii) Improvement of ratio of primary school to upper primary school from the existing 4:1 to 2:1, this being a precondition for larger opportunity for widening girls' participation at upper primary stage;
B.Retention iv) Reduction of drop-out rates between Classes I-V and I-VIII from the existing 45% and 60% to 20% and 40% respectively.
V) Improvement of school facilities by revamped Operation Blackboard, to be extended to upper primary level also;
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C. Attainment vi) Achievement of minimum levels of learning by approximately all children at the primary level, and introduction of this concept at the upper primary stage on a large scale;
D. Monitoring vii) Local level committee, with due representation to women and teachers, to assist in the working of primary education to oversee its functioning;
viii) Improvement of the monitoring system for Universalisation of elementary education to see to the achievement of above mentioned goals.
Operation Blackboard 5.2.1 The scheme of Operation Blackboard, started in 1987-88 to bring about substantial improvement in facilities in Primary schools with the aim of improving retention, has three inter-dependent components, namely (i) Provision of a building comprising at least two reasonably large all-weather rooms with a varandah and separate toilets for boys and girls (ii) at least two teachers in every primary school, as far as possible one of them a women; and (iii) provision of essential teaching learning equipment including, blackboards, maps, charts, toys and equipment for work experience. Funds for construction of school buildings are provided by the State Govts. However 48% funds for construction are also provided by Ministry of Rural Development as central matching share under Jawahar Rozgar Yojana if States raise 12% JRY share and 40% Non JRY share. Funds for other two component are provided by this Department. The scheme envisaged coverage of primary schools in all the blocks/municipal areas in the country in a phased manner.
5.2.2 In the period 1987-88 to 1992-93, the scheme was implemented in 91.5% of the blocks in the country comprising 91 per cent of the primary schools. An assistance of Rs. 853.95 crores was released by this Department. Of this Rs. 154.91 crores was released in 1992-93. There is a provision of Rs. 179 crores for Operation Blackboard during 1993-94. It is proposed to cover the remaining primary schools during 1993-94 itself.
5.2.3 In order to operationalise the revised policy and Programme and Programme of Action 1992 regarding school facilities, the following three sub-schemes are proposed under Operation Blackboard during the eighth plan :-
i) Continuation of the on-going Operation Blackboard to cover the remaining schools identified in seventh plan.
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ii) Expansion of the scheme of Operation Blackboard to provide three teachers and three class rooms to the primary schools where enrolment exceeds 100.
iii) Extension of the scope of Operation Blackboard to Upper Primary schools.
Operation Blackboard - Achievements
1987-88 1988-89 1989-90 1990-91 1991-92 1992-93
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Amount spent 110.61 135.73 126.98 150.09 175.63 154.91
(Rs. in crores)
No. of Blocks 1703 1795 578 343 960 477
covered.
No. of schools 1.13 1.40 0.52 0.39 0.68 0.55
covered
(in lakhs)
Percentage of 21.00 26.40 9.90 7.35 12.74 11%
primary
schools
covered
Posts of 36397 36327 5274 14379 26840 11439
primary
teachers
sanctioned.
Minimum Levels of Learning (MLLs) 5.3.1 The strategy to improve learning acquisition in schools focuses attention on what is happening in the classroom, and seeks to bring the principles of equity and quality to bear up on it. The strategy aims at laying down learning outcomes expected from basic education at a realistic, relevant and functional level, and prescribing the adoption of measures that will ensure that all children who complete a stage of schooling achieve these outcomes. These outcomes define the MLL common to both school and equivalent NFE programme.
5.3.2 The following are the different steps for introduction of MLL in schools : (i) an assessment of the existing level of learning achievement; (ii) a definition of the MLL for the area and the time-frame within which it will be achieved; (iii) reorientation of teaching practices to competency based teaching; (iv) an introduction of contiguous, comprehensive evaluation of students learning; (v) review of
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textbooks and revision, if required; (vi) provision of inputs as necessary including provision of physical facilities, teacher training, supervision and evaluation, etc., to improve learning acquisition of MLL.
5.3.3 The aim of the MLL strategy is also to provide to the system a measure for performance and efficiency analysis. The endeavour will be to monitor learning achievement to direct greater resources where levels of learning are lower and to consciously accelerate the pace of development in the needy areas, thereby reducing the disparities and equalising standards. Ultimately this will lead to improvement of the quality and the performance of the system.
5.3.4 Immediately after the publication of the Report of the Committee defining MLL statement, the Ministry organised three Seminars at Delhi, Ahmedabad and Ajmer to explain the whole concept and chalk out strategies for implementation of MLLs programme. 15 agencies were identified and sanctioned projects with 100% central assistance. These projects cover 2000 primary schools, 10,000 teachers and about 3.86 lakh students. A sum of Rs. 121 lakhs has been sanctioned so far to these projects during the period 1991-94. A small team of resource persons has also been constituted to provide necessary guidance to projects and to the Ministry in implementation of this programme. In addition, it has been decided to involve District Institutes of Education and Training in the programme. Faculty members of SCERTs and DIETs of Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu, Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan and Tamilnadu have been provided necessary orientation. The MLL competencies have been translated in many regional languages in the States and distributed to teachers. Handbooks for teachers, pupils' workbooks and evaluation material in the subjects of Language, Mathematics and Environmental Studies have also been prepared to enrich the class-room teaching environment.
Scheme of Operationalising Microplanning 5.4.1 The National Policy on Education (NPE) 1986 and revised Policy Formulation (1992) envisaged an array of activities by teachers and other field level educational workers to undertake a Microplanning exercise to ensure that every child receives primary education of satisfactory quality through the school system as far as possible or through part-time non-formal education programmes wherever necessary. The Programme of Action drawn up in pursuance of NPE explained Micro- Planning as "a family-wise and child wise design of action to ensure that every child regularly attends school or NFE Centre and completes 8 years of schooling at a pace suitable to him/her and attains essential levels of learning".
5.4.2 Accordingly, guidelines for formulating the Micro Planning projects were developed and circulated to the State Governments.
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5.4.3 The Ministry had supported three microplanning exercises one in Bikaner District by URMUL Trust, one in Jaipur District by VISHAKHA and one in Tikamgarh block in Madhya Pradesh by Dr. P.N. Russia.
5.4.4 This Ministry had also received a few more proposals for operationalising microplanning. Of these 4 Microplanning projects have been sanctioned one each in the States of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh.
5.4.5 A list of Non-Govt. Organisation receiving Grant-in-aid of more than one lakh during 1992-93 is enclosed.
Statement showing Grant-in-aid sanctioned
to NGO for the period 1992-93
Name of Organisation Amount Purpose
Sanctioned
VISHAKHA
O-7, Hospital Road, 2,50,000 For implementing
Jaipur Microplanning
Project in Phagi
Tehsil, Jaipur.
Non-Formal Education
Background 5.5.1 Universalisation of Elementary Education has been one of the goals of India's educational development. Provision of free and compulsory education-to all children until they attain the age of 14 years is a Directive Principle of the Constitution. In this context, the role of Non-Formal Education(NFE) has been recognised since Education commission of 1964-66 in bringing education to working children, girls and children in habitations that are not covered by formal schools. Its importance was reiterated by National Education Policy of 1968. The National Policy on Education 1986, also envisages a large and systematic programme of non-formal education. The programme of Non-Formal Education is an organised programme of education for the school drop-outs and unschooled children outside the formal system at a place and time convenient to divergent learner clientele who cannot attend full-time day school. The assumption is that this kind of arrangement may result in provision of education comparable in quality with formal schooling. NFE has been envisaged as an alternative strategy to formal education and provide complementary role in achieving the goals of Universalisation of Elementary Education.
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Objective 5.5.2 The objective of the programme is to make provision for education comparable with formal schooling for children of 6-14 age group who remain outside the formal system due to various socioeconomic constraints.
Clientele 5.5.3 The programme caters to the children in the age-group 6-14 years particularly the school dropouts, working children, children in habitations without schools and girls who cannot/do not attend formal schools on account of domestic chores.
Strategy 5.5.4 The programme is being implemented through the State Governments and Voluntary Agencies. Instructions under this programme are imported at a time and place convenient to learners in small groups. Part-time Instructors are locally recruited and trained for this purpose. NFE courses are condensed courses of 2 years duration. The curriculum used is relevant to local environment and learner's interest. Moreover, it is comparable to formal system. There is a system of testing and certification for enabling entry of NFE learners into formal stream. The most important features of the programme are community participation, flexibility and decentralisation.
Status 5.5.5 A Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Non-Formal Education was started by this Department in 1979-80 to make provision for education of the target group children.
5.5.6 The programme was, initially, started, on experimental basis, in 9 educationally backward States Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, J & K, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. In 1987, the 10th educationally backward State viz. Arunachal Pradesh, has been covered under the purview of the scheme. Moreover, the scheme also covers NFE programmes in urban slums, hilly, desert and tribal areas and projects for education of working children in other than the above mentioned educationally backward States. The programme is, at present, in operation in the States of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, H. P., J & K, Karnataka, M.P., Manipur, Mizoram, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, U.P. and UT of Chandigarh. During 1992-93, the Govt. of India provided central assistance of Rs. 45.17 crore to 13 States/UTs for running about 2.15 lakhs NFE Centres under State Sector and Rs. 10.19 crore to Voluntary Agency for running about 23,000 NFE
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