OVERVIEW
Allocation of funds and their use 2.1.1 The financial resource provided for Education in the Central Sector during the year 1988-89 was Rs. 1604.61 crores (Rs.854.85 crores including for Border Area Development Programme under Plan and Rs. 749.76 crores under Non-Plan). The entire allocation was spent excepting for an amount of Rs. 1.33 crores that had to be surrendered on account of certain Capital and non-Plan savings. All the programmes formulated under NPE 1986 continued to be implemented on a project-oriented basis in close coordination with the States and Union Territories. Programmes for improvement of Primary School infrastructure, taking Education to the door steps of out-of-school children through the non-formal educational stream, development of the professional capabilities of the school teachers, making school education relevant to the world of work through the introduction of vocational courses, provision of educational facilities for talented rural children through the Navodaya Vidyalayas, improvement of science and environment education in the School system, use of educational technology to improve the process of education and provide access to education, adult literacy and modernisation of Technical Education continued to receive programmed attention for orderly development.
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2.1.2 Allocation of funds for the year 1989-90 was Rs. 1581.40. crores (Rs.881.40 crores including for Border Area Development Programme under Plan and Rs. 700 crores under Non-Plan).
2.1.3 As in the earlier years, the Central Advisory Board of Education and the Secretaries and Directors of Education in the State Governments and UT Administrations were elaborately involved in reviewing implementation of all the on-going Educational programmes. There were three such national-level interactions in the course of the year.
2.1.4 The Statistical Division of the Department of Education, effectively given Computer assistance by the National Informatics Centre, provided statistical support in the matter of analysing the trends in educational development in the country. The National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration also provided significant resource support in the management of Education.
Elementary Education 2.2.1 Under the major programmes of Operation Black Board, Non- formal Education and Teacher Education, by the end of 1989-90, the principal achievements are :
* Coverage of blocks for the purpose
of improvement of School
infrastructure 4035
* Number of Schools covered 2.99 lakhs
* Number of additional teachers'
posts sanctioned 0.78 lakhs
* Number of Non-formal Educational
Centres 2.60 lakhs
* Number of teachers oriented
under the programme for Mass
Orientation of School
Teachers 13.47 lakhs
* Number of Teacher Education
Institutions sanctioned (District
Institutes of Education and
Training, Colleges of Teacher
Education and Institutes of
Advanced Study in
Education) 248
2.2.2 By sustained efforts since 1987-88 in implementing the above programmes, a clear priority for investment in Elementary Education has come to be established on ground.
Secondary Education 2.3.1 Vocationalisation of post-secondary education continued to receive significant attention as a matter of priority in the School Education sector. Twenty-five States came to be covered by the Scheme of Vocationalisation. Nearly 8,000 vocational courses relevant to local employment opportunities were approved for the benefit of students in over 2,700 Schools. Socially and economically relevant areas like water management, maintenance of agricultural equipment, building block production etc. came to be covered through the vocational courses. Agencies like the General Insurance Corporation and Life Insurance Corporation came to be involved in organisation of vocational courses with commitment for absorbing the vocational graduates. Inter-Ministerial consultations were organised for designing vocational courses relevant to employment in the areas of Health and Family Welfare, Handlooms and Handicrafts, Telecommunications, Tourism etc.
2.3.2 Two hundred and sixty one Navodaya Vidyalayas have come to be established, providing free residential education to nearly 49,000 talented rural children of whom over 9,000 were 'Scheduled Castes and about 5,500 Scheduled Tribes.
2.3.3 Science Education was strengthened by provision of science kits, laboratory equipment, library books etc. in the upper Primary, Secondary and Higher Secondary Schools.
2.3.4 The Central and State Institutions of Educational Technology intensified their efforts in organising educational TV programmes. All the States were covered by the Scheme of Educational Technology and schools came to be provided with TV sets (about 25,000) and Radio- cum-Cassette players (over 1.5 lakhs) for the facility of receiving educational programmes.
2.3.5 The National Open School came to have a cumulative enrolment of 1.5 lakh students, significant number of them being women and those from rural areas.
2.3.6 The Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan provided educational facilities to over half a million students, rendering significant service to the transferable
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Central Government employees. The Central Tibetan, School provided educational facilities for about 10,000 children of Tibetan Refugees. The Central Board of Secondary Education conducted examinations for six major systems. Over 4 lakh students took these examinations during 1989.
2.3.7 NCERT gave research support in every area of School Education in a significant way.
Higher Education 2.4.1 Consolidation and quality improvement continued to be the principal features of development in the area of Higher Education.
2.4.2 The UGC continued to grant basic assistance and development grants to colleges-numbering about 4,000. One hundred and two colleges were approved for autonomous status, the largest number amongst them being in the States of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh (90 colleges).
2.4.3 Most of the States issued orders extending revised UGC pay scales for University and College teachers. Guidelines for. performance appraisal and code of professional ethics for University and College teachers were formulated and circulated to Universities and Colleges of State Governments. Forty eight Academic Staff Colleges were established for orientation of the in-service training of college and university teachers.
2.4.4 The Parliament passed bills for the establishment of teaching-cum-affiliating universities in Assam and Nagaland.
2.4.5 Distance Education was given further boost by the Indira Gandhi National Open University. A main frame computer with ODA assistance was installed in IGNOU. The student enrolment in this University reached the level of 80,000, and 140 Study centres came to be established. The academic programmes of the University included courses in Distance Education, creative writing in rural development, information science etc.
2.4.6 The Institutions of Higher Education Research continue their activities systematically. The Memorandum of Understanding in respect of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute was renewed for a period of five years Upto end of March 1994.
Adult Education 2.5.1 The National Literacy Mission entered its second year of operationalisation. The thrust under the Mission was on functional literacy. The strategy came to include identification of compact areas to be made fully literate in a time-bound manner. Student mobilisation made further strides. Ex-service men were inducted into literacy efforts in 45 blocks in six States. Mass Mobilisation Campaigns continued in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kottayam Town and Ernakulam district in Kerala, Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and was spread to Orissa, Rajasthan and West Bengal.
2.5.2 Continuing Education and post literacy was reinforced with the back-up of 30,000 Jana Shikshan Nilayams.
2.5.3 Programme was evolved for supply of 2,000 solar power packs to Adult Education Centres for Technology Demonstration. Video based information and dissemination was organised in 100 villages.
2.5.4 The Prime Minister launched the International Literacy Year on the 22nd January 1990.
Technical Education 2.6.1 Under the programme of modernisation of, and removal of obsolescence in Technical Education, 433 projects were supported with financial assistance of the order of about Rs.44 crores.
2.6.2 A project for modernisation of Polytechnics with an outlay of US $ 330 million was negotiated with the World Bank.
2.6.3 The number of Community Polytechnics during the year was 110. The manpower trained by them was over one lakh persons cumulatively and technical services rendered by them benefited over 5000 villages.
2.6.4 The Boards of Apprenticeship Training facilitated training of over 30,000 persons.
Language Development 2.7.1 During the year, the Government of India Supported the states by rendering financial assistance to meet the salary costs on 9,000 posts of Hindi teachers in Non-Hindi speaking areas in different parts of India. Thirty-five Hindi Teacher
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Training Colleges were supported. These Institutions provided training for 1,350 trainees.
2.7.2 The Kendriya Hindi Sansthan celebrated its silver jubilee. The Central Hindi Directorate offered correspondence courses for teaching Hindi in regional languages for 13,000 persons. The Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, continued its programme of training of teachers from Hindi speaking areas in Modem Indian -Languages. The Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages played an effective role in coordinating the activities of the English Language Teaching Institutions, apart from monitoring the Schemes of saturation training of English language teachers through District Centres. The Taraqqi-e-Urdu Board was reconstituted. The question of broad-basing the terms of reference of this Board was investigated. A national level Committee was constituted to report urgently on implementation of the recommendations of the Gujaral Committee for development of Urdu. The Central Sanskrit Board was reconstituted with Dr. S.D. Sharma, Vice-President of India as its Chairman. The Kulapatis for the Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeethas (deemed Universities) at New Delhi and Tirupati were appointed.
Book Promotion and Copy Rights 2.8.1 The National Book Trust organised the Ninth World Book Fair at New Delhi. The Trust came to be involved in a significant way in the School Library Programme, particularly for supply of books for School Libraries under the Scheme of Operation Black Board. The working of the Raja Ram Mohun Roy National Educational Resources Centre was rationalised to make it more effective-i.e., to confine itself only to implement the international Standard Book Numbering (ISBN) system.
2.8.2 The functionaries of the Copyright Division were given overseas training With the help of World intellectual Property Organisation. India participated through a high level delegation in the meeting of the Governing Bodies of this organisation and urged for orderly promotion of steps for protection of intellectual property rights-particularly, keeping in view the developmental, technological and public interest needs of the developing countries.
Border Area Development 2.9.0 Border Area Development (Education) programme was implemented for the third year in succession in the States of Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab and Rajasthan. The anticipated cumulative level of investment by the end of 1989-90 under the programme was Rs. 91 crores. Financial assistance was rendered to the States under this programme in all priority areas of Education-Universalisation of Elementary Education, improvement of Secondary Education, Vocational Education etc.
International Cooperation 2.10.1 India participated in the 25th Session of the General Conference of UNESCO under a high level delegation led by the Minister for Human Resource Development. In this session, India was again elected to the Executive Board and to Inter Governmental bodies dealing with International Programme for Development of Communication, Physical Education and Sports and return of cultural property to countries of origin.
2.10.2 Under the programme for Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries, four teams visited developing countries in the Asia Pacific Region-Ethiopia, Tanzania, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand.
2.10.3 Wide ranging consultations were held with sister Ministries including Ministry of External Affairs for streamlining External Academic Relations.
2.10.4 The Indian National Commission for Cooperation with the UNESCO organised a seminar on "Constructing defences of peace in the minds of men" in Hyderabad in April 1989. The UNESCO organised several programmes in connection with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Centenary Celebrations-by holding a seminar on Nehru, publishing extracts of Nehru's writings in Spanish, facilitating a pictorial exhibition on Nehru and by bringing out a commemorative coin.
2.10.5 A delegation headed by the Minister of State for Education participated in the World Conference on Education for All in March 1990 at Jomtien, Thailand.
2.10.6 Additional Secretary, Dept. of Education made a presentation before the Committee of the Economic and Social Council, United Nations on Implementation of International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights-Right to Education etc. in January 1990.
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2.10.7 Shri Anil Bordia, Secretary to Government, Department of Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, was elected unanimously to the prestigious office of the President of the Council of the international Bureau of Education (IBE) under the UNESCO. Since 1934, this is the first time that an Asian has been elected to this office.
Educational development, of the disadvantaged 2.11.0 In all areas of education, priority attention was given to the concerns of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, 'Women and the educationally backward minorities. Special preference was given to habitations of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in opening Non- Formal Education Centres and Adult Education Centres and in strengthening School infrastructure under Operation Blackboard. Reservation in admissions in educational institutions was carefully enforced. Special scholarship programmes were implemented for their benefit. Higher rates of financial assistance were given to States for opening Non-formal Education Centres exclusively for girls. States were advised to recruit women teachers under Operation Blackboard Scheme. Special Projects for women like the Mahila Samakhya were implemented. Education for Women's Equality was made part and parcel of the content and process of education. Educational development of the minorities received repeated and high-level attention-in the Committees of Secretaries, Prime Minister's Secretariat and Cabinet Committee on Prime Minister's 15-Point Programme for the welfare of Minorities. Policy norms and principles for recognition of minority managed educational institutions were formulated and circulated amongst the States.
Resources for Education 2.12.0 The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at current prices (1987-88) is Rs. 2.94 lakh crores. The budget of Education Departments in the Centre and States was Rs.9,810.28 crores (1987-88). This investment is of the order of 3.3 per cent of the GDP.
General 2.13.0 The new Government have decided to review the National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986, keeping in view, inter alia, the provision in the Policy itself for such a review as well as the experience gained in implementing the NPE programmes since 1987-88.
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