ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is indebted to Shri S.R. Bommai, President of the Council and the Union Minister for Human Resource Development; Shri Muhi Ram Saikia, Union Minister of State, MHRD, for their advice and guidance. The Council is also grateful to other distinguished members of its General Body, the Executive Committee, the Programme Advisory Committee and other Programmes Processing Committees for their keen interest and support in carrying out programmes towards qualitative improvement of school education.
The NCERT is thankful to the experts who spared their valuable time to serve on its various committees and extended help in many ways. Thanks are also due to all the organisations and institutions, including the State Departments of Education, SIEs/SCERTs, Boards of Secondary/School Education, and universities, which collaborated with the NCERT and extended cooperation in carrying out its activities in a spirit of partners for the cause of education.
The NCERT would like to express its appreciation of the cooperation received by it from UNESCO, UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA, World Bank, etc. for implementation of the programmes sponsored by them. It also appreciates the work done by the members of its staff at all levels without whose participation and dedication its programmes could not have been successfully implemented. Thanks are due to the thousands of teachers, students, parents and members of the public who sent letters to the various constituents of the NCERT giving their views on its publications and its programmes during the year 1996-97, which proved to be a constant source of inspiration for better performance.
This report has been drafted by the faculty of the Planning, Programming, Monitoring and Evaluation Division comprising Prof. M.S. Khaparde, Head of the Division, Dr J.P. Mittal, Reader, and Dr J.D. Sharma, Reader; and it has been processed for publication by the Publication Division, NCERT. Their valuable contribution has given this report its present shape.
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JAWAHARLAL NEHRU'S MESSAGE
on the
First Day
of
Independence
We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be. We are citizens of a great country, on the verge of bold advance, and we have to live up to that high standard. All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights, privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communalism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action.
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