 MAJOR ISSUES RAISED IN THE
 DISCUSSIONS

In the course of the general debate on the Board's agenda, held on the 4th and 5th of November, 1974 several major issues were highlighted by the participants. These have been briefly summed up in the paragraphs that follow.

Education Minister, Tamil Nadu.-(I) It is necessary to take serious note of the failure to implement the constitutional directive regarding universal education for children in the age-group 6-14 and chalk out a plan of action here and now for achieving this goal at least in the next ten years if not earlier. We will have to adopt a suitable approach and strategy and there should not be any let up in our efforts. We should adopt a variety of ways and means and exploit all resources available, human as well as material. The urgency of the issue makes us welcome the approach that, has been suggested re- garding non-formal education. It is very necessary for drop outs or for those who have been compelled to stay out of schools for economic or other reasons. Let us at the same time continue our system of formal education. We should, have, instead of one-point of entry, the multiple entry system. Nonformal education or part-time education or whatever you may call it, the new programme seems to be the only solution. It can form the main stream of educational planning. In this context I must stress proper planning and implementation which is very important. Services of teachers on a part-time basis may be utilised after they have been suitably trained and appropriate methods otherwise should be adopted. The national service scheme may be linked up with this programme. Curriculum should be oriented to meet the new requirements of the system. Above all, educational administration should be effectively geared to the fulfilment of the tasks ahead.

(2) The second issue that also merits immediate attention is needless expansion of higher education quantitatively, this

unplanned growth of colleges without any meaningful relevance to enrolment. Time has come to try a halt to this. This does not and should not mean any curtailment of the opportunities in higher education which are open, to scheduled castes, scheduled tribes or other weaker sections. Courses in higher education should be closely related to social needs for different types of skills.

(3) UGC should involve State Governments in the scheme of assistance to colleges, and seek the concurrence of the universities concerned.

(4) Indian scholars of eminence working in foreign universities should be requested to work in our universities as on sabbatical leave. We should commend this scheme to the States, and request the UGC also to assist it. Non-formal methods of higher education are capturing the imagination of all those who are in the new frontiers of knowledge. In the United States, there is the open university as well as in the United Kingdom.

(5) We are indeed gratified to learn from the Minister of Education that he is proposing to establish an open university in our country. This scheme is welcome.

Education Minister, West Bengal.-(1) The basic issues in education all relate to students. Over the years, the extent and quality of facilities provided to the students has deteriorated. The composition of our students has also changed in the meantime and we now have large numbers of students from poor families. The need for student services has thus increased in significance and urgency. A substantial part of our expenditure on higher education should therefore be reserved for student welfare.

(2) There should be greater coordination between the plans for employment and plans for education. Educated unemployment is not merely damaging but also dangerous. A competitive examination system should be introduced for all private sector jobs and a certain proportion of these should be reserved for good students from colleges and universities.

Education Minister, U.P.-(1) Education should be closely related to life, and be in tune with the society. The school programme should be closely linked with agricultural, industrial and

commercial activities, so as to inculcate dignity of labour and love for manual work among students. No student should be awarded a degree or certificate without having put in rural and manual work. Youth should also undertake literacy programme.

(2) In Uttar Pradesh a Committee has been set up to suggest practical steps for coordination of general and vocational education. In junior and senior basic schools much success has been achieved in a new programme of socially useful productive work. After a point, say High School, students should be guided to enter courses according to their aptitudes.

(3) Military training should be made compulsory. Simple Yogic exercises be also introduced.

(4) New Universities are still required in certain areas. In Uttar Pradesh, in view of its population and regional needs, new universities are being opened. They will help to remove regional imbalance, and in the development of the economy. Special subjects will be provided for the same,

(5) Curricula and text-books should be revised to inculcate proper attitudes and national integration. Curricula should be uniform throughout the country, and in tune with the new social ideals and values. History and language lessons should high-light struggle for freedom and Gandhian thought. In U.P. text-books are nationalised up to class VIII and it is proposed to continue the process of nationalisation to higher secondary classes.

(6) Reform of examination should be taken up simultaneously in all the States. In higher classes open book system of examination may be introduced.

(7) Special efforts should be made for guiding and assisting the students of the weaker sections of society (Scheduled Castes and Tribes) to take up higher studies in special subjects in science and technology.

Education Minister, Maharashtra.(1) Year after year, Workers and artisans like carpenters or masons are running away from the villages to the towns and cities. This depletes the rural areas and creates problems for urban areas. The rural areas therefore need non-formal education interlinked and integrated with formal education so that these drop-outs could be looked after and turned into skilled workers.

(2) All States have taken up the new pattern of 10 + 2 + 3. The intention is to reduce the rush to the universities. The two-year period is most crucial because a considerable amount of diversification can be effected therein. In Maharashtra, we have identified about 140 different training programmes at this stage. This would require a complete structuring of higher secondary education and considerable amount of funds.

Education Minister, Himachal Pradesh.-(1) The hill areas have special problems because of the nature of the terrain and sparsity of population. The programmes of non-formal education with mass media will be useful. In addition, residential and mobile schools are needed.

(2) Special effort has to be made, in the hill areas, to pre- serve the traditional culture of the people and to vocationalize education with special emphasis on animal husbandry, horticulture, intensive agriculture and cooperation.

(3) Facilities for higher education in the bill areas are inade- quate and should be expanded.

(4) The hill areas whose own resources are meagre will need special financial support.

Education Minister, M.P.-(1) Educational planning is essentially long-range. This only means that we have no time to lose. Education does need a higher priority.

(2) Special assistance must be earmarked for backward areas, otherwise they will never be able to come up to national standards.

(3) What is now going on in the country is a battle to capture the minds of the younger generation. We must act quickly and properly in this so that the energy and idealism of the youth is harnessed for the services of the country.

Dr. M. S. Adishesiah.-(1) There is no use in trying to plan on the basis of G.N.P. percentage and bemoaning the denial of these sums. This futile approach needs to be abandoned.

(2) There is immediate need to spell out, in detail, the programmes of non-formal education from the primary. to the

university stages. Their organizational and financial implications should be carefully spelt out and only on this basis should requests for funds be justified.

(3) It is wrong to assume that the existing system should go on as it is and that additional funds have to be found for all new schemes. Educational Development is not a product of financial additionality. All innovations that need priority should be immediately met from existing resources by cutting down dead-wood. An initiative in this may be taken by the Union Government which may save, to begin with, one or two crores of rupees from its existing budget and make them available as grants to State Governments in proportion to the extent they also save money from such existing budgets for new and priority Programmes.

Mr. Pugh.-(1) I welcome the scheme of non-formal education. In small States like Meghalaya, there may be a difficulty in preparing the needed text books. The scheme will also help universalization of education in the age-group 6-14.

(2) Our education should emphasize work-experience in agriculture (school gardens have an important role in this). The system should be flexible, not rigid. National service programme should be extended and ultimately made compulsory.

(3) Education should promote national integration. There should be a regional institute for teaching Hindi in the Eastern region.

Dr. Sivanandan.-(1) There are many competing priorities for the limited resources available. We should therefore be very careful when we ask for additional funds for education.

(2) Will the standards in formal and non-formal education be comparable? Let us be careful in this.

(3) Teacher training and improvement of administration need attention on a priority basis.

(4) Population and family planning education has to be appropriately provided for.

(5) The problem of examination reform needs careful planning and follow up.

(6) We should encourage job-oriented education and self- employment.

Smt. Mina Swaminathan.-(1) It appears that the Board decides upon priorities which are not followed up. Either the Board should enforce its decisions or decide to wind itself up.

(2) Programmes for the pre-school child should not continue to be neglected. We should try to do the best we can within the financial resources available.

Education Minister, Orissa.-(]) In order to bring up the backward State to the national level, an equalization fund should be created by the Centre.

(2) The scheme of autonomous colleges is very important. There should be at least one autonomous college in each State.

Dr. Bhabatosh Dutta-(1) There is a close interdependence between education and other plans-neither of them can succeed ill isolation. When the education plan is cut down, we must also look very carefully into the cuts or otherwise of the Hans of other sectors as well.

(2) Non-formal education is essential. But left us not forget that it is far more difficult to organize than formal education. If we do not pay adequate attention to this, our investment in non-formal education will be, counter-productive.

Prof. M. V. Mathur-(1) We cannot bypass the need for expansion. As funds are limited, non-formal education offers a way out. But it needs very effective implementation.

(2) There is no dearth of ideas. Most of them cannot however, be implemented unless the teachers are properly trained and involved.

(3) We must now stress. not only what we put into, the educational system, but also what we get out of it.

(4) An over-emphasis on mere structure, whether 10+2+3 or any other, is undesirable.

G. Ramachandran-(1) The list of programmes which can be implemented without additional funds (or with marginal additional investment) should be prepared and Riven priority for implementation.

(2) The student has become conscious and he will throw out this educational system unless it is properly reformed. There is special need to improve the quality of education.

(3) The foundation of the present education system is so shaky, so unreal that it cannot bear the high reaches of education. Child education, elementary education, Pre-school education are all neglected. There is very little provision for a education and illiteracy, instead of being, reduced, is actually increasing. on the roof of the educational system. Such a system can never survive; nor can secondary and higher education come into their own.

(4) There is no work-experience anywhere in the educational system.

(5) The real challenge before us is to make education real, make education genuine. and to make the people of India love the system of education so that students will run into the stream instead of running away from, it.

Dr. Prasad-(1) Agriculture must find a dominant priority while introducing work-experience and vocationalization of courses specially in rural schools. At the primary stage the aim of work-experience programme in agriculture should actually be to make the children aware of the world of agriculture around them; arouse curiosity in them to know more about it; and develop elementary knowledge of agriculture. At the middle stage level the students should get some knowledge and skill in agriculture and develop conviction for agriculture as a worth-while occupation. At the high school level, in order to give some basic knowledge and understanding for scientific cultivation, the students should be given simple agricultural projects-vegetable cultivation, crop growing etc. The agricultural club activities can be profitably introduced at this stage.

Besides, the agricultural school teachers should be curious enough to involve students in on-going agricultural development programmes and activities in the villages in a manner that they

develop better appreciation of and knowledge about the latest in agriculture.

The training of agricultural school teachers in the concept and method of work-experience as also vocational courses in agriculture will be a must for giving this venture a practical shape. The proposal of the ICAR to initiate teachers training for the teachers of the Krishi Vigyan Kendras can be taken advantage of in this regard.

Dr. Sihare.-The problems of the Weaker sections of the community are neglected. Inspite of all that is being done and this is a good deal-these people are not getting full benefit out of these programmes. There is plenty of talent among them which is being wasted. There should be a special commission to look into this problem with at least 50 per cent members belonging to those sections.

Dr. N. D. Sundervadivelu.-(1) If we could educate our people, create proper opinion, the public would stand by us and would welcome non-formal education, if not as equal to formal education, at least as something which is better than no education. So we welcome supplementing formal education with non-formal education.

(2) The greatest tragedy of the post-independence era is the complete failure to recognise the need and value of adult education. The experience of functional literacy programmes in Tamil Nadu is good. If the problem of parental education is tackled through functional literacy, the ice would have been broken and the programmes of universal elementary education can succeed.

(3) In the neighbourhood of Coimbatore, a college has been started last year; and from the beginning, the college authorities undertook to secure part-time jobs for all the 300 students enrolled in the college. The responsibility for this is taken by the college. They changed the timings of the college from 8.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. From 3 o'clock, every student (that is the condition prescribed for admission) goes to foundry automobile workshop, farm, cooperative store and all of them worked throughout the year. That is the only college out of 168 colleges in the Madras University that did not ask for condonation for shortage of attendance for any student. It only shows that academic interest and financial interest are not conflicting. Such experiments need to be multiplied.

(4) The Madras University has introduced 16 job-oriented courses.

Prof. Raja Ram Shastri.-(1) The rural young should be in a position to have work experience in their own traditional surroundings and in their own families, together with their schools where some traditional occupations and some new ones may be developed side by side. Unless such a programme of general development including educational and economic development is taken together and taken forward, nothing will come out of this idea of work education or basic education. Real work education is needed and because we do not have real work, we do not have real education. The whole point in this proposal is that there should be a planning of economic and educational development in which students have real work experience.

Prof. V. V. John.-(l) As we have a representative government, it is subject to all kinds of pressures. It has therefore designed institutions like the UGC which need not be subject to pressures and can take unpopular decisions. But the whole game is lost if UGC takes populist, positions. We can never improve the standards through such an approach.

(2) Let us have great restraint while establishing new univer- sities.

(3) There has been a great deal of talk about part-time education. What else do we have in our colleges and universities at present ? If one thinks of career education without interfering with the present curriculum, one can easily add it to the curriculum. This has been demonstrated by a college in Poona which has managed to do the normal four year course in 1-1/2 years and has utilized the rest of the time for career training and its graduates have no problem of unemployment. There is a project beyond mere job training and demolishes the automatic distinction that we have built up between learning and work. This is the best way to oblige every university to introduce an element of career training. Let us not call it vo- cationalisation. It is something which involves, not preparation for a job but the creation of a new psychology among our young people. To learn to work while learning is itself the highest form of education. It would be discovered that there is vast possibility of an expansion of this programme without adding to the real work load of students.

Adviser to Governor of Gujarat.-The allocations to the neglected sectors of cultural development, particularly, archaeology, the preservation and development of monuments, Museums, libraries, art galleries and of youth welfare, physical, education, games and sports, NCC, NSS, etc. are quite inadequate, especially if we compare them with the original proposals. The provision of Rs. 120+Rs. 20 crores for these activities should, therefore. be retained.

In 1974-75, the budget-provisions for these are even more meagre and these important sectors may lose further in 1975-76. It is necessary to protect them and to see that greater attention is paid to these sectors atleast in the remaining four years of the Plan period. They should not continue to suffer for want of fund.

The Plan provision of Rs. 40 crores should be retained for youth programmes, sports, games, NCC, NSS, physical education etc.

Education Minister, Andhra Pradesh.-(1) Redoubled efforts will have to be made to achieve the goal of universal elementary education within the next ten years from now. It is conceded on all hands that this cannot be realised through the present practice of exclusive reliance on the formal system of education with its single point entry, sequential character and full-time professional teachers. Therefore, a major thrust has to be in the direction of reconstruction of our formal system of education so as to include as large an element of non-formal education as possible.

(2) Pre-primary education cannot be ignored for long, Not much attention has been given to this in the past. It is time that some concerted efforts were now made in this regard.

(3) The cultivation of values has been greatly neglected and the result has been a terrible decline in moral values. We find that the sanctity of the examination system has been terribly eroded and malpractices are far too common. This trend has to be reversed and the sanctity of academic life restored. Otherwise, the whole system of holding examinations becomes a farce. If we have to build up national character, we will have to start the process right in our schools, beginning from the pre-primary schools. The children will have to be trained in the ideals of democracy, secularism and socialism.

(4) The greatest danger to our present system is going to be the massive assault on it (and its rejection) by the student community. We should act with a sense of urgency and do something in this vital area so that the student would become employable and a useful member of the community when he comes out of the school or college.

(5) The Government of Andhra Pradesh proposes to bring before the next session of the Assembly a Comprehensive Education Bill. Experts have worked over this project for quite some time now and the bill, besides regulating the private educational institutions, seeks to lay down certain basic minimum educational standards in each sector of education.

Mr. A. E. T. Barrow.-(1) The educational system has feet (Pre- primary and primary) of clay. But neither breast and arms (secondary education) is of silver nor head (university education) of fine gold. We need reforms at all stages but the most crucial are those at the pre-primary and primary stages.

(2) We welcome the decision to carry out certain reforms in higher education and that certain universities are going to use grades instead of marks. It has been said that the Central Board of Secondary Education also is going to use the grade system. One must be on guard to ensure that the students do not suffer in admissions to important courses. Here the Central universities can give a lead.

(3) Basic education will not succeed unless we educate the parents on the subject. There is a pressure to over-emphasize academic subjects all the way down. One cannot improve education unless something is done at the top institutions.

(4) We must have autonomous schools, nursery schools. Let them work in their own way.

(5) The Central Universities should give some lead in in- troducing new courses for the 10+2+3 pattern.

(6) Let our sports be broad-based in the villages, in the schools so that our sportsmen will come up in the competitions and give us the requisite standards that we require for international sports.

Shri Parashar.-The unrest among the students is growing. The teachers, policy makers, and planners in education have not risen to the occasion and taken the necessary steps.

(2) Primary and secondary education should be given greater importance.

(3) At present. Central responsibility in education is not being clearly defined.

(4) When opening new central universities, the needs of places which have been neglected so far should be taken into consideration.

(5) The college and university teachers are highly agitated over the fact that retirement age has been reduced and there is no uniformity even in the case of Vice-Chancellors. Unless there is a feeling that uniformity is being observed in the retirement of everybody concerned, there is bound to be trouble.

(6) A well-regulated and coordinated effort is required for the education of scheduled castes and schedule tribes in all the three spheres, medical, engineering and general education.

(7) The teacher-pupil ratio or the desirability of having a certain amount of enrolment for a particular institution (may be primary, higher secondary or a college) should not be applied to hill areas. There should be special allocation for hill areas and a special cell in the Ministry of Education.

Education Minister, Punjab.-(1) In Punjab, the primary schools have taken particular interest in science education and during the course of next year, each one of our schools will have science kits devised by UNICEF and NCERT. We have also taken steps for training of primary teachers for teaching of science.

(2) We have set up a separate cell within the Directorate of Education for social education. No programme of social education can achieve any progress unless, in addition to making the person literate, it also offers him knowledge of things of immediate concern. We have, therefore, provided for subject matter specialization in agriculture, co-operation, land and revenue management, animal husbandry etc. and for preparation of relevant literature.

(3) We have also drawn up a scheme of having some schools to be called 'experimental schools'. We are proposing to put more highly qualified staff in these schools, equip them with audiovisual aids and also give them certain amount of freedom in making their own syllabii and choose their own books. Each of these schools will have an Advisory Committee consisting of parents and other important persons of the area so that they could also have a hand in determining what the child should learn.

(4) Our view is that in actual practice work experience has not been able to make much head-way. We, therefore, propose that for three years in the Middle stage, use of basic hand tools Would be a compulsory subject. During the Matric/Higher Secondary stage the student will have the choice from various subjects offered. At this stage there will be more emphasis on non-engineering subjects, to avoid duplication of facilities available on ITIs and Polytechnics. The programme is being extended to universities also.

(5) There should be no duplication of youth programmes, they should be integrated with community development work; and their institutional frame-work should not be isolated from the existing State structure in terms of control and supervision.

Prof. V. B. Singh-(1) The machinery for educational planning, both at the Central and State levels should be made more effective. There is great need for coordination between different Ministries and Departments.

(2) The problem of student unrest deserves greater attention. The report of the Committee does not do full justice to it.

(3) There is great discontent among the student community due to unemployment, the main reason being that education is not relevant to our needs. After having their degrees and diplomas, the students are not in a position to find employment. I would urge the Board to so plan our education that it becomes relevant to the needs of the time.

(4) Plans should be formulated for reducing drop-outs and spreading literacy among adults.

(5) The Central Government had set up a committee on examination reform which has given its report. The recommendations of the Committee have been circulated to the State Governments for implementation. If this is done, much of the discontentment of the student population will be removed.

Shri G. R. Damodaran-(1) Most of us are in favour of changeover to the pattern of 10+2+3 and vocationalization of secondary education.

(2) The polytechnics and ITIs in our country involving an investment of some crores of rupees have been under-utilised. while we are introducing vocationalization, more careful thought should be given to full utilization of these facilities.

(3) The programme of autonomous colleges is welcome

(4) Teachers must be fully consulted and involved in educational planning and implementation.

Education Minister, Haryana-(1) We agree that every effort should be made towards more intensive utilisation of the existing resources inclusive of the raising. of teacher-pupil ratio. Greater reliance has also to be placed on alternative arrangements like informal and part-time education. Haryana has already taken elementary steps in this connection. We have introduced an experimental scheme of informal education to 9-12 age group. We are also in midst of preparation of syllabii and technology to introduce a new course (spread over a year or two) for the children in the age group 13-15. We hope that we will be able to launch this programme also from the coming year. We find that this is not only a cheaper programme but also a more relevant programme for those young people who cannot otherwise get education.

(2) We have started a mass programme of teacher education in the State. This year alone we provided for a one month orientation programme for about 20 per cent of all the teachers in the State. I am happy to say that every participant in the programme appreciated this idea and responded to it. This is going to be a continous feature, so that after a lapse of 4-5 years each teacher is given this inservice training.

(3) The importance of youth programmes, particularly of National Service Scheme in implementing also the goal of universal education, needs to be highlighted.

(4) The idea of constituting an All India Council of Vocational Education at the Centre with similar organizations at the state level is welcome. But this need not necessarily be linked up with the pattern of 10+2+3.

(5) The importance of greater involvement of radio also in our mass education programmes needs to be highlighted.

(6) The mushroom growth of new colleges should be firmly stopped. We have taken a decision from this year to permit no more educational colleges and purely arts colleges, except in backward areas. The condition about endowment funds has also been significantly stiffened.

(7) Steps should be taken towards de-linked of degree from employment.

Smt. Kamla Bhatia.-Health Education programmes are important for the all-round development of children. Emphasis should be laid on. imparting scientific health knowledge and on building up desirable health attitudes and practices. A system should be developed under which children are observed by teachers to detect signs and symptoms of deviations and defects from the normal and referred to health personnel/authorities for follow-up and treatment. For proper utilisation of resources, we need a coordinated programme between health, education and other allied agencies. Health Education should form an integral part of educational programmes for all categories.

Education Minister, Rajasthan.-Our traditional forms of art and culture such as those in dances music, drama or handicrafts are being neglected. It is necessary to provide adequate funds to support them. Otherwise their valuable inheritance of ours is likely to be lost for ever.

Shri G. L. Bakshi.-It is not correct to say that the Central Board of Secondary Education is going to abolish examination from next year. The system that is under consideration is that instead of giving marks, the grading system should be introduced. New curricula are being introduced. An earnest effort to implement the proposal is needed. Instead of highlighting difficulties, we should see what best can be done in view of the facilities available. So far as IX and X standards are concerned, there are no problems at the moment. But there are some problems for the XI and XII classes. These can be solved in about two years time when the stage for change comes.

Shri Om Mehta.-(The speech was read and attached).

Shri Rais Ahmed.-(l) The content of education is most important. We have to show that education is useful, to the community. It is only then that the parents will send their children to the Centres of Work and Centres of Service, which will also become Centres of Education.

Non-formal education calls for much greater Organisation than formal education. As has been pointed out, Agriculture, Health, Community Development and various other agencies have programmes; even the Ministry of Education has a large number of programmes like Nehru Yuvak Kendras, National Service Corps and so on. The efforts of all these organisations will have to converge on an area and a high degree of local organisation is needed. Unless we take steps to identify the areas which they would like to develop as project areas for the development of non-formal education, and unless we are able to set up suitable committees of the people of the community, and unless this work is done in the next few months, we will find that people will be talking about the failure of the system and the results will be negative. Implementation and Organisation need great emphasis in the new concept of non-formal education.

MAJOR ISSUES RAISED IN THE DISCUSSIONS