 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS BY SHRI M.C.
 CHAGLA, UNION EDUCATION MINISTER
 AND CHAIRMAN, CENTRAL ADVISORY
 BOARD OF EDUCATION.

"Mr. Chief Minister, Mr. Education Minister, ladies and gentlemen,

`May I, in the first place, thank you for the very kind complimentary words you said about me, but I think I must fight for my fraternity. Chief Minister, Shri S. Nijalingappa, paid a cold compliment to the lawyers. I was myself a lawyer previously. I am told by the Chief Minister that he was himself a lawyer first. If that is so, that is the reason why Mysore is so well administered. Let me assure the Chief Minister that there are more lawyers in administration and in Government and in other departments of life. Our country had law-years who were better administrators than the administrators of today.

`Ladies and gentlemen, I cannot possibly begin addressing you without in the first place making a reference to our late Prime Mini- ster. He was an educationist in the technical sense of the term., but in the wider and broader significance of that expression he was a great lover of education. He realised, as very few people have rea- lised, that the greatest asset we have in this country is our human resources. It is our young boys and girls who constitute the real national wealth and he, therefore, felt that the greatest investment that we can make was an investment in human beings, investment for the future and investment in education. He was not a religious man as we understand religious men, but he always realised that man should be integrated, that if he attached importance only to materialism, and material things then he was not a whole man, he was not an integrated man, and, therefore, he always attached importance to the cultural and spiritual things of life. He looked out to the sky, saw the stars, saw the inscrutable mystery of the universe and from time to time held out his hands to the stars. Therefore, he was a humanist and according to me a humanist is a person who has passion, who has tolerance, who has broad-mindness and who moves with human sufferings. He had all those qualities and, therefore, his death is a great loss not only to the cause of peace and international relations, but I think it is a great loss to the cause of education.

`Ladies and gentlemen, there were three occasions recently when I have Oven expression to, what I think should be the broad policy of the Education Ministry in matters concerning education. I had occasion to speak in the Budget Debate; I had occasion to speak to the Education Ministers' Conference; and very recently, I had occasion to speak when I inaugurated the Education Commission. Therefore I will try and see that there are not too many repetitions, but you will forgive me if unavoidably I have to repeat some of the things which I have already said on three last occasions. After all, one cannot go on saying new things every time and I think there are certain axiomatic things which bear repetition and it is only by repeating certain things and by reiterating them, that their full significance comes home to us.

`Now, the first thing, I want to talk about is Education and Economy. Economy is in the air, you are all talking of cutting down expenses. The Finance Minister the other day said that we must reduce our expenditure by Rs. 30 crores. These are all very laudatory propo- sals and very laudatory intentions, but I want to emphasize this : let not education be the first casualty in this drive for economy. The cut always comes first on education. People feel that education is dispensable; we need not economise in other things but we must econo- mise in education, but to my mind slowing down of education in quan- tity or quality will be a national calamity. Today we are spending 2.3 % of our national income on education. This is perhaps one country which is spending the least on education. I think the exceptions are and we find ourselves in that honourable company if you think that so-Indonesia and Pakistan. Barring that, every country in the world, however small, African countries and Asian countries, are spending more of their national income on education, than we are in India. We are a country who are proud of our spiritual and cultural and traditional heritage. We are a country where we have great and flourishing universities. We are a country which had great traditions of scholarship, great academicians and great research scholars. I think it is really sad that we should be spending so little on our education. Not only that, but there are a few who talk of effecting economies in education. We have been a free and independent country for about 17 years now. We have launched our plans. Our third Five Year Plan is coming to an end in about a year and we are starting on the fourth Plan. As our present Prime Minister rightly said, freedom and planning must give some meaning to the common man. The common man is entitled to ask what has freedom brought to me? How am I better off today than I was when I was not independent? And I think one of the most important gifts that you can give to the common man is the gift of education. It is only when we give good education to the common man that he will be able to say, `I am better of today in an independent India than I was in a dependent India.' Therefore, if you. are going to carry out the very wise precept laid down by our present Prime Minister that our plans must have some meaning and significance to the common man, then I think we should attach more and more importance to expenditure on education.

`I may also point out that slowing down of education or economy on education will slow down our economic progress. It is sometimes not realised that the industrial and economic progress of this country is closely connected with its educational progress. After all, what are we trying to achieve by our industrial and economic programmes? We are trying to achieve more productivity, we are trying to produce more goods. We are trying to do all that so that our men may have better and more things with which to make their life, if not comfortable, at least reasonably happy. But this productivity can only sustain and increase provided you have educated men to produce things and, therefore, you cannot say, "I will economise on education, but I will put up steel plants, hydroelectric schemes and laboratories; if we have not got men who will be able to run them in a productive spirit."

`Having said that much about education and economy, I turn to the question of primary education. All these years we have placed

emphasis on quantity. There has been a tremendous expansion in primary education, which is all to the good. I think the spirit of our men, which has been submerged, put down, which did not find a scope before, we became free, suddenly found a scope for free play and the result has been that boys and girls want to go to schools; parents want to send their children to schools; they want more and more schools, more and more facilities for primary education and we have to encourage that. But with this expansion, and I call it `expansion- explosion", that we have today, if my figures are correct, there are 60 million students in our primary schools and these are astronomical figures. But along with expansion, along with the emphasis on quantity, we must not wholly forget that some importance has to be attached to quality. In this connection, I would like to mention, that as far as primary schools are concerned, we want better buildings, we want better equipment, we want better teachers, we want laboratories, we want better textbooks, we want playgrounds attached to our primary schools where our boys and girls will be able to play games, for athletics sports, and not to be locked up in a building all the time that they are studying. May I say this? You know of the Article 45 of the Constitution. It is a directive to every State Government and to the Union Government that we must give free elemen- tary education to all boys and girls between the ages 6 and 14. We are very far from complying with that directive. But what I wish to emphasise before you today is that the compliance. Our Constitution fathers did not intend when they enacted Article 45 that we just set- up hovels or any sort of structures, put students there, give them untrained teachers, give them bad textbooks, no playgrounds and say we have complied with Article 45 and primary education is expanding. The compliance that was intended, as I said, by our Constitution fathers, by the founding-fathers, by those who drafted the Constitution, was a substantial compliance. They meant that real education should be given to our children between the ages of 6 and 14. Therefore, I appeal to the States not to forget that they are not true to the spirit of the Constituion, merely by submitting to us figures that so many millions are in primary schools. What I want is a statement to satisfy me, not that so many millions are in schools but so many million children are getting real, proper, true education. Then only I would feel that Article 45 has been complied with.

`The other aspect of primary education, which I wish to emphasise is the uneven spread of primary education. And that uneveness lies in two directions. In the first place the education of girls is lagging behind very badly. Need I point out what is axiomatic that when you teach a boy, you teach an individual, but when you teach a girl you are teaching a whole family. The influence of a woman in the house and in the family is tremendous. Therefore, to my mind, education of women is even more important than the education of men (applause). What is happening today? Look at the figures. You get general statistics that in one State 60% of children are in schools, in another State 80%, but when you break-up these figures, you find that education of girls has lagged far behind. Now there are many causes for it. Some of them are social. If there are social causes, you must fight this social evil. It is time we became a modem country and these inhibitions superstitions, have to go from this country. The

other is a practical thing and I find that those who are responsible for women's education find it very difficult for women teachers to go out into the villages, unless you can give them staff quarters. Men can go and stay anywhere but you cannot expect our young women to go out into the wilderness, as it were, and stay, unless they have proper quarters where they can stay after they have finished their labours in school. The other source of uneveness, imbalance, is that whereas some States have forged ahead, other States are lagging behind. I think we have got Education Ministers of all the States here and so I do not want to hurt their feelings by mentioning the States, but we all know that there are some States where the progress has been very slow. I know many of them have their special problems. Some have the unfortunate problem of the influx of a large number of people from across our frontiers, others have backward tribes, the aboriginies. Whenever I go to a State, the Education Minister explains to me what the special problems of his State are. But taking all that into consideration, if we remember that India is one and we will always be one, educationally, we must march together. It would create a series of problems If some parts of India go ahead rapidly in the race for education and others lag behind. Therefore, we in the centre-partly it is as our responsibility-must attach special' importance to those States, which have not come up to the standard of the more advanced State, because of special reasons. I know that when we pay special attention to some States, we are accused of discrimination. The advanced State tells us "We have used our resources and we have advanced and we do not get sufficient assistance from you; whereas, the other States are getting a more favoured treatment". That is not so. It is no doubt true that certain States in India have special problems and for those special problems, special remedies have got to be found.

`Then you have the third problem with regard to primary educa- tion, which is also a serious problem and that is the tremendous back- log of untrained teachers. A student is as good as his teacher. How can you hope to train young boys and girls and make them good citi- zens, if their educational destinies are in the hands of men and women who are not even matriculates, who had no training and no mind in teaching? Therefore, one of the immediate priorities we must take up- and I promise you full support from the Union Government-is to train these untrained teachers. We have many programmes for that purpose-in-service programme; and I hope to start correspondence courses very soon. I have just drawn up a project whereby teachers can be trained in their own homes, where you do not want building or teachers so that within a short time, we should be able to say that not a single school in India has got an untrained teacher to teach boys and girls who attend that school.

"The next aspect of education on which I wish to lay particular emphasis is the necessity for quality in education. Sometimes, I have been misunderstood. I have been told that this is a democratic country, that we must have democratic education, that this is an ega- litarian society and that everybody should have equal education. What is the meaning of this emphasis on quality? Now, I assure you that when I talk of quality, I do not mean what we should have special education or special educational institutions for the privileged or for

the rich. What I mean is that we should have special educational in- stitutions for our gifted and talented children. I fully understand that genius is not the monopoly of the rich; far from it. Rather I find more talent, more ability and more dedication among the poor than among the rich, but the unfortunate thing is that the poor boys never reach our best institutions, because they have not the means and the opportunity. Therefore, I want educational institutions of the best type which will compare favourably by any international standards but at the same time I want full opportunity to be given to the poorest of our people to be able to get to these institutions. That can only be done in two ways : One is to discover the latent talent among the poor, and the second, is to give them scholarships so that they can get education in the best institutions in our country.

`No country can become really great unless it can produce men of the highest calibre. Democracy does not mean dead monotony; it does not mean that you discourage or discount talent or genius, After all, talent and genius is rare but it is the man of talent and genius that can make a nation great. Therefore, it is necessary that we should think of,producing men of high calibre who will carry on the great traditions we have in this country.

`Now, quality must be emphasised in all sectors of education and I will take a rapid survey of how quality can be improved in all the three sectors with which we are concerned, namely, the primary, the secondary and the higher or the university education.

`Take the primary schools. As I said, here we are dealing with astronomical figures-60 million students. I am bad at figures and I do not know how many primary schools we have. They run into thousands and tens of thousands. But I would appeal to the Education Ministers here to have certain schools which can be converted into model schools. Select certain schools in each district or in each taluk-as many as you can-and give them all the facilities so that they would be like beacon light to the rest of the schools and to the rest of the teachers. We cannot raise the standard of schools all at once. Frankly speaking, we have not the resources. But at least let us make a start and let us Pick out one or two primary schools, as I said, in each district or in each taluk and give them all the facilities and make them model schools and get your best boys by proper entrance examination or by any other method you like to go to these schools so that you will create a nucleus both of good primary schools and of talented young boys going out of these primary schools.

`Then, I come to secondary education. That, to my mind, is the most vital sector of education. On the whole, the success of our edu- cational experiment depends upon whether we succeed in improving secondary education or not. In secondary education, we have some very good schools. The other day, I went to Lawrence school in Sanawar, right in the Himalayas, and I saw it. It is a public school. The fees are very high. Very few can afford to go to that school but the Principal told me, and I was very happy to hear that they have given a large number of scholarships with the result that a number of poor boys are studying there. So, in that school, we have children of some very rich people and children of some very poor people rubbing shoulders together and studying the same course. There are

very few schools like this in India. I want more such schools in India, more Central Schools. We have a scheme of Central Schools. Let us build up more secondary schools of the type of these public schools which have existed in this country for over hundred of years. At one time, public school was a sign of snobbery. Even in England you have heard of the expression `The man wears the public school tie'. But we do not want these schools to be hot-beds of snobbery; we want them to be again model schools, for other schools to come up to that standard. Therefore, in the next 5 or 6 years we should build up more such schools, where students can get as good an education, as that standard. Therefore, in the next 5 or 6 years we should build up this country.

`Then, the next problem we have to face in secondary education is diversification. You, Sir, have rightly said that it is a scandal, something we should be ashamed of, at the national waste, involved in 30% of the boys passing and 70% failing. Why is that happening? It is happening because most of our boys and girls today have no avenues except the avenue of college or university. Therefore, we have to provide for diversification. Now, diversification entails many pro- blems which we shall discuss when we adjourn to our business meetings. At what stage should diversification take place? Before diversification takes place, we must find out the aptitude of the child. That means, we must have multi-purpose schools. We cannot suddenly decide after 8 years of education whether he wants to be a mason or a carpenter or a technician or whatever it may be. There- fore, before the stage of diversification arises, we must discover his aptitude. Every child has an aptitude, every child has a talent and it is the duty of the educator to find out his aptitude and talent. Therefore, while we may have multipurpose schools from the very beginning or at the early stages, definite diversification should take place after, say, 8 years of general education.

`The second problem is; what form diversification should take? Should we have special schools for special vocations, or, should they be terminal courses, or, should we again continue with multipurpose schools? These are all difficult problems, but one thing is certain viz. that we must resist the pressure on colleges and universities. Every student in India has a right to say `I want higher education' but every student has not a right to say `I want collegiate or university education'. Everyone is not fit for collegiate or uni- versity education. Even in a socialist country like Russia, the num- ber of students who are permitted to be admitted to the universities and colleges is strictly limited. With regard to the rest, they have correspondence courses, part-time classes. They are particular that the standards in colleges and universities should be maintained.

`Then it is only through improvement of our secondary schools that we will try and prevent the large number of educated unemployed that is growing in our country.

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS BY SHRI M.C. CHAGLA, UNION EDUCATION MINISTER AND CHAIRMAN, CENTRAL ADVISORY BOARD OF EDUCATION.