 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS BY SHRI M.C.
 CHAGLA, UNION MINISTER OF
 EDUCATION

The Governor, Chief Minister, Education Minister, ladies and gentlemen.

We had decided last year to hold the meeting of this Board at Chandigarh. We did not know what situation we would be facing;. but I think it is just as well that we are meeting at Chandigarh at this time. Chandigarh has an atmosphere which makes us realise, what are the challenges that this country has to meet at this juncture. When the Education Minister, Punjab met me some time back,, I asked him whether he would like us to come to Chandigarh at the present time, or like us to postpone it or meet somewhere else. He. very bravely said: "if you are prepared to come, we will make all the necessary arrangements". I am grateful to the Chief Minister, to the Education Minister and the Government of Punjab for the excellent arrangements that they have made for the delegates.

I have also taken Punjab as the sword-arm of India. It is one, of the border States. The whole country is behind our Government in defending the security and integrity of our country. A great deal of responsibility falls on Punjab as the border State and that is why I call it the sword-arm of India. Punjab has shown courage and valour and the way it has made contribution towards defence, it has justified its name and reputation. I think it is for Punjab to, tell Pakistan "thou shall not pass this point", and that point is the border between India and Pakistan. On this side of the point is the. sacred soil of India. We have to see that our sacred soil remains uncontaminated by the presence of any foreigner.

This Board can play a very important role in national integra- tion. Under the present constitutional set up, education is a State subject. After all, all the States constitute federation of India and it is very necessary and essential, particularly at this time, to give. to education a national outlook, a national aspect and a national, complexion, and therefore this Board can play a very important role by coordinating education all over the country. May I say that not, only in military valour, but even in education, Punjab has given a, lead to the country. Punjab is the only State-and I say over and over again here and elsewhere that Punjab is the only State- which, has agreed to make higher education a Concurrent Subject.

Sir, you said and rightly that our education should now be defence-oriented. May I put it in a slightly different language? We have to determine what are our priorities now and to mould our education so that it should be geared to those priorities. What are our priorities today? The first and foremost, of course, is defence. Education, health or any other activity can only flourish in a free- atmosphere. We have to preserve our freedom, our independence and our integrity and, therefore, it is quite obvious that defence must have the topmost priority particularly in view of the threat that is impending and the menace that is facing us.

The second priority, to my mind, is agriculture. Gandhiji used to say that no country can call itself really free unless it can feed itself and that saying of Gandhiji comes to us more forcefully today than ever before. So long as we are compelled to import food from outside, we will always be subject to political pressures; we will always have this feeling that we are dependent upon some country or the other for our very basic need, the food supplies, and, therefore, the second priority-it is almost as important as defence is that we must become self-sufficient in agriculture and our food Production.

The third priority is production generally. We are facing today another great crisis and that is the crisis of shortage of foreign ex- change. Again, we are dependent upon foreign countries for our imports of raw materials, of machinery, of capital goods and so on. So long as this dependence continues, we will again be subjected to political pressures and there also we have to be self-reliant, and therefore, I attach the greatest importance to our education being production-oriented. We must learn to produce, we must learn to produce more, we must learn to produce in a manner in which we will be completely self-sufficient and that is one of the greatest jobs education has got to do today. Therefore, I feel-and I am glad Prof. Rao is here-that in the allocation of funds for education there should be no further cutting down. I always find that whenever an economy drive is launched and whenever the country faces a crisis, the first casuality is education. But May I say this to Prof. Rao, and I am sure he will agree with me, the greater the emergency, the greater the challenge to the country, the more important it is to spend more money on education because education will help our country to meet all these challenges.

It is for the whole country and for the people to face all these problems and solve them and give proper perspective to the various priorities which I have pointed out. May I say a word about the position with regard to the allocation in the Fourth-Five-Year Plan. We started with Rs. 2,600 crores; this was the amount agreed to by the various Working Groups which met in Delhi from the various States and the Centre. This was the amount which was agreed to for the Fourth Five-Year Plan. But the National Development Council approved an outlay of Rs. 1,400 crores and this amount was further reduced to Rs. 1,260 crores. To my mind this is the bare minimum and I hope we will not be called upon to reduce this amount any more. As I pointed out, agriculture must get the first priority, but education should have a high priority in the defence efforts to meet the menace and the threat which we are facing at present. May I give some other figures which will satisfy the delegates as to how little we are spending on education as compared to other countries. We are spending only 3% of our national budget on education. It is certainly much less than most of the Western countries, but it is even lesser than some of the newly emergent independent countries. In the Third Plan we spent 77% on education In the Fourth Plan the figures have increased a little to 8.7%. Therefore, we have progressed from 70% to 8.7%. This is hardly satisfactory. The point is how education is to be geared to defence effort. How can education help in the effort to meet the aggression which is facing us? The first and the foremost thing we need are

the technicians and the engineers and for that purpose we have already decided to have a scheme of expansion in the engineering and technological institutions. The second scheme we have undertaken is that specific projects should be placed before the engineers in order that they may design and fabricate equipment and machinery that is needed for defence. I am very proud of our scientists and technicians. We have great talent in our country. We must use that talent and I have not the slightest doubt that these young men in technical and scientific positions can certainly meet the requirements which we have at present. Therefore, we have decided that in these institutions we should proceed on projectwise basis. We should tell our engineers and scientists of India's defence needs and ask them to design and fabricate the necessary machinery and equipment. I have no doubt that with the talent at our disposal very soon we will be able to make our own planes and our own tanks. Then the other proposal we have in mind to implement is that in our technical and scientific institutes we should have new courses started to meet the needs of defence. From this aggression we have come to know what we lack and what our needs are. Therefore, we want courses to be started in our engineering and technical institutes which will help to fulfil these needs.

Next come the universities which can play a great role in so far as defence is concerned. I have been thinking on a scheme which is still under consideration and that is as to whether national service should not be made compulsory before a student enters a university. After he has passed higher secondary examination, he can give one year to national service. The result will be two-fold. He will enter the university at a more mature age. One of the problems about our university education is that boys and girls enter universities much too early as compared to universities in other countries. Between the higher secondary examination and the university stage if the students were to enter national service, they should be able to help in defence and agricultural production, and, at the same time, do something to get themselves ready for the university. I have no doubt that when they enter a university, they will be much more mature and better able to discharge their duties as university students. Of course, it will take a great deal to make it obligatory, but I would suggest that the Vice-Chancellors think seriously whether it will be possible.

One of the main causes of indiscipline among students in this country is the want of something to do during leisure hours and more particularly during vacations, and also the fact they do not have a sense of commitment. Students do not feel that they are part of the great adventure on which we have launched ourselves in this country and that is why there is a sense of frustration. If we can take our students along with us, and make them realise that they are part of this great experiment, I think much of this indiscipline will vanish. We have to devise ways and means to make use of their leisure time, particularly during their vacations. Now, during the vacations arrangements can be made for students to work on farms, to work in factories, and there are two other things which universities can very usefully do, Firstly, the universities can adopt some of the surrounding villages. A batch of students can say we have

adopted this vallage, we will attend to its irrigation, its health problems, its water supply, its roads, and also eradicate illiteracy from it. I have known cases in United States where university students have adopted villages. If a village can be adopted by American students, our university students, I am sure, can also adopt a village. This is scheme which has great potentialities and I hope the universities will give serious thought to it. Secondly, the universities, can adopt certain secondary schools which lie more or less within their ambit so that during the leisure hours students, even professors,. can go to these schools keep watch on their progress, see how work is done and it would be a great incentive to the teachers and students of the schools to feel that a university is taking interest in its progress.

Then one other important work that university students can do, is the eradication of illiteracy. I am one of those who firmly believe, that the illiteracy cannot be eradicated from this country unless there is a tremendous voluntary effort, unless there is national mobilization for the eradciation of illiteracy. Government cannot. do it. Government has neither got the resources nor the manpower.. But unless everyone in India feels the shame of illiteracy, unless he, is convinced that the progress of India depends on the eradication, of illiteracy, we will not be able to wipe it out. And, therefore, here is some work which the universities can do. If during evenings and during vacations they were to undertake the work of making men and women literate, it would be a very important task indeed.

I was talking of adult literacy. I appreciate the remarks made by the Education Minister that one important problem we have to face is the problem of the drop-outs. You make a man or woman literate, you spend money on him or her, but unless there is followup within two or three years, he or she will relapse into illiteracy. This is also true of our primary education. Today there are more than 50 million students in our primary schools. A. large number of them go upto the 4th or 5th standard and they leave schools and within four or five years forget whatever they have learnt. So, it is a colossal waste of national resources and of national endeavour. Therefore, one of the biggest problems we are facing and we have to solve is not merely to give primary education, not merely to try and make people literate but to see that they remain literate and for that purpose we should have a big scheme of special literature for these neo literates. Unless there are facilities for these people who become literate to read literature specially provided for them, we are wasting our time and effort and are wasting money in trying to make people literate. After all why we make them literate is to see that they continue to remain literate and take advantage of literature to imporve their knowledge and that one can only do through reading and through the help of libraries.

In the modem age we have audio-visual facilities also. Radio and the television offer new possibilities. We wish we make use of radio for education. Television is coming and that will also help. From the national point of view of defence production, literacy has a great significance. If you co-relate literacy with defence production, you will realise that the man who is educated is able to con, tribute better towards defence than the one who is not educated.

Again, going back to what the universities can do, they can make a contribution to civil defence. They can also contribute to promote communal harmony and help in the maintenance of law and order. When the country is at war and our brave people are on the front, those we cannot go to the front have to be called upon to shoulder responsibility to see that the law and order is maintained and corn- manual harmony is upheld. Nothing has given me greater pride and I am sure to all of you, than the fact that when Pakistan invaded India, the entire country, every man, woman and child, people belonging to all religions, castes and communities stood behind the brave army and this is the spirit which we have to keep up. Spread of gospel of national integration is the task which our under-graduates, can perform better than most people and can help in a great way.

Then comes the question of agriculture. Now here again uni- versity students and the under-graduates, during their vacations can help the farmers to produce more, teach them modern ways of pro- duction, and help them in various other ways. I have just written to the Vice-chancellors to help in the movement which has just been started by the Food Ministry and is called the `Young World Action For Food'. Youth can do a lot in this movement. We are participating in this movement and our people can help in many ways in producing more food, such as kitchen gardening, poultry farming, orchards, etc. All the under-graduates studying in universities during their vacations or during their spare hours can help in this important national task. I think our university population, speaking off-hand is about a million and a half, and it can play a vital part in this movement. Therefore, I would appeal to the State governments to collaborate with the Vice- Chancellors who can lot do all these things themselves without needing the help of the State government and I am sure that if there is close collaboration, between the university authorities and the State authorities, a great deal of work can be done by the college and university students. The young boys and girls, of secondary schools can also do a great deal for the defence. They can help in first-aid and make a contribution towards civil defence.

I may now turn to the next priority and it is making our educa- tion production-oriented. May I say this to those who believe in basic education and feel that we have neglected the principles of education laid down by Gandhiji. In the last conference, on Basic Education, which I addressed in Delhi, I made it quite clear that we accepted as a principle that basic education should be an integral part of our education at all stages. Let us understand what basic education means. Let us not go by name alone,. We sometimes. catch hold of a phrase and forget what its connection is what it really means Basic education does not merely mean teachings of spinning. Gandhiji emphasised spinning in the particular context and-time in which he lived and for a particular purpose. But today basic education hag come to have a different meaning, a different significance. What I understand from basic education is that every boy and girl must learn some craft, must learn Something to do with his or her hands, must produce something. The question of what he or she should produce must depend upon the place in which the school is situated. If the school is situated near a farm, certainly he must know farming

and must work there. If the school is situated in a city, he must learn to work in a factory, to produce something which the city needs. Therefore, you cannot have a cut and dry scheme of basic education. The scheme has to be determined by the needs of the locality in which the school is situated. I am also in favour of a scheme, if we are going to ask the school children to produce things, of giving them incentives, e.g., by giving them a part of the sale proceeds of what they produce. Let them have the satisfaction of knowing that they have made something which is useful to society, which can be sold and which has a price, and let them have a share in that price so that their work does not become academic but has a practical value. Here again I would like our teachers in the secondary schools to think of specific projects which should be placed before their students. So far our education has been too much individual-oriented. They have been working individually and separately but now time has come when we should teach our boys and girls to work. in teams, to have a specific project in mind, to produce results and show these results to the world.

One of our main objectives in secondary education is to have terminal courses after the secondary education is finished. The big- gest problem facing India today is the tremendous pressure oil uni- versities and this pressure can only be removed in two or three ways. One is to diversify our secondary education and to have, postsecondary terminal courses for given some specialised type of training which would result in the student becoming a useful member of society and being able to earn something. Second, to which I again attach the greatest importance, is correspondence education. Now it is admitted and acknowledged even in rich countries like the United States and England that only those boys and girls should go to university who have the talent and capacity to benefit by full collegiate education. Every student in a college costs this country a very large amount and that amount is again wasted unless you make sure that only those boys and girls go to colleges and universities who have really an aptitude for higher education. But this does not mean that you should deny them the right of higher education. You should give them higher education by other means and particularly by correspondence courses. I see a future for correSpondence courses in our country. We are dealing with millions and the best, quickest, cheapest and easiest way of giving education, higher education and any other education is through correspondence courses. The first advantage is that the more the students, who study through correspondence courses, the less is the expense per capita because once you have the literature ready, you can produce millions of copies. The second advantage is that a man can go on earning and as well studying in the evenings or in his leisure hours. The third advantage is the lessening of pressure on universities and checking the lowering of standards.

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS BY SHRI M.C. CHAGLA, UNION MINISTER OF EDUCATION