MEMORANDUM ON ITEM NO. VII TO CONSIDER THE REPORT OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE OF THE CENTRAL ADVISORY BOARD OF EDUCATION ON GENERAL PURPOSES
The Standing Committee of the Board on General Purposes met in New Delhi on the 6th August, 1965. The report of the Committee is given below:
The recommendations of the Committee were placed before the Board for consideration.
RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE GENERAL PURPOSES STAND-
ING COMMITTEE OF THE C.A.B.E. (HELD IN VIGYAN BHAVAN,
ON THE 6TH AUGUST, 1965, AT 10-30 A.M.)
Present
1. Shri N. N. Acharya
Deputy Minister for Education
Rajasthan Government Chairman
2. Dr. Gopal Singh
M.P. Member
3. Major-General Ranbir Bakshi
Commandant, National Defence Academy Member
4. Shri K. K. Samal
Secretary to the Govt. of Orissa
Education Department Member
5. Shri S. N. Kaul
Director of Education, Manipur Member
6. Shri B. P. Bagchi
Joint Secretary, Ministry of
Education Secretary
Also present
7. Dr. P. D. Shukla
Joint Educational Adviser
Ministry of Education
8. Major-General A. S. Pathania.
Director-General, N.D.S.
9. Shri D. P. Nayar
Chief (Education), Planning Commission
10. Shri G. S. Gupta,
Deputy Secretary, Ministry of I & B
11. Shri P. N. Natu
Secretary, N.C.E.R.T.
12. Shri K.C.S. Acharya
Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Education
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The Standing Committee considered the following items which were included in the agenda and made the following recommenda- tions in respect thereof:
I. Memorandum on `Report on the Educational Information Service
of the Ministry of Education' for the C.A.B.E. meeting scheduled
to be held in October 1965. (i) The counselling service and organization should be suitably strengthened so that they may prove to be of greater assistance to the students.
(ii) There should be better co-ordination between the Students Advisory Bureau at a university and the cell of the Director General of Employment & Training, located there so that the students may be aware not only of the facilities available but also of employment opportunities.
(iii) Those universities which have not so far set up Students Advisory Bureaux should do so without further delay.
II. Scheme of National Scholarships. (i) There was sharp difference of opinion as to whether loan scholarships granted to scholars should be recovered from them or treated as an outright grant. Some members were of the opinion that the loan scholarship should be treated as an investment which should not be recovered in terms of money as it brings invisible re- turns. The other members were of the view that its recovery should be insisted upon so that the money can be revolved and thus utilized to assist a much larger number of scholars. The question may be considered by the Board.
(ii) There should be one consolidated large scheme of National Scholarships covering the provision for scholarships in the Central Plan as well as those in the State Plans: alternatively, there should be a closer coordination between scholarships granted by the Gov- ernment of India and those granted by the State Governments.
(iii) The `Means Test' leads to delay and various malpractices and should, therefore, be abolished in the case of Merit scholarships.
(iv) The factors responsible for delays in disbursement of scho- larships and the lack of proper coordination between national and State scholarships should be looked into and the Central and State machinery for dealing with scholarships should be suitably streng- thened, were necessary.
III. Publications, Periodicals and other Journals brought out by the
Ministry of Education. (i) In the journal `Youth', published by the Ministry of Educa- tion of the Government of India, suitable articles should be includ- ed, in co-operation with the Director General, Employment and Training, which indicate the sources from which information can be obtained about employment opportunities. This will be of great help to students.
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(ii) A part of the library grant of an institution should be given in the form of literature carefully selected out of that which is published by the Government and should be read by the students and the teachers.
IV. Pattern of Central Assistance in the Fourth Five Year Plan. The details of the schemes in the Central sector as well as those of the Centrally sponsored schemes, should be worked out clearly and communicated to the State Governments as early as possible.
V. Training of Instructors for the Integrated Programmes of Physi-
cal Education. The stipends which have so far been given to the trainees at the Central Training Institutes were meant to cover the cost of their board and other expenses. Even if these stipends continue to be available at the Central Institutes, they cannot be diverted to State institutions.
RECOMMENDATIONS MADE BY THE GENERAL PURPOSES
COMMITTEE OF THE C.A.B.E.
II. Scheme of National Scholarships
(i) Outright Scholarships vs Loan Scholarships The matter has been considered in detail by the Ministry and it has been decided that in view of the limited resources available for scholarships, both the outright and the loan scholarship should continue to be awarded. It is proposed, therefore, to increase the number of both the outright and the Loan Scholarships so as to ach- ieve in the Fourth Five Year Plan the ratio of 1:3 in the number of outright scholarships and the loans as compared to the present ratio of 1:10.
(ii) Need for one consolidated large National Scheme The recommended policy has been fully kept in view while finalizing schemes for the Fourth Plan. There will be two main Schemes of scholarships in the Fourth Five Year Plan; the National (Grant) Scholarships Scheme and the National Loan Scholarships Scheme. The quota of awards allotted to the States will be intima- ted in advance and they will be aware of the awards at the na- tional level and would be able to make their own awards to the other candidates not covered by the national awards. Thus there will be necessary coordination and it should cause no delay in the finalisation of the State awards. There will also be no duplication of effort in the field of scholarships as broadly speaking, the post- school and research sector will be covered mainly by the National Scholarships and the School sector by the State scholarships.
(iii) Means Test 201
justifiable. It seems more desirable, however, to make the MeansTest more liberal. With this in view, proposals are under consideration to liberalize the Means-Test by raising the ceiling of the income upto which the scholarships should be given under the schemes.
(iv) Delay in Payments
A revised payment procedure has been introduced in consultation with the Controller and Auditor General of India, with effect from this financial year and all the States have been requested to adopt it with immediate effect. Under this procedure, the State Governments will send in advance remittance in respect of each scholar for the first nine months, to the head of the institution who will use this money to make payments to the scholar in the beginning of each month. The payment for the remaining three months will again be made in advance after the details of disbursement have been received for the first instalment.
This revised procedure is expected to solve the problem of delay in payment. According to the information received so far, the States of Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and the Union Territories of Andaman & Nicobar, Goa and Manipur have adopted the new procedure. Other States and Union Territories have been requested to adopt the new procedure without further delay.
As the major aim of the National Scholarships is to help the meritorious students who are needy, it is essential that the scholars who are selected should be aware of the award before they seek admission and, further, that they may be enabled to take admission without being burdened by the financial requirements at the time of admission. To achieve this, a system of entitlement cards has been introduced from this year whereby the university/board who are informed in advance of the quota of national scholarships allotted to an examination, send an entitlement card to each selected scholar. The card enables him to seek admission to an institution without the Payment of admission, registration and tuition fees initially charged. The various State Governments have issued instructions to heads of the institutions under their jurisdiction to honour the entitlement cards. The entitlement card thus enables a scholar to take admission without financial worry. The revised payment procedure is expected to remove delay in payment after a scholar has taken admission.
As regards the strengthening of the administrative machinery, the need has been felt ever since the schemes of national scholarships were introduced in 1961-62. As the position became more acute after the launching of the National Loan Scholarships in 1963-64, the Union Minister of Cultural Affairs wrote to the Chief Ministers of all States in June, 1964 requesting them to establish a separate cell for the scholarship work. While all the Chief Ministers assured that they were having the matter examined, intimation about the strengthening of the staff has been received only from Kerala and Mysore. The question of strengthening the scholarships machinery in the States during the Fourth Five Year Plan is also under the consideration of Government of India.