We welcome the the scheme of computerisation and its introduction in schools. In our State, we have introduced computers in a selected number of higher secondary schools under the Class project. Considering the importance and relevance of computer application we suggest that computer application course should be introduced right at the high school level. This will call for necessary facilities and training of teachers so that they can be tuned rightly in the school, itself. We have felt the need for development of a good education information system. The DIET could be a good focus for collection, compilation and computerisation of these data. We look forward for help and guidance from the Govt. of India.

Women literacy as per 1991 Census is 43.7% Compared

to figure of 62.39% for male this is much less. Geographically this is much less in backward areas, tea and ex-teagarden, hill areas and char areas. We have adopted a number of schemes to encourage girls, education in our State. We hope to bridge this gap in a period of 10 years from now.

Provision of education to the children of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and backward section of the society has remained one of the highest priorities of educational policy. We have a focus in all our schemes of the benefit of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes through our Tribal Sub-Plan and SC component Plan.

There are three Engineering Colleges in the State including a Regional Engineering College at Silchar. The other two being one each in Guwahati and Jorhat. Although the Engineering College at Guwahati was established in 1956 while at Jorhat in 1960, except for one Post-graduate Course in Guwahati in Soil Conservation, watershed Management, no other Postgraduate courses have been introduced. Considering the demand and the necessity of the entire north-east region, the Govt. of India may allow opening of P.G. Courses in other fields also in both the Engineering Colleges in Guwahati and Jorhat.

I thank the Govt. of India for convening this meeting and providing us with an opportunity for participating in its deliberations.

(iii) SHRI M. VEERAPPA MOILY, MINISTER OF EDUCATION, KARNATAKA

It gives me great pleasure to participate in this meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education. The agenda of his meeting, I believe is to consider the report of the Review Committee of the National Policy on Education (NPERC).

The destiny of India is now being shaped in her classrooms. This, I believe, is no mere rhetoric. In a world based on science and technology, it is education that determines the level of prosperity and welfare of the people. on the quality and number of persons coming out of our schools and colleges, will depend our success in the great enterprise of national reconstruction whose principle objective is to raise the standard of living of our people. While appraising educational programmes, we have to remember that it cannot be considered in isolation or planned in a vacuum. It has to be used as a powerful instrument of social and economic change and will therefore have to be related to the long-term national aspirations the current programmes of national development as well as difficult shortterm problems.

The most unfortunate experience in the field of education, since the days of independence has been our inability to implement the constitutional guarantee regarding providing education to all children upto the age of 14. Today, unfortunately,. a large percentage of persons who are outside the ambit of education are women as well as scheduled castes and tribes. It is necessary that atleast now, we initiate immediate

corrective measures to set right this imbalance. Overall development involving all sections of the society becomes impossible if large sections of the people are completely left out of elementary education. Providing Universal Elementary Education would be the key to solving most of the socio/economic necessary to rightly enforce Article 45 the constitution,but also enlarge its scope to include Early childhood Care and Education. it may be argued that the country does not have the resources in the Government sector to enforce the constitutional guarantee. If that is so, we should riot hesitate to allow the private sector to open primary schools, wherever they come forward to do so it must be ensured that all villages/hamlets;human habitats have a primary school facility within a distance of 1 kilometre.

The primary school education has been plagued with the problem of poor retention. In fact, there is and opinion in some quarters that the thrust of the primary school education should be on retention rather than enrolment. I feel that it is necessary to give emphasis to both enrolment as well as retention. Giving emphasis to one at the expense of the other would be self-defeating. Greater emphasis needs to be given to enrolment and retention of disadvantaged sections of the society particularly women and SCs and STs, Community mobilisation, School mapping and micro-planning need to be implemented vigorously to make a significant dent on the enrolment and retention figures.

The NPERC has considered the question of non-formal education. In my State, viz., Karnataka, our experience with nonformal education. been a happy one. The content of non-formal education teachers have tried to bet themselves regularised in Government service and the administrative problems as a consequence have been rather irksome. In balance, I would feel that it is better to improve the formal school education system rather than go in for non-formal education as a substitute for school education.

The total literacy campaign as part of the Adult Literacy Program-me should continue. The earlier adult literacy centres have not been able to even make a dent on the problem of adult literacy. Hence, such programmes, which have failed to deliver the goods should be forthwith discontinued and all our energies should be concentrated on successfully implementing the Total Literacy Campaign Programme. Wherever Total Literacy Campaign has been taken up in Karnataka it has been very successful. The district of Dakshina Kannada has been declared as 100% literate district and we are making strenuous effort to replicate this achievement in other districts of the State. Total Literacy Campaign in combination with continuing education programme should be an adjunct of the University Elementary Education programme and should be given the same stress and focus.

The controversy regarding Navodaya Schools is unfortunate. In Karnataka, our experience with Navodaya schools has been very good. It is an opportunity talented students from

rural areas to have access to first class education and there is a great deal of appreciation for the good work being done by Navodaya schools. In this background, it is necessary to consider opening yet another Navodaya School in each district in the country. The medium of instruction in the Second Navodaya School should be in the regional language.

The strategies for improving the Secondary Education in the Country are well known and have also been listed in CABE agenda document circulated to all members. Enlarging the scope of Secondary Examination Board to include academic improvement activities, setting up of school educational complexes, giving more administrative and financial powers to the High School Headmasters and enhancing and strengthening the teacher training facilities should be vigorously implemented. Special efforts rust be made to improve the laboratory and library facilities in our high schools.

Vocational education is a very important area in the field of education and it is necessary to have a fresh look at the vocational content of these programmes. In Karnataka, se had set up an expert committee under the Chairmanship of Dr. S. Ramegowda, Vice- chancellor of Karnataka University. This expert committee has a hard look at the existing vocational programmes. The committee found that several existing vocational programmes did not in any way enhance the "employability" of the vocational student. These courses did not impart the kind of job skills required by prospective employers. In order to enhance the

"employability" of the vocational student and to impart him the required on the job skills, we have opened new vocational courses where a one year "on the job training" in an industry is mandatory. I am glad to inform this distinguished audience that the new vocational courses with a one year "on the job" training has been extremely popular especially among the prospective employers. I feel that such a step needs to be taken throughout the country so as to give to vocational education more meaning and purpose.

As far as higher education is concerned, it is necessary to have a fresh look at the utility of bodies like the University Grants Commission as well as the AICTE. While there is no denying the fact of the important role of the UGC and the AICTE to secure the planned development, of higher education,is not advisable to set-up a national level statutory mechanism to regulate the opening of substandard colleges and Universities. Given the vastness of this country and the immensity of the task, I do not think that the UGC an the AICTE are administratively geared to take up this daunting task. I feel it is better, if the State Councils of Higher Education are set up in all States to exercise the powers of the UGC and the AICTE. The nominees of the UGC and the AICTE could be on these State Councils. The State Councils can curb the proliferation of colleges without adequate facility, while at the same time cut down on the time lag involved in getting UGC and AICTE clearances. The regional offices of the AICTE and the UGC could then be wound up.

The idea to not up a rural university in order to develop a pattern of education related to the needs of the rural community -is a laudable one and should be seriously examined. The rural university could have a, Gandhian orientation and could be vested with running vocational and adult education and continuing education programme as well. The rural University could also seriously address itself to the task of artisan development and skill upgradation relevant to the rural areas.

One of the main problems confronting universities is the conduct of timely examinations in a proper manner. It is definitely worthwhile to examine the possibility of setting up independent examination board for the conduct of undergraduate examinations in all the Universities. There has been some debate regarding preventing engineering graduates of premier institutions such as IITs and RECs from going abroad immediately on their passing out. We must recognise the fact that the country has not been able to employ all the graduates passing out of technical institutions. It is necessary for out country to keep abreast of the emerging developments in the frontier areas of science and technology. The Indian engineers and professionals abroad can constitute a brain bank and help securing and assimilating technologies from abroad.

The development of human resources is the most urgent task confronting the country, today. The development of physical resources would not be possible without concomitant human resources would not be possible without concomitant human

resource development. I am confident that this CABE meeting will successfully spell out clear-cut educational policy initiatives so that the pace of human resource development throughout the country can be considerably accelerated.

(iv) SHRI ANANTRAO THOPTE, MINISTER, EDUCATION AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION, MAHARASHTRA

At the outset, I would like to thank shri Arjun Singhji and his colleagues for convening the meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education for discussing the Report of the CABE Committee in Policy at a very appropriate time. In the first place, the VIIIth Five Year Plan is commencing from this year. Deliberations of today's meeting will be of great value in introducing relevant programmes during the Eighth Plan. Secondly, since the next academic year will start from June or July in most of the states, recommendations of the CABE in today's meeting will certainly be of great help in taking many important decisions for the academic year before its commencement.

After appointment of the Committee to review the National Policy on Education, 1986, the implementation of the Policy had suffered a setback. However, a number of important programmes like operation Blackboard, Educational Technology Improvement of Science Education in Schools,Navodaya Vidyalayas. etc., are now being implemented with renewed enthusiasm because of Government of India's new initiative. I am sure, that the Report of the CABE Committee on Policy which contains a number of positive recommendations would certainly help giving new thrusts and directions to the implementation of the NPE. While we generally agree with the recommendations of the CABE Committee on Policy,I would like to try to highlight those areas which need particular attention of the CABE.

Education of Backward Sections

We welcome the recommendation of the Committee discarding the concept of a separate curriculum which was suggested by the Review Committee. Having a separate curriculum for the backward sections would only mean their segregation and imparting them second rate education, and widening inequalities in the society. What needs to be done is to provide better facilities and special coaching to these students to draw the best out of them and not to have a separate curriculum for them. Common School System

The concept of Common School System has remained to be the most difficult one for implementation since the Education Commission's recommendations in 1966 because of various reasons. Measures as suggested in the Report like upgrading quality of ordinary schools and providing amenities for achieving minimum levels of learning, acceptance of social responsibilities by privileged schools etc., will help to move towards the direction of the Common School System. This requires serious efforts to improve the quality of education being imparted in primary schools run by local bodies and Zilla Parishads to attract the children to their system. The Government of Maharashtra has a unique scheme of giving fee concessions to the students belonging to economically backward sections. This scheme has helped a lot in spreading higher education among the masses. We are thinking of giving concessions of free tuition fee in Secondary and Higher Education to those children only who have studied in the primary schools run. by local bodies like Zilla Parishads and Municipal Councils.

Navodaya Vidyalayas

There are 20 Navodaya Vidyalayas on 20 districts in Maharashtra. We have already submitted the proposals to open Navodaya Vidyalayas in the remaining nine districts. However Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti has selected three districts viz., Ratnagiri, Sindu Durga and Aurangabad for the year 1992-93. I request the Government of India to sanction Navodaya Vidyalayas in these districts at the earliest.

Early Childhood Care and Education

Our State recognises the need to strengthen pre-primary education to successfully achieve the goals of NPE. There are 16,941 balwadis in the State attached to primary schools in rural areas, in addition to 21,000 Anganwadis under the ICDS project. The State Government has decided to open 5,000 more balwadis in the Zilla Parishad primary schools. We are planning to open a balwadi or an Anganwadi, in every village of the State by the end of the Eighth Five Year Plan. The State Government has decided that timings of an Anganwadi should coincide with the timings of the primary school in the village, and as far as possible Anganvadis should be located in the premises of the local primary schools.A training programme on education for pre-primary children has been incorporated in the training of Anganwadi workers.This would help integration of the programme of Early Childhood Education with that of Universalisation of Elementary Education.

Universalisation of Elementary Education

Single Teacher Schools: The Government of Maharashtra

gives overriding priority to the programme of universalisation of elementary education. We have converted all 602 single teacher schools,opened after 30th September 1986 into two teacher schools. 12,347 single teacher schools will be converted into two teacher schools in the second and third phase of the Operation Blackboard, leaving no single teacher school in the State.

Schoolless Villages: According to the norms laid down by the State Government, there should be a primary school within a radius of 1 1\2 Kr. of every village having a population of 200 or more. According to a survey conducted in 1987, there were 1150 schoolless villages according to these norms. We have provided primary schools in all these villages by 1991-92. The State Government has relaxed these norms in hilly and difficult areas, according to which there should be a primary school within a radius of 1 km. of every village having a population of 100 or more.

Village Education Committees: I strongly agree with the recommendation that local level committees, with due to women and teachers should be constituted- to oversee functioning of primary schools. In Maharashtra, Village Education Committees have been constituted in all the villages to monitor the programmes at the village level, namely, preschool education,primary education, literacy and continuing education. An important feature of this Committee is that it is a body elected by Gram Sabha and nearly 50 percent of its members are women. Headmaster of the local primary school is the member secretary of the Committee. The State Government attaches great

Importance to these committees as a vital micro-level planning, monitoring and implementation unit. During the current year these committees have collected over Rs. three crores in cash or kind under the "Shaikshanic Uthsav" (School Improvement) Programme for improving the physical amenitites in schools.

Minimum Levels of Learning: The concept of Minimum Levels of Learning in primary education is very important for improving the standards of education and reducing the disparities in educational standards of different schools. The SCERT of Maharashtra has developed evaluation tests in Language and Mathematics,in first and second standard to begin with. All the primary schools in the State will be provided with handbooks giving guidelines for use of these tests. All the Education Extension officers in the State and 12,800 primary school teachers in Marathwada,which is an educationally backward region in the State,have been trained. The remaining teachers will be trained in phased manner.