(XII) APPENDIX L MEMORANDUM ON ITEM 15 : TO REPORT ACTION TAKEN ON IMPORTANT RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE CENTRAL ADVISORY BOARD OF EDUCATION DURING THE FIRST TWO PLAN PERIODS, VIZ., 1951-1950
ELEMENTARY AND BASIC EDUCATION
PROGRESS OF BASIC EDUCATION 1952
RECOMMENDATION The Board expressed the view that the progress of Basic education needs to be accelerated.
ACTION TAKEN 1953
RECOMMENDATION The Board recommended that a separate section dealing with Basic education should be set up in the Central Ministry of Education.
ACTION TAKEN A "Basic and Elementary Education Division" has since been constituted in the Ministry of Education.
1955
RECOMMENDATION The Board agreed that the matter regarding the desirability of introducing Basic education in Anglo-Indian and convent schools and similar other institutions should, in the first instance, be referred to the Anglo-Indian Board and the Indian Public Schools Conference for comments.
ACTION TAKEN The suggestion was conveyed to the Board of Anglo-Indian Education and Indian Public Schools Conference. The former agreed to the suggestions. The latter discussed the matter at their meeting held in April 1, 1958 and suggested that the Ministry may depute a small committee to visit some of the schools in order to observe, discuss and advise on what the schools were doing. The Ministry appointed a committee with Shri G. Ramachandran as chairman, and representatives of the Conference and the Ministry. The Committee visited some of the schools and submitted its report to the Ministry in November, 1959. The Report was placed before the Standing Committee on Basic Education of the Board at its meeting held in February, 1960, in New Delhi. The Committee noted its recommendations. The report was also circulated to all the Public schools in
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India, State Governments and the Board of Anglo-Indian Education for such action as they may deem necessary.
1955
RECOMMENDATION The Board authorised the chairman to establish a separate Advisory Committee on Basic Education, as a standing committee of the Central Advisory Board of Education.
ACTION TAKEN A Standing Committee with the following composition was established
(a) Chairman
(b) Secretary
(c) Five members of Central Advisory Board of Education
(d) Five members from outside with special knowledge and experience in the field of Basic education
(e) Two co-opted members
1957
RECOMMENDATION The expansion of Basic education quantitatively and qualitatively is the main problem facing Basic education. The question of a compact area technique has been considered by the Assessment Committee. In the previous meeting of the Standing Committee on Basic Education it was suggested that the compact area technique was acceptable in so far as full-fledged Basic schools are concerned, provided the compact areas were fully and progressively expanded. The programme of orienting all ordinary schools towards Basic pattern should however proceed simultaneously as recommended by the Assessment Committee.
ACTION TAKEN The guiding principle of the recommendation was noted and brought to the notice of the State Governments, and Administrations for future guidance in so far as development of Basic education is concerned. The Ministry organised four regional seminars in 1958 and a national seminar in 1959 on "Orienting Primary Schools towards the Basic Pattern" and trained a number of high-level administrators of the State Governments. The Ministry has also prepared some literature on the subject. The State Governments have been advised to implement the scheme of orientation out of savings during the Second Plan. The programme has been included in the State sector of the Third Five-Year Plan.
1957
RECOMMENDATION The Board suggested that horizontal approach should be made towards the expansion of Basic education, i.e., instead of confining Basic schools to compact areas only all schools of the first standard should be taken for conversion and other standards be taken step by step every year. For this it would be necessary to train or re-train the requisite number of teachers in Basic training institutions. The State should undertake programmes for training. and re-training Basic teachers in large numbers to facilitate the projected conversion.
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ACTION TAKEN The recommendation was brought to the notice of the State Governments for their guidance. A similar recommendation was made by the National Seminar on Basic Education held at Haunsbhavi in Mysore in January, 1958.
1957
RECOMMENDATION The Board recommended that as resolved by the last Conference of Education Ministers, all existing training schools should be converted into Basic training schools. For this purpose it would be necessary to undertake the re-training of the staff of Basic training schools immediately.
The Board was also of the opinion that hereafter no new non-Basic training schools should be opened.
ACTION TAKEN The recommendation was brought to the attention of the States and Administrations.It has been decided that all the new training schools opened during the Third Plan should be of the Basic pattern.
1957
RECOMMENDATION The Board recalled that such elements of Basic education which should be introduced into other schools immediately should be so introduced. Attention was also drawn to the note circulated to various State Government by the Ministry in which a list of activities which, could be introduced in ordinary schools with benefit was given.
ACTION TAKEN A similar recommendation was made by the National Seminar on Basic Education held in January, 1958 at Haunsbhavi (Mysore). The recommendation of the Board as well as of the seminar was sent to State Governments and Union Territories for necessary action.
1957
RECOMMENDATION The Board expressed concern that in certain States boys passing out of Senior Basic schools did not get admission to High schools. It was suggested that the State Governments who had direct responsibility in the matter should see to it that students passing out of such schools get admission into High schools. It was noted that one of the difficulties had been that English did not find a place in Senior Basic schools. The Board therefore recommended that English might be introduced into Senior Basic schools in the corresponding classes so that this difficulty was removed.
ACTION TAKEN The recommendation was intimated to the State Government and Union Territories for their guidance.
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1957
RECOMMENDATION The Board was concerned about the fact that boys passing out of post-Basic schools were not able to get admission into universities for higher education. In this connection it endorsed the recommendations of the sub-committee appointed by the Standing Committee on Basic Education to examine the question of admission into universities of boys passing out of the post-Basic schools.
ACTION TAKEN The matter was pursued with the Inter-University Board and the universities in India and the universites were requested to give a favourable consideration to this problem.
1958
RECOMMENDATION After discussing the function and role of the All-India Council of Elementary Education and the Standing Committee on Basic Education, the Board recommended that joint meetings of these two bodies may be held whenever important matters relating to problems common to both are to be discussed.
ACTION TAKEN The recommendation has been noted for action when necessary. 1959
1959
RECOMMENDATION The Board desired that a detailed study should be made of the, progress of Basic education in urban areas particularly in relation to the suitability of crafts employed and other characteristics of Basic education. The Board suggested that while implementing the general policy of re-organising the post-Basic, schools as one type of multipurpose schools the State Board of Secondary Education should develop suitable techniques of evaluating the students of post-Basic schools.
ACTION TAKEN A proforma was prepared by the National Institute of Basic Education which was sent to all the States. A report prepared on the basis of the information supplied by the States was submitted to the Standing Committee on Basic Education of the Board which considered it in their special meeting held in April, 1960. It recommended the constitution of a high-powered National Council for Basic Education. It also suggested that progress of Basic education should be assessed once every five years. It was of the opinion that all new schools to be opened in connection with compulsory primary education programme should, as far as possible, be on the Basic lines.
FREE AND COMPULSORY EDUCATION 1953
RECOMMENDATION The Board considered the memorandum on the progress of free and compulsory education in the country and special measures to be devised to
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achieve the target of providing compulsory and free primary education by 1960 as provided in Article 45 of the Constitution and requested the Ministry of Education to urge the Planning Commission to make more adequate provision for education, particularly for universal, free and compulsory education during the Second Five-Year Plan. The Board was of the view that special consideration should be given to States that were economically or otherwise less developed.
ACTION TAKEN It is now realised that it would not be possible to achieve the target laid down in Article 45 of the Constitution, the difficulties being financial as well as social. According to the present proposals, it is proposed to enrol 80 per cent of the children in the age-group 6-11 and 30 per cent of the children in the age-group 11-14 in schools by 1965-66. It is difficult to say when the target laid down by Article 45 of Constitution would be reached. The end of the Fifth Plan is the minimum time-limit one can see at present.
Steps are being taken to give. special assistance to backward States.
1955
RECOMMENDATION With regard to the recommendation of the Central Advisory Board of Education requesting the Ministry of Education to urge the Planning Commission to make more adequate provision for education, particularly for universal, free and compulsory education during the Second Five- Year Plan, the Board felt that the reactions of the States to the targets and priorities which have been tentatively fixed at the Conference of Education Secretaries in November, 1954 for the next Five-Year Plan may be awaited in the first instance.
ACTION TAKEN An attempt was made to obtain more funds for education, and particularly for primary education, in the Second Five-Year Plan. But unfortunately it was not possible to get additional allocation in view of financial stringency. The total allocation to education had to be scaled down from Rs. 307 crores to Rs. 275 crores. As the allocation to technical education was increased, the allocations for all other sectors went down.
1956
RECOMMENDATION The directive of the Constitution in favour of free and compulsory education up to the age of 14 years, should be fulfilled in ten years, i.e., during the Second and Third Plans. Such immediate measures as are needed to make the achievement of this aim possible should be taken in cooperation with the States. In this connection it was suggested that a suitable machinery at the all-India level may be set up to solve the financial, administrative and pedagogic problems of primary education, if necessary, on the lines of the All-India Council for Secondary Education. With regard to the note on the educational survey prepared by Shri J.P. Naik, the Board welcomed the suggestion and recommended that the proposed survey should not be limited to primary education only but should also include secondary education including technical education at the secondary level.
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ACTION TAKEN. The educational survey has been fully carried out and the report has also been published. An All-India Council for Elementary Education was established. The programme for the introduction of free, universal and compulsory education has been given. a high priority in the Third Five-Year Plan.
GIRLS' EDUCATION 1954
RECOMMENDATION The Board approved generally the note on girls' education in rural areas prepared by the Secretary, Ministry of Education, and drew special attention to the following recommendations:-
(i) In all rural schools, wherever possible, posts of school-mother should be created and the school teachers' wives (or other suitable women, if necessary) should be appointed to these posts on a remuneration of about Rs. 10 per month.
(ii) Wherever possible, rent free accommodation should be provided for teachers within the school precincts, and the expenditure on this should be treated as part of approved expenditure.
(iii) The maximum age of recruitment for women should be raised to 40-50. Special refresher courses should be provides, where necessary, for women who had finished their schooling more than five years before their appointment. These short-term courses should be considered as equivalent to regular courses for purposes of service in the schools.
(iv) For the next five years the educational qualifications essential for women teachers should be suitably relaxed at the discretion of the Education Departments concerned, which should also take other suitable steps to attract more women teachers, e.g., provision of part-time work, reduced hours of work and suitable adjustment in the time-table of girls' schools so as to enable married women to combine teaching work with house hold duties.
(v) Girl students, who are willing to take up teaching as a profession after their schooling, should not be charged tuition fees in classes VII and VIII and should, in addition, be given, on as large a scale as possible, stipends in the higher classes and during the training courses.
ACTION TAKEN (i) (ii) & (v) : These recommendations have been included in the scheme for the expansion of girls' education and training of women teachers initiated in 1957-58. (The progress of the scheme has been placed before the Board under the item "Review of progress of important schemes during the Second Plan".)
(iii) This recommendation was referred to the State Governments, most of whom have agreed to raise the maximum age for recruitment of women teachers to 40.
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(iv): This recommendation was referred to State Governments. Some of them have relaxed the educational qualifications for women while others are not in favour of doing so. Part-time employment of women teachers has also been accepted by a few States only.