The question was also discussed by the Standing Committee on Basic Education of the Board at their meeting held on 13-14th January, 1959 at Madras which observed as under :
"The reasons were generally known so that the committee felt that it was necessary to pay greater attention to improve the programme of Basic education first and attend to an evaluation of this character a little later".
The Ministry has accepted the suggestion.
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1958
RECOMMENDATION The Board approved the proposal of the Bombay Government that the National Institute of Basic Education should provide for a few places for the diploma-holders of post-graduate Basic training colleges to do research at the Institute.
ACTION TAKEN The Institute provides for two research fellowships every year, which are, open to the diploma holders of post-graduate Basic training colleges. also.
1959
RECOMMENDATION The Board suggested that the National Institute of Basic Education be advised to examine the extreme cases of variation in cost of education at primary stage along with the study already undertaken by them in relation the comparative cost of Basic and non-Basic education.
ACTION TAKEN The Advisory Committee of the Institute considered the recommendation of the Board and suggested that the Institute should first make pilot studies in the States of Delhi and Orissa. The data collected from the schools in Delhi were analysed and it was found that the per capita, cost of education in comparable Basic and traditional primary schools of Delhi is almost identical.
Other important findings of this study are:
(i) During the year 1957-58 the average estimated per capita cost in junior Basic schools was slightly higher than that in traditional primary schools. This apparent difference is, however, not due to the system of education and may be broadly said to be due to circumstantial factors.
(ii) Whereas the traditional schools are located in urban areas. the junior Basic schools are mostly situated in comparatively much less populated rural areas.
(iii) The major effect of difference in this location of the two systems of schools is the creation of disparity in the pupil-teacher ratio in them. During 1957-58 average pupil-teacher ratio in junior Basic schools was 30 as against 37 in the traditional primary schools. Many schools are running with such meagre strength as 20 or 30 in two or three classes combined. There were more than 50 per cent of the classes with less than 20 pupils in them. On the other hand, the traditional primary schools had usually their full quota.
(iv) The expenditure on items other than the pay of the staff is quite a small portion of the school's budget accounting for less than 10 per cent of the total, and does not make any significant contribution to the apparent difference in the per capita cost in the two systems of education.
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(v) The craft work which is alleged to make Basic education very costly accounts for only a nominal portion of the total expenditure on Basic schools.
The pilot study of the schools in Orissa was dropped.
SECONDARY EDUCATION
SECONDARY EDUCATION COMMISSION 1951
RECOMMENDATION The Board considered the question of secondary education, with particular reference to the need for greater uniformity and coordination, at least in regard to standard and duration, and reiterated the resolution passed at their 15th meeting that the question of secondary education was of such vital importance and involved such important and urgent issues that a Secondary Education Commission should be appointed by the Government of India at a very early date.
ACTION TAKEN The Government of India accepted the recommendation and set up a Secondary Education Commission in terms of their resolution No. F. 9- 5/ 52-D.I., dated the 23rd September, 1952 with Dr. A. Lakshmanaswami Mudaliar, Vice-Chancellor, Madras University, as Chairman and the members mentioned below. The Board submitted its report in January, 1953.
1. Principal John Christie,
Jesus' College, Oxford
2. Dr. Kenneth Rast Williams,
Associate Director, Southern Regional
Education Board, Atlanta (USA)
3. Mrs. Hansa Mehta,
Vice-Chancellor, Baroda University, Baroda
4. Shri J. A. Taraporevala,
Director of Technical Education,
Government of Bombay, Bombay
5. Dr. K. L. Shrimali,
Principal, Vidya Bhavan Teachers'
Training College, Udaipur
6. Shri M. T. Vyas,
Principal, New Era School, Bombay
7. Shri K. G. Saiyidain,
Joint Secretary to the Government of India,
Ministry of Education, (Ex-officio Member)
8. Principal A. N. Basu,
Central Institute of Education, Delhi
(Member-Secretary)
1953
RECOMMENDATION The Board considered the report of the S.E.C. and resolved as follows :-
The Government of India appointed a Commission for the reorganisation of secondary education, under the Chairmanship of Dr. A. L. Mudaliar
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and the Commission has submitted its report recently, which has been placed for consideration before the Central Advisory Board of Education. In the interests of reorganisation not only of secondary education but of education as a whole, it is essential that the report should receive the earnest attention of the Board and its recommendations implemented as effectively and speedily as possible.
The Central Advisory Board of Education, therefore, authorises the Chairman to appoint a committee, consisting of the members of the Central Advisory Board of Education and some distinguished educationists from outside, to report to the Board at its next meeting in, January, 1954, regarding the recommendations which could be implemented the Central Government and recommended for implementation to the State Governments and also the order of priority of their implementation.
ACTION TAKEN At the request of the Board, the Chairman appointed the following committee for this purpose :
1. Shri K. G. Saiyidain (Convener)
2. Professor A. N. Basu, Principal, Central Institute of Education
3. Dr. V. S. Jha, Chairman, Public Service Commission, Madhya Pradesh
4. Mr. Kishan Chand, Education Secretary, Uttar Pradesh
5. Shri J. B. Mallaradhya, Director of Public Instruction, Mysore, Bangalore
6. Shri J. C. Mathur, Education Secretary, Bihar, Patna
7. Dr. K. L. Shrimali, Principal, Vidya Bhavan Teachers' Training College, Udaipur
The Committee formulated its recommendations under three broad categories:
(a) The general pattern of secondary education.
(b) List of priorities, indicating the items or action-points which should be implemented during the next seven years. (The agencies which should be responsible for initiating action on each item are mentioned at the end of each item.)
(c) A list of recommendations which do not fall under (b) but for various reasons deserve special attention of the Central and State Governments.
Details are given in Statement II that follows this section on 'Secondary Education'.
1954
RECOMMENDATION The Board passed the following resolution
"The Board approves generally the Report of the Secondary Education Commission with the following specifications and endorses the priorities in the field of secondary education listed by the implementation Committee in their report.
"The Board expresses the hope that the Government of India and the State Governments will adjust the Plan for the remaining two years of the present Plan, so as to make an adequate Provision for the implementation
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of some of the urgent reforms in the field of secondary education, as recommended by the Implementation Committee, and will make suitable provision for the purpose in the Second Five-Year Plan. The Board further hopes that the programme for the reconstruction of secondary schools as formulated by the Committee will be treated as the minimum and that it may be possible, for at least some of the States, to accelerate the tempo, as envisaged by the President of the Board in his inaugural address."
ACTION TAKEN The programme for the reconstruction of the secondary schools formulated by the Committee was included in the last two years of the First Five-Year Plan and in the Second Five-Year Plan. The Centre undertook to bear more than half the cost on account of such reconstruction. A comprehensive letter was issued in this connection on 7th August, 1954.
1959
RECOMMENDATION The Board concluded that the real remedy lay in the speedy reorganisation of secondary education, closer relationship between the employment pattern in the country and the output of graduates and the provision of a large variety of courses at the secondary and post secondary levels for those not suited to university education. The Board urged that all possible measures should be taken to implement these recommendations as early its possible, keeping in view the recommendations of the first Deshmukh Committee.
ACTION TAKEN To reduce the output of unemployable graduates the question of regulating admission to institutions of higher education was discussed at the Education Ministers' Conference held in 1959. The University Grants, Commission took up the question of restricting the number of students in a college to the limit of 800 to 1,000 and for prescribing an entrance test for admission to such institutions.
For the speedy reorganisation of secondary education increased allocations were recommended by the Working Group on Education.
To work out closer relationship between education and the employment pattern in the country, the Directorate General of Resettlement and Employment have initiated an all-India survey of employment among the graduates.
HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 1955
RECOMMENDATION The last class in the secondary stage should be called-the 11th class and may be reached after schooling of not less than 10 years, the actual duration of the school system in the various States to be determined by the State Governments concerned.
ACTION TAKEN All the State Governments (excepting that of Uttar Pradesh) have agreed in principle to this reorganisation.
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RECOMMENDATION The end of secondary education at 17 should mark a terminal stage in education and prepare students for life. It should also be of a standard which would enable them to participate, with profit in a three-year degree course.
ACTION TAKEN Secondary education is being reorganised with the above objectives in view.
1956
RECOMMENDATION The Board felt concerned that progress made in securing the cooperation of universities and boards of secondary education in introducing the new pattern of secondary and university education was slow and apprehended that considerable difficulty would be faced by students if this pattern was not accepted by the universities and boards of secondary education concerned by the time the first batch of students take their final school examination.
The Board recommended, therefore, that the Government of India and State Governments should pursue the matter vigorously with the universities and the boards of secondary education.
ACTION TAKEN The recommendation was brought to the notice of State Governments, universities and boards of secondary education.
1959
RECOMMENDATION The Board recommended that from the year 1960-61 all new secondary schools should be given affiliation on the new pattern of higher secondary schools. The Board agreed with the recommendation of the All-India Council for Secondary Education that high priority should be given to the conversion of high schools into higher secondary schools and that the upgrading of high schools should be regarded as an essential feature of the whole scheme of reorganisation of secondary education.
The Board agreed with the recommendations of the All-India Council for Secondary Education that State Governments should be persuaded to change over most, if not all, of their high schools to the higher secondary pattern by the end of the Third Plan period.
The Board agreed with the recommendation of the All-India Council for Secondary Education that in so far as the Third Five-Year Plan was concerned the Central Government should assure the State Governments of recurring and non-recurring contribution on the conversion of high schools into higher secondary schools on a scale not less than what prevailed at present.
The Board further recommended that with regard to the upgrading of schools it would be necessary for the Government of India in the Ministry of Education to provide for a certain amount of non-recurring and recurring grant. The non-recurring grant would be required for improvement in accommodation and for improvement and expansion of laboratory facilities. It desired that a suitable formula should be worked out to apply to
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all the schools. The Board made the following suggestions in this behalf :
(a) For a unit of forty students in a class and for a school to be raised from high school to higher secondary school, the non-recurring expenditure, taking accommodation, equipment and laboratory into consideration, may be Rs. 50,000.
(b) A recurring expenditure of Rs. 10,000 may be provided towards improvement of salaries of teachers with better qualifications, etc.
From the point of view of present requirements, it was considered essential that every school should provide for the teaching of both the humanities and science and students generally should be taught both subjects in the higher secondary schools. There might be more emphasis on the one or the other, but it was essential to teach both subjects to every pupil.
ACTION TAKEN At its meeting held on 8th and 9th August, 1959, the Education Ministers' Conference considered the question of giving affiliation to only new higher secondary schools. It was considered that the imposition of a total ban on the opening of new high schools was likely to dampen the enthusiasm of the people and voluntary organisations in certain areas and was likely to result in a setback in the expansion of secondary education In the backward areas. However, it was agreed that the establishment of high schools should not be undertaken indiscriminately.
The joint meeting of the Education Secretaries and the Working Group on Education held in June, 1959 discussed this question at length and expressed the opinion that "the effort to convert all the existing high schools into higher secondary schools during the Third Plan period seem to be rather difficult of attainment". They recommended that while each State should determine the target of conversion according to its needs and resources every effort should be made to convert at least 50 per cent of the existing high schools into higher secondary schools in the Third Plan.
During the course of discussion with the State Government representatives for the finalization of their Third Five-Year Plan, the importance of introducing elective science and general science in most of their schools has been impressed on them, and requisite provision has been made by them for this purpose in their Plan.