(III) APPENDIX C--MEMORANDUM ON ITEM 4-- REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL SERVICE
The Report is submitted for consideration.
REPORT OF THE NATIONAL SERVICE COMMITTEE, 1959-60 SECTION-I
Introduction Ever since independence, the institution of social and labour service for students has been urged, both as a measure of educational reform and as, a means to improve the quality of educated manpower. This question was considered by the Central Advisory Board of Education at its meeting held in Cuttack on 8th and 9th January, 1950. After examining the various aspects of the matter and in the light of experience of other countries in this field, the Board recommended that the students should devote some time to manual work on a voluntary basis only, and that teachers should also associate with them in such work. The First Five-Year Plan adopted by the Government of India in 1952 stressed the need for compulsory social and labour service for students for a period of about a year. The economic value of such labour was not the chief consideration, as the primary aim of the period of training was to build up the students as workers and disciplined citizens. The vast place which manual work occupied in. the life of the nation ought to be, to some extent, reflected in, the activities of every citizen. The service could take a variety of forms but it should develop significance in proportion to its relation to the real needs of the community. The association of students with such work would bring them an intellectual and emotional awareness of the various tasks of national reconstruction going on in the country. Me doubts regarding the desirability of introducing compulsion in the matter related only to short-term difficulties and did not seriously touch any question of principle. A period of preparation and experimentation was, however, necessary before the service could be put on a compulsory footing, but in the meanwhile, the scheme should be introduced on a voluntary basis with certain inducements. Those going through such a course would naturally be more fitted for positions of responsibility. The First Five-Year Plan concluded with saying that the organisers of this scheme should be, as far as possible college professors for whose training adequate provision should be made.
2. Pursuant to the recommendations made in the First Five-Year Plan, a number of schemes such as Labour and Social Service Camps, Campus Work Projects. Village Apprenticeship Scheme, etc. were put into operation on a voluntary basis with the object of inculcating a sense of discipline, a spirit of social service and dignity of manual labour among the students and of developing among them an awareness of, and identification with the problems of the social and economic reconstruction of the country, specially in the rural areas. The response of students to participate in these schemes has been encouraging and those successfully completing
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their period of training have shown some signs of the desired improvement. The two major drawbacks of these schemes were: firstly, in view of their limited scope, it was not possible to cover a large majority of students; and, secondly, owing to the short duration of the period of service, the work undertaken was mostly of marginal significance. The operation of these schemes has, however, served as a period of experimentation and preparation.
3. The question of introducing compulsion in this field was raised from time to time and was forcefully voiced by the Prime Minister in his letter of 9th June, 1958 to the Chief Ministers in these words: "I have been thinking that it would be very good for our people to have a period of compulsory service for all young men and young women between certain age limits, say 19 to 22. In most countries of the Western world there is conscription for military service. This is not considered to be an infringement of their liberties or freedom. We do not want any such thing for military purposes, but some kind of compulsory period of training and service for every person appears to me to be very necessary. That period should be one year and for, say, six months in the year everyone should live in camps under some kind of military discipline. This will give them discipline, physical health and capacity for manual work and to work together for productive schemes. The next six months might well depend on the capacity and training of the individual. Another advantage of this will be to bring together everyone at the same level, whether he is rich or poor, and make him do exactly the same type of work, part of which will be manual." The Prime Minister then went on to say that in view of the enormous cost involved, if the whole of India was brought within the purview of the scheme, it was not necessary to start it in, a big way but everyone between certain ages could be made liable, by law, to serve and this could be done in suitable batches. The Prime Minister further endorsed the idea that every graduate before he gets his degree, should put in a certain period of service in an allotted sphere, depending upon his training and capacity and including work in a village or a tribal area. The Prime Minister directed the Ministry of Education to formulate a suitable scheme for national service, making a beginning with the students between the High school and the college.
4. A draft outline of a scheme for national service was accordingly prepared by the Ministry of Education and placed before the Education Ministers' Conference held in New Delhi on 8th and 9th August, 1959. The Conference was unanimous that there was an urgent need for trying out a workable scheme for national service in view of the fact that education, as it was imparted in schools and colleges today, left something to be desired and it was necessary to supplement it with a programme which would arouse interest in the social and economic reconstruction of the country. It was of the view that if the real objectives of the Scheme were to be realised, it was essential to integrate it with the educational process as early as possible. However, the general feeling at the Conference was that the Scheme should not be made compulsory at this stage but that it should be tried initially on a voluntary basis. Finally, the Conference recommended that "(i) the question of introducing the Scheme on a compulsory basis should be considered after the experience of a pilot project to be operated for a few years; (ii) pilot projects of three months duration consistent with the objectives of the Scheme, and preferably one
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for each university, for students volunteering to participate in the programme, may be organized; and (iii) a committee may be appointed to work out the details of the proposed pilot projects."
5. In pursuance of the recommendations of the Education Ministers' Conference, the Union Education Minister appointed the following Committee on August 28, 1959 to revise the Scheme prepared by the Ministry of Education in the light of views expressed by the Conference.
1. Dr. C. D. Deshmukh, Chairman, University Grants Commission-Chairman
2. Dr. D. C. Pavate, Vice-Chancellor, Karnatak University
3. Prof. D.G. Karve, Vice-Chancellor, Poona University
4. Dr. B. Prasad, Vice-Chancellor, Patna University
5. Dr. A. C. Joshi, Vice-Chancellor, Punjab University
6. Shri H. C. Sarin, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Defence
7. Shri K. Balachandran, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Community Development and Cooperation
8. Shri P. N. Kirpal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Education
9. Dr. N. S. Junankar, Deputy Educational Adviser, Ministry of Education--Secretary.
The Committee held three meetings-first on the 3rd October, 1959, second on the 22nd October, 1959 and third on the 15th December, 1959. Professor D.G. Karve was unable to attend any meeting. The Committee considered the various aspects of the Scheme for national service and after laying down the guiding principles, made various recommendations for working out a suitable programme. These are given in the following sections.
SECTION-II
Guiding Principles The appointment of the Committee by the Ministry of Education and the inclusion of many educationists indicates that the Scheme of National Service to be worked out by the Committee was primarily intended to be educational in nature, scope and functions. The Scheme should, therefore, be visualized as a measure of educational reform directed towards remedying the observed deficiencies in our educational system. As has been discerned by educationists, the present system is not fully attuned to the needs and aspirations of the independent contemporary India and has not been successful in developing the kind of attitudes which are required for the task of national reconstruction. By and large, students fail to cultivate a positive sense of discipline; also they are usually averse to manual labour, moreover, they seem to lack a spirit of social service or a sense of social purpose and the idealism and enthusiasm which are usually associated with youth and which are of vital importance for a developing country like India, have been singularly lacking. Apart from these deficiencies which are more of a social character, the present system does not stimulate that curiosity and love of scholarship which is the most valuable asset of an educated individual.
The present system is a legacy of the British and while a large number of reforms are being introduced at different levels of the educational system. the root causes of the deficiencies mentioned above remain to be tackled
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on an effective basis. One of the reasons for the malaise in our educational system is that unlike the universities in the more advanced countries of the world, our universities take students at a comparatively younger age when they are immature and inadequately equipped to take full advantage of Higher education. In this connection some of the observations which were made by the University Education Commission (1948-49) are still valid and worth recalling:
"Students arrive at the age of maturity for university at about the age of 18, though there are exceptional individuals who reach it earlier than 18. Before this age of maturity is reached, a boy or girl must stay under the formal discipline of a school and should be taught by the methods of the school and not by the methods of the university. That is why the British, the European and the American students are seldom admitted to a university before they are 18 or 19. In the U.K. and the U.S.A., and most European countries like Germany, France and Switzerland, at least 12 years of schooling is necessary before a student enters the university. In India most of the work now done in our present Intermediate classes is really school work and should be properly regarded as pre-university work, as in the U.K. and the U.S.A. The real university work is done only for two years of the B.A. and B.Sc. classes and that is why the standard of achievement of our average graduate is low. We, therefore, recommend that the standard of admission to the universities should be the present Intermediate examination, to be taken by a student after completing 12 years of study at a school and at an Intermediate college, normally at the age of 18. This change will mean that students proceeding to a university for degree courses will have the essentials of a good general education and will be more adequately prepared for university work; they will be mature enough to look after themselves, will not be bewildered by the comparative freedom of university life and will, with intelligent self-interest, take better advantage of educational opportunities in the universities. Since most universities in India are situated in large towns, it is desirable to keep away young and immature students from crowding into these towns where conditions of life provide innumerable temptations and few restraining influences.
"We must also look at the age of entry into the university from the point of view of `the public' or rather the parent, as also from that of the boy or the girl. It is so difficult for many parents to decide what their sons and daughters between the ages of 14 and 18 will do and yet these are the most critical years of their life. In most cases their circumstances are fluid; parents do not know whether the aptitudes of boys or girls will fit them for a university training; the boys or girls do not clearly know what possibilities are open to them and the result is that, for want of any proper guidance, all those who can afford and even many of those who can ill afford, whether they have the aptitude or not, flock to a university or college far away from their homes. The universities and colleges, many of them anxious to augment their fee income, admit as many students as they can to their Intermediate and Degree classes, irrespective of whether they are likely to pass or not at the end of the two years. There is little doubt that these colleges and universities commit an act of cruelty towards those of their students who have no aptitude for university training.
"The average student in our universities brings with him the school attitude towards his studies. He expects to be treated like a school boy even in the university. He does not realise that it is his duty to study and
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not the teachers' duty to, make him study. He does not make full use of the opportunities the university offers him and does not, therefore, get proper advantage from the university. Unless he himself works and does a good deal of written work for his teachers to correct. he cannot get benefit out of his teachers. This attitude on the part of the students leads to another noticeable defect, i.e., very slow rate of progress of work in the classes. In British and American universities the rate of progress of work in a class is ever so much faster than in an Indian university with the inevitable result that they are able to cover a much larger ground in the same period of time and the contents -of their syllabuses are fuller and richer".
Apart from immaturity of age there have been deficiencies in the intellectual equipment of those seeking admission to our universities. The University Education Commission had reiterated the recommendation of the Calcutta University Commission (1917-18) that the course for a Bachelor's Degree in Arts or Science, whether it is pass or honours, should be of three years' duration so that the total period which a regular student had to spend before taking his Bachelor's Degree was 15 years, instead of 14 years which was the normal practice. In this connection it may, however, be mentioned that even the enhanced period was less than. the usual period of 16 years required for obtaining the first degree in countries like the U.K. and the U.S.A. The Secondary Education Commission (1952-53), which reviewed the entire field of Secondary education in the country, recommended that Secondary education should commence after four or five years of Primary or Junior Basic education and should include the Middle or Senior Basic or Junior Secondary stage of three years and the Higher Secondary stage of four years, i.e., 11 or 12 years of schooling. The Commission further suggested that the present Intermediate stage in the universities should be replaced by the Higher Secondary stage which should be of four years' duration, one year of the present Intermediate being included and that, as a consequence, the first degree in the university should be of three years' duration. In effect, this recommendation meant that students should spend 14 or 15 years, in school and college before obtaining the Bachelor's Degree. However, the national pattern of education finally adopted on the recommendation made by the Central Advisory Board of Education in its meeting of February, 1954. consisted of 11 years of schooling, i.e., 8 years of integrated Elementary (Basic) education followed by 3 years of Higher Secondary education, up to the age of 17 plus and three years of University education after the Higher Secondary stage for the first degree. Thus the total period of school and college education for obtaining the first degree remained 14 years as hitherto, though the age for entry to the university was raised to 17 plus. Even this small improvement is as yet far from materialising in view of the slow rate of progress of the reorganisation of Secondary education in the country and the variations in the practice of regulating age for admission to the Elementary and Secondary stages of education from State to State, with the result that large numbers of students coming to the universities are still below the age of 17 plus. This problem, therefore, needs to be tackled urgently and purposefully at all stages by regulating the age of admission at the Elementary and Secondary levels of education as well as the University level, so that no one below the age of 17 plus would be able to pass out of the Secondary stage or be eligible for admission to a university. A special duty rests in any case on universities which should
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themselves ensure that no one below the age of 17 plus is admitted to institutions of Higher education. The admission of students to universities at the age of 17 plus, instead of 15 or 16 as at present, would somewhat improve the situation, but the students at the age of 17 plus would still not be mature enough to derive real benefit from University education, as compared to students of the age of 18 plus.
As mentioned earlier, one of the glaring defects noticed in the present day education in our schools and colleges is the extremely poor contact, or lack of it, between the students and teachers in educational institutions on the one hand and the work of national reconstruction, particularly in the rural areas, on the other. One unfortunate result of this state of affairs has been that the educated youth continue to adhere to certain false values and unrealistic standards, which are manifested in hankering after routine and uninspiring jobs in Government offices or industrial undertakings in the public and private sectors, and in a desire to lead an easy life in urban areas with all the facilities for entertainment and other diversions of city life. It is an irony of fate that even those who come from rural areas become reluctant, after going through the `educational' process to go back to these areas, prefering to live in cities attracted by their superficial amenities and comforts and unware of the inspiring constructive effort awaiting them in the countryside.
It is agreed that preparation for life in the Indian context, both for the school-leavers and the graduates, can only mean, by and large, an intelligent understanding of, and a close and living contact with the rural areas, by way of active participation in the work of rural reconstruction. This is becoming increasingly important as the increasing percentages of youth coming to colleges cannot be absorbed in employment in the public and private sector in large urban areas and will have to find work in rural areas. The programmes of community development, cooperative farming, free and compulsory education, social welfare and other measures for rural reconstruction cannot hope to make any progress unless educated leadership of high quality becomes available for implementing these programmes, and mobilizing the vast unutilized human resources for the achievement of the enormous tasks lying ahead of the nation. Our villages need qualified doctors, nurses, engineers, agricultural experts, teachers, Social education organizers and other trained personnel for releasing energy, vitalising moribund capacities and bringing into play the achievements of modern science and technology for their advancement. It had, therefore, been considered essential that the syllabuses and curricula of Higher education at the first degree stage should be so modified, with the consent of universities, as to include immediately in every year of the three-year degree course, a period of social service and manual labour in rural areas associated with community development and national extension blocks, in collaboration with and under the supervision of the appropriate authorities concerned with the development work.