APPENDIX S : NOTE ON EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF INDIA BY SHRI J.P. NAIK, MEMBER, PANEL ON EDUCATION, PLANNING COMMISSION.
The total number of villages in India, according to the Census of 1951, is 5,94,000. Unfortunately, no statistics are available to show how many of these are provided with Primary schools. In 1955-56 it, is anticipated that there will -be 2.5 lakhs of Primary schools, but it is not known how many towns and villages are served by them. On the one hand, there are multiple schools in all towns and bigger villages. On the other hand, some of these schools serve the educational needs of more than one village. But the first of these two factors is of far greater importance than the other and it is estimated that not more than 1.5 lakhs of towns and villages are served by the existing schools. If this surmise is correct, about 4.5 lakhs of villages are still without any school whatsoever.
In a programme of educational expansion, the highest priority has to be given to the provision of a school, however humble, within the reasonable distance of the home -of every child. It is, therefore, suggested that a determined effort should be made in the second plan to provide schools to all the school-less villages.
For this purpose it will be necessary to hold an educational survey of the country as a whole. Such a survey will show (1) the number of towns and villages already served by schools, (2) the number of new independent Primary schools required to meet the needs of the remaining bigger villages (say with a population of 300 or more) and (3) the number of group schools or peripatetic schools that would be needed to meet the educational needs of the smaller villages. A detailed note on the technique of such a survey has been separately prepared and is enclosed herewith. (Appendix `A')
it is suggested that this work should be taken up immediately. An officer should be placed on special duty for the purpose at the Government of India level. Similarly, every State Government should also be requested to put an officer on special duty for the same purpose. If this is done, the work would be expedited and it would be possible to complete it in not more than twelve months. It may even be possible to complete the work and get the preliminary results within a period of six months, but that would depend upon the speed with which the idea is implemented.
Experience in Bombay where such surveys have been carried out shows that a sum of Rs. 5,000/- is required for the survey of a district. The amount includes even the cost of printing and publishing the report. At this rate a sum of about Rs. 20 lakhs would be required for surveying the 378 districts of India. Another sum of Rs. 10 lakhs may be provided for overhead expenses. The project, therefore, will not cost more than Rs. 30 lakhs.
It is, therefore, suggested that the entire amount should be immediately provided by the Government of India. Allocations from this should be made to State Governments who should be requested to carry out the survey as early as possible. The procedure suggested in the enclosed note is meant for their guidance, but it would be open to them to modify it according to local conditions. The following time- table is suggested for working out the scheme:-
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(1) The work should be started in January 1956, with the appointment of a special officer at the Government of India level in the Ministry of Education.
(2) Immediate letters should be addressed to all State Governments explaining the scheme and requesting them to place an officer on special duty for the purpose before the end of January 1956.
(3) A seminar of about a week should be held at Delhi in the first week of February to which the Special Officers appointed by State Governments would be invited. The technique of the survey would be explained to them and the survey of one taluka or tahsil in the neighbourhood would be carried out to show how it actually works in practice.
(4) The Special Officers appointed by the State Governments should be asked to hold similar seminars in their States in the last week of February. One officer for every district of the State should be invited to this seminar which should be conducted on the same lines as the seminar at Delhi. At the end of this seminar, therefore, there would be a trained officer available for every district.
(5) The work of the survey proper should start in March. The District Officer-in-Charge of the survey should get together his assistants from each taluka or tahsil and train them in the techniques before the middle of March.
(6) Between the 15th March and 15th May the field work should be completed by the officers of the Education Departments working in cooperation with the officers of the Revenue and Forest Departments, where necessary. In -other words, all the field work must be completed before the monsoons start.
(7) Consolidation of the results obtained should be completed by the 30th June and district-wise results of the survey should be available early in July.
(8) The State-wise results of the survey should be prepared before the end of August 1956 and should be available to the Government of India early in September.
It is suggested that a small pamphlet embodying the results of the survey should be published as soon as practicable thereafter.
Appendix 'A'
The object of a restricted educational survery of this type is to ascertain (a) the number and population of cities, towns and villages which are already provided with Primary schools; (b) the number and population of villages which are still to be provided with schools; and (c) the manner in which new schools can be started in the existing school-less villages so as to avoid all over-lapping and to achieve the maximum of effect at the minimum cost.
A proposal to carry out an educational survey of India for these purposes was put forward as early as 1911. Unfortunately, however, the suggestion was not followed up, mainly because of the outbreak of the first World War soon afterwards. In 1925, however, the Government of Madras took up the suggestion and carried out an educational survey of the State as a whole and its results are avilable in a published, form. On a recommendation made by the State Board of Primary education, the Government of Bombay took up the idea in 1946 and surveyed a large number of districts, particularly those which are largely inhabited by aboriginals and hilly tribes. So far as I am aware, such surveys are not carried out anywhere
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else. It is, therefore, proposed that a survey of this type should be carried out for the whole of India during 1955-56.
The Concept of a Population Centre
The Census Reports give the number of villages in the country and also their population. It is not generally realised, however, that the term "village" as used in the census reports is really a "revenue village" which is a unit of area and not a unit of population. What the census officers usually do is to enumerate all the people living in the area defined as a revenue village and give the total population that is enumerated as the population of the village. This procedure has its administrative conveniences no doubt, but it creates several difficulties for the educator. What the educationists want to know is the number of people living together in an area, so that they can be served by a common school. I propose to use the term "population centre" for this purpose. When actual surveys of certain areas were carried out, it was seen that there was a great divergence between revenue villages as defined in the census and population centres as required by the educationists. In the first place, several revenue villages are described as uninhabited because no people are found living within its area. These baichirakh villages may be eliminated altogether from the field of the educationists. Secondly, it is also noted that actually more than one revenue village is composed within a single population centre. The city of Dharwa in Bombay State, for example, comprises 13 revenue villages whose population is still being enumerated separately in the census reports. Such cases will, I trust, be found every where. In certain instances, a single population centre in fact happens to be two or more revenue villages because the total area of the population centre is -divided into a number of units each of which has been entrusted to a different i patel. Although the census reports may show such villages separately, the educator need not take that distinction into account and would have to regard them as having been amalgamated into one population centre. Thirdly, a single revenue village is often divided into a number of hamlets which are separated from each other by long distances. It is obvious that each of these hamlets will have to be treated as a separate population centre. But the census reports will not show their existence at all and will group all the hamlets togeth- er into a village for purposes of enumerating its population. The first step in an educational survey, therefore, is to ascertain the exact number and location of population centres in the areas to be surveyed.
The officers conducting the survey must, therefore, clearly realise the distinction between a "revenue village" as defined in the census statistics and a "population centre" as required for purposes of education. Unless this is done, the survey will not serve any useful purpose.
III. Data to be collected in each educational survey
For the purposes of educational survey it is necessary to regard the taluka or tehsil as a unit. In this small area it is possible to collect together local officers who have a personal and intimate knowledge of the local conditions and to prepare the survey without much delay or large expenditure. The usual procedure adopted is to hold a meeting of the revenue and education officers in the taluka, tehsil or thana and to prepare the details of the survey. In the forest area it is of advantage to invite the local forest officers also for this work.
When the work of the survey starts a number of tables will have to be compiled for each unit selected such as a taluka, tehsil or a thana. The first table will show the total number of population centres and is given below:-
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Table No. 1 No. of population centres in the taluka, tehsil or thana of the district
(1) Total number of town and villages according to the census report.
(2) Number of uninhabited villages.
(3) Number and details of revenue villages which are amalgamated together to form a single population centre.
(4) Number and 'details of villages which are divided into hamlets.
(5) The final list of population centres in the taluka or tehsil.
After this basic data is compiled the second step is to collect information about population centres served by Primary schools at present. For this purpose the following form is generally used
Table No. 2. Populatian centres served by Primary schools
(1) Name of the population centre
(2) Names and population of all the population centres which would be served by the school located at the population centre.
(3) Total population served by population centres.
In giving information under column 3 the usual practice is to group together contiguous population centres separated by very small distance such as, half a mile or so together. In such cases, unless there are very strong reasons to the contrary, it would be better to have a single big school serving the needs of the contiguous population centres rather than separate small schools for each.
After this technique is compiled we get the exact data of population centres which are still without schools. With the help of the people who know the locality, a tentative plan is then prepared of the best manner in which schools can be provided to all these population centres. For doing so, the following principles are generally observed :-
(1) An independent school is provided for every population centre with a population of 300 or more, because such a centre would be able to enrol about 25-40 children.
(2) Where the population of the population centre is less than 300, neighbouring population centres within a distance of 11/2 miles are grouped together and a group school is assigned for them if the total population exceeds 300 or more. When such close cooperation is not possible, peripatetic schools are planned under which a teacher manages two population centres which are separated by a long distance. He may hold his school in the morning in one centre and in the afternoon in another; or he may hold his school for each population centre on alternate days of the week ; or he may hold his school for three days in one centre and for three days in another. Lastly, very small villages are grouped together into two centres which are to be managed by a peripatetic teacher. In short, every effort is made to see that educational facilities are taken to as many villages as possible and the results of this planning are summarised in three tables as follows :-
Table No. 3 List of new independent Primary schools proposed to be established.
(1) Name of the population centre where the school would be located and its population.
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(2) Names and population of the other population centres where educational needs would be served by the school located at the population centre in column 1 above.
(3) Total population served by the school.
Table No. 4 List of group schools
(1) List of group schools proposed to be established.
(2) Name of the population centre where a school is proposed to be established.
(3) Name and population of other population centres which will be covered by the population centre enumerated in column 2.
(4) Total population served by the schools.
Table No. 5 List of peripatetic schools proposed to be established
(1) Population centres included in group (1) of the peripatetic schools and their population.
(2) Names and population of population centres included in group
(2) of peripatetic schools.
(3) Total population served by the peripatetic schools.
When this planning is done, it will be noted that practically all villages ----- be served with a school of some type. But in certain areas, particularly forest areas, the population is so sparse that there are several villages which cannot be reached by any programme we might think of. Such villages will have to be left out of this plan for the present as unreachable. In areas where efficient surveys have been carried out, it is found that the population of such villages does not generally exceed 2-3% of the total. Finally, the results of the survey are summarised in a table of the following type:-
Educational Survey of taluka, tehsil or thana
(1) Total number of towns and villages.
(2) Total population.
(3) Total number of towns and villages with schools.
(4) Population of towns and villages under (3) above.
(5) Percentage of the population to the total.
(6) Number of new independent Primary schools required.
(7) Number of villages that will be served by the new independent Primary schools proposed.
(8) Population of these villages.
(9) Percentage to total.
(10) Number of group schools required.
(11) Number of villages served by the group schools.
(12) Population of these villages.
(13) Percentage proposed.
(14) Number of peripatetic schools.
(15) Number of villages served by peripatetic schools.
(l6) Population of these villages.
(17) Percentage proposed.
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(18) Number of villages which cannot be reached under this plan.
(19) Population of these villages.
(20) Percentage proposed.
After the results are thus summed up for each taluka, tehsil or thana the may be consolidated for the- district as a whole. In doing so, care has to taken about villages near the border. It often happens that a village or hamlet near the border of a taluka is so distant from any other population centre in that taluka that it is generally regarded as unreachable. But in some cases such a village or hamlet happens to be close to a village or hamlet of the neighbouring taluka and is thus capable of being supplied with education facilities. Such border land cases will have to be carefully considered at time of consolidation.
After the survey of the district is ready, the survey for the State as a whole can also be compiled taking care to see about the border land cases between a district and a district.