APPENDIX Q-- MODIFIED SCHEME OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION MADRAS (PLACED BEFORE THE TWENTIETH MEETING)
The Madras Government is at present spending Rs. 687.9 lakhs on Elementary education. This represents 11.5 per cent. of the total revenue of the State. But even with this large expenditure only 38,17,153 out of 79,82,214 children of school age were attending schools at the end of 1950-51; in other words, the percentage of the number of pupils under instruction to the total number of school age children was only 47-8.
2. From time to time schemes were considered to expand Ele- mentary education. In 1949-50, the shift system was introduced in Elementary schools first as experimental measures in ten taluks and was later made applicable to all areas as a permissive measure. Under this scheme the teachers who attended both shifts were paid an addi- tional allowance of rupees ten p.m. The fact that there were only 155 schools working the shift at the end of the year 1950-51 shows that the permissive shift was not adopted extensively.
In the year 1950, in pursuance of the directive principle of the Constitution, the Director of Public Instruction was asked to prepare a scheme to bring all children into schools within a period of ten years. The scheme worked out to bring five additional lakhs of children into schools every-year involving an expenditure of one crore per year, increasing annually at that rate for ten years. In other words, at the end of ten years, ten more crores have to be found. But in the first year itself it was found possible to provide in the budget five lakhs only-as against one crore of rupees. The position has not altered since then.
The cost of educating a pupil is now Rs. 22.8 towards which Gov- ernment alone contribute Rs. 16.3.
3. The problem was not one of enrolment alone. There were a number of schools located in unsuitable and ill-ventilated buildings and for want of space children were huddled together, stunting both their mental and physical growth. Of the 38,687 Elementary schools in 1951-52, only one-half had buildings of their own and the rest had to be accommodated in all sorts of improvised places.
Further, a large percentage of the schools did not have as many teachers as there were classes. The average roughly worked out to a little less than three teachers for five standards. There were in fact as many as 4,108 single-teacher schools and one teacher had to be in charge sometimes of even five standards. In more than 60 per cent. of these Elementary schools with five standards there were only one, two or three teachers but not as many as there were standards.
4. It is easy to see to what strain the teacher was put with plural classes of unmanageable strength. It meant that children were being compulsorily detained for longer hours than necessary in schools without attention or work and that this contributed to pupils developing a dislike to the school resulting in their withdrawal. Out of 12,22,775 pupils enrolled in standard I in 1946-47 only 4,61,686 reached the V Standard in 1950-51. In other words only 37 per cent. of the pupils
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completed the lower Elementary course. Though economic factors might have also contributed to the withdrawal of pupils from schools, pupils' own lack of attraction for the conditions in schools had perhaps not a little to do with it.
5. Now that it has become apparent that the expansion of Basic education can proceed only in stages and will take time, it has become necessary to do something to improve here and now the ordinary Elementary schools and to turn them in the direction of Basic edu- cation. It is also of the utmost importance to increase as much as possible the number of pupils attending the present Elementary schools, keeping in view the conditions in regard to space, number of teachers and limitations of finance. Hence the Modified Scheme.
6. A general idea of the scheme is given by the circulars and the Guide Book published by the Education Department (Annexure).
7. The most essential part of the scheme is the reduction to the pupil of the school-day from one of five hours to three. The pupils will be divided into two batches and the schools will function in two sessions of three hours each; each batch will attend only one session. In this State this reduction of school hours is not entirely an innovation. As far back as 1939 the Education Department permitted pupils belonging to Scheduled Classes and girls in standards III, IV and V to attend school only for three hours a day so that they might help the family during the rest of the day. The idea was to encourage the enrolment of pupils belonging to economically Backward and Scheduled Classes. This new scheme has been introduced in all the non-municipal areas in the State from the year 1953-54 and there are about 35,000 schools working under this scheme as against the total of 38,687 schools in the whole State.
8. The need to maintain the standard of instruction under the Modified Scheme in tool subjects has at the same time been kept in view. The scheme does not reduce the content in any of the subjects like Language, Elementary Mathematics, Nature Study, Drawing, History, Geography, Hygiene, Civics, Moral Instruction and Singing. These subjects will be taught for the same duration as before and the same syllabus will be followed. There will be six working days of ,four periods each under the new arrangement, adding up to 24 periods in all. Twenty-one periods of 40 minutes each per week will be given to these subjects as hitherto, leaving three periods to be used at the discretion of the headmasters.
9. As already stated, in 60 per cent. of schools there are as many teachers as there are standards. The Modified Scheme reduces plural class teaching considerably. It saves pupils from the weariness of waiting while the teacher is occupied with another class. The evils arising out of the inadequacy and unsuitability of school buildings are reduced when the numbers of pupils attending school at a time is smaller.
10. An integral part of the scheme is that the half day during which the pupils will not attend school should be utilised for securing the objectives contemplated by the Basic system, namely, learning through living and training in self-reliance. One of the accepted misfortunes of pupils who have gone through a school course is their
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dependance on securing what in the West is known as a "White-Collar job". If they fail to secure such an appointment they are practically incapable of earning a livelihood; any increase in the number of such persons will be a national disaster. The Scheme therefore contemplates that while the pupils are at school they will be concurrently in touch with other ways of living and avoid looking down on them. The best persons who can preserve for pupils this outlook and under the best possible conditions are their parents who, are engaged in some kind of work for their livelihood. Where pupils have such parents the school can safely leave them in the hands of the parents. Put it is vital that not only these children but every- school-going child should develop this outlook; otherwise those that are not subject to this discipline will not only suffer themselves but are liable to disturb the minds of others, making the latter feel that they are in some manner inferior. The scheme, therefore, contemplates that children who cannot join their parents should be attached to a farmer or a craftsman in the village during the half day when they don't attend school. The pupils will watch the work that is being carried on and would be encouraged to participate progressively in the same in accordance with their aptitude. There is no rigidity about their attendance or work. The children are not obliged to be at any particular place for any fixed number of hours. The nature and amount of activity is a matter of the aptitude, the capacity and the needs of the children themselves.
11. To summarise, the following are some of the advantages. expected to result from the scheme:
(1) Shortened school-day for the pupils will benefit their body and mind without affecting their knowledge.
(2) Minimising the evils of bad and inadequate school buildings.
(3) Minimising plural class teaching.
(4) Immediate possibility of admission of a large number of pupils into existing schools while the State plans for new schools and better buildings in coming years.
(5) Greater chance of poor children, who have to assist their parents because of Poverty, coming to schools.
(6) New orientation to the advantage of the individual and the nation.
(7) Avoiding the need for any large sum of money which in any case is not now available.
The whole of this memorandum may be studied in close conjunction with "The Guide Book on the Modified Scheme of Elementary Education" copy of which is enclosed.
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