APPENDIX T-- THE MODIFIED SCHEME OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION MADRAS (PLACED BEFORE THE TWENTY FIRST MEETING)
The old scheme of Elementary education, which provided for a five-hour school day, was in force for the last 15 years. Every effort was made in those years to bring as high a percentage of school-age population as possible, to the school. To this end, the Government were spending year after year, very considerable sums of money on Elementary education. Details regarding the steps taken by the Madras Government are given in Chapter I of the *Report of the Expert Committee on the Modified Scheme. In spite of all these efforts, the goal of free and compulsory Elementary education for all, at least up to the age of 12, was still far off. In fact, only 47.8 per cent of the school-age children were brought under instruction at the end of 1950-51.
In the year 1951, in pursuance of the directive principle (Article 45) of the Constitution, this Government drew up in consultation with the State Director of Public Instruction, a scheme to bring all ,children into schools within a period of ten years. It was found that the scheme, which sought to bring five additional lakhs of children into schools every year; involved 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 would have to be found. But in the first year itself it was found possible to provide only a sum of rupees five lakhs in the Budget, as against the required amount ?of one crore of rupees. That position has not altered since. The cost ,of educating a pupil is now Rs. 22.8, towards which the Government contribute as much as Rs. 16.3.
The foregoing facts will indicate, in broad outline, the enormous dimensions of the problem of bringing under instruction all children of the age group six to 12 and the huge expenditure that it will involve.
Even with the present expenditure, the failure to achieve a larger enrolment may be traced to some extent to the fact that a number of children of poor families, due to their abject poverty, are obliged, even when they are of school-age, to earn their livelihood, at least partially, and so are unable to join a school.
Further, a large percentage of the schools did not have as many teachers as there were classes. The average worked out to a little less than three teachers for five standards. In more than 60 per cent. of these Elementary schools with five standards, there were only one, two or three teachers.
It is easy to see to what strain the teacher was put with plural classes of unmanageable strength and that, as a result, the teacher, instead of guiding the children to activity, was sometimes a worn-out martinet whose sole anxiety was to keep the pupils quiet and subdued. The results were: poor attention to children and
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ineffective instruction. This also meant that the children were com- pulsorily detained for longer hours than necessary in schools, without attention or work and that this contributed to pupils developing a dislike for the school which in turn resulted in their leaving school altogether. Only 37-8 per cent of the pupils completed the lower elementary course. Though economic factors might also have contributed to the withdrawal of pupils from schools, the lack of congenial atmosphere in schools had not a little to do with it.
Apart from the depressing fact that only a small proportion of children are attending schools, it has latterly become evident that the quality of instruction has to be improved, and, in certain funda- mental respects, the objective of school education has to be altered to serve national purposes. The scheme of Basic education was formulated by Mahatma Gandhi with a view to getting over the problem of finance and for providing the necessary re-orientation. This State, along with others, has undertaken to adopt the Basic system of education. As a necessary step, well over a third of the training schools have been converted into Basic Training schools. But in all these years. there came into existence less than 700 Basic schools as against nearly 21,000 ordinary Elementary schools. A committee of persons intimately connected with the working of Basic schools, recently examined the position of Basic schools in the State. The general purport of their report is that, in order to achieve the ideals of Basic education, what is immediately needed is to improve the quality of the existing Basic schools, rather than increase their number.
Also, during this period, not much thought was devoted to im- proving ordinary Elementary schools, as they were intended to be converted into Basic schools. Even some very good schemes such as craft instruction in Elementary schools, which were implemented up to a certain point, fell into disuse. Now that it has become clear that it is not possible to expand Basic education rapidly, it has become necessary to take up the question of improving the ordinary Elementary schools. It is also important to increase the number of pupils attending Elementary schools, within the limitations imposed by finance. Having regard to these facts, the Madras Government have evolved and put into effect a Modified Scheme of Elementary Education.
Recently this Government appointed a committee with Sri R. V. Parulekar, Director of Indian Institute of Bombay, as the Chairman.. Dr. B. B. Dey, Retired Director of Public Instruction, Madras, Sri Mujeeb, Vice-Chancellor, Jamia Millia, Delhi, as members and S. Govindarajuly Naidu, formerly Director of Public Instruction, Madras, and now Director of Public Instruction, Andhra, as the Member Secretary, to examine and report on the Scheme. The finding of the Committee is that the scheme is educationally sound and that it offers a practical solution to the problem of carrying out the directive of the Constitution. The Committee has made a number of suggestions in regard to the special features of the scheme viz.. shorter school hours, two daily sessions and the out-of-school programme. These are under consideration. It limits school hours to three hours per day. For the rest of the day, if the pupil is a girl, she will have enough to learn from her mother in the
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natural environment of her home, and if the pupil is a boy, he will learn something with his father in the home or in the farm, if the father is a craftsman or an agriculturist. The scheme thus enables pupils to learn and work under lesser strain of class-room hours and gives opportunities for observing and progressively participating in the occupations of the home and the village.
There will, however, be in every village, a certain number of boys whose parents do not belong to the occupational groups. For them provision will be made to keep them occupied in a craft or in the farms. If there are village craftsmen or farms, these boys may be sent to those craftsmen or farms for learning the trade during the half day when they do not go to school.
In addition to the regular learning of a craft or agricultural work in this manner, all the pupils will be organised to render service to the village, in whatever manner that may be possible, building sheds,. laying bricks, attending to village sanitation, improving roads, etc.
Education is thus integrated with the vital background of the home, the village and the community. The education will thus become comprehensive and the community itself will take a share in the education of the children.
There will be no diminution of the standard in the tool subjects like, Language, Elementary Mathematics, History and Geography, Hygiene and Civics and Moral Instruction. In these subjects, the same syllabus as before will be followed and the same number of periods will be provided for each of these subjects. Subjects such as Nature Study and Gardening, Physical Training, Singing and Drawing will not be attempted inadequately in the school but done realistically in a normal setting. The programme contemplated outside the school hours in the home and the village will be treated as an integral part of the educational process.
The school will work in two sessions. Each session will be of three hours' duration, consisting of four periods of 40 minutes each, with not less than two intervals totalling 20 minutes. The sessions. will be arranged to suit local conditions.
The pupils will be divided into two batches. One batch will attend the first session on the first day, the second session on the next day, and so on alternately. The other batch Will attend the second session on the first day, the first session on the next day, and so on alternately.
The first good result that is expected from the two-session school is that as big a proportion as possible of children who are not now in school would be brought in. The two-session school can certainly pave the way for this. With the same school space, the same staff and equipment, double the number of children can come in. The scheme will, in most cases, do away with plural class teaching, as has been the case so far, or one teacher teaching more than one class. at the same time.
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