PROCEEDINGS OF THE NINETEENTH MEETING
The Central Advisory Board of Education held its Nineteenth Meeting at New Delhi on March 15 and 16, 1952. The Standing Committees of the Board met on March 14 and the Board in full session on March 15 and 16, 1952.
2. The Chairman, the Hon'ble Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Minister for Education, Government of India presided.
3. The following members were present:-
Ex-OFFICIO 1. Hon'ble Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, (Chairman).
2. Shri Humayun Kabir,
Educational Adviser to the Government of India.
NOMINATED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
3. Shri E. W. Aryanayakam.
4. Dr. H. J. Bhabha.
5. Smt. Zarina Currimbhoy.
6. Dr. Amaranatha Jha.
7. Smt. Hansa Mehta.
8. Dr. Mata Prasad.
9. Smt. Hannah Sen.
10. Shri Justice Teja Singh.
11. Smt. Ammu Swaminadhan.
12. Dr. M.S. Thacker.
13. Maj. Gen. M. S. Wadalia.
14. Shri K. Zachariah.
ELECTED BY THE PARLIAMENT OF INDIA 15. Shri M. Ananthasayanam Ayyangar.
16. Shri Rohini Kumar Chaudhury.
17. Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee.
18. Shri M. Satyanarayana.
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NOMINATED BY THE INTER-UNIVERSITY BOARD 19. Dr. S. N. Sen.
NOMINATED BY THE ALL INDIA COUNCIL FOR TECHNICAL EDUCATION 20. Dr. P. S. Deshmukh.
21. Dr. S. R. Sen Gupta.
REPRESENTATIVES OF STATES
Assam 22. Shri A. N. Kidwai,
Secretary, Education Department.
Adviser
Shri U. K. Goswami,
Director of Public Instruction.
Bihar 23. Shri J. C. Mathur,
Secretary, Education Department.
Advisers
1. Shri G. N. Sinha,
Director of Public Instruction.
2. Shri R. S. Upadhyay,
Dy. Dir. of Basic Education.
Bombay 24. Hon'ble Shri B. G. Kher,
Chief Minister and Minister for Education.
Advisers :
1. Shri D. C. Pavate,
Director of Education.
2. Smt. Indumati Chimanlal,
Parliamentary Secretary for Education.
Hyderabad 25. Shri T. Surya Narayana,
Director of Public Instruction.
Jammu and Kashmir 26. Shri A. Kazmi,
Director of Education.
Adviser :
Shri A. Ashraf,
Special Officer, Education.
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Madhya Bharat 27. Shri Bool Chand,
Secretary, Education Department.
Adviser :
Shri S. N. Chaturvedi, Director of Education.
Madhya Pradesh 28. Dr. V. S. Jha,
Secretary, Education Department.
Madras 29. Shri K. M. Unnithan,
Secretary, Education Department.
Adviser :
Shri D. S. Reddi,
Director of Public Instruction.
Mysore 30. Smt. B. Idiramma,
Deputy Director for Elementary Education.
Orissa 31. Shri M. C. Pradhan,
Director of Public Instruction.
Pepsu 32. Shri Harnam Singh,
Director of Education.
Punjab 33. Shri C. L. Kapur,
Secretary, Education Department and Director of Public Instruction.
Rajasthan 34. Dr. M. L. Sharma,
Director of Education.
Saurashtra 35. Dr. R. K. Yajnik,
Director of Education.
Adviser :
Shri P. K. Trivedi,
Assistant Director of Education.
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Travancore-Cochin 36. Shri V. S. Naidu,
Director of Public Instruction.
Uttar Pradesh 37. Shri B. N. Jha,
Joint Secretary, Education Department.
West Bengal 38. Shri P. Roy,
Director of Public Instruction.
Secretary:
39. Shri K. G. Saiyidain,
Joint Secretary to the Government of India.
4. The following members were unable to attend:
1. Dr. Zakir Husain.
2. Shrimati Sucheta Kriplani, M.P.
3. Pandit Sundar Lal.
4. Dr. A. L. Mudaliar.
5. Shri N. K. Sidhanta.
5. The Chairman of the Board, the Hon'ble Maulana Abul Kalam Azad welcoming the members addressed the meeting. Summary in English of the speech in Hindi is given below:-
FRIENDS,
This is the fifth annual meeting of the Central, Advisory Board of Education since the attainment of independence. We have also just concluded the general election in the country and a new Government is about to be formed. It seems to me a fitting occasion to review the work that has been done during the last five years and draw up our plans for further expansion of education in the country.,
You will remember that on the very first occasion that I had the pleasure of addressing, you I placed before you a five-fold programme for the expansion of education in the country. This, I said must, include-
(a) Universal Compulsory Basic Education for all children of school-going age,
(b) provision of Social Education for our adult illiterates,
(c) improvement in the quality and expansion of the facilities of Secondary and Higher Education,
(d) provision of technical and scientific education on a scale adequate to the nation's needs, and.
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(e) measures for enriching the cultural life of the community by encouraging the arts and providing facilities fir, recreation and other amenities.
You are all aware that these last five years have been a period of immense difficulty and stress. In fact we have, throughout this period, been living from one crisis to another. We can, however, find some satisfaction in the fact that in the midst of these vicissitudes and crisis, the progress of education has been maintained, even, though the rate of progress has not been as rapid as we could wish. I must also confess that when the first Government of free India was formed, our enthusiasm was unbounded. We therefore planned .educational development on a scale which, on account of various, factors, could not be sustained, and we have perforce had to slow down our progress.
I will now review very briefly some of the achievements attained in different fields during the last five years.
In the field of elementary education, you will remember that the Central Government have, on the recommendations of the Kher Committee, accepted a sixteen-year programme in place of the original programme of forty years. We decided that the scheme, should be first tried out in the Centrally Administered Areas as an experiment and example for the rest of the country. Accordingly the programme is now in full operation in the Delhi State. A beginning has been made in Ajmer, and it is proposed to follow up the programme in other Centrally Administered Areas. The other States have not yet been able to give full effect to the programme but they are also proceeding with the gradual conversion of ordinary primary schools into junior basic schools. Facilities for training of teachers in basic education have considerably expanded and are expanding. I have advisedly referred to the programme in the Centrally Administered Areas as an experiment. We must always remember that no educational system can be regarded as final or sacrosanct. We must never shut the door on the development of improved methods and techniques.
I would like to make special reference to the establishment of the Central Institute of Education. This is meant primarily as an institute of research and has already opened out several promising lines of experiment and enquiry. One interesting experiment it has undertaken concerns the adaptation of basic education to the needs of the urban community. Another experiment seeks to find out cheap media of audio-visual education suited to the requirements of our rural areas.
In the field of adult education, these five years have brought about a welcome change in the conception of the nature and purpose of such education. Instead of Concentrating on literacy, as was,
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generally done in the past, we are now planning education for the adult on broader and more liberal lines. One of your committees laid down that the aim of such education is not merely to impart literacy but to give the adult training in all aspects of citizenship. To mark this change in conception, the nomenclature has also been changed, and we now describe it as Social Education. This new conception, which has been accepted by all the States, is in consonance with the principle of Fundamental Education as enunciated by UNESCO and is now being implemented throughout India.
In this connection I might make a special mention of the scheme of social education which has been worked out for Delhi. Our aim is to eradicate illiteracy from the State in the course of the next three to five years. A JANATA COLLEGE has been established for training promising young men from villages in rural leadership. A new type of public library has been set up in cooperation with UNESCO with a progressive and many-sided service for adults, children and women. It will cater not only to the needs of the Delhi citizens but serve as a centre of social education for developing new techniques in this field of work. I am sure its progress will be watched with interest not only throughout India but in the whole of South East Asia where it is the first venture of its kind.
Delhi has also developed a scheme of Travelling Exhibitions and Educational Melas which have evoked considerable interest and enthusiasm among the rural people. A Caravan of jeeps and other vehicles takes the exhibition to the villages and serves to stimulate interest among men as well as women. This is followed by intensive literacy work by a band of teachers who are especially allocated to the area and conduct social education classes for a period of a month to six weeks. After this intensive campaign. the work of continuation classes is entrusted to local teachers and social workers who are being gradually trained in the Janata College.
You are aware that our system of secondary education has been almost entirely academic and literary. During the last five years, some of the States have, however, introduced the principle of diversification not only by establishing agricultural and technical high schools but also by including as options many vocational subjects in the ordinary schools. The problem of diverting a large proportion of children from purely literary education to various vocations and professions is receiving increasing attention at the Centre and in the States. You have been rightly pressing that the whole -problem of secondary education, in its various aspects, should be surveyed by the establishment of a Secondary Education Commission on an All-India basis. I am happy to inform you that the Government have accepted your recommendation and we hope that the Secondary Education Commission- which will have among its members experts from foreign countries as well-will start work in autumn this year.
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What I have said about Secondary Education also 'applies largely to University Education. Till recently, our courses did not offer a sufficient variety or choice. Besides, the old system of University Education was devised mainly to train up young Indians to serve the ends of an alien administration. Now, however, the need of university trained men for purposes of administration, defence, commercial and industrial expansion has increased manifold. On your advice, the Government appointed the University Education Commission under the distinguished chairmanship of Professor Radhakrishnan. The recommendations of that Commission have already been endorsed by you and have been generally accepted by the Government. Legislation has already been undertaken to give effect to some of these recommendations so far as they affect the three central Universities of Aligarh, Banaras and Delhi. In accordance with these recommendations, Viswabharati has been constituted into a fourth Central University. It has also been decided to set up a University Grants Commission and I hope that it will start functioning in the coming financial year. We have in hand certain proposals for the improvement of standards in universities throughout the country and better coordination of facilities for education at the university level. Considerable grants have also been made to the universities for developing facilities in research and post-graduate education in the sciences We are now considering what steps can be taken to help universities in developing their libraries and laboratories and improving facilities for the study of the humanities.
It is, however, in the field of technical education that I can report, the greatest progress during the last five years. On the recommendations of the All India Council for Technical Education and the Scientific Man-Power Committee, large grants have been made to universities and other higher technical institutions. In the first phase of the development programme, fourteen technical institutions in different parts of the country were selected and capital grants amounting to over Rs. 1 1/2 crores and loans of over Rs. 32 lakhs were approved in 1949 for improving their capacity and their standards. Out of the amounts promised, over Rs. 90 lakhs as grants and Rs. 30 lakhs as loans have already been paid. During the same period over Rs. 135 lakhs have been paid as capital and almost half a crore as recurring grants to the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. As a result of these grants , the Institute is in a position today to undertake post-graduate teaching and research in many of the fundamental branches of science and technology. The Delhi Polytechnic has also been greatly developed and will serve as the Faculty of Technology of the Delhi University.
Last but not least, the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur, which will impart teaching of the highest standard and provide facilities for research in many of the most important aspects
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of engineering and technology, was formally opened in August last year. The staff, which has been recruited for the Institute from many countries, includes some of the best experts available in the field. I have no doubt that the establishment of this Institute will form a landmark in the progress of higher technological education and research in the country.
One of the main drawbacks in our system of technical education in the past has- been the domination of a theoretical bias in many of the courses. In order to remedy this, steps have been taken to give young graduates facilities for practical- training Industry and Government Technical Establishments. Stipends scholarships at different levels have been created to encourage promising young students to pursue further studies in their respective fields of science and technology.
I should like to take this opportunity to acknowledge grate- fully the assistance that we have received through the Unesco Tech- nical Assistance Programme, under which the services of several distinguished technical experts have been made available to us and we have also received the offer of 9 scholarships and fellowships for our students and of equipment worth over $100,000. Similarly under the Colombo Plan, we have received an offer of six mobile Cinema Vans which will be very useful in our expanding programmes of audio-visual and social education. In addition, a number of our teachers and other educational workers have been given the opportunity to receive training or participate in study, tours under the Fulbright and allied schemes. All these are evidences of international cooperation in the field of education which are welcome not only on their own account but also because they help to promote better international understanding which is so surely needed today.