APPENDIX P (a)- PLANS FOR THE ORGANISATION OF ADULT EDUCATION
The following note has been received from the Government of Bombay:-
"The Central Advisory Board of Education has envisaged in its Post-Wae Plan of Educational Development that Adult Education will be organised in all the Provinces on a mass scale and that it will be interpreted as a means for raising the standards of people's mental, social and vocational efficiency. For various reasons into which it is not necessary to enter, this is not being done at present. On the other hand, since that Report was published, the political situation in India has profoundly changed and there are two aspects of this change of which programmes of Adult Education must take special notice.
(i) The country has become politically free and all the existing responsibilities of freedom, associated with the attempt to establish a democratic social order have now devolved on the people.
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(ii) With the advent of Freedom has come not merely the thrill and the exal tation that one looked forward to but also many complications and conflicts and an unprecedented deterioration of the communal situation.
No programme of Adult Education can be planned or implemented without taking these two important facts into account. The first underlines the urgency of the need for starting Adult Education immediately, for democracy cannot co-exist with an illiterate and uneducated electorate. Both help to define the nature of Adult Education which must be provided - efficiently and quickly if freedom is not to result in chaos. Both imply that even if adult education, in the sense of literacy, were made universal, it will not moot the existing situation. It must be visualized more generously as a movement for enriching the life of the people with knowledge, cultural interests, civic sense and better practical efficiency. The problems that have to be faced in this connection may be briefly summarized as follows :-
(1) How can we generate sufficient enthusiasm and keenness for this cause to be able to mobilize all official and non-official agencies (including the teachers and students) for tackling this tremendous problem? What can the popular Governments and other national leaders do to quicken public interest in it ?
(2) How can local initiative and resources (in men and money) be utilized in the service of this campaign ? It is obvious that the campaign cannot be successful unless there is decentralization of leadership and a stimulation of local pride and effort in this direction.
(3) To what extent and categories of people can conscription or compulsion be applied, if at all ? Can Government definitely prescribe that the attainment of literacy will be insisted upon as a qualification for all kinds of services, including what are known as " inferior services " ? Can Adult Education be made compulsory in jails, Factories, and other places where there is manageable concentration of people?
(4) In order to meet the huge expenditure that still have to be incurred, what are the other sources of income that can be tapped ? Is it feasible, for instance, to throw part of the financial responsibility for educating labour on the factories and the bigger employers who can afford it ?
(5) What are the stops that can be taken to train a large army of workers teachers, supervisors, organizers-for Adult Education ?, The present meagre provision for the purpose is quite unsatisfactory and reveals a failure to appreciate the difficulties as well as the importance of the task. While short courses of a few weeks may perhaps do for ordinary teachers who are only concerned with teaching adults to read and write, they cannot possibly suffice for those who are to deal with the wider aspect of Adults Education or those who are to supervise it or to utilize the modern mass media in this connection. It may be pertinent in this connection to refer to the fact that in some Provinces in China, there are Colleges of " Social Education"-as Adult Education is more appropriately called where hundreds of students are trained in the ideology, methods and technique of mass education, the training lasting for a period of two years.
(6) How can social and civic education be linked up with the work of adult literacy and what part can visual and auditory education play in this connection ? Some suggestions in this behalf will be found in the notes (Vide) Appendix P(b) and P (c) of C.A.B. of Education agenda, dealing with ` Peoples Colleges' and Co-ordination of Visual and Auditory Education'.
(7) In order to make the Library movement a success, what are the steps that can be taken to produce suitable literature for adults and encourage it production on a large scale? In this connection, it is desirable to examine the causes responsible for the poor quality of the get up and the contents of whatever literature is being produced at present and to think over ways and means of improving this de- pressing situation".
2. The following remarks are offered on the problems Nos. (1) to (7) referred to above by the Bombay Government.-(1) and (2) Attention is invited to Chapter VI-Adult Education, in the Report by the Central Advisory Board of Education
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on Post-War Educational Development in India and the recommendations of the Adult Education Committee reproduced at the end of the Chapter. The suggestions made include, among others, the enlistment of the co- operation of voluntary agencies, University students, the Radio, the Cinema, etc., and steps for the furtherance of the movement among women.
3. The Adult Education Committee of the Central Advisory Board of Education recommended that efforts should be directed in the beginning to persuade illiterates voluntarily to undergo instruction and that if a voluntary system failed, ways and means of bringing pressure to bear on illiterates should be explored. The, Board also considered it desirable that all Government departments, Central and Provincial should ensure that their staffs are literate.
4. In the Central Advisory Board Report on. Post-War Educational Development It is recommended that the responsibility for Adult Education must rest with the State, but that every effort should be made to enlist the co-operation of voluntary effort.
5. Various suggestions have already been made in the Central Advisory Board's Report on Post-War Educational Development. Probably the limiting factor is only finance.
6. Attention Is invited to the notes by the Government of Bombay on item XV (b) and XV (c).
7. The Adult Education Committee of the Board recommended that Provincial Governments should take steps to improve the supply of textbooks for Adult Education and also assist Libraries with grants. The Text-Books Committee of the Board recommended that the planning, production and selection of literature for adults rendered literate should Generally be on the lines adopted for Primary and Middle Schools, although there should be wider choice with regard to the number of textbooks. The Committee also recommended that the Central and Provincial Governments should encourage in every possible way the production of popular and authoritative books in the regional languages for the purpose. The maintenance of a Central Bureau for giving guidance in the matter of producing text-books for the various proposes was also recommended.
The Lotus Trust, a philanthropic Organisation in Bombay, has undertaken the production of popular books on various everyday subjects and the Government of India are affording financial assistance for the purpose. The books when written will be taken over by the Government of India for publication. Steps for reproduction in the regional languages will be considered at that stage.