THE CENTRAL ADVISORY BOARD OF EDUCATION 45TH MEETING,JULY 6-7,1989

 MINUTES OF THE MEETING

The 45th Meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education was held at IIT, New Delhi on July 6-7, 1989 to discuss the crucial areas of Education under the Chairmanship of Shri P. Shiv Shanker, Minister of Human Resource Development.

Particulars of the participants are furnished in Annexure-I.

2. The Board, before commencing official business noted with deep shock the passing away of renowned educationist and member of the Board, Dr. (Mrs.) Madhuri R. Shah. The Board condoled her death and placed on record its sympathies to members of the grieved family and the educational community at large. The members stood in silence for two minutes to pay their homage to the departed member.

3. Shri Anil Bordia, welcomed the members of the Board and invitees to the meeting and made his introductory observations, to begin with.

4. He gave a resume of the discussions held at the meeting of education officials from the States and Union Territories held one day prior to the CABE meeting. He also highlighted the financial requirements in the perspective VIII Plan to tone up implementation of the new Education Policy. He expressed concern at the reduced number of teaching days in the educational institutions due to strikes by students and teachers.

5. He, then, invited the Chairman to deliver his key-note address. Inaugurating the Conference, Shri P. Shiv Shanker, Union Minister of Human Resource Development called for speedy execution of the programme to fulfil the national commitment for universalisation of Elementary Education. Recalling

the egalitarian objectives of the Adult Literacy Programme, he emphasised the need for enforcing the quality of its implementation. Professionalisation of Teacher Education, enactment of a Central Law for the establishment of National Council of Teachres' Education, Vocationalisation of post-secondary education to ensure employability of school graduates, orderly performance by the University system and efficient functioning of the All India Council for Technical Education were some of the other important strategies suggested by him for toning up the educational system. The Minister also called for close monitoring of programme for the benefit of SCs/STs, minorities and women. Referring to the Constitution (Amendment) Bill on Panchayati Raj Institutions, the Minister said that education was an important component of the powers, functions and responsibilities which were proposed to be devolved on the Panchayats. In this context, he said that a document on education management had been remitted back to the CABE Committee on Management of Education for its re-examination to make it consistent with the decentralisation drive.

6. The Minister urged the State Ministers to vigorously take up the scheme vocationalisation of school education so that a sizeable number of students can branch off to self-employment after passing out of the school. The Minister concluded, his address by requesting the Conference to go into the parameters for securing external funding for education to combat resource constraints. He mentioned that financial assistance was being sought from the World Bank to revitalise and modernise technical education.

After Chairman's inaugural address Consideration of Agenda items was taken up. (Agenda of Conference at Annexure II).

7. Then, the Minutes of the 44th meeting of CABE held on September, 13-14, 1988 were confirmed.

8. The `Action Taken Report' (Agenda item No. 2) having been Circulated was taken as read.

9. The Chairman called for brief presentation by various States. The Education Minister of Gujarat mentioned that his State was not receiving any upgradation assistance for construction of school buildings under the formula adopted by the Ninth Finance Commission. He was of the view that upgradation assistance for construction of pucca school building should be given to all States according to their needs. He was happy to state that Academic Calendar had been restored in all universities in the State with public support and cooperation of the teaching and non-teaching employees of various educational institutions. The educational needs of religious and linguistic minorities in Gujarat were receiving support of the State Government. He expressed satisfaction on the progress of the Border Area Development Programme in the two border districts of Gujarat.

10. The Education Minister of Haryana also requested for higher allocation of funds by the Ninth Finance Commission for construction of school rooms under the Operation Blackboard. She apprehended that the proposal for setting up a National Council for Teachers' Education may delay sanctioning of new institutes in the State. She cited the delays that were being experienced in the context of the functioning of the All India Council for Technical Education. Stressing for more allocation, she pointed out that after introduction of Jawahar Rozgar Yojana, it would not be possible to construct school rooms because of reduction in the allocations to the State.

11. The Jammu & Kashmir Education Minister observed that literacy rate in his State was only 26% against the national average of 36%. He stressed the fact that Jammu & Kashmir was an educationally backward State and urged for special central assistance to fulfil the objectives of universalisation of education.

12. The Andhra Pradesh Education Minister was of the view that in the VIII Plan Operation Blackboard should continue as a centrally sponsored scheme and that its scope should be further expanded. She said that while priority should necessarily be for completing Operation Blackboard, as presently envisaged,

it should not be limited to single teacher schools in the VIII Plan. She emphasised the need for a meaningful partnership between the Centre and the States in the area of education, as envisaged in the National Policy on Education. She also supported the proposal to set up National Council of Teachers' Education. She urged the Ministry of Human Resource Development to pursuade the Planning Commission and to ensure that all the NPE schemes were continued as plan schemes in the VIII Plan. Speaking on the autonomous colleges, she said that 21 colleges had been given autonomous status in her State. She wanted that action should be expedited to give recognition to technical institutions already started. She alleged that although Government of Andhra Pradesh had abolished the system of capitation fee, some institutions started by the so-called minority communities were playing foul. She requested for the establishment of more and more women polytechnics and desired that the scope of the Apprenticeship Act should be widened to bring in more and more industries under its purview.

13. Dr. K. Shiva Ram Karanth spoke on educational reforms. He expressed his concern about the preliminary stages in education of the child. He spoke at length on the content and process of elementary education and the need to make learning child-oriented and learner- relevant. He said that the present-day text-books based on prescribed curricula created error of subjects taught and not interest for knowledge in the young. He said that we should allow the child to learn about the world around him. The Education Minister of Kerala then spoke and he also stressed the need for the continuation of the scheme of Operation Blackboard during the next Plan period. He said that the three language formula which had not been implemented previously in the country over the years and which had been recommended in the National Policy on Education must be implemented. He was happy to say that in Kottayam District in Kerala, it had been possible to eradicate illiteracy completely and in Ernakulam District full literacy campaign had been undertaken and it may be possible to achieve full literacy in Kerala by 1991. He expressed the view that funding for technical education should

be increased considerably. Several proposals sent to AICTE way back in 1987 had not yet been cleared. It was necessary that AICTE responded one way or the other. He requested that Kerala be included in the first phase of the proposed World Bank projects as the State was backward in the area of technical education.

14. The Education Minister of Orissa said that Orissa was one of the educationally backward States with a large illiterate population, particularly among women, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The programme of universalisation of elementary education assumed greater significance for the State in this context. The Operation Blackboard programme had given a great fillip to elementary education and the State had been able to sincerely implement the programme, Referring to preschool education, she urged that Central Government should allocate greater number of ICDS projects in order to expand the activities of pre-school education in the State. She requested for finalisation of the guidelines for constitution of District Boards of Education, with a view to decentralising the administration of educational institutions in the State and also strengthening grass root level institutions. She also requested for sanction of greater number of RFLPs in the State of Orissa without insisting upon the matching share of the State, considering the constraints of plan funds at the disposal of State Government. She urged that the Central Schemes and the Centrally sponsored schemes should continue in the VIII Plan period.

15. The Minister of State for Welfare, Mrs. Rajendra Kumari Bajpai, expressed concern that due to lack of education and proper qualifications, it was difficult to fill all the vacancies in respect of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

16. Bihar Chief Minister, Shri S. N. Sinha, while giving details of the implementation of the New Education Policy in his State, also undermined the need for more funds for the construction of school buildings. Referring to the problem of heavy drop-outs and the resultant low rate of attendance in the school system, be said that this problem could not be evaluated in isolation

but must be analysed, keeping in view the socioeconomic factors, growth of enrolment of girls, scheduled castes/scheduled tribes etc. He said that new strategies would be needed to tackle the problem of drop-outs. He also said that the scheme of autonomous colleges had not made much head-way as the Federation of University and colleges teachers had some reservations on the issue, which were being sorted out by fresh dialogues with them. He suggested that mid-day meals programme may be started as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme for tribal sub-plan and the areas which had sizeable populations of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. He said that his State was not permitting mushroom growth of technical education institutions. He suggested that organisational machinery should be created at the State level which may be funded by AICTE/Ministry of Human Resource Development in order to effectively monitor and implement the provisions of AICTE Act as the State Government on its own would not have infrastructure required for the purpose. Referring to the vital role of technical education in the coining years. he said that the technological scenario of the world was changing at a phenomenal pace, specially in the fields of information, communication, electronics, biotechnology, genetics, material sciences etc. and that technical education needed a thorough review at the national level so that curriculum, courses and studies were restructured.

17. The West Bengal Education Minister expressed his disappointment over the allocation of funds for several schemes including women's education in union education budget this year. He wanted 10% of the VIII Plan out-lay to be earmarked for education. As for external funding, he said that this should be considered with utmost caution as there was a scope of infiltration of anti-national element, alongwith financial assistance.

18. The Education Minister of Maharashtra said that AICTE should process proposals received within a time-frame of three months. The State Governments should have the freedom to make changes/adjustments in the interest of students. He added that Maharashtra was in need of a technological university.

19. Replying to some of the points raised, the Chairman explained that the matter of giving higher priority to construction of primary school buildings under the new JRY had been taken up with the Department of Rural Development and as a consequence, in their revised guidelines, this item had been given high priority. He trusted that the difficulty in construction of buildings would therefore not be as large as previously anticipated. He also explained the procedure of releasing grants to voluntary agencies for various educational programmes. By and large grants to them were given only after State Governments' views had been ascertained. He elaborated that in Andhra Pradesh, the Ministry was proposing to set up a committee to visit and inspect all voluntary agencies that had been sanctioned assistance.

Summary of the written statements of State Minister of Education (not highlighted above are appended in Annexure III).

20. The Board adjourned for lunch after announcement for arrangements for working group discussion. Details of these arrangements are furnished in Annexure IV. After lunch, the groups met separately to consider various issues and to prepare their reports.

21. On the 7th July, 1989, the Board met in its plenary session to consider the reports of the various working groups that had been formed the previous day. To begin with, the Chairman invited Prof. Yashpal, Chairman of the Group on Higher Education to present his report. After the presentation of the report by Prof. Yashpal, a few suggestions were made by the Members of CABE which were incorporated in the report of the group and the report was adopted. A copy of the report is furnished in Annexure V.

22. Thereafter, Dr. M. S. Adisashiah presented the report of the group on Adult Education (National Literacy Mission). A copy of the report is presented at Annexure VI. The Chairman congratulated and thanked the group for a clear and analytical report. The report was adopted by CABE.

23. Report on the group on Elementary and Teachers' Education was presented and unanimously approved for adoption. A copy of the report is at Annexure VIII.

24. Then, reports of groups on Education of Disadvantaged SCs/STs, Women and minorities, handicapped and Border Area Development (Education) Programme BAD(E)P], Secondary Education and Technical Education were endorsed by the Members of CABE. A copy of each report is at Annexures VIII, IX & X respectively.

25. On the request of the Minister of Human Resource Development, certain general remarks were made by the Educationists. Dr. M. Adisashiah pleaded for a cautious approach in regard to making NCTE a statutory body. He cautioned against undue centralisation, which in his opinion was not very sound, educationally.

26. Shri Raghavachari made the following points:-

- Move for a statutory NCTE deserves to be endorsed. It would also help in raising teaching to the status of a profession which is a must.

- There should be an arrangement by which teacher educators periodically go back to teach in schools.

- In the existing teacher education programmes, pedagogical sciences do not find a proper place. This should be rectified, and an Institute of Pedagogical Sciences should be set up as an adjunct to the NCTE.

27. All the group reports were adopted taking into account the various comments made in the preliminary session. Group reports appended reflect the amendments that arose out of the comments and are as finally adopted by CABE.

28. In his concluding speech the Chairman thanked all the members for the exemplary and enthusiastic participation in the CABE Meeting and said that this meeting was held on a very crucial occasion when the proposals for VIII Five Year Plan were

being formulated and very useful consideration had been given by all to the diverse subjects. This, he said, would go a long way in strengthening the hands of the Ministry to push forward its proposals before the Planning Commission.

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the Chair.