(vii) General Science : The work of writing textbooks for schools has been started under the direct supervision of the Chairman of the Panel. A budget estimate of Rs. 1,71,627 for three years has been prepared and submitted to the Committee.
(viii) Hindi : The Panel started work on books for the higher secondary classes and the Editorial Board appointed by the Panel which has had several meetings, has finalised two textbooks, one each in prose and poetry, for class IX. The press copy is under preparation and necessary illustrations are being collected. Drafts of the prose and poetry books for classes X and XI are under preparation.
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It is proposed to set up the Panel for technology, commerce and agri- culture very shortly.
THREE LANGUAGE FORMULA
Recommendation Action Taken
With reference to the three- The position about the introduction
language formula the Board reiterated of three-language formula in the
the recommendation made by it in 1957 various States and union Territor-
and recommended further, that the ies is given in Annexure `VII' at
State Governments should take early page 290.
action to bring the arrangements obt-
aining in the States in conformity At the last meeting of the State Edu-
with the recommendation and that the cation Minister's Conference, it
Ministry of education should period- was decided to constitute a Commi-
ically review the progress made in ttee of State Education Ministers,
this regard and report the results Under the Chairmanship of the Un-
for the information of the Board. ion Education Minister, to review
the implementation of the three-
language formula. The Education
Ministers of the Andhra Pradesh,
Assam, Madras, Uttar Pradesh and
West Bengal Bengal are members of
the Committee. A meeting of the
the Committee has been held on 15-
th and 16th April, 1963 and a copy
of the recommendations made by the
Committee is in Annexure `VIII' at
page 296.
SCRIPT
Recommendations Action
In regard. to the question of a The Ministry of Education had alr-
common script for all Indian languages eday taken appropriate steps for
the Board recommended that it should popularisation of Devenagari scri-
be further studied by the Ministry of pt much before the recommendations
Education and the results thereof may of the Chief Ministers' Conference
be placed before the Board in due and Central advisory Board of Edu-
course. cation's meeting had in August,
1961 and January, 1962, respec-
ively. In fact the programme of
poularisation of Devanagari
script was not taken up as
an item of propagation of a
script, but the Ministry cons-
idered it necessary to develop
Devanagari script in such a
manner that in future if reg-
ional languages desire to adopt
it, it may not be found wanting
in symbols of sounds peculiar
to them. For this purpose,
the ministry of
271
Education constituted a Committee of Linguistics to examine the needs of Devanagari script and suggest appropriate symbols or diacritical marks for making it suitable for other Indian languages. The Committee has recommended certain symbols for writing peculiar sounds belonging to other languages of India, except Kashmiri and Punjabi. For working out the transliteration of sounds of Kashmiri and Punjabi, the Committee will meet shortly after getting accurate information about the phonemes of these languages for which steps have already been taken.
2. Another way to popularise Devanagari script indirectly is to juxtapose subject matter in Devanagari and regional scripts so that readers may be made familiar with Devanagari script by assoc- iation. The Ministry of Education, with the help of Dakshin Bharat Hindi-Prachar Sabha, Madras, has prepared bilingual readers of 'self-taught' type. These readers contain lessons in both the scripts and facilitate a cross unders- tanding and learning from one language to the other. This 'self- taught' series i.e., Tamil-Hindi, Telugu-Hindi, Kannad-Hindi and Malayalam-Hindi has been prepared on the lines of foreign self-taught publications like `English through Pictures' 'French Through Pictures' etc. The Tamil-Hindi book under this series has been finalised and approved by the Central Hindi Directorate. The estimates for its production are being examined whereafter it will be printed and published. The drafts of the other books are being scrutinised and will be finalised shortly.
Actually the Ministry's scope of work in relation to propagation of Devanagari script is limited. Principally Devanagari script is popularised and propagated
272
through Hindi. It would, perhaps, lie with the Ministry of Scientific Research and Cultural Affairs to propagate Devanagari script for regional languages of India since they arc entrusted with the deve- lopment of these languages but they have not agreed. The Ministry of Education on their part are encouraging autonomous organisa- tions to publish regional lite- rature like anthologies of poems and collection of stories in Devanagari script by giving appropriate financial assistance. Assam Rashtra Bhasha Prachar Samiti, Saurashtra Rashtra Bhasha Prachar Samit and Wardha Rashtra Bahasha Prachar Samiti have published such books. The impact of these publications cannot be evaluated so early.
The Central Hindi Directorate has made another attempt for propagation of Devanagari through its quarterly journal `BHASHA'. In the issues of 'BHASHA' selected poems are being given in Devanagari as well as the regional scripts. This endeavour is also directed towards the same end. The method however, is not direct. The Directorate has also got prepared bilingual alphabet charts which present alphabets of Devanagari/ Script with those of other scripts. For the present these indirect modes of work are considered by this Ministry as sufficient.
What has been done in this direction has not been done once and for all. It is a continuous process and efforts will continue to be made for gradual propagation of Devanagari script.
Action taken
ALL INDIA EDUCATION SERVICE
Recommendations Action taken
In regard to the proposal for for- In purpsuance of the views expressed
ming an All India Education Service in favour of setting up an All-
the Board recommended that the India Education Service, at the
National
273
Ministry of Education should form- Integration Conference held in
ulate a scheme in consultation with Sept.-Octs, 1961 the Ministry of
the State Governments and place it Home Affairs has already written
for consideration before Board in to the State Government requesting
due course. them to accord their formal agree-
ment in principle, to the proposed
formation of the above Service. A
majority of State Governments have
communicated their agreements. re-
plies from a few State Governments
are still awaited.
Item No. 6 : Expansion of Primary Education
(a) To conrider the need for special efforts to
pushup Primary Education in backward States like
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and U. P. A definite
phased programme to be drawn and requisite Central
assistance to be made available.
Recommendation Action taken
The Board noted with regret that This recommendation was referred to
that it has not been possible to re- the Planing Commission which agrees
alise the objective of providing free in principle. This is one of the
and compulsory education for all chi- important aspects of the problem
ldren up to the age of 14 years within which is now being examined by the
within the period stipulated in Art- Standing Committee of CABE for pr-
icle 45 of the Constitution. The Board imary education.
strongly recommended that the Gover-
nment of India, in consultation with
the State Governments, should now fix
a definite time-limit for the realisa-
tion of this objective and should draw
up a phased programme for the pur-
pose, with particular emphasis on
girls' education for the country as
a whole and for each State and Union
Territory.
The Board realised that such a
programme would demand a greater ef-
fort on the part of all States and
that it would also need larger expe-
nditure and recommended that special
financial assistance should be given
to the States to enable them to imp-
lement this programme according to
the plan, subject to the condition
that each State puts in the prescr-
ibed effort required of it.
274
Recommendation Action taken
The Board was of the opinion that The Planning Commission has regre-
effective use of this special assi- tted its inability to accept the
stance can be best secured by the ad- recommendation because, in accordan-
option of a Centrally sponsored prog- ce with the general policy adopted in
ramme for the development of the edu- the Third Plan the special programme
cation of girls and women, the devel- for girls' education has been inclu-
opment of the education of the sched- ded in the State sector. However, it
uled castes, scheduled tribes and the is assisted on the 100 per cent basis
expansion and improvement of the tra- and the State Government have been
ining of primary teachers. The expan requested not to divert their alloca-
sion and improvement of the training tions to other purpose.
of primary teachers. The financial
assistance under such a programme
should be made available to the States
on a 100% basis and outside their Plan
ceiling.
Item No. 6(b) : Reivew of the target for enrolment in
Primary Schools for the Third Plan and provision of more
funds to meet the increasing demand for appointment of more
teachers resulting from enrolment drive and mass desire for
education.
Recommendation Action taken
The Board noted with satisfac- This recommendation has been re-
tion in most States the actual enr- ferred to the Planning commission
olment in 1961-62 had already excee- who have written to say that in
ded the targets fixed for the year. view of the national emergency
This trend was also likely to cont- it would not be possible to allot
inue in the remaining years of the more funds than those already pro-
Third five Year Plan. The awakening vided in the State Plans.
and enthusiasm for education in the
country is so great that the esti- Attention is also invited to Sec-
mated targets for enrolment in the retary's D. O. letter No. 1-84/62
Third Plan are likely to be substan- PCU dated 21-11-1962, addressed to
tially exceeded. The Board recom- all State Governments and copies
mended that the entire position endorsed to D. P. Is/D.Es. Attenti-
should be reviewed and the targets on of State Governments etc. has
of enrolment be revised for the been drawn to has effect.
country as a whole, allocation
required for the revised targets
should be provided for without
delay by increasing the Plan
ceilings.
Item No. 6 (c) : To review the provisions and programmes of
girls education for taking additional steps to expand specially
those facilities which aim at increasing the supply of women
teachers in rural areas.
Recommendation Action taken
The Board, noting that in serveral In view of the recent emergency,
aress the expansion of primary edu- proposal has been held in abeyance.
cation was being handicapped for
275
want of women teachers, and that the problem of enrolment of girls would become even more pressing in the Fourth Five Year Plan, recommended that suitable steps for increasing the output of women teachers should immediately be taken in the Third Plan, including the provision of increased facilities for girls edu- cation at the secondary stage, esp- ecially in those areas where the education of women is comparatively underdeveloped.