INTRODUCTION
 

The Planning Commission set up an over-all Planning Group on Edu- cation under the chairmanship of Dr. B.D. Nagchaudhuri, Member (Science), in March, 1968, for undertaking preparatory work of formulating the Fourth Five Year Plan. The Group was asked to formulate proposals in regard to the size, content and strategies in the various sectors of educational planning. The first meeting of the Planning Group decided to set up a Steering Committee under the chairmanship of the Union Education Secretary (1) to examine the material already available; the Draft Outline of the Fourth Plan, the Report of the Education Commission, the reports of the various committees that had discussed the Education Commission report, etc.,(2)to identify areas in which further work was necessary and specify problems which required further investigation; (3) to prepare guidelines for preparing educational development programmes to be communicated to the State Governments after obtaining the approval of the Planning Commission, and (4) to prepare a tentative .draft plan in education for the consideration of the Planning Group on Education. The Steering Committee consisted of the following :

        
             1. Shri G.K. Chandiramani, Secretary                   (Chairman)
                 
                  Secretary
                 
                   Ministry of Education
        
             2. Dr. O. P. Gautam,                                    (Member)
        
                   Dy. Director-General (Education)
        
                   I.C.A.R.
        
             3.   Prof.  P. K. Doraiswami                              "
        
                    Director-General
        
                    Health Services
        
             4.   Dr. P. J. Philip                                     "
                        
                     Secretary
        
                     University Grants Commission
        
             5.   Dr. A. R. Verma                                      "
        
                    Director
        
                    National Physical Laboratory
        
             6.   Shri J. P. Naik                                      "
        
                     Hony.  Adviser
        
                     Ministry of Education
        
             7. Shri D.P. Nayar                                  (Secretary)
                        
                  Senior Specialist (Education)
        
                   Planning Commission
        
                                          

5

6

The Committee associated other experts and the officers of the concerned Ministries/organisations when their subjects were discussed.

2. The Steering Committee held 8 meetings to consider various aspects .of educational development. The detailed guidelines to the State Governments-prepared in the light of the "Approach to the Fourth Plan", approved by the National Development Council (relevant extracts given in Annexure I)were finalized. These were subsequently sent to the State Governments by the Ministry of Education with the concurrence of the Planning Commission (reference Annexure II). The papers on various aspects of education considered by the Steering Committee, revised in the light of the discussions held are given as Annexures III to XIII.