II. APPROACH TO THE FOURTH FIVE YEAR PLAN IN EDUCATION (DETAILED GUIDELINES TO STATES)
Education is the most effective means for progress. An appropriate spread of educational opportunities is an extremely important instrument of social policy Side by side it is also essential to lay greater emphasis on programmes of qualitative improvement. Among these, special attention will have to be given to the improvement of the skills and status of teachers, indigenous book production and promotion of student welfare.
II. Equalization of Educational Opportunities 2. Primary Education.- Immediate attention should be paid to the implementation of the Directive contained in Article 41 of the Constitution. This will require provision of special facilities to the backward areas and backward sections of the community and for the education of girls. The extent of wastage and stagnation in primary schools is at present proving very costly and it will be necessary to devise measures to reduce it substantially. If possible, programmes such as school meals may be provided in favour of definite- areas or categories of children.
3. Secondary and Higher Education.- Since education is the main instrument of social change, opportunities for secondary and higher education must become increasingly available to all classes. At the same time, limitation of resources-financial and personnel--emphasises the need to economise in and to rationalise the process of institutional spread and to make strenuous efforts at maintaining minimum standards of quality.
4. Professional Technical and Vocational Education.- Considerations arising out of manpower planning have special relevance to the field of technical, vocational and professional education. The institutional and other facilities brought into existence to provide this education should be linked to estimates of future demands for trained manpower. Subject to this, suitable facilities for vocational education should be provided for those who step off the stream of general education during or after the primary stage and the vocationalisation of secondary education needs emphasis.
5. Postgraduate Education and Research.- Postgraduate education carefully linked to manpower needs and research, should receive emphasis. In this context, the development of advanced centres of study in individual or a number of related areas depending on the potentiality of a university, has a special relevance. Emphasis is also needed on the development of inter-disciplinary and intra- disciplinary research which calls for close cooperation between all categories of universities and other research institutions. Applied research should be closely linked with appropriate sectors of economic activity.
6. Adult Education.- Adult education, centering largely on functional literacy, may be conceived of in two stages. The first stage may be in the form of a mass movement, largely dependent on mobilisation of local resources, both personnel and financial. Students and teachers should be an important asset in this movement, wherein popular leadership would be provided by voluntary organisations and the panchayats. The second
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stage should include a regular and systematic education of those who are identified at the first stage as being capable. of putting in serious efforts. This will need a paid teacher on a part-time basis and a proper library of suitable follow-up. literature. The entire programme should be financed jointly by the State and the local community.
7. Programmes of adult education may be developed in industrial and commercial undertakings, public and private, and by voluntary organisations. They should, also form an important part of the programme of national or social service for students. All Departments of Government should participate in the programme in a suitable manner, the technical guidance being provided by the Education Department. A State Board of Adult Education may be set up to coordinate these different programmes,
8. Part-time Education.- The relatively early stage at which a large majority of students in India find it necessary to leave educational institutions, and the requirements of a changing technology, indicate the importance of providing facilities of part- time education, correspondence courses and other' training programmes. These should be so designed as to facilitate lateral and vertical mobility of members of the working force.
9. Planning and Establishment of New Institutions.- Preference should be given to the full utilisation of facilities in an existing institution over the creation of a now one. It is also necessary to ensure that each educational institution reaches an optimum size which will help to make it both economic and efficient.
10. On the basis of the Second Education Survey. the location of new primary and secondary schools should be carefully planned. Similar planning is also necessary for colleges. No new university should be created unless the need for it is clearly established, adequate resources are provided and the concurrence of the University Grants Commission, the Ministry of Education and the Planning Commission is obtained. A convention should also be established that university centres should be set up in the first instance and developed into universities in due course.
III. Programmes of Consolidation and Qualitative Improvement 11. While programmes of inescapable expansion will continue in the Fourth Plan on the broad lines indicated above, emphasis has now to be shifted to those of consolidation and qualitative improvement.
12. Teacher Education and Teachers Status.- Suitable steps should be taken to improve the remuneration, retirement benefits and conditions of work and service of teachers.
13. Special emphasis should be given to the employment of women teachers with a view- to increasing the enrolment of girls.
14. Teacher education-both pre-service and in-service-needs special attention. A State Board of Teacher Education should be set up in each State to formulate and implement comprehensive plans for the development of teacher education. The programmes to be developed for the purpose should include, amongst others, (a) expansion of facilities to clear-the-backlog of untrained teachers and to increase the output of training institutions to equal
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the annual demand; (b) the improvement of training institutions; (c) revision and vitalising of training courses; (d) advanced training of teacher-educators; and (e) the starting of part-time and correspondence courses to supplement those for full-time education.
15. Physical Facilities in Educational Institutions.- Steps have to be taken to improve physical facilities, e.g., buildings, libraries, laboratories, workshops, playgrounds, school farms, etc. in educational institutions at all levels. Norms should be prepared for prescribing minimum facilities required for each type of institution and attempts should be made to raise as many institutions as possible to this level.
16. The problem of school buildings is urgent. Special efforts should be made to adopt the cheap designs prepared by the Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee and to reduce the cost to the minimum by use of local materials and adoption of pre-fabricated techniques. Provision should also be made for clean drinking water and adequate sanitary facilities in each institution.
17. The assistance of the local community should be fully enlisted for the construction and maintenance of school buildings and improvement of other physical facilities.
18. Student Services.- The development of student services and close teacher-student contacts needs emphasis at all stages and especially in higher education. Special attention needs to be paid for supply of text-books. Adequate text-book libraries should be set up in all institutions of secondary and higher education.
19. Development of Talent.- Talent sould be encouraged through a liberal scheme of scholarships, freeships and other incentives.
20. Improvement of Curricula, Teaching Methods and Evaluation.- These programmes need to be developed on a priority basis especially as the finances involved are not large and their multiplier effect is considerable.
21. Curricula need to be revised and upgraded at all stages. Pilot projects should be developed for the introduction of work- experience and national or social service and generalised in the light of experience gained. Emphasis needs to be placed on the cultivation of social and moral values.
22. The methods of teaching and evaluation should be improved through training institutions, programmes of in-service education for teachers, improved, supervision and supply of improved teaching and learning materials. The instruments of mass media should be fully utilised for this purpose.
23. Book Production.- Programmes of book production, textbooks and other teaching and learning materials need great emphasis.
24. The State Governments should make full use of the programme of textbooks and teaching materials prepared by the NCERT. They should also consider the desirability of establishing autonomous corporations, functioning on commercial lines, for the production and distribution of textbooks.
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25. The development of regional languages, should be accelerated with a view to enabling their speedy adoption as media of education at the university stage. A programme of preparing textbooks and other reference material needed for this purpose should be developed intensively and quickly.
26. Programmes of producing textbooks and other reference material in higher education will also be developed at the national level, the object being to produce as early as possible most of the books required at the undergraduate stage and a fair proportion of those required at the postgraduate stage within the country itself.
27. Science Education.-- Science education should be improved through pre-service and in-service training of science teachers and adequate supplies of laboratory equipment and other teaching materials and aids.
28. Physical Education and Sports and Games.- Emphasis should be placed on the development of programmes of physical education and games and sports at all stages. The existing training facilities for physical education instructors and coaches should be reviewed and wherever necessary, expanded and strengthened. Special encouragement should be given to indigenous games. Programmes of scouts and guides, youth hostels, etc. should be strengthened and developed further.
29. Pattern of School and College Classes.-- To the extent resources permit steps should be taken to adopt the pattern of 10+2+3 recommended by the Education Commission.
IV. Technical Education 30. As pointed out earlier, expansion of technical education may be related to future manpower needs. Where future manpower estimates indicate the need for reduction, that reduction should be effected largely in institutions which have not been able to provide facilities of the standard laid down by the All India Council for Technical Education.
31. In the Fourth Plan, accent should be on programmes of qualitative improvement and consolidation. There should be closer cooperation between technical education and industry and commerce. Priority should be attached to the qualitative improvement of postgraduate education, carefully adjusted to manpower needs, and research, especially as increasing sophistication will make larger demands for high quality design and research engineers. Part-time and sandwich courses may be established in industrial complexes, whenever new facilities have to be created. Correspondence courses may also be developed on a pilot basis, in the first instance, to assist employed personnel to upgrade themselves. These-non-formal-courses would assist the horizontal and vertical mobility of technically trained personnel as also the training persons for self-employment.
32. The requirements of development indicate that the technical performance of the small-scale dispersed units must be at a high level and that they should absorb the fruits of technological advances to a significant extent in all important directions and provide opportunities of self-employment for technically trained persons. For this purpose, it may be necessary to provide short-term course in management, sales and accountancy to technically qualified persons.
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33. Highest importance should be given to the pre-service and in-service training of technical teachers and providing them with opportunities for professional advancement. The in-service training should include summer institutes, sequential courses, organised field experience particularly in industry and advanced studies and research for those teachers whose academic qualifications need to be improved.
34. The Technical Teachers Training Institutes should reorganise their programmes to cater primarily for teachers sponsored by technical institutions. Special attention should be given by the Institutes to equipping technical teachers with pedagogical skills and techniques.
35. Polytechnics should designedly be brought into close relationship with industry to conduct cooperative programmes of training for technicians in selected and diversified fields like automobile engineering, refrigeration and air-conditioning, radio and electronics, machine tool technology, instrument technology and chemicals manufacture in relation to regional requirements.
36. Research programmes should be organised and conducted by the Institutes of Technology and other well-established institutions which have adequate expert personnel, with special reference to curriculum development, reparation of textbooks, teachers' guides and instructional materials. The Institutes of Technology should increasingly take interest in helping the engineering institutions in conducting in-service training programmes and developing a new methodology of technical education.
V. Cultural Programmes 37. Emphasis should be laid on consolidating in the continuing programme of archaeology, museums, academies and other cultural projects. Special attention should be paid to those schemes which bring out the composite character of Indian culture. Museums, archaeological sites, etc. should be fully utilised for educational purposes and guides prepared to assist teachers for this purpose.
VI. Educational Planning, Administration and Finances 38. The machinery for planning and administration should be stream-lined.
39. There should be an effective planning cell in the Directorate of Education. The different institutions created for qualitative improvement of education, namely, the State Institute of Education, Institute of Science Education, etc., may be brought together as an, effective technical arm of the Directorate of Education communicating with the NCERT on the one hand and the district-level set-up on the other.
40. The district should be adopted as the principal unit for planning, administration and development of education. -The staff at the district level should be accordingly strengthened. The programme of school-complexes may be adopted. and the system of institutional planning introduced.
41. The supervisory machinery should be strengthened and subject-specialists may be appointed, especially in science and mathematics.
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42. It is essential to streamline administrative and financial procedures and to decentralise authority to take decisions. The recruitment policies should be revised, wherever necessary, to attract competent persons and adequate provision should be made for pre- service and in-service training of educational administrators and supervisors.
43. All important programmes should be subjected to rigorous evaluation from time to time and a suitable agency should be created for the purpose.
44. It is not possible for the State; on account of limitations of available resources, to maintain a system of widespread and free educational services. While it is necessary to povide special facilities for the poor, it is not financially desirable to offer free facilities to those who can afford to pay for the education of their children. Therefore a system in which an appropriate charge for educational services is made, combined with a scheme of scholarships, freeships and loans appears to be most appropriate.
45. Institutional facilities like buildings and equipment should be fully utilised for educational and community activities.- Wherever possible and necessary, shift-system should be adopted. It is also desirable that the facilities like workshops, laboratories, play- grounds, etc. should be shared jointly by a number of institutions, wherever possible. Efforts should be made to produce, within the educational institutions themselves, as much of educational equipment as possible.
46. In view of the emphasis on self-reliance and the need to reduce foreign aid, utmost emphasis should be, laid on the indigenous production of scientific instruments. Towards this end, institutions should be assisted and encouraged to experiment and design new instruments, especially those now being imported
47. It is desirable to encourage voluntary contributions for educational activity, especially in relation to non-recurrent and capital expenditure, from the community and individuals.