II. REGIONAL LANGUAGES (EXTRACT FORM THE REPORT OF THE EDUCATION COMMISSION)
6.50. Imbalances of Educational Development in the States : The development of educational facilities in the different parts of the country has been very uneven and one of the important objectives of educational policy should be to strive to reduce the existing imbalances to the minimum. With a view to highlighting the problem, we made a special study of some of the regional imbalances as they exist between the different States and districts for the year 1960-61, the latest year for which the data are available. Table 6.6 shows some of the variations in the level of educational development in the States.
It will be seen that the State income per head is lowest in Bihar (Rs. 220.7) and the highest in Maharashtra (Rs. 468.5). The percentage of State income devoted to education is lowest in Orissa (1.5) and highest in Kerala (3.6) Illiteracy, both among men and women is lowest in Kerala (450 and 611 respectively per 1,000 of population), and highest in Jammu and Kashmir (830 and 957 respectively). At the lower primary stage, the enrolment of boys and girls is highest in Kerala (115.4 P.C. and 100 P.C. respectively of the corresponding age-group) and lowest in Rajasthan (64.0 and 16.3 p.c. respectively). At the higher primary stage, kerala again stands first (67.7 and 49.1 P.C. respectively for boys and girls), while Orissa comes last (16.1 P.C. for boys and 2.0 P.C. for girls). At the secondary stage, Assam is first for the enrolment of boys (25.5 P.C.) and Kerala first for the enrolment of girls (12.6 P.C.). But in both respects, Orissa stands last (7.5 P.C. for boys and 0.7 for girls). In higher education West Bengal stands first with an enrolment of 40 per 10,000 of population and Orissa comes last, with an enrolment of 8 only.
6.51. Imbalances in Educational Development in the Districts : The differences at the district level are much greater than those at the State level. Some of the most striking conclusions that emerged from our study in this regard are given below :
(1) Lower Primary Stage (Classes I-V) : At the lower primary stage, the target to be reached is an enrolment of 142 per thousand (at 110 per cent of the total population in the age group 6-10). As against this, there is a wide spectrum of achievement. At the State level, in case of total enrolment it ranges from 55 in Rajasthan to 140 in Kerala while in the case of girls it ranges from 23 in Rajasthan to 130 in Kerala. The mean enrolment of all children for all States was 74 with a standard deviation of 24.6. The mean for girls was 46.7 with a standard deviation of 23.8. The variations between districts are even larger--from 21 in Barmer (Rajasthan) to 158 in Quilon (Kerala) for total enrolment and from 5 in Barmer to 151 in Quilon for girls.
(2) Higher Primary Stage (Classes VI-VIII) : At the higher primary stage, the picture is similar, although the task that remains to be done is far greater. At the state level, the highest total enrolment was 41 per thousand in Kerala and lowest-5 per thousand-in Orissa. In respect of girls, the highest enrolment was 35 per thousand, again in Kerala, while it was lowest per thousand-in ORISSA 2 per thousand in Bihar and 3 per thousand in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The mean and standard deviations for all States were 13.7 and 8.3 in the case of all children and 6.7 and 7.3 in the case of girls.
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(3) Secondary Education Stage (Classes IX-XI) : Kerala again stands first with an enrolment of 11 per thousand of population for total enrolment and 8 per thousand of population for girls, while Orissa stands last with an enrolment of 2 per thousand for all children and a negligible enrolment for girls. The mean enrolment for all States was 6.29 for total (with a standard deviation of 3.5 ) and that for girls was 2.21 (with a standard deviation of 2.8). At the district level the differences are even greater-from 1 in Kalahandi (Orissa) to 18 in Ambala (Punjab).
(4) Educational Expenditure (Direct) per Head of Population : With regard to total direct expenditure per capita, Kerala spends highest (Rs. 11.2) and Orissa lowest (2.8). There are 17 districts which spend less than Rs. 2.00 and 25 districts which spend more than Rs. 10 per head of population.
6.52. Recommendations : The programmes for the reduction of regional imbalances in educational development will have to be pursued side by side with the wider programmes for removing imbalances in the socioeconomic development. The problem is complex and difficult ; and its solution will have to be spread over a number of years. Our principal object in this Report is to draw attention to this problem and to highlight its significance. In our opinion, the solution of the problem can be considerably facilitated if an emphasis is laid on removal of imbalances in educational development. From this point of view, we suggest that action should be taken on the following lines :
(1) A total elimination of these differences in educations development is neither possible nor desirable. In the larger interest of the country each region should be free to strive its best and to develop at its own pace. This will necessarily lead to some inequalities of development. But what is needed is a balancing factor, a deliberate and sustained effort to assist the less advanced areas to come up to at least certain minimum levels so that the gap between them and the advanced areas would be reduced to the minimum. This is the policy of "equalization" under which each area is assisted, subject to the condition that it makes a given effort to come up to certain minimum levels prescribed. Our grants-in-aid in education will have to be broadly based on this principle of equalisation.
(2) The district should be adopted as the basic unit for educational planning and development. Our detailed proposals in this regard will be discussed elsewhere.
(3) At the State level, there should be a deliberate policy of equalization of education development in the different districts and the necessary administrative and financial measures to this end should be taken.
(4) At the national level, it should be regarded as the responsibility of the Government of India to secure equalization of educational development in the different States. The necessary programmes for this, including special assistance to the less advanced States, should be developed.
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