ELEMENTARY EDUCATION AND 
UNIVERSALISATION
 

Dr. V.R.P. Sinha, Director, Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Seven Bunglows, Versova, Bombay-400061 (20th September, 1990)

- The 10 + 2 + 3 structure is good as a common base and should be continued.

Prof. B. Ganguly, Head, Department of Education in Science Mathematics and Dean (Academic), NCERT, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi- 110016 (24th September, 1990)

- Is there any model of OPENED-UP AID NON-FORMALISED school any where in the world? If it is there, then the detail of the working mechanism of such schools should be given as an Annexure in the report. The question of survival, development and justice depends upon economic, social and political forces operating in the society. Education is an extremely weak force and ineffective against the three powerful forces mentioned above. If socio-economic and political forces drag the country to one direction, then education is extremely weak to pull it towards the opposite direction.

- The rise of literacy increases the efficiency of developmental sectors. Therefore, all the developmental sectors should be responsible for literacy programmes not only for their workers and their families but also in the adjoining areas of their sector.

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Dr. Ramjee Singh, Professor & Head, Department of Gandhian Thought, Bhagalpur University, Bhagalpur - letter dated 29.9.90

- As a practical measure, the empowering people for work must start at the pre-primary level and at the Secondary level, the student should be made to acquire atleast one skill so that he can earn his livelihood. At the University level, education of arts must be discouraged, and engineering, medical and other technical students should be tagged with concerned industries, workshops and hospitals as far as possible to lessen the financial burden of the Government as well as to make their education practically more perfect.

- Universal Literacy can be achieved in four months by involving teachers and the students of the universities for literacy work. The loss of four months' study can be made up by having classes on holidays and Sundays in the rest of the year. The personnel, Who could be called education army, be given one week's training and honorarium, but no salary.

Shri S.S. Kalbag, Hony. Director, Vigyan Ashram, Pabal, Distt. Pune- 412403, (18th September, 1990)

- Introducing WE/SUPW from elementary school level as an integral part of the curriculum would need a lot of effort in reorienting teachers. Voluntary groups will need to be involved. Without the effort it will fail. But this should not be allowed to fall for want of effort.

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Dr. U.C. Upadhyay, Vice-Chancellor, Narendra Deva University of Agriculture & Technology, Faizabad (Uttar Pradesh), Letter No. 10480/N-11/PA-VC, dated 20.9.90

- There is a need to strengthen non-formal education and distance education in a country like ours where literacy percentage is still around 35-36. This has a great relevance in agriculture as such training to farmers would have direct bearing on agricultural production.

Shri V. Kanjayan, Headmaster, Panchyat Union Primary School, Mallanginar, 626109 - Letter dated 1.10.90

- Due importance may be given to Pre-Primary education. In every school there must be a lower Kinder Garten class for the children of age-group 3-4 and an upper Kinder Garten class for the children of age group 4-5 years.. The curriculum/syllabus should be framed by the expert and specialist teachers of Kinder Garten classes. Expenditure on Kinder Garten classes should be borne by the Central and State Governments at the ratio of 8:2.

Dr. H.S. Srivastava, Prof. and Head, NCERT, New Delhi, Letter dated 25th September, 1990

- The suggestion to have a common school system will be difficult to implement in the Indian conditions. The first and the most important attempt in this regard should be the improvement of poorer schools to bring them at par with the better/public schools.

Prof. J.S. Rajput, Joint Educational Adviser, Ministry of HRD, New Delhi, Letter dated 4.10.90

- Universalisation of basic education is the paramount task before the country today. The biggest drawback of the Perspective Paper

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seems to be that it does not view this task in a holistic, integrated fashion, nor attempts to spell out a comprehensive strategy for achieving it in a time-bound manner.

- The suggestion to open up and non-formalise school system Is an academic/educational approach to the problem of universalisation which does not adequately take into account the fact that there are also major socioeconomic community based factors which inhibit universaliation. It also leaves out the crucial areas of motivation.

- "Opening up and non-formalisation" of roughly 5.5 lakh primary schools of the country is a massive task which will require enormous effort and considerable time. A lot of thought needs to be given to Its logistics i.e. to working out how this could be achieved quickly. It needs to be borne in mind that the formal system has not succeeded in non-formalising itself despite four decades of strong advocacy in favour of such a transformation. The reasons for this failure, the modalities now, and the chances of future success need to be carefully assessed before the present intervention in favour of the disadvantaged are discarded. Otherwise the recommendation could lead to a further increase in the absolute number of un-enrolled children by the time of the next such Review.

- The third and fourth features of a flexible school system as mentioned on page 18, Chapter III, are not very clear and need to be spelt out with greater clarity. In the context of the fourth feature, the Committee should consider whether it would instead be

41

worthwhile to recommend a two-shift school in disadvantaged areas, both so that children who cannot attend in one shift are able to attend in the other, and so that the teacher-pupil ratio improves.

- If the regidities of the formal school system are likely to take considerable time to be removed, then there would be justification to continue the non-formal system in the interim period. During this time to ensure that the disadvantaged segments are not given second- rate education, the non-formal education system should have the same minimum levels of learning as the formal school system.

- Practical implications of the recommendations to make ECCE "an integral part of planning for primary education", and "link an effective programme of ECCE with every primary school of India", need to be worked out and clearly spelt out.

- It also needs to be examined whether clubbing with Primary Education might not result in dilution of the integrated nature of ECCE, and if so, how this could be prevented.

- The recommendation of a 10 year time-frame, to achieve common school system appears somewhat arbitrary in the absence of an analysis of the reasons for non-implementation of the system so far and an assessment of the required resources to implement it now. The exercise regarding requirement and availability of resources should precede laying down of a realistic time-frame.

- The problem presented by unaided schools would need to be dealt with thoroughly if definite action for a common school system is to

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be taken. Some of the modalities suggested do not adequately take into account the existing situation. For instance, it is to be recognised that schools imparting education "otherwise than in the medium of mother tongue" are generally the English medium ones, urban- based and un-aided. Again, factors such as "early selection process, tution fee, capitation fee, etc." are not true of Government or local body schools' they exist mainly in the un-aided schools which are outside the pale of existing legislation, and will in all likelihood continue to remain unaffected by the intended legislation. Legislation will not in other words, prove an easy or implementable answer.

- It is not clear whether the Committee seeks a common school system upto the secondary level; this seems to be implied when it talks of teaching in regional languages at the secondary level. It may be more practical to limit implementation of the common school system to the elementary stage, in the foreseeable future.

Shri Mandhusudan Mishra, Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, Delhi Letter dated 2.10.90

- Our first and the only task during the 8th Five-Year Plan should be to give prim place to Primary Education, allowing the middle (VI- VIII), Secondary (IX-XII), Higher and Technical Education to mark time. Thus each of the 7 lakhs of villages of India should be provided with a primary school with proper building.

- Our lower primary education should be nothing more (or less) than a tool for making a child literate with respect to mother tongue/regional language. Everybody should be atleast literate. An

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illiterate man must be considered as uneducated in spite of his skill in certain art.

- After every village Is provided with a primary school, the common school system will evolve itself at least in the rural and backward areas, because we cannot guarantee the abolition of the public schools.

Dr. D.A. Ghanchi, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, North Gujarat University, Patna-384265 - Letter dated 5th October., 1990.

- The E.C.C.E. should be integrated with primary education in feasible cases in respect of rural areas, slums in urban areas and those localities where weaker sections reside. This pattern should be made optional for other areas, particularly where the private and voluntary agencies operate separate organisations.

- The Common School System be kept as a distant goal. No legislation need be made to enforce this ideal as it would be neither feasible nor desirable. What we should do Is to make our (i.e. Government or Government-aided) schools quality institutions. At the most, the private schools be forced to earmark a certain percentage of seats for children of weaker sections. Even in U.S.A. there is a move to modify, if not do away with, the neighbourhood idea.

Professor Dr. Omkar N. Wakhlu, Consulting Engineering, Buchwara, Old Gangribal Road, Srinagar-190001 - Letter dated 30.9.90

- Let the common school system be brought to the existing level of elitist schools and not vice-versa. Thereby, private schools will easily get merged with common school system.

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Shri M.C. Nanavatty, Consultant, Social Welfare and Development, S- 173, Greater Kailash-II, New Delhi-110 - Letter dated 1.10.90

- The idea of neighbourhood schools in the social context of Indian society is fraught with many constraints and limitations. Where the social stratification is caste and class based and where social values are conditioned by religious teachings, the neighbourhood by Its very nature becomes an association of people belonging to similar caste or religion. The upper class society live in one centrally situated neighbourhood or in the suburbs and the poor, the deprived and the untouchable, live on the periphery of the village or city areas. Thus by the very nature, the neighbourhood schools become caste or religion based or reflect economic stratification of the rich, the middle and the poor class population. The objective of providing equality of relationship among students and conditioning their out-look to an egalitarian ideal, by sharing the process of learning through neighbourhood based relationship thus, gets defeated.

Prof. S.P. Mukherjee, Dean, Faculty of Science, University College of Science, Calcutta, Letter dated the 1st October, 1990.

- The Common School System be implemented by a massive effort to augment facilities for study and work available in state-aided (or State run) schools and not through disincentives and legislation against the better-equipped public schools. The populist identification of the so-called elitist aberrations in the existing educational system should not be used to cover up deficiencies in `common schools' created and continued by vested interests.

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- Reduction of school hours (with the majority of children having no facilities for learning outside schools), ungraded class rooms (to be looked after by few heavily loaded teachers), flexible school timings, relating content and process of learning with community life (not always In consonance with scientific temper, democratic values and secular ideas) etc. may be easier said than done.

Dr. R.P. Singhal, Executive Director (Retd.), NIEPA, Former Chairman, CBSE and Consultant (Education), Asian Development Bank and Ed.CIL, letter dated 5.10.90.

- It appears to be doubtful whether it would be appropriate to do away with Non-Formal Education by branding it as a parallel channel. As is well known, most of the schools are ill-equipped and there is lack of adequate motivation on the part of teachers to put in extra work. To expect that formal school teacher can take care of out-of-school children by working all the hours seems to be an impratical proposition. Those schools which are competent to reach out may do so but to expect all schools to take this responsibility may not be feasible,

- The 1968 Policy was more realistic in its approach to equity in education. It gave birth of neighbourhood schools and asked public schools to admit children on merit and provide prescribed proportion of free-studentships to disadvantaged students. That promoted quality education and facilitated Integration of students from different sections of society. The present proposal to do away with Public Schools through legislation and other disincentives would be a retrograde step. Most of the public schools are providing quality education and serve the needs of transferable

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children. They promote national integration and are not a burden on the exchequer. But certainly commercialisation of education should not be allowed.

- The Centre has really to provide leadership in educational development. Both Central and State Governments have to find additional resources if it is considered that education is a vital area of development and is an investment in future. There are various ways by which additional resources could be mobilised. Levying fee for higher education is one such way. Equally important is the optimum utilisation of available resources.

19th Annual Conference of Council of Boards of School Education in India, 23, Ashiana Apartments, Pitam Pura, Delhi - (11.10.90)

- Strengthening the common school system can be achieved by (a) ensuring minimum school facilities in all the schools, (b) ensuring community's participation and school becoming accountable to community, (c) ensuring use of mother tongue/regional language as medium of instruction, (d) continuously upgrading the quality of teachers. The concept of school complex and neighbourhood school should considerably strengthen the present schools, thus enabling us to move to a common school system.

Shri Deepak Kumar Barua, Dean, Faculty Council for P.G. Studies in Education, Journalism & Library Science, University of Calcutta, Calcutta (26th September, 1990)

- The idea of a school which will "open-up and non-formalise in creative ways", though conceptually an ideal one, but it is very difficult to achieve becuase of the need for maintaining a uniform standard of school education throughout the country.

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Prof. A.M. Paramasivandam, Founder President, Valliammal Education Trust, E-9, Anna Nagar, East, Madras-102 (7.10.90)

- In the matter of establishment of non-formal education centres, each village or slum is to be taken as unit since most of the illiterates are living in those places. The aim of the centre should not only be for teaching the three. `R's, but should be improving the capability work. The basic aim should be to establish effective linkage between the world of school and the world of work.

Shri V.G. Hegde, Secretary, BNDSS HM'S and COMP PUC P's Association and Principal, D.V.V. Gujarati Shala, N.K.S. English High School, Majestic Circle, Bangalore-9

- When we talk about common school system, special schools provide minimum essential facilities to rural poor should be established at least one in each taluk instead of the present one navodaya school for each District. This school should help rural poor who are economically and socially backward. First generation learners and women should be given priority. Caste should not be the criteria. These schools should serve as sources to develop talents of rural poor in all walks of life. The idea of common school system will not be successful unless Article 30 of the constitution is removed.

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Shri G.M. Verma, C-4/H/164-B, Janak Puri, New Delhi (October 4, 1990)

- Common school system is not necessary, nor is it feasible because of the non-accountability of teachers and rigidity of syllabus in the government controlled schools.

Shri B.N. Bhatia, 286, Adarsh Nagar, Jaipur 302004 (5.10.90)

- For promoting common school system and for universalisation, we must introduce an integrated course for the first five years of education and this should be common to all schools and programmes whether formal or non-formal.

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