 CONCLUSION

Goals of education received one of the largest number of responses from individuals. It was generally felt that the proposed national education policy was more utilitarian which considerably limited the nature and functions of education. Goals of education had to be much broader in scope that would incorporate issues of human values, human and social development as well as social transformation. The preoccupation of a majority of the correspondents was that goals of education policy were not as encompassing as they ought to be. The function of education is not merely to impart knowledge, skills and training but also to develop the right perspective to issues regarding morality, human values, national integration, culture and above ail international understanding. Thus most people dwelt on the role of education in bringing about an awareness of these issues. The proposed education policy, it was felt, aimed at producing not humans but machines.

On the structure of education, almost all the correspondents held the view that changes had to be brought about right from the elementary stage. This stage which formed the base for the most of the educational system was still very weak, with no consistent policy. It is still not realized that elementary education is the most crucial stage for the development of the child which in turn contributes to the strength of ongoing education in the country. Uptil now it is the structure of secondary and more than that higher education on which the maximum amount of resources have been allocated both by policy- makers and planners. Despite this, our education system has remained poor. This is symptomatic of the lack of concern in developing, an effective as well as responsive education structure at the elementary stage.

The need to plan and manage educational endeavours is acutely felt by a majority of the correspondents belonging to all categories of professions. Their models are fashioned after the concept of development administration, which sees education as part of the total process of change.

Thus the sectoral approach to educational planning and administration is replaced by the idea of vertical and horizontal inter-linkages, among educational institutions, as well as the linkage of education with agricultural, industrial and service sectors our national development They opine that this approach needs to be adopted both, at the national as well as at the state levels for a

successful implementation of educational schemes like universalisation of elementary education, vocationalisation of secondary education and professionalization of higher education. Further, that policies of adult education both formal and non-formal need to be based upon this approach, taking into account the individual needs of the learner, his environmental context and constraints, and the rewards he/she is to receive upon attaining literacy. The necessity of enlisting the support of the local community for material and human inputs strengthens the arguments in favour of a participatory model of planning and management.

Issues like centralisation and decentralisation of educational structures has also received some attention. The consensus is that whereas there needs to be some pace-setting institutions, like the model school introduced at the national level, there also exists the need to create and manage institutions at the state and district levels to suit local needs in order to accommodate the cultural diversity in our country. The central agencies of education should also be constituted for uniformity of standards both in curriculum as well as in evaluation. This would facilitate the mobility of people from one region to another.

Yet another dimension of educational planning and management urged by the correspondents was the necessity of assessing the employment potentialities in our country based upon a diagnostic Study.

Views on Content, Curriculum and Method focussed largely on orienting syllabi of both formal and non-formal education towards indigenous needs and that which would bring about awareness concerning democracy and secularism. As of now, it was contended that the content of the syllabus was not really imparting knowledge to the students that was linked with our own social context. Also, it was not integrative that is, the content of curriculum did not adequately take into consideration the diversity of our own culture. The burden of this task fell on such subjects as history and social studies which needed to be rewritten from this perspective. Though it is important for curriculum to be need-based, its objectives should however be far more encompassing. While knowledge had to be reeds-based in order to make people economically self-reliant, this was not sufficient. It is the general consensus of the correspondents, that the curriculum content has to be process-oriented and holistic, which will inculcate an alertness in the minds of students on the wider problems of society that will directly or indirectly affect their level of interaction and

involvement with issues concerning social problems and change thereof. Curriculum content can no longer put subjects or disciplines in boxes. it has to evolve an interdisciplinary approach, in both school and higher education. The present curriculum it was alleged was oriented to producing 'technocrats', which they feared would only encourage a one divisional, non-human understanding of social and development problems.

On the question of a uniform curriculum there was some difference of opinion, but the majority came out strongly against the NCERT's undiversified, uniform, scheme of studies. They proposed that knowledge of subjects ought to be more environment and local based. This would make students far more articulate in not only their subjects but also in developing an appreciation of their localities.

Concern over lack of appropriate curriculum for the physically disabled on the one hand and highly talented on the other was also voiced.

Not all jobs require specialized training, a large percentage of resources are spent on such training with the resultant product remaining quite unproductive in terms of needs of the country. It is therefore proposed that there has restrictive entry into the tertiary level of education and suitable channels be related as alternatives for gainful employment of those seeting to continue education after schools.

Following from this is the question of delinking jobs with degrees. Different standards have been suggested for ascertaining the capability of students for the job-market.

The general feeling on teacher education is that it needs to be remodified. Teachers of technical institutes need to be trained in. small, medium and big enterprises. The teacher as a key person in education system needs to be given a better status and emoluments. Both rights,and duties of the teacher are important in education.

Pupil, teacher and institutional evaluation has received some attention from the correspondents. They opine that the pupils creativity, intelligence and ability to arrive at logical conclusions of problems need to, be tested through different evaluation formulae than has been the past, thereby changing the existing pattern of testing, rote learning. The teachers too need to be evaluated through the self assessment method as well as by the administrator.

For institutional evaluation, it has been suggested that institutes be rewarded for their performance.

Adult education has not received the kind of attention it is needed by this group of correspondents. One of the models suggested is to give employment to the unemployed in the NEAP. Use of mass media to achieve this goal has strongly been recommended

Although the correspondents feel strongly about the inequalities perpetuated by the education system, yet they have not come up with concrete solutions with which this problem can be mitigated. the views of correspondents on this issue have beet, summarized under the following classifications, economically deprived, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, women, minority communities and disabled persons.

The problems of discipline and malpractices reflect the current crisis in our educational system. Among the few problems mentioned are corruption of school teachers, control of bureaucrats and Politicians and trade-union movements.

An attempt has been made to present objectively views and proposals as put forward by the correspondents. However, as in every analysis of this kind some amount of subjectivity may have crept in.

LETTERS/