QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF RESPONSES
Regional Distribution of Respondents The communications received and analysed cover most of the states of the country. However, the statewise distribution of respondents indicates that the response of various states has been disperate. While about 25 per cent of the letters pertain to Uttar Pradesh, some other states like Nagaland, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Arunachal Pradesh have representation of one letter each. There is no representation of Dadra and, Nagar Haveli, Lakshadweep, Mizoram and Pondicherry. It should be noted that in the earlier analysis besides the above states, Manipur, Meghalaya and Sikkim were also not represented. (See Appendix 1 for statewise distribution of respondents).
While Uttar Pradesh accounts for the largest number of letters, it is followed by Delhi and Maharashtra. These three states together account for about 47 per cent of letters. In the earlier analysis also these states accounted for about 50 per cent of the letters.
As far as the four southern states are concerned their total share is 12.60 per cent as against about 14 per cent in the earlier analysis. It may be noted that in the last analysis all Hindi speaking states accounted for about 42 percent of the response. In the present analysis their share has increased marginally to 44.5 per cent.
Although, the shift in the distribution of responses is not significant, it does reflect the amount of concern the people have in different parts of the country. The state of art in the Hindi speaking states to a large extent explains this situation.
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Occupational Background of Respondents Occupational distribution of the respondents has been analysed and presented to understand the relative concern of people from different walks of life. There are some who are directly involved in the educational system as teachers, students and educational administrators. There are others, who are outside the system, but are equally concerned with the educational standard because it affects them indirectly.
In the, earlier analysis the respondents were classified into 9 categories according to their occupational background. In this analysis two more categories have been added by breaking the first category into three categories. The relative position of each of the groups in relation to total number of letters is given in the table below:
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Category Present Analysis Last Analysis
No. of Letters % Share No. of letters % Share
College Teachers 120 16.09
School Teachers 80 10.72 275 37.31
Educational
Administrators 56 7.51
Professionals Outside
Education 84 11.26 70 9.50
Students 53 7.10 41 5.56
Politicians 43 5.76 44 5.97
Administrators Out
Side Education 38 5.09 15 2.04
Journalists 21 2.82 25 3.39
businessmen 16 2.14 15 2.04
Eminent Persons 4 0.54 19 2.58
Others 231 30.97 233 31.61
It may be noted. that the first category, i.e. `Teachers and Educational Administrators' continues to have broadly the same representation, with minor decline. There is a perceptible decline in the share of responses from `Eminent' persons. This can be under stood in terms of significance of the issue and, therefore, all those concerned with education availed of the first opportunity to
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communicate their feelings. The fact. that the college teachers have the highest representation indicates that this group is concerned most about the education system or perhaps it is most vociferous.
Thematic Analysis of Responses The analysis of issues raised by the people is the most vital aspect as it has a direct bearing on the New Educational Policy. In the earlier analysis the issues raised by the respondents were grouped into 10 -themes. In the present analysis two more themes were added. The broad issues covered in each of these themes continue to be the same as in the earlier analysis. `Access to Higher Education' the new -theme in this analysis broadly covers people's view on restricting the access to higher education and criteria for admission to institutions of higher education, while `Vocationalisation of Education' focusses on vocationalisation of secondary education based predominantly on local needs.
The following table presents the distribution of responses on each of the theme in the order of their frequency for the present study as well as the earlier study:
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Themes Present Analysis Last Analysis
No. of % No. of %
Responses Respondents Responses Respondents
Content & Curriculum 254 34.05 447 60.65
Planning & Management 216 28.45 274 37.17
Goals of Education 211 28.28 253 34.32
Teachers 144 19.30 188 25.50
Language 100 13.40 126 17.09
Vocationalisation
of Education 89 11.93 - -
Social Justice 83 11.13 96 13.02
Evaluation 78 10.46 100 13.56
Structure 95 10.05 176 23.88
Finance 45 6.03 46 6.24
Access to Higher
Education 35 4.69 - -
Delinking Degree
from Jobs 25 3.35 42 5.70
It is evident from the table that in general there is a substantial decline in the number of responses on all the themes. However it may be noted that there is no shift in the order of
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frequency of the responses on the first four themes. The only major shift is observed in case of `Structure' where one notices that while in earlier analysis about 24 per cent letters had responses on this theme, in the present analysis only 13.40 per cent letters contain responses on this.
The groupwise analysis of themes was attempted to see the differentials if any, among different groups oil the areas of major concern. The following table summarises the responses of major groups on the themes which appeared to be of highest concern to them:
Group Order of Reponse
First Order Second Order Third Order
1. School Teachers Content and Teachers Planning and
Curriculum Management
2. College Teachers Planning and Content and Goals of
Management Curriculum Education
3. Educational Planning and Content and Goals of
Administrators Management Curriculum Education
4. Students Planning and Content and Goals of
Management Curriculum Education
5. Politicians Content and Goals of Social
Curriculum Education Justice
6. Professionals Goals of Content and Planning and
outside Education Education Curriculum Management
7. Administrators Content and Goals of Vocationa-
out-side Education Curriculum Education lisation
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From the above table it may be noted that `Content and Curriculum' has emerged as a major theme for four- of the groups i.e. School-teachers, Students, Politicians and Administrators outside Education. It is significant to note the in case, of `College Teachers' and `Educational Administrators' the theme that got highest response is `Planning and Management' This can be interpreted to mean that `content' issues are most relevant at school stage. Further, for `College Teachers' and `Educational Administrators' Planning and Management' of Education is an area of vital importance. Interestingly `Goals of Education' appear to be an area of greater concern to `people outside education' because none of the category involved directly with educational processes has shown this as an area of foremost concern. `Social Justice' as expected is the category which had drawn good number of responses from the `Students' and `Politicians'; from the first one because they are directly affected by disparities in education and from the second one perhaps, it is a catchy slogan.
A statewise distribution of themes has been attempted to see if there are some differentials in the area of concern of different states. Responses of states on different themes is given in Appendix II. From the table it is clear that there are statewise differentials in -responses to different themes. Following table summarises the areas of major concern in the case of major states:
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State/UTs Order of Priority
First Priority Second Priority Third Priority
Andhra Pradesh Goals of Education Planning",& Manage- Language
ment, Content and
Curriculum
Bihar Content & Curri- Planning & Manage- Goals of
culum ment Education
Gujarat Content & Curri Structure Goals of
culum, Planning Education
and Management
Karnataka Content & Curri- Planning & Manage- Goals-of
culum ment Education,
Vocationalization.
Kerala Content & Curri- Vocationalisation
culum Goals of Language
Education
Madhya Pradesh Content & Curri- Goals of Education Planning
culum Management
Maharashtra Content & Curri- Goals of Education Planing &
culum
Orissa Planning & Mana- Teacher; Goals of
gement Content and Education
Curriculum Evaluation
Rajasthan Planning & Mana- Coals of Education
gement, Social Vocationalization Language
Justice
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Tamil Nadu Goals of Education Content & Curriculum,
Planning & Management Language
Uttar Pradesh Content & Curri- Planning & Management Goals of
culum Education,
Teacher
West Bengal Content & Curri- Goals of Education Planning &
culum Management
Delhi Goals of Education Content and Planning
Curriculum Management
It is evident from the table that the issue of `Content and Curriculum' has received highest responses in all the states except of Tamil Nadu and Delhi. These are the two states where `Goals of Education' emerge as the first priority' issue. This can be interpreted to mean that respondents from these two states have better conceptual understanding of issues in education. `Language' has emerged as one of the major themes only is Andhra Pradesh, while `Struture' has drawn large responses from Gujarat. Issues of `Teachers' and `evaluation' appear to be higher priority areas for Orissa. All others follow the all India pattern.
Level-wise Distribution of Responses Letters written by people relate to one stage of education or the other. Some of the letters cover more than one level of education while a large number of letters do not specifically mention the stage. There are general suggestions relating to all the levels of education. A frequency distribution of respondents by levels and types of education enables one to know the level of education about which people are most concerned. The following table gives the distribution of responses by levels and types of education both for the present as well as the earlier analysis.
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Stage Present Analysis Last Analysis
No. of % age No. of % age
Responses Distribution Responses Distribution
Elementary 246 32.98 209 21.3
Secondary &
Hr. Secondary 172 23.06 202 20.6
Higher Education 128 17.16 142 14.5
Technical
Education 52 6.97 47 4.8
Adult 18 2.41 21 2.1
General 396 53.08 361 36.7
Issues related to elementary level continues to be of significant concern in both the sets of communications; the relative concern for Secondary and Higher education is lesser in the present sets of communications as compared to the last one. Technical and Adult education continue to be the areas not drawing many responses while General higher Education has received moderately good response in both the sets of communications. Similarly, responses not related to any specific level of education continue to be large in both the sets of communications. One can deduce from this that major area of peoples' concern in as far as levels of education are concerned is Elementary level followed by Secondary and higher level of education.
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This section presented an empirical analysis of the communications in terms of background of the respondents and the issues raised by them. An attempt was also make to discuss the trends of groups' as well as States' response on various themes in order of priority. In the pages that follow, a brief analysis of the different view points expressed by the- respondents in respect of the various themes is presented.
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