 SECTION A:
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF 
RESPONSES

(i)Regional Distribution

The letters received have come from all over the country and they represent all States and Union Territories except Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Lakshadweep and Mizoram from where not even a single person has written. Appendix Table I, gives the Statewise distribution of respondents.

The state from where the highest number of letters have come is Uttar Pradesh. Out of the total 2255 letters 409 have come from this State only, which accounts for more than 18 per cent of the total responses. Uttar Pradesh is followed by Maharashtra with 16 per cent of total respondents. The third and fourth places are occupied by Union Territory of Delhi (264 letters) and Madhya Pradesh (258 letters). Four more States have been meaningfully represented and more than 100 letters have come from each of these State. These are Rajasthan, Bihar, Gujarat and West Bengal. All other States/ Union Territories are not well represented. Total number of letters received from the rest is less than 100 from each and if combined together these 20 States/Union Territories account for only 23 percent

- 8 -

of the responses.

Four South Indian States are also poorly represented in the communication. Altogether there are only 190 letters from the South Indian States which is not even 10 percent. About 1000 letters have been received from Hindi speaking states of i.e. Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, accounting for about 44 percent of the total responses.

(ii) Occupational Distribution

Based on an earlier analysis of individual letters and a perusal of about 100 letters sent for 'Janvani' programme it has been decided to group the respondents into nine broad categories: (i) Teachers and Educational Administrators (ii) Students, (iii) Professionals outside Education (iv) Administrators 'Outside Education' (v) Businessmen, (vi) Servicemen (vii) Unemployed persons (viii) Parent and (ix) Others (including those who did not mention their profession).

Out of these nine categories the first two are of those who are directly involved in the field of education and are working in the education sector. Rest other seven categories are of those who though

- 9 -

not directly involved in the system of education yet are affected by it directly or indirectly.

The first category i.e. 'Teachers and Educational Administrators' includes teachers at all the levels i.e. from Primary School Teachers to University Professors and similarly Educational Administrators include administrators at all the levels i.e. National, State, District, Block and Institutions. The category of 'Students' includes all those studying from primary to research level in general as well as technical/professional education.

The category of `Professionals outside Education' include Professionals like Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Technocrats, Scientists and others. Similar criteria has been adopted for evolving the category of 'Administrators outside Education'.

The category of 'Businessmen' includes all those belonging to business, industrial concerns or companies. The persons who are in service and can't be kept in the above mentioned groups are included in the category of `Servicemen'.

`Unemployed' category has been evolved because some people who have written have specifically mentioned themselves as unemployed and have thus

- 10 -

posed the problem of unemployment and the use of present type of education which according to them produce nothing but a crowd of unemployed graduates and post-graduates.

Some respondents who have not mentioned their profession but, have written about the problems which their children are facing in schools/colleges etc. have been kept under the category if 'Parents'. The group 'Others' corresponds to all those persons whose professions were not clear or who did not mention their profession in the communication.

The following table presents the number under each category and percentage of respondents in the category.

        
                                     Table No. 1
        
        
        
        S.No.     Category                      No.of          percent-
                                                letters        age
        
        1.   Teachers and Educational
             Administrators                     298            13.21
        
        2.   Students                           462            20.49
        
        3.   Professionals Outside
             Education                          136            6.03
        
        4.   Administrators Outside
             Education                          24             1.06
        
        5.   Businessmen                        48             2.13
        
        6.   Servicemen                         143            6.35
        
        7.   Unemployed                         24             1.06
        
        8.   Parents                            50             2.22
        
        9.   Others (Not mentioned/             1070           47.45
             unidentified)
        
             TOTAL                              2255           100

From the above table it is evident that out of the total 2255 letters received, more than one thousand persons have either not mentioned their profession or they could not be classified in any of the eight categories mentioned above. Among those who have mentioned their status, the highest number of responses have come from 'students'. Out of 2255 letters students are as many as 6-2 accounting for, about 20 percent. This is unlike the analysis of' individual letters' where student category is one of the small category accounting for merely 5.56 percent of responses. Next to the students is the category of 'Teachers and Educational Administrators' who are altogether 298 i.e. nearly 13 percent of total responses. In the earlier analysis it may be noted that this was the largest category. 'Teachers and Educational Administrators' are followed by 'Servicemen' and 'Professional Outside Education' who together .constitute about 12 percent of total respondents. 'Parents', 'Businessmen', 'Administrators Outside

-12-

Education' and 'Unemployed' altogether do not constitute even 10 percent of the total number of respondents.

(iii) Levels of Education

Letters written by the people relate to one stage of education or the other. The following table gives the frequency of responses according to the levels and types of education:-

        
                            Table No.2
        
        S.No.     Level of Education to         No.of          Percent-
                  which Responses are           Res-           age Dis-
                  Related                       ponses         tribution
        
                                          
         
        1.        Elementary                    422            18.71
        
        2.        Secondary/Higher Secondary    652            28.91
        
        3.        Higher Education              580            25.72
        
        4.        Professional/Technical
                  Education                     200            8.87
        
        5.        Adult & Non-formal Education  21             0.93
        
        6.        General                       999            44.30

In the above table the total number of responses is more than the number of letter received (i.e.2255) and analysed. This is so because many letters have dealt with more than one level of education and that is why the sum total of percentage also is more than 100. This is the reason that in the table the total has not been given as it will be meaningless. Percentage have been calculated out of 2255.

-13-

The figures in the table reveal that highest percentage of respondents are of those who have given general remarks without mentioning any specific level. About 29 percent responses are related to the Secondary and Higher Secondary level of education while nearly one fourth of the respondents have shown their concern with higher education. Total number of responses related to the Elementary level of education is 422 (i.e. 18.71 percent). Professional/ Technical education also drew 200 responses (i.e. 8.87%). Lowest number of responses are related to the Adult and Non-formal education. In our earlier analysis elementary education was the largest category after the General education category.

(iv) Themes:-

The selection of themes for categorising the responses was started with the classification in 10 categories as adopted in the analysis of "individual" responses., But later on, looking at the concern of people writing for the 'Janvani' programme it was decided to include a few other categories. Finally the issues have been classified into the themes mentioned below:-

1. Goals of Education

2. Structure of Education

-14 -

3. Content and Curriculum

4. Languages in Education

5. Evaluation and Examination

6. Planning and Management

7. Financing of Education

8. Teachers

9. Social Justice

10. Delinking degrees from jobs

11. Access to Higher Education

12. Vocationalisation and Job-oriented Education

13. Discipline

14. Corruption and Politics

15. Infra-structural facilities.

Some sort of subjective judgement is implied in the choice of themes. Similarly, there has been some unavoidable over-lapping in the classification of themes. The themes are discussed in short to comprehend the aspects covered under each of the theme.

1. Goals of Education : Goals of education relate to people's expectation from education. These include role of education in national development, national integration, social change, protection of our culture and heritage etc. Thus this theme is related to the most fundamental aspect of education.

-15-

2. Structure of Education denotes the pattern of education to be adopted at different levels e.g. at the secondary and Higher Secondary level whether 10+2+3 or 10 2+2 or 10+1+3 should be adopted.

Keeping education in Central List or States List or Concurrent list is also included under this theme although this could have been classified under Planning and Management of Education.

3. Content and Corriculum includes the subjects as well as courses to be taught at various levels of education. What subjects should be included at different levels? What should be the broad contents of the course? What should be the work load and what should be the quality of books at various levels? are the questions included under this theme.

4. Language : This theme refers to the medium of instruction at different levels of education, importance of the national language and its use as a contact language at various levels of education, the development of regional languages and ancient Indian Language, importance if foreign language, English as a medium of instruction. So, any aspect of education related to the medium of instruction, promotion of regional national and

-17-

Secondary/Higher Secondary Level, Higher Education, technical and Professional Education etc., the share of centre and states in financing of education, role of private organisation in the financing of educational institutions, and the pattern of tution fee at various levels.

8. Teachers All the issues related to the academic staff of the educational institutions are included under this theme. These issues are mainly related to the quality of teaching personnel, recruitment system, promotional avenues, salary and other facilities given to teachers, the preservice and inservice training, status of teachers given in the society, role of teachers in the society, their service conditions? transfer system etc.

9. Social justice refers to the issues relating to the facilities and incentives given to the weaker sections of the society such as scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other backward classes, rural people, females, financially backward and physically handicapped people. The reservation policy for SC and ST and its merit and demerits come under this theme.

-18 -

The existence of different types of institutions with differential facilities is also included in this theme.

10. Delinking degrees from Jobs includes the idea of desirability of university degrees for employment. All communications related to the problem of relation of degrees with employment, what is actually meant by 'delinking of degrees from jobs?' what will be the way to implement it?" are covered under this theme."

11. Access to Higher Education covers the issues like control over admission in the institutions of higher education and thus avoiding the undesirable rush to higher education.

12. Vocationalisation and Job-oriented Education Under this theme all ideals about introducing vocational subjects at various levels of education specially at secondary and higher secondary level to make the students self-dependent after getting education upto certain level, are covered. Proposals to make the education job oriented courses, also come under this theme.

13. Discipline includes the issues like students' unrest, their indulgence in non-social and criminal activities, and insincerity of teachers as well as non-teaching employees of educational institutions

-19-

and consequent neglect of duties.

14. Corruption and Politics The issues like capitation fee taken by educational institutions, donations and other contributions taken by the schools/college are included under this theme. The private tutions by the teachers and the coaching centres established by teachers and its related issues are also included in this theme. All sorts of corruption in the educational system like mass copying, bribery, cheating, leakage of question papers, push and pulls in admission and evaluation, bungling in financial administrative as well as academic matters of educational institutions, the problems of interference of political parties in the colleges and universities, their role in the students' union and teachers' association elections and the issue of participation of university and college teachers in Assembly and Parliamentary election to context and openly support candidates etc. are all covered under this theme.

15. Infra-structural facilities although could have been included under the theme of planning has been kept separate. The theme covers physical and other facilities to be provided to the educational institutions. In this respect library

-20-

facilities, teachers, black board, chairs and table, water and toilet facilities and so many other facilities like playground, sports and games material etc. are taken into account. Arrangement for computers, television and other audio-visual facilities are kept under this theme. The provision of schools and adult education centres in remote rural areas and tribal belt are also covered.

Table No. 3 presents the number of responses for each of the themes with their respective percentages.

        
                                 Table No.3
        
             Themes                   No.of                    Percentage
                                      Responses
        
        Planning and Management       790                      35.03
        Content and Curriculum        707                      31.35
        Teachers                      555                      24.61
        Corruption and Politics       539                      23.90
        Structure of Education        476                      21.11
        Evaluation and Examination    455                      20.18
        Vocationalisation
        and Job Oriented Education    384                      17.03
        Languages in Education        325                      14.41
        Social Justice                212                       9.40
        Financing of Education        205                       9.09
        Goals of Education            184                      08.16

-21 -

        
        Discipline                    170                      7.53
        
        Infra-structural facilities   166                      7.36
        
        Access to Higher Education    118                      5.23
        
        Delinking Degrees from jobs   75                       3.32

In the table percentages have been calculated out of 2255 which is total number of responses. Since many respondents have dealt with more than one theme, the total number of responses of various themes in the table is more than the number of responses received and analysed. From the table the following points can be inferred:

The themes with highest number of responses is 'Planning and Management'(35.03 percent responses) followed by 'Content and Curriculum' (31.35 percent). It shows that more than one third respondents are concerned with the problems of lack of proper planning and implementation and more than 30 percent respondents are concerned with what is to be taught to children. Nearly one fourth of respondents have discussed the problems of 'Teachers'.

The corruption and politics in the education sector has been touched upon by 539 respondents

-22-

(which is about 23.90 percent) which shows the all pervading nature of the problems. The table further reveals that more than 20 percent respondents have shown their concern-regarding themes of Evaluation and Examination (20.18 percent), Structure of Education (21.11 percent). Vocationalisation and job-oriented Education and Languages in Education have each elicited responses from about 15 percent of respondents.

The themes like Social Justice, Financing of Education Goals of Education Discipline, Infrastructural Facilities and Access to Higher Education have been the concern of less, than 10 percent respondents. The themes with lowest number of respondents is Delinking of Degrees from Jobs (3.32 percent) about which people are not clear.

It may be noted that 'Goal' theme had figured prominently in earlier correspondence along with 'Planning and Management' and 'Content and Curriculum'. This is because the earlier letters were from a highly educated section of people who have a longer perspective, while this correspondence is from common man who are siezed with more day to day mundane problems.

-23-

(v) Statewise Analysis of themes

At the all India level the three themes which emerged with highest number of responses in order of ranking are 'Planning and Management', 'Content and Curriculum' and 'Teachers'. A statewise analysis of themes was carried out to see if all the states/ union territories follow the All India pattern. Appendix Table III gives the Statewise distribution of themes by frequency of responses under each of the theme category. From this table it is clear that there are differences in the states/UT's in the priority assigned to a particular theme. Eight States/Union Territories with frequency of responses of 100 or more have been selected for further analysis. The states/UT's are Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Delhi.

The following table shows the importance of themes (in order of rank) in terms of percentage of respondents on each of themes to the total number of respondents from the respective States/UT's for the above mentioned eight selected states and union territories.

-24-

Table No. 4

Concern of Important Themes in Major States/UTs