SECTION A: INTRODUCTION
Press in Policy Making The nation's commitment to use education in the process of nation building and raising the quality of life of the people has been reflected in recommendations of the various Commissions/Committees and the pronouncement of the leadership. The Prime Minister, Shri Rajiv Gandhi, in his first broadcast to the nation took the opportunity to air his concern for restructuring the education system so that it can emerge as a `dyanamic force for national growth and integration'. Following this urge for reconstructing the education system, the Education Ministry took up the issue with a great challenge and came out with a document entitled "Challenge of Education - A Policy Perspective" containing an assessment of the progress made since Independence, and the directions in which future developments are desired. The purpose of this document as illustrated in its introduction was to provide a basis for generating all-round debate so that the entire society can be involved in the policy making process.
While the document is being debated in every corner of the country people have been sending their opinions to the Ministry of Education/Ministry of human Resource Development. A large number of, them have chosen the `press' to express their concerns/opinions regarding New Education Policy.
The Press in fact is a significant medium for providing feedback to the Government in all policy matters. Generally known as the `Fourth Estate' it serves as a bridge between peoples' desire and Government action. in the fitness of things the press has been giving a significant feedback. This feedback comes in many forms. Firstly it gets expressed in the form of the organised view of the concerned agency through editorials. secondly, individuals, opinions.
Thirdly, letters to editors in the different papers air the people's reaction on various issues and lastly, the various news items contained in the media provide an opportunity to the masses to know the development regarding on-going debate in the entire country.
It is thus obvious that it is the editorials which are the most significant because they provide a critical evaluation of various issues contained in the pronouncement of various, dignitaries as well as in other documents. The role of the press becomes more important because it is not only the agency for airing views but is also a disseminating, channel and a forum for reaction and rethinking; on These reactions. It the ultimate analysis it becomes a source of inflow for policy makers and planners.
Coverage This analysis is based on clippings of the news papers/journals sent to Ministry of human Resources Development in order; to provide some kind of feedback. True, the clippings really do not represent an ideal sample. But this does not mar the significance of the views expressed in these columns.
As mentioned earlier, the clippings received may be classified into the following four categories i.e, editorials, articles, news items and letters to the editors.
The frequency of clippings received against each category is as follows:
i) Editorials : 31
ii) Articles : 97
iii) News,Items : 130
iv) Letter to Editors : 17
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Total No. of Clippings 275
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The entire specturum of clippings belong to only three languages i.e. Hindi, English and Marathi. Their distribution is as follows.
Hindi English Marathi Total
Editorial 14 10 7 31
Articles 35 41 21 97
News Items 70 43 17 130
Letters to Editors - 13 4 17
Total 119 107 49 275
True, there is a serious limitation of this analysis because the writings in different languages representing different sections of society do not find a place. But this should not act as a constraint in our attempt to discern a trend. The purpose of this document is not to analyse the complete specturum of writings in the press all- over the country. Viewed in this context even the present set of clippings may provide a basis for getting a feedback.
Regional Distribution These clippings belong to newspapers published from different regions of the country. However, they have not been derived on the basis of any sampling technique. As mentioned earlier, only those clippings which were sent to the Ministry of Human Resources Development and received by NIEPA have been taken note of Therefore, a majority of clippings belong to the papers published from Delhi, Bihar, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. The State wise frequency is given in the following table.
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1) Delhi : 66
2) Bihar : 51
3) Maharashtra : 51
4) Madhya Pradesh : 36
5) Uttar Pradesh : 17
6) Rajasthan : 12
7) Karnataka : 8
8) Tamil Nadu : 8
9) Andhra Pradesh : 7
10) West Bengal : 5
11) Chandigarh : 5
12) Gujarat : 4
13) Assam : 1
14) Punjab : 1
15) Andman & Nicobar
Island : 1
16) Goa, Daman &
Diu : 1
17) U. K. : 1
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Total : 275
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It is evident that the first four States/Union Territories account for about three-fourths of the press clippings. One may have an argument over such a squeezed distribution taken for this analysis but as mentioned it should not act as an impediment in discerning the significant trend.
Thematic Distribution The role of the press in the formulation of National Policy on Education should be viewed in terms of direction it can provide Go the Government in various stages of policy evolution. Therefore
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the major focus of the press has been on issues which have a bearing on policy and planning. The entire specturum of the issues discussed in the press-media has been categoriesed into the following themes:
1. Goals of Education
2. Structure of Education Content and Curriculum
3. Content and Curriculum
4. Language
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 of Education
13. Discipline and Politics
14. Infra-structure Facilities
15. Adult and Non-formal Education
A point of caution is necessary here. These categories are structured which were evolved for the purpose of a similar exercise on individual letters sent to Ministry of Education/Ministry of human Resources Development and received by NIEPA for analysis. But what differentiates this analysis with the earlier one, is the entire focus. For example Discipline and Politics may include multifarious issues having many dimensions. but here the major focus has been on the issues related with discipline and politics having a direct bearing on policy formulation as well as its planning and management aspects. A word of caution is , required again on the theme of Planning, and Management' itself. It is a broad category which cuts across various themes but having a focus on better planning and
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management of education system. Obviously implementing strategiis, urge for uniform system of education, planning at various levels, administration and control of education, policy formulations etc. are the issues which have found a place under this theme.
Issues pertaining to various themes have not found a uniform place in the entire analysis. In fact they should not be. The representation of themes in the entire clippings is as follows:
Themes No. of clippings % out of total
containing response No. of Clipp-
on individual themes ings (275)
Planning & Management 133 48.36
Teachers 672 4.36
Content and Curriculum 59 21.36
Vocationalistion 53 19.27
Goals of Education 44 16.00
Discipline and Politics 40 14.54
Financing of Education 36 13.09
Evaluation and Examination 35 12.72
Infrastructure facilities 26 9.45
languages in Education 22 8.00
Social Justice 18 6.45
Delinking Degree from job 14 5.09
Access to higher Education 12 4.36
Non-formal and Adult Education 10 3.63
Structure of Education 9 3.27
It is significant to note this distribution pattern. The fact that `planning and management' has been focussed in a large number of writings in the press indicates that the larger efforts are to be made at this front. True, it has been responsible for the present crisis of the education system.
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The amount of concern for these aspects in different items of the press is not homogeneous. Therefore, it may be of some interest to discern the focus of various items.
Editorials for instance have a focus on Prime Ministers annou- ncement to rebuild Indian Education, the document `Challenge of Education', Education Ministers' Conference, and Teachers Day Celebration. One thing which comes out quite categoriially is the praise for rebuilding the Indian Education. The Document `Challenge of Education' has invited praise ask well as criticism in these columns. On its plus points. The Times wrote: "The main strength of the document is that it does not dodge the central issue namely, the failure of the education policy of 1968 and the consistent slipping of the performance behind target, plan and plan." The `Indian Express' called it a "Good Diagnosis". On the negative side the Time wrote : "The document is equally weak, however in its attempt to draw policy conclusions from its own dissection of the problem". Teachers have been a major focus of the editorials in the light of Teachers Day Celebrations. The lowering status of teachers has been highlighted significantly and immediate measures to improve his status socially as well as economically have been called for so that they can shoulder the responsibility of future India.
Articles as expected, have covered multifarious issues covering entire span of education in terms of state as well as themes. The hews Items seem to be less potent. They have to be because they constitute the true reporting of what is going on. Therefore, it has its focus on pronouncement of the dignitaries as well as reportings of the Seminars, Conferences and Public gatherings.
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