UNIVERSAL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
 

Elementary Education for All

2.1. Highest priority must be given to Tree education for all up to the age of 14 as laid down in the Directive Principles of

2

the Constitution. Education up to this stage should be general and not specialized, and should give pupils a confident command of language and tool subjects and inculcate a scientific, attitude. Elementary education should be an integral stage.

Objective and Content of Elementary Education

2.2. The accent in elementary education should be on the development of personality and character. The content of elementary education needs to be restructured keeping in view not only the tradition and values that make up the country's composite culture but also the present realities and the vision of a common future. The content of education at this stage should include language,

arithmetic, history, simple elementary sciences with special reference to environment, cultural values and physical education. The curriculum should necessarily include socially useful productive work through purposive, manual labour contributing towards goods and services useful to the community. Wherever possible, provision must be made for agricultural or horticultural activity. Thus education will become functional and related to the lives of the people and the environment. It should promote a scientific temper which results in a capacity for self-criticism and a liberal and human outlook. Flexibility and room for innovation will help the teachers to meet the varying requirements of children).

2.3. There is need for a change in the approach to the learning process in the early years of elementary education. The accent has to be on more creative and joyful activities than formal instruction. Formal instruction must be reduced to the minimum and should not exceed three hours a day. No rigid academic year need be prescribed. The school session should be scheduled according to local needs.

Facilities for Elementary Education

2.4. While it is necessary to expand the facilities for formal education in elementary schools for all children in the age

3

group 6-14, it is also important to formulate schemes of nonformal education for dropouts and the older children in the age group who have not had any schooling. The aim should be to cover all the children in the age group 6-14 in the next ten years. Steps should be taken to prevent children giving up schooling without completing the course. The problem of wastage should be studied in detail and remedial measures taken.

2.5. The curriculum must be capable of catering to the re- quirements of a wide range of learners and learning circumstances and built around local situations. There has to be a core of basic content for comparability of educational attainment and the acquisition of further skills and knowledge. The core should be minimum. Learning system may be organized through either formal or non-formal arrangements, which may be partly institutional and partly personal. The institutional arrangements should not be so rigid as to exclude those learners who wish to make use of them partially.

Incentives

2.6. Incentives such as mid-day meals, free textbooks, stationery and uniforms should be provided to poorer pupils. Special attention should be given to the education of girls and children of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

School and the Community

2.7. The school should function as a focal centre for the development of the neighbourhood. The community in its turn should

involve itself in the educational effort. Skills available within the community should be utilised for education programmes in the school.

Common School System

2.8. Beginning with the elementary stage, steps should be taken towards the common school system. The effort should be

4

to provide education of good quality. It should be ensured that in all schools, the medium of instruction is the regional language and fees and rules of admission are uniform.

Neighbourhood School Plan

2.9. The neighbourhood school plan will be the main feature ,of the, common school system by which the schools in the area will be required to enrol all the children in the neighbourhood. This will promote common interests and social integration.