EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
Problem of Disadvantaged Sections 17.1. While there has been considerable expansion in all sectors of education in our country, imbalances and inequalities still persist. Girls, Scheduled Castes and Tribes, landless labourers, backward classes and urban slum poor generally continue to lag behind in education. Special effort must be made to identify the problems in these cases and to bring all such people into the fold of education.
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Talent Search 17.2. Scholarships and fellowships based on merit-cummeans should be expanded at different levels of education. Some of these should be earmarked for rural and backward areas and weaker sections, to ensure that talented students from the weaker sections of the population are identified and helped to acquire good quality education.
Monitoring 17.3. Close monitoring of programmes intended for the dis- advantaged classes will be undertaken at the State and national levels at all stages of education so that they may be enabled to reach levels attained by other sections of the population, within the next decade.
Pre-School Education 17.4. Pre-School education for children of first generation learners should be provided through existing schools system.
Public Schools 17.5. Some schools, notably 'public schools' remain outside the system of public education. They should be brought under the purview of the laws and regulation that govern the system of public education especially those relating to fees and content of courses. They must have regional language as the medium of education and uniform fees and rules of admission. These institutions should be integrated with the common school system of education with its neighbourhood plan. The Special rights of institutions administered by minorities will be
given due recognition.
Regional Imbalances 17.6. Certain States lag behind the rest of India in education. The centre and states concerned must make special efforts to
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bring them on par with the other states in education generally and more particularly in universalisation of literacy within the shortest possible time. It has been observed that educational development even within one and the same state is not uniform. Hence, close monitoring will be introduced during the next Plan period, and emphasis will be laid on area planning to ensure that all relatively backward pockets are assisted to raise their standards.
Education for the Handicapped 17.7. Every effort should be made to expand educational opportunities to cover all handicapped children. For the more severely handicapped children, education may be provided in especially suitable settings for the full development of their potential. The others could be placed in regular schools and provided with the requisite additional facilities. Appropriate, curricula and techniques of teaching suited for handicapped children should be evolved through research and through study of techniques adopted elsewhere.