 NATIONAL POLICY ON EDUCATION
COMMITTEE OF MEMBERS OF
PARLIAMENT

A Committee of Members of Parliament on Education was constituted by the Government of India on April 5, 1967, with the following terms of reference:

(i) to consider the report of the Education Commission;

(ii) to prepare the draft of a statement on the National Policy on Education for the consideration of Government of India;and

(iii) to identify the programme for immediate action.

The Committee scrutinized only the major recommendations of the Education Commission along with the comments of the State Government and others thereon.

The Committee's general approach to the problem differed from that of the Commission in three important ways. First, the Committee did not accept the recommendations of the Commission for the creation of five or six 'major' universities or for upgrading 10 per cent of the institutions at all levels to optimum standards. The committee believed that better results could be obtained if efforts were made to maintain at least the minimum standards in all institutions and special additional assistance was offered, on the basis of proper criteria, to those institutions which showed high level of performance and promise. Secondly, they placed a greater emphasis on expansion of facilities than the Commission had done,especially at the school stage. The Committee, therefore, did not agree with the Commission's proposal that a system of selective admission should be adopted at the higher secondary and undergraduate stages. They suggested methods for diverting a large proportion of students into different walks of life at the end of the higher secondary stage which would necessarily reduce pressure on access to higher education. The committee further desired that every effort should be made to provide admission to institutions of higher education to all eligible students who desired to study further. Thirdly the Committee did not favour several recommendations of the Commission whose main objective was to create certain

new administrative structure or changes in the existing ones. In the opinion of the Committee, such programmes would lead to increasing bureaucratisation and increase in unproductive expenditure.

Subject to the above observations, the Committee accepted several of the major recommendations of the Commission, some with modifications or changes in priority. They also added new recommendations in certain areas where the ground was not fully covered by the report of the Commission. The report of the members of Parliament was laid on the Table of the Lok Sabha on July 25, 1967.

The salient recommendations of the Committee are:

(i) The unhealthy social segregation that now takes place between the schools for the rich and those for the poor should be ended; and the primary schools should be made the common schools of the nation by making it obligatory on all children, irrespective of cast, creed, community, religion, economic condition or social status,to attend the primary school in their neighbourhood.

(ii) The development of a proper language policy can greatly assist in strengthening national unity. The key programme will be to develop all Indian languages and to adopt them as media of education at all stages.

(iii) At the secondary stage (classes I-X) the regional language should ordinarily be the medium of education. Adequate safeguards should be provided for linguistic minorities. In class XI_XII, a pupil should study at least one language of his choice in addition to the medium of education. While facilities to study languages , on an optional basis, should be adequately provided at the university-level, the study of no language should be made compulsory unless such study is an essential part of a prescribed course.

(iv) Hindi is already largely in use as a link language. The educational system should contribute to the acceleration of this progress in order to facilitate the movement of students and teachers and to strengthen national unity.

6 Ministry of Education: Government of India, Report of the Committee of Member of Parliament 1967,pp.iii-iv

(v) Science education and research should be developed on priority basis. Great emphasis should be placed on the development of education for agriculture and industry. In technical education programmes of qualitive improvement should be stressed.

(vi) Work experience should be an integral part of general education at the school stage. Work with hands will help the young to develop insights into productive processes and use of science and inculcate in them respect for manual labour and habits of hard and responsible work.

(vii) There should be a broadly uniform educational structure in all parts of the country. The first step is to create the Ten Year School providing a common pattern of general education for all children. The national policy should be to ultimately make this period of ten years free and compulsory for all children. The next stage, the higher secondary should be uniformally raised to two years in all parts of the country under a phased programme. The duration of the course for the first degree in arts, commerce and science should be three years after the higher secondary stage.

(ix) Plans to accelerate the spread of literacy should be prepared and intensively implemented.

(x) Educational expansion should be accompanied by simultaneous efforts to raise substantially the standards of education and to keep them continuously rising.

(xi) There is an urgent need to upgrade and improve school curricula, to increase their knowledge content and to provide adequately for the development of skills,and the inculcation of right interests, attitudes and values. Similar steps are also needed at the university stage.

(xii) Regarding examination reform, attention should be concentrated on three major areas: reduction of the dominance of external examination; introduction of reforms which would make them more valid and realistic; and the adoption of a good system of internal evaluation.

The then Minister of Education (Dr. Triguna Sen) on November,14 1967 moved Government Motions for discussion in Lok Sabha of the report of the Education Commission and the report of the committee of Members of Parliament.7 Participating in the discussion members stressed that the natural talent of the student could be unfolded only through his mother-tongue which had been recognised by the Commission. The concept of the neighbourhood schools was also welcomed by some members. The emphasis laid by the Commission on work experience and compulsory service scheme was also commended. They considered it advisable that in the case of primary and secondary education the medium should be regional language all over the country. Members suggested that higher education should also be imparted through the regional language. For raising the quality of education, they pleaded for improving the quality of teachers. Promising people, they felt, would be attracted to the profession if the emoluments and the status of teachers were raised.

Replying to the discussion on December 6, 1967, the Minister said that one of the major recommendations of the Education Commission was that the Government should issue a statement on the national policy on education which should provide guidance to the State Governments and local authorities in preparing and implementing educational plans in their areas. He informed the House that the Government had decided to give the widest possible opportunity to all concerned to express their views and opinions and after examining them critically to issue a comprehensive statement on the 'National Policy on Education'.8

NATIONAL POLICY ON EDUCATION COMMITTEE OF MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT