* The record of implementation of fundamental rights does not give confidence that constitutional guaranties to education will make any difference.
* Political will is important
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RECOMMENDATION NO. 146 & 147 2. 3 Para 5.5 of NFE emphasises two aspects for a new thrust - (i) universal enrolment and universal retention of children upto 14 years of age; and (ii) a substantial improvement in the quality of education. The committee recommends that in addition, the following three aspects should be emphasised:-
(a) Convergence of services; (b) linkage between the school and the community; and (c) decentralised and participative -node of education planning and management.
2.4 if the NPE be read, will be seen that the policy regarding elementary education is not confined only to part-V but is spread over several chapters of the policy document, namely Education for Equality, Making the system Work, Reorient the Content and Process of Education, The Teacher and Management of Education. If these various references to elementary education be compiled at one place, it would be seen that the three areas highlighted by the committee have already received emphasis in the NPE.
2.5 In para 5.12, it is clearly stated that "the New Education Policy will give the highest priority to solving the problem of children dropping out from school and will adopt an array of meticulously formulated strategies based on microplanning and applied at the grassroots level all over the country....." Emphasis on micro-planning and decentralisation has been
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repeated in Para 10.1 (b). " Decentralisation and the creation of the spirit of autonomy f or educational institutions" as well as in paras 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8-" A very important role must be assigned to the head of the educational institution .... School complexes will be permitted on a flexible pattern so as to serve as net-works of institutions and synergic alliances to encourage professionalism among teachers,..... Local Communities through appropriate bodies will be assigned a major role in programmes of school improvement." The Programme of Action (POA) which gives an operational direction to the policy formulation elaborates further on these aspects to specifically state that mobilisation of the community should be considered a pie-requisite for the success of UEE, and the participatory involvement of teachers and the community should be ensured. The POA asks f or the involvement of the local community in all aspects of UEE and for primary schools and nonformal education centres to be made accountable to it. It particularly stresses the need to ensure a voice for women and disadvantaged sections of society.
2.6 Para 5.5. of the NPE should not be taken as a summing up of the entire policy but needs to be read in its proper context, Thus read, it will be seen that decentralisation and a participative mode of educational planning and management with close linkage between the school and the community are indeed equally important policies of the NPE.
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2.7 NPE has drawn attention also to be need for convergence of services in the chapters regarding Education for Equality and Early Childhood Care and Education. In the main chapter on Elementary Education also, reference has been made to the need for coordination between Rural Development schemes and Operation Blackboard. Springing from this policy, action to coordinate the inputs of different departments at the ground level has also been taken. Under Operation Blackboard, for- example, funds for construction of building are being obtained from the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana, the District Planning Boards, other Zila Parishad funds etc. Primary education is being linked to literacy and immunisation drives. A major example of convergence of services is provided by the Mahila Samakhya Scheme under which women are being organised into Mahila Samoohs at the village level and provision for fuel, fodder, water, literacy, early child-care and primary education are being coordinated to improve their lot,
2.8 However. it must be pointed out that a policy statement regarding convergence of services will not suffice to bring about its implementation unless action is taken at the ground level. It has been seen from experience that coordination is best achieved when persons who are in overall charge of several schemes such as the District Collector, the DDO, the BDO, are made aware of the advantages of convergence and exert
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themselves to ensure it.. Every department has to be open to the need for coordinating their activity for it to become a reality. Thus, while Education Department should be open to the need for coordination, its taking a policy decision on it alone would serve no useful purpose. In the ultimate analysis, convergence is a matter of implementation, not policy.
SUMMARY * Decentralisation and linkage between school and ommunity are already emphasised as important policy decisions by the NPE.
* Convergence of services has also been emphasisedConvergence of services cannot be a decision of any one department.
* Convergence of services is more a matter of implementation then that of policy.
RECOMMENDATION NO. 148 This recommendation does not disagree with the NPE formulation - it only suggests that greater emphasis should be given to the child-centred approach,
2.9 The Ramamurti Committee's report considers that the child-centred approach to education is the key factor in establishing a successful school, and describes at great length what is implied by the word "child centred". It emphasises the need for primary
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education to be full of "Joy,fun, exploration and play"; for learning to include singing, drawing, clay modelling, games, folk-art and folk- lore; and for all children to follow their own pace of learning. It emphasises that children should be allowed to study at their own pace; that there should be no terminal examination but instead continuous dissegregated and comprehensive evaluation; that there should be no corporal punishment and school timings should be flexible.
2.10 In making these statements, the committee has found fault with the existing NPE formulation for lacunas and inconsistencies. However, if the NPE formulation be read objectively, it will be seen that the one is a precise while the other is a paraphrase of the same intention. The policy states that "first generation learners should be allowed to set their own pace and be given supplementary remedial instruction. The committee finds fault with this as implying that other children would not be allowed to set their at pace. In fact, no such implications need be construed from the statement. Any experienced teacher will acknowledge that the pace of the class is generally set by a few brilliant students, who are generally those who get support at home for their studies. The others are expected to follow this pace: and these others are generally the first generation learners, who have no support at home. The implication, if any, that should be
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construed from the statement is the concern or the disadvantaged child and for the need to give special attention to him.
2.11 The policy states, "the policy of non-retention at the primary stage will be laid down, making evaluation as dissegragated as feasible." The Committee finds fault with this as being presenting negatively the concept of comprehensive classroom evaluation. Again, no such implication need be construed. In fact, the policy formulation seems much clearer as it sets the issue down in the perspective of the existing system. The implications that are being drawn from the policy are that evaluation in the classroom is necessary, and that evaluation will not mean examinations to pass or fail children, but a practise to assess how much they have learned. It is with this implication that action has already been initiated to introduce continous comprehensive evaluation as a means of improving the quality of learner achievement. The programme arising out of the policy is precisely on the lines the committee itself suggests.
12 Thus, the charge of negative connotations is not borne out at all.
2.13 With regard to the formulation on corporal punishment and adjustment of school timings, the committee is of the view that operational measures should have been given to ensure implementation of the policy. However, the same charge may well be
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laid at the committee's door also, Nothing that the committee has suggested on these two aspects in this report will lead to the proper implementation of this recommendation either.
2.14 In sum, there is no appreciable difference between para 5.6 and the committee's recommendation, The committee includes operational details which the policy places not in the NPE but in the POA. A reformulation of para 5.6 will not serve to either clarify or give greater impetus for action.
SUMMARY * If the NPE is read with the POA. there is no difference between the earlier formulation and the committee's suggestions.
* The details included in the committee suggestions are mainly operational and have no place in a policy statement.
* Programmes in pursuance of the NPE formulation are exactly on the lines that the committee suggests.
RECOMMENDATION0N NO. 149 2,15 This recommendation, in addition to physical facilities, places stress upon the role of the teacher, the community and the social environment. By implication, it states that the policy has not given sufficient
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emphasis to the role of the teacher, the community and the social environment.
2.16 This assumption arises perhaps because the Committee has based its arguments upon part-V and not taken into consideration policy statements concerning elementary education in other chapters, Part-VII Making the System Work, Part IX The Teacher and Part X the Management of Education places emphasis on these same aspects. The POA also elaborates on the role of the community and the social environment.
SUMMARY * NPE also stresses the role of the teacher, the community and the social environment.
* Chapters 6,9, and 10 and the POA should be read along with Chapter-5.
* There is no difference between the Committee's emphasis and the NPE's.
RECOMMENDATION NO. 150
2.17 Analysing the figures of enrolments, the Committee has come to the conclusion that despite significant extension of schooling facilities, the number of children enrolled in primary schools is unsatisfactory, Pointing out inaccuracies of enrolment data collected by the Education Department and prefering instead to rely upon census data, the
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Committee has suggested that continued emphasis upon enrolment is required.
2.18 In this context, it has read para 5.12 of the NPE as shifting the attention away from strategies for increasing access and enrolment. 2.19 However, it is necessary to ready the para in context. Para 5.5 makes it clear that access and enrolment continue to remain important. It reads
2.20 "The new trends in elementary education will emphasise two aspects: (i) Universal enrolment and universal retention of children upto 14 years ......." It is clear from this that there is no shifting of focus away from enrolment
2.21 Indeed in drawing attention towards retention,NPE and POA do not put enrolment out of focus. Universal provision of facilities is an important strategy of the POA and in pursuance thereof programmes for universal access have continued to receive importance.
2.22 The suggestion of the Committee is seen as being redundant.
SUMMARY NPE does shift emphasis from enrolment to retention but does not understimate the need for enrolment.
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RECOMMENDATION NO 151 2.23 The recommendation of the Committee is well taken but it seen as long redundent. As NCERT documents relating to curriculum development at elementary and secondary stages since the 1970s will show, the elementary and secondary stages are already being treated as stand- alone stages deserving independent curricula. However, it is true that there has been a tendency to upscale the informational content at the primary and middle school level; The victim in the process has been the child who does not have enough support for learning at home or outside the school, no proper textbooks and learning aids, and who consequently, gets discouraged, drops out or at best manages an incomplete mastery of basic skills and a dubious acquisition of learning achievement.
2.24 NPE spells out the same concern when it states that " to promote equality it will be necessary to provide equal for equal opportunity to all not only in access but also in the condition for success. Besides, awareness of the inherent equality of all will be created through the core curriculum ...... Minimum levels of learning will be laid do for each stage of education." In pursuance of this policy, Minimum levels of learning have been laid down for the primary stage with the intention of reducing the curriculum load and making it more relevant and functional for those children who have no support for learning at home or outside the school, who are not
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likely to avail of the opportunity of education beyond this stage and who must learn here what is required to sustain them through out their lives and enable them is function in their world as socially useful and contributing individuals 2.25 There is no major difference between what is being done and what the Committee suggests In principle, there may be no objection to expanding the NPE formulation to include an emphasis upon making primary education self-sufficient and aimed at enabling children to understand their world and preparing them to function in it usefully. However, considering that the NPE formulation has encouraged curriculum revision on these same lines, it does not appear necessary either.
SUMMARY * The Committee's recommendation is in conformity with what the NPE says.
* Presently curriculum at the primary stage has a lot of content that is irrelevant to the lives of majority of students.
* The NPE requires minimum levels of learning to be laid down.
* In pursuance of this policy formulation, learning outcomes at primary stage have been revised to be more relevant, functional, achievable and measurable.
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RECOMMENDATION 152 2.26 This recommendation has three separate parts which are dealt with separately as follows:-
(a) Para 5.5 which begins the policy discussion on elementary education, as discussed above with reference to recommendation NO. 150, already place equal emphasis upon universal enrolment an universal retention. Further modifi- cation in this regard is, therefore, unnecessary.
(b) The Committee's sugestions here relevant. Analysing the target of UPE by 1900 and UEE by 1995 on the basis of actual statistics of the last few years the committee has shown the targets to be unrealistic. In context of the fact that the NFE could begin to move into implementation only by 1987 and three years was too short a period for trends to change as dramatically as expectes by the target, target setting has been examined by The VIII Plan proposal have given targets separately for Access Participation and Achievement, as well as for the primary and upper primary stages and for boys and girls. Existing data has been taken into account in formulating them.