 A PROGRAMME FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION

Priorities

95. In developing societies, the gap between educational needs and resources available for educational development is distressingly wide so that educational planning becomes essentially a decision on priorities. Within the broad framework of the long-term policy of educational development indicated here, it is therefore necessary to identify a programme for immediate action, that is, for the next five to ten years. The following is suggested from this point of view :

(1) The Indian languages should be adopted as media of education at all stages and in all subjects in five years.

(2) The neighbourhood school system should be universalized at the primary stage. Primary education (classes I-VII or VIII) should be made free immediately and free books should be provided to all pupils. An intensive programme should be launched for reduction of wastage and stagnation. Good and effective primary education of at least five years' duration should be provided for every child in all parts of the country as early as possible and at any rate within a period of ten years.

(3) The ten-year school, with a common curriculum of general education, should be adopted in all parts of the country. The new educational structure should be adopted as early as possible in all areas where the total duration of school and college education leading to the first degree in arts, commerce and science is 15 years or more. Where addition of an year of schooling is involved, a phased pro- gramme should be drawn up for the implementation of the proposal.

(4) Teachers' status should be improved and the remuneration of all teachers, particularly at the school stage should be upgraded. Programmes of teacher education should be improved and expanded.

(5) Agricultural research and education at all levels should be developed on a priority basis. Both technical education and technological research should be taken closer to the industry; and a better status in society and industry should be given to the technician and his training improved.

(6) Work-experience and national and social service should be introduced as an integral part of all education. A beginning may be made in about five per cent of the institutions immediately and the programme should be universalized in a period of about ten years.

(7) Science education should be emphasized and scientific research should be promoted. In a phased programme spread over about ten years, science and mathematics should be made an integral part of general education till the end of class X.

(8) Emphasis should be laid on the development of essential student services, e.g., development of programmes of sports and games; building up of textbook libraries in secondary schools, colleges and universities, and appointment of joint committees of teachers and students in colleges and universities to deal with day-to-day problems.

(9) Post-graduate education and research should be improved and expanded. The programme of the centres of advanced study should be developed further and clusters of centres in related disciplines should be created wherever possible.

(10) The provision of facilities for part-time and own-time education should be expanded generously at all stages.

(11) The programmes for spreading education among girls and the weaker sections of the community should be expanded.

(12) Intensive efforts should be made to spread literacy, particularly in the age-group 15-25.

(13) The recruitment policies of government should be revised to reduce the pressures on higher education, and the higher secondary stage of education should be vocationalized to divert young persons into different walks of life.

(14) In admissions to higher education, some allowance should be made for the environmental handicaps of students coming from rural areas, urban slums and weaker sections of the community, and a more equitable and egalitarian basis should be evolved for the award of scholarships or grant of admissions to important institutions of higher education.

(15) Programmes which need planning, organization and human effort rather than money, e.g., promoting national consciousness, character-formation, intensive utilization of existing facilities, reorganization of courses, improvement of curricula, adoption of dynamic methods of teaching, examination reform and improvement of textbooks should be developed in a big way and on a priority basis.

(16) Emphasis should be placed on the improvement of educational administration and especially on the adoption of the district as the principal unit for planning, administration and development of education, the system of school-groups, the modernization of the system of school supervision, and the organization of a nation-wide programme of improvement of educational institutions through Pre- paration and implementation of individual plans.

Total Expenditure on Education

96. It will be necessary to increase considerably the total expenditure on education if this massive and urgent programme of educational development is to be implemented. For this purpose, the best financial effort should be made by all the agencies involved-the Government of India, the State Governments, the local authorities and the voluntary organizations and the support of the local communities should be stimulated and fully utilized.

Essential Conditions for Success

97. Even with the maximum mobilization of resources for education however, the available funds will still be inadequate and for some years to come, the development of education will have to be brought about under conditions of comparative scarcity. Several measures will have to be adopted to overcome this severe handicap. For instance, the utmost economy should be practised in everything. In particular, the expenditure on buildings should be reduced to the minimum by using locally available materials and by adoption of austere and utilitarian rather than ostentatious standards. The cost of equipment also should be reduced to the utmost by better designing, large-scale production, improvization and careful handling to increase its life. Wherever possible, facilities should be shared in common by a group of schools; and when equipment becomes costly and sophisticated, it should be intensively and cooperatively utilized for the largest part of the day and throughout the year.

98. Every effort should be made to utilize existing facilities most intensively so as to obtain full return on all the investment made in education. The number of working days should be increased and the working day should be longer. The vacations should be adjusted to meet the requirements of the institution and students or to enable a better organization of programmes of work-experience or national and social service. The libraries, laboratories and craft sheds should be open all the year round and for at least eight hours a day, if not longer. All educational buildings should be put to intensive use and utilized even in the vacations by designing suitable co-curricular programmes.

99. There is urgent need for the proper planning of educational institutions to avoid overlapping and duplication and to create larger institutions which tend to be less burdensome in cost per student. Well-considered criteria should be prescribed for schools of all categories and, on their basis, careful plans of perspective educational development, spread over the next 10-15 years, should be prepared separately for each district. This becomes even more important in higher education which is costlier and where the required resources in men, money and materials are even more scarce. It should therefore be an objective of policy to plan the location of colleges

carefully and to establish bigger affiliated colleges, exceptions being made only in the case of educationally under-developed areas or in the initial years of the life of a new institution. Similarly, careful coordination is needed in the organization of courses, training facilities and research programmes in -universities also. Considerable restraint is needed in establishing new universities. Adequate preparation should be made for the purpose, and the general policy should be to establish university centres in the first instance and to develop them into universities in due course. No new university should be started unless the consent of the University Grants Commission has been obtained and adequate provision of funds has been made.

100. It will also be necessary to adopt new and unorthodox techniques which give quick results or reduce costs. Emphasis should be laid on such measures as the large-scale development of part-time and own-time education, the use of mass media and modern techniques, programmed instruction and the utilization of advanced students for teaching the more backward ones.

101. Perhaps the most important measure to overcome the handicaps of an 'economy of scarcity' is to create a climate of dedication and sustained hard work so that students, teachers and administrators invest 'themselves' in their tasks to make up for the shortcomings in material resources. There seems to be a pervading atmosphere of cynicism at present. But a developing country like ours cannot afford such luxuries. Idealism-for there is no better word-is needed in our country, now more than ever, in every sphere of life, and especially in education. The reconstruction of education thus presents a supreme challenge to all of us who are now called upon to create a system of education related to the life, needs and aspirations of the people and to maintain it at the highest level of efficiency. It is upon our response to this challenge that the future of the country depends.

R. K. AMIN* BHAGWAT JHA AZAD K. ANBAZHAGAN* ANUP SINGH A. E. T. BARROW* R. D. BHANDARE A. K. CHANDA* T. CHENGALVAROYAN V. M. CHORDIA* DINKAR DESAI DIGVIJAI NATH* R. R. DIWAKAR

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S. N. DWIVEDY S. M. JOSHI KAMLA KUMARI C. M. KEDARIA M. R. KRISHNA HIREN MUKHERJEE BAL RAJ MADHOK TARKESHWAR PANDE* DAHYABHAI V. PATEL* SADIQ ALI ANANT TRIPATHI SARMA D. C. SHARMA MADHO RAM SHARMA SHER SINGH SAVITRI SHYAM* GANGA SHARAN SINHA TRIGUNA SEN S. K. VAISHAMPAYEN*

NEW DELHI 24th July, 1967

*Subject to a minute of dissent reproduced in the following section.

MINUTES OF DISSENT