 APPROACH

2.1.1 The approach of the Committee in reviewing the National Policy on Education, 1986 and its implementation has been guided by the following principal concerns:-

* Equity and social justice.

* Decentralisation of educational management at all levels.

* Establishment of a participative educational order.

* Inculcation of values indispensable for creation of an enlightened and humane society.

* Empowerment for work

2.1.2 The above concerns have been built into the recommendations of the Committee as underlying and all pervasive perceptions so as to realise the Constitutional and cultural goals of education.

2.2.1 In order to achieve equity and social justice and thereby remove elitist aberrations, education has been viewed by the Committee in the overall context of social, economic, regional and gender based disparities. For example, any effort at vocationalising education will carry no meaning unless, concurrently, the Government lays down an appropriate Income and Wages Policy. Likewise, national policies concerning removal of economic disparities such as for land reforms, employment, health and nutrition etc. have to be concurrently established/reviewed. of course, it is not for this Committee to give recommendations in regard to policies concerning other major sectors. However, mention is made of this only to bring home the point that an educational order based on considerations of equity and social justice cannot autonomously come about without interlinkages with these policies.

2.2.2 A very vital component of the overall strategy for securing equity and social justice in education is the development of the Common School. System. The Committee is fully aware that this is no new innovation but has been with us for over quarter of a century since the report of the Education Commission, 1964-66 and the essential point is that this has just remained a concept and its non- implementation has only contributed to the accentuation of the existing educational disparities. Concrete steps for translating this concept into action have to be taken. In order to achieve this objective, the existing Government, Local Body and Government-aided schools have to be transformed through quality improvement into genuine

neighbourhood schools. Private schools also should be similarly transformed in course of time by making them freely accessible.

2.2.3 It is particularly in the context of the need for establishing the Common School System that some of the members of the Committee nave found it difficult to go along with the Navodaya Vidyalaya Scheme. It is, inter-alia, for this reason that the Committee as a whole has advocated against establishment of more Navodaya Vidyalayas, not to speak of the inequity in nurturing talent only in a few. It is on account of the unfairness in judging a scheme for the implementation of which adequate resources as orginally envisaged were not provided, and of the need for a fair and total review of the scheme that the Committee has made altenative recommendations on its future. The Committee, of course, has also taken into account the practical difficulties in abruptly discontinuing a scheme which involves about 50,000 students and 3,000 teachers.

2.2.4 The rural areas in general, and the tribal areas in particular, have suffered in terms of resources, personnel and infrastructure facilities. This phenomenon of regional disparities in educational development has acquired a major political dimension in the current Indian scene. it is reflected in the regional and sub- regional movements. Therefore, the need of the hour is planning for, and implementation of, educational development programmes in terms of disaggregated targets and, area, community and gender specific activities. This would mean concrete programmes being established on ground for the disadvantaged groups - SCs and Tribes, women, the educationaly backward minorities and the handicapped with appropriate budgeting for the same. No doubt, there have been special component plans for the SCs and sub-plans for the Tribes. But these plans have largely remained exercises on paper, not concretely provided for in the budget documents. The consequence has been that these plans have not had any impact on the educational standards of the SCs and STs in terms of enrolment, retention and reduction in drop out rates. Excepting for the implementation of a small. Scheme, "The Integrated Education for the Disabled", the handicapped do not significantly feature in the educational programmes of the Centre or the States. The Programmes for the educationally backward minorities have not been significant, having been construed as the almost exclusive domain of the States.

2.2.5. In order to promote, participation of the girls and women in education at all levels, there is need for an integrated approach in designing and implementing the Schemes that would address all the factors that inhibit their education. mere implementation of disaggregated schemes such as opening of Nonformal Education Centres for Girls, Adult Education Centres for Women etc. by themselves are not adequate. In this context special mention may be made of inter- action of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) with primary education. Education of women is not to be construed of a question of mere access but of empowering them through education of all on equality of sexes.

2.2.6 The modifications suggested in the case of vocationalisation of School Education have been construed in the context of equity and social justice as well. The Scheme, as it is now implemented, though unintendedly, has come to be viewed by the students as well as the parents, as one meant for the less fortunate. It is also on account of this that a single stream of School education with vocational as well as non-vocational components of different mixes becomes relevant and important.

2.2.7 Examination reforms also have their justification from the point of view of equity and social justice. The Examination system tilts heavily in favour of the privileged who have access to certain facilities such as special teaching learning material, special coaching etc. It is, inter alia, to rectify this inequitable tilt that examination reforms have been suggested.

2.2.8 One of the factors seriously inhibiting access for the rural students to Higher Education is the continuing sway of English. Hence, equity demands that Education in the media of regional languages is encouraged at all level. This would call not merely for political and academic commitment for the switch over to the regional languages media but a package of other measures including conscious efforts at organising tests for recruitments in the public and private services in the regional languages, at least options for taking university examinations in these languages and incentives for the same apart from production of appropriate teaching learning materials, reference literature etc.

2.3.1. The fundamental justification for decentralised planning and management of education is the sheer size and diversity of the country. In the sphere of education, the size and diversity of the country get reflected in the magnitude of the population to be provided education, number of the educational institutions to be established from the primary to the university level, the number of languages in which delivery services have to be organised, the cultural and regional diversities which have to be linked to the content and process of education etc. Dencentralisation is the only solution to these problems. There is need for decentralisation of educational planning and management all the way down at all levels, from the Centre to the States, from the States to the districts, from the districts to the blocks, from the blocks to the panchayats/villages and habitations. The Committee does realise that a further complexity is added to the dimensions of decentralisation by the uneven status of establishment of the Panchayat Raj system in the country. But this does not detract from the need for decentralisation.

2.3.2 Decentralisation in the university system would mean autonomy for the universities and colleges as well as for the respective faculties and individual teachers. Examination reforms including establishment of continuous, comprehensive internal evaluation cannot come about unless delegation of authority and decentralisation of functions becomes real down to

the level of teachers. Educational complexes recommended by the Committee are construed as an instrument of bringing about decentralisation.

2.3.3 Side by side with emphasising decentralisation as the corner-stone of planning and implementation of educational programmes, the Committee would lay much store by convergence of services already available through the parallel infrastructure created in several departments vitally connected with the Education. This would call for institutionalised coordination mechanisms to be evolved and to be set into operation as a rule of practice.

2.4.0 The Committee has envisaged the concept of participative educational order as being relevant to every stage of education as only involvement through participation can bring about the environment for genuine reform. Important modalities contemplated in this regard are involvement of the colleges and universities in issues of regional development and improvement of school education; creation of school complexes, bringing about mutual coordination between primary schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities (the universities affiliating themselves, as it were, with these complexes so that management of education becomes a job of the professional); forging education-industry interactions for the purpose of bringing about cost effective and practice oriented vocationalisation of school education; involvement of the village communities in working for the goal of universal elementary education; non-formalising the formal school system so that the system itself reaches out to the door-steps of those who are out of school, apart from being attractive to, and also be capable of, retaining them; assignment of meaningful role to genuine voluntary agencies engaged in educational development programmes; and, of course, the teacher being placed centre-stage in educational reform at all levels with careful attention devoted to their status, recruitment modalities, service conditions and training.

2.5.1 NPE 1986 as a whole reflects that educational development was construed in the background of human resource development. In fact, the Policy called for new designs of human resource development for availing of the unprecedented opportunities that would be thrown up by the ensuing decades. In the view of the Committee, the human being is to be valued as more than a resource. Mere emphasis on the resource aspect has overtones of utilitarian connotations. *

In order to de-emphasise the utilitarian over-tones of the expression Human Resource Development, the Committee is of the opinion that the nomenclature of the Ministry, namely, Ministry of Human Resource Development should be changed into Ministry of Education. The term Education is broad enough to encompass the aspects of Culture & Arts, Youth Affaris & Sports and Women & Child Development.

While utilitarian aspects are important, the human being has to be developed with accent on character building, dignity of labour and value to the society at the national and international levels.

2.5.2 In the view of the Committee value education is to be connstrued as a continuous process which is to be sustained throughout the process of growth of the individual from childhood to adolescence, then to adulthood and so on. Inculcation of values has to be seen as distinct from the output of individual schemes and programmes of school regimen., The hidden curriculum, as distinct from the explicit ones obtaining in the class room situation, is much more important for the development of balanced personality amongst the students. It is also the role of value education, to bring about integration of the hand, head and heart to ensure that education does not alienate the students from the family, community and life. one of the key roles of education should be creation of a work culture at all stages of education so that the individual develops into a socially and economically useful human being with respect for the welfare of all living beings (Sarva bhootha hitha) . Above all else, critical appreciation and concern for the cultural and artistic heritage of the country has to be instilled amongst the students. It is this package of values which will help the creation and sustenance of and enlightened and humane society in the country.

2.6.0 It has been cclearly within the perception of the Committee that much of what is contained in its report has already been dealt with by different Commissions and Committees which were called upon to go into educational policy from time to time from the 19th century onwards. However, it is a fact that many of the ideas and concepts have remained as such without being translated into action and much impact has not been brought to bear upon the educational development of the country in the desired lines. The Committee's effort has, therefore, largely been one of advising on possible alternative modalities of implementation.