DECENTRALISATION AND PARTICIPATIVE MANAGEMENT
NPE/POA Stipulations 14.1.1 NPE, 1986, in Part X, which deals with the management of education, has called for an overhaul of the system of planning and management of education one of the corner-stones is to be decentralisation and creation of spirit of autonomy for educational institutions and giving preeminence to people's involvement including association of non-Governmental agencies and voluntary efforts. (para 10.1). The measures envisaged are pivotal role for the Central Advisory Board of Education, creation of State Advisory Boards of Education, and establishment of District Boards of Education and local level agencies to deal with planning, coordination, monitoring and evaluation. The Policy also calls for formulation of the Indian Education Service.
14.1.2 The District Boards of Education are envisaged in the POA as statutory authorities with comprehensive responsibilities for planning and implementation of all educational programmes upto the higher secondary level.
14.1.3 At the local levels, according to the POA, heads of educational institutions, particularly at the primary and middle levels, are to be made accountable to the Village Education Committees consisting of representatives of Panchayats, Cooperatives, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, minorities, Women, local development functionaries and parents.
14.1.4 School complexes are visualised in the POA as a flexibly organised network of institutions "to provide synergic alliances to encourage professionalism amongst teachers" to serve as the "lowest viable unit of area planning". These complexes are to facilitate exchange of resources, personnel, material and teaching aids. In the long run, the school complexes are to take over inspection functions.
Committee's Perspective 14.2.0 In the view of the Committee, decentralisation is not a mere question of creating structures at different tiers. It is a matter of devolving authority, functions and resources all the way down the structural hierarchy from the Centre to the States, from the States to the Districts, and so on down to the villages/habitations as brought out in the chapter on 'Approach'. Decentralisation should also be reflected in all aspects of educational management planning, resource allocation, implementation, coordination, monitoring and evaluation. Decentralisation is also to be all pervasive not confined to
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governmental structures alone but to educational institutions as well - universities, colleges and schools down to the primary level. Within the educational system, decentralisation should be perceived in terms of autonomy for the departments, faculties, heads of institutions and teachers in their respective areas of competence.
Post-policy Implementation 14.3.0 Pursuant to NPE/POA the CABE Committee on Management Education has prepared proposals for constitution of State Advisory Boards of Education, District Education Boards and Village Education Committees. They have not as yet been discussed in the full body of the CABE.
Disaggregated Target Setting 14.4.1 The country being very large, marked by striking diversities in terms of language, culture and resource endowments, blanket policy options, strategies, investment patterns and targets do not help in tackling the problem of regional and sub-regional disparities. Any attempt to formulate a uniform policy for the educational development of the entire country on the basis of national averages for different parameters would be a method of perpetuating and even accentuating the existing disparities. The consequence of such an attempt would be that relatively more advanced regions would remain ahead of others.
14.4.2 The phenomenon of inter-State disparities is reflected in figures 1 and 2.
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14.4.3 No doubt, efforts have been made in the past to deal with the problem of inter-State disparities by special planning and allocation of funds for educationally backward States/UTs. For example, at present Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal, UP, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and J&K have been identified as educationally backward States. This has been done based on the advice of the Sixth Plan Working Group on Elementary Education. The reason for identifying these States as educationally backward was that they accounted for more than 75% of those who were not enrolled for Elementary Education. This by itself is not an appropriate criterion for determining educational backwardness. Apart from this, consequent on State being the level at which backwardness has been determined, backward districts even as per this criterion in other states have been left out. Even in these States identified as educationally backward, there are districts which do not come under this definition. In other words, while the acceptance of the concept of educationally backward States/UTs, inter-State disparities have begun to inform educational planning and allocation of funds, the phenomenon of inter-district and inter sub-district disparities is yet to gain due recognition in planning, though these are of specially greater significance than inter-State disparities in the area of education.
14.4.4 No doubt an area of concern in this context is the lack of easily available sub-district and area specific data on disparities. With the clear and right emphasis on decentralised planning in the Approach Document to the Eighth Five Year Plan, preparation for the same cannot be further postponed. It is the balanced development through disaggregated target setting that will constitute the appropriate' developmental response to regional social movements such as those in Jharkhand, Uttarkhand, Bodoland etc.
Recommendations: (i) While broad goals like universalisation of elementary education and vocationalisation of school education and education for illiterate adults have to be spelt out in terms of being achieved by certain deadline years, numerical. target setting should not be an exercise flowing top downwards. Target should be fixed in a disaggregated way at the base level, keeping in view the levels of educational development and disparities reflected therein, and thereafter collated to state levels.
(ii) Disaggregated target setting, besides being area specific should even be for different socioeconomic segments and ethnic groups, particularly in the context of fulfilling the constitutional mandate for ensuring equality and social justice.
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(iii) Educationally backward areas should be identified at the district and sub-district levels according to the criteria acceptable to all the States. The States on their part should prepare district, block and village level profiles to facilitate meaningful planning for educational development.
(iv) 'Educational content planning should be diversified providing full' scope for alternative learning strategies, models of non-formalising the schools etc. This should be done within the overall framework of national core curriculum.
Educational Complexes 14.5.1 The idea of School Complexes was mooted as an innovation in the school education system by Education Commission (1964-66) which observed that such an orqanisation would have several advantages in helping to promote educational advances. Firstly, it would break the benumbing isolation under which each school functioned; it would enable a small group of schools working in a neighbourhood to make a cooperative effort to improve standards; and it would enable the State education departments to devolve authority to functional levels.
14.5.2 The State Governments of Rajasthan (1967) , Haryana (1969- 70) , Punjab, UP, Tamil Nadu, AP (1970) and Bihar (1975) introduced the scheme in one form or the other. The Punjab Education Department formed school complexes by attaching one or two middle schools to High or Higher Secondary schools falling within a radius of eight kilometres. This was only to disburse salaries on time. Maharashtra Government started RAPPO Based Programme of school improvement (1977- 78). All the States have given up, except Maharashtra.
14.5.3 The POA speaks of school complexes as already brought out earlier. But it is apparently a limited concept of bringing schools together for sharing and exchanging of resources including personnel. While they have been envisaged as institutions with wide ranging functions relating to the running of schools, they are not apparently conceived within an autonomous framework. The inspection functions of the school complex, according to the POA, are also to be in addition to the normal inspection functions of the district/block level inspecting authorities.
14.5.4 In the opinion of the Committee, net working of the institutions should be much more broad based not confined to schools alone, rather, they should be Educational Complexes, as distinct from school complexes. The Committee views the concept of Educational Complexes within the framework of 'local area planning' commended by the Approach Document for the Eighth Five Year Plan approved by the National Development Council.
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The long term objective is to liberate the schools from the line hierarchy and the policing by the bureaucratic inspectorate systems. This objective is assigned because, as of now, the teachers and heads of schools routinely blame the management structure for their inability to perform. Consequently accountability is shifted to those who are expected to manage and supervise education from a distance. The Committee is aware that there could be expression of considerable cynicism about the chances of the Educational Complexes working satisfactorily. But is is only fair that this innovation is given a reasonable chance for a trial. The justification is that, in any case, far too many educational institutions are stagnating at a low or higher level of attainment because of lack of opportunities for interaction and the consequent absence of synergic alliance. There are also cases of successful experiments of local area development through synergic alliances of parallel institutions and convergence of related services.
Recommendation: On a pilot basis, at least one Educational Complex may be established in every district during the Eighth Five Year Plan so as to develop a functional model. At the pilot stage full administrative and financial support should be given to these Complexes. The features of these Complexes are described below:
- The Management model may be that of a local college, a high school or group of high schools and the associated middle and primary schools coming together in a cluster. The Complex may work in co- ordination with Panchayati Raj institutions as well as local development and social welfare agencies, voluntary or Government. The university serving the region may affiliate itself with this Complex. The university may help in the development of the Complex through its faculty, students and technical resources. There could be a memorandum of understanding between the Complex and the university on the one hand, and the Complex and the local body, on the other. The Complex will follow its own self-monitoring system. Parallel systems of monitoring through the university, District Board. of Education, local body, resource agencies (SCERT/SIE/DIET) etc. could coexist. The Complex should be provided with adequate intellectual resources as well.
- In the long term, these Educational Complexes may come under the umbrella of Panchayati Raj institutions/local bodies. The details of devolution of responsibilities at different tiers of education will no doubt depend upon the legal framework that may be designed by the State for the purpose.
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- The management of education in the Complexes should be the job of professionals, i.e. the teaching community. Various aspects like curriculum, syllabi, content and process, evaluation, monitoring, teacher training and modes of delivery of education to different segment of the society will be the responsibility of the teaching community itself.
- In discharging this responsibility, teachers will closely interact with the community they are serving. In this arrangement, the quality of education will not be determined by a body of inspectors or functionaries external to the educational system. Consequently, education being directly in the hands of those for whom it is a matter of day-to-day concern, its quality should significantly improve.
- While the running of the Educational Complexes will be the joint concern of the community and the teachers who are internal to the system, their funding will necessarily come from the State Governments and other local bodies that may have jurisdiction. For the purpose of ensuring that the financial resources deployed by them really result in efficient delivery of education, the State Governments. and the local bodies may interact with the Educational Complexes through District Boards of Education and Block-level and village-level Education Committees. These bodies will consist of educationists, teachers, social workers, representatives of voluntary organisations, trade unions and official development agencies as well as representatives of disadvantaged sections such as Scheduled Castes and Tribes, Other Backward Classes, women etc.
- The Head of the educational institution, the Headmaster /Headmistress/Principal shall have meaningfully delegated authority with the teachers being centre-stage.
- The community also will need to be made aware of simple parameters with reference to which they can make their own assessment of the learning outcome from the schools, in both the cognitive and the affective domains.
- The Educational Complexes should be autonomous registered societies in structures and they should be vested with the following powers:
* To take decisions, in Council, on all matters on which powers have been delegated which should include powers for recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff, their transfers within a well defined transfer policy, discipline, control
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finance etc.
* To organise professional orientation and updating of all the teachers and administrators, so as to make them perform better on the job and to increase their sense of professionalism.
* To develop suitable support materials and teaching aids.
* To engage in mutual and on-going administrative and academic supervision of schools, through a systematic and agreed programme of action, using the resources of DIETs and SCERTs, where available.
* To mobilise resources from within the community, to supplement and complement the Government grants. -
* To prepare and implement the action plans for universalisation of education, for those who come within the area of the Complex.
* To plan action programmes for adult and continuing education, aiming at functional education for all and where possible also literacy; and accordingly, to organise programmes of skill, aptitude and knowledge education for the various sections in the area of the Complex.
Indian Education Service 14.6.1 NPE, 1986 advocates establishment of the Indian Education Service as an All-India Service in the following words:
"A proper management structure in education will entail the establishment of the Indian Education Service as an All-India Service. It will bring a national perspective to this vital sector. The basic principles, functions and procedures of recruitment to this service will be decided in consultation with the State Governments". 14.6.2 This was further elaborated in the Programme of Action as follows:
"The establishment of an Indian Education Service will be an essential step towards promoting a national perspective on management of education. Basic principles, functions and procedures for recruitment to