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this service will call for detailed consultation with the States so that the States adequately appreciate the need and benefit of this structure, particularly in the context of attracting talented personnel and giving them a stature commensurate with their responsibilities. Detailed proposal inclusive of alternate career paths for the cadre, processes of selection and induction of existing manpower engaged in education, arrangements for mobility and secondment vis-a-vis the academic system will require to be worked out in consultation with the State Governments".
14.6.3 In order to examine the case for formation of the Indian Education Service, the Committee went into its whole history which is as follows:
- This service was first constituted in British India in the year 1886. It ceased to exist from 1924 as a result of the fact that education had become a 'transferred' subject. In independent India the proposal to constitute the service was first made in 1961. This followed, so to say, the advice of the States Re-organisation Commission (1955) for constitution of more All-India Services. Over the years, subsequently, the need for creation of the IES has been urged repeatedly as per details furnished below:
By --
National Integration Conference, 1961
National Education Commission, 1964-66
Rajya Sabha, 1965
Chief Minister's Conference, 1965
Ninth Education Ministers' Conference, Madras, 1966.
National Commission on Teachers I, 1984.
Estimates Committee of the Seventh Lok Sabha, 1983-84
Sarkaria Commission, 1983-87
NPE, 1986 (as already stated).
- In fact, during November, 1965, the Cabinet approved a proposal to introduce a law in the Parliament for the creation, inter alia, of the IES by carrying out necessary amendments to the All- India Services Act, 1955. This was in pursuance of action that had been taken by the then Ministry of Education by circulating
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to the States a draft outline of the proposed service and obtaining responses there to from them. This bill, to amend the All-India Services Act was also introduced in the Lok Sabha in November, 1965, but it lapsed. The question of re-introduction of the Amendment Bill was considered by the Cabinet in 1968 which decided that no further action need be taken.
- The rationale for the creation of the Indian Education Service had been spelt out on various occasions by the above bodies in terms of modernisation of administration, securing national integration, checking narrow parochialism and divisive tendencies within the national system of education, efficient implementation of all-India policies, securing uniformity in approach to education and educational standards all over the country, interchange of experience between the Centre and the States etc.
- With reference to the proposal circulated by the Government of India, State Governments had responded differently. The response had ranged between acceptance of the concept of the Service and reservations in regard to it. Reservations were largely on matters relating to encadrement of administrative posts at district level, inclusion of teaching and research posts, percentage of promotion quota for the State Service officers, ignorance of regional languages on the part of the functionaries, autonomy of States etc.
- After the formulation of NPE, 1986, the CABE Sub- Committee on Management of Education constituted a group consisting of Prof. Rais Ahmed, Prof. T.V. Rao, Shri V.P. Raghavachari and Prof. Satya Bhushan, Director, NIEPA to prepare broad recommendations on the constitution of the Service. Accordingly, it gave its recommendations in a self- contained paper and presented the same to the Government in January, 1989. This was to have been discussed in a full meeting of the CABE. However, this has not so far been discussed.- (It was also considered by the Government that it would be appropriate to take further action on the matter after knowing the final shape of the Constitution Amendment Bill concerning Panchayat Raj System).
14.6.4 Having examined all aspects of the matter in its historical and current perspective the Committee has come to the finding that creation of Indian Education Service need not be pursued for the following reasons:
* The very history of the case clearly brings out that there have been strong reservations in various quarters on its formation. This is evidenced by the fact that even after introduction
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of a Bill in the Lok Sabha for the purpose, it was allowed to lapse.
* There have been negative responses from the States in the past not merely on grounds of administrative details regarding encadrement of functionaries at various levels, but on grounds of autonomy of States as well.
* Even the Education Commission 1964-66 recommended constitution of the service only in a modified forum, that is, by creation of a cadre of educational administrators, teaching and research functionaries in universities and colleges being excluded. (For these functionaries the Commission recommended reasonable parity in scales of pay with those meant for educational administrators under the proposed Service) In any case, functionaries of the Indian 'Administrative Service, as of now are being deployed from time to time as educational administrators at the State and Central level.
* The basic approach of the Committee being one of strongly advocating decentralised mechanisms; it is unable to support the concept of an All-India Service for Education.
14.6.5 However, there should be arrangements for involvement of academics at all stages of educational administration. In the Government of India, this facility exists because of operation of an Educational Advisory Service. As of now, 37 posts in the 'Department of Education have been brought under the Educational Advisory Service in levels ranging from that of Under Secretary to Additional Secretary to the Government of India. This constitutes about 36 per cent of the total strength of the staff of the Department of Education at these levels. (It may be mentioned in this context that some of the reputed Secretaries to the Government of India in the Education Department were themselves academics). By operation of separate recruitment rules governing this Service, manpower is drafted on deputation and short term contracts from a fairly diversified recruiting ground including universities, colleges and educational resource institutions. The Advisory Service posts are operated largely in certain special areas like technical education, languages etc. This system has helped in taking sound administrative decisions on academic matters of a specialised nature. Operation of Educational Advisory Service of this nature at the state levels would also go a long way in toning up educational administration. Members of this Service may also be seconded on deputation to positions in the University systems.
Recommendation Instead of creating the Indian Education Service, Cadres of Educational Advisory Service should be created in the States on the model of the Government- of India. (In the Government of India, larger, number of posts should be operated under the Advisory Service.)
involvement of Voluntary Organisations 14.7.1 As per NPE, non-government and voluntary effort including that of social activist groups is to be encouraged and financial assistance provided to them. The POA says that voluntary agencies and social activist groups will be involved in a much larger scale for the successful completion of programmes likes elementary education including non-formal education, ECCE, adult education, education for the disabled etc. While the Committee also does look upon voluntary organisations and activist groups as expressions of people's own initiatives and instrument of social change, it does not look upon them as mere implementing agencies of government for undertaking officially sponsored individual schemes and programmes.
14.7.2 The Department of Education has been operating fifteen schemes involving voluntary agencies in the areas of adult education, school education, non-formal education, higher education value education, book promotion, language development and international co- operation. During the year 1987-88, an amount of Rs. 12.78 crores was released to 1646 voluntary agencies, implementing programmes in the above mentioned areas. Bulk of these agencies are operating in the areas of adult education (670) and language development (909). In terms of financial assistance released, the highest share goes to voluntary agencies in the area of adult education. Out of a total grant of Rs.12.78 crores released during 1987-88, an amount of Rs. 9.44 crores was released to voluntary agencies in the adult education sector.
14.7.3 While liberal flow of funds of the above nature for securing people's participation through voluntary agencies is unobjectionable, care should be taken to see that the same does not dilute the voluntary spirit of these institutions or distract them from their originally chartered courses of action.
Recommendation In the matter of securing participation of voluntary agencies, the Preferred path should be for the Government to respond to the initiatives of voluntary organisations with reference to their own programmes, rather than voluntary agencies
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being mobilised to respond to patternised Government programmes, At the same time, it is equally important that voluntary groups realise the adverse impact that receiving large scale funds from government and foreign sources is likely to have on their own voluntary character. Transparency in the working of voluntary agencies should be ensured in order to make them accountable to the community. For this purpose, a system of social audit should be established. Decentralised mechanisms for monitoring the work of voluntary agencies at the local levels should be evolved.
Co-ordination and convergence services 14.8.1 In the context of decentralised management, coordination between the Department and agencies connected with education and convergence of services rendered by them are very vital in bringing about orderly development of education. it is in the context of these elements of decentralisation namely coordination and convergence of services that the concept of human resource development as envisaged in the NPE has been examined by the Committee.
14.8.2 Even before the formulation of NPE, 1986 the Ministry of Human Resource Development had been formed (September, 1985) under the charge of a senior Cabinet Minister. Portfolios having immediate relevance to human resource development, namely, Education, Youth Affairs & Sports and Women & Child Development headed by separate Secretaries to the Government of India were assigned to him. Yet another Secretary (Planning & Coordination) under the Minister of H.R.D. who was referred to as Secretary, H.R.D. by informal rules of practice.
14.8.3 The objective of the creation of a Ministry of H.R.D. would seem to have been the development of human resources as central to the efforts at accelerating economic development. A coherent approach towards creating institutions and policies to enable utilisation of human resources in the best way through effective coordination amongst various official and unofficial agencies was envisaged. Upgrading skills and productivity of the people to alleviate basic poverty in the economy, creation of a balance between the structure of skills available in the economy and its dynamic requirements, avoidance of waste of scarce resources by development of skills for the utilisation of which opportunities were available only abroad and the implications that all these specific steps had for the education system, would seem to have been overall rationale for the creation of the Ministry of H.R.D.
14.8.4 Prior to the Policy, a Cabinet Committee on Human Resource Development had also been constituted under the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister (1985-86). The Members of this
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Committee were Ministers of Human Resource Development, Agriculture, Labour, Health & Family Welfare and Welfare, and Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission. The terms of reference of the Committee were:
i) To consider all aspects of policies and programmes impinging directly on the development of human resource and its potential, and to review their implementation.
ii) To evolve broad guidelines for incorporation of a definite human resource development approach in various sectoral plans.
iii) To consider specific programmes of Ministries/ Departments relating to human resource development and to suggest steps to obtain optimum results.
iv) To assess th response of States to these policies and programmes and suggest appropriate measures for better development and utilisation of human resource.
v) To consider the problems in mobilising non- governmental organisations in programmes relating to human resource development.
vi) To consider special programmes for socially and economically disadvantaged and physically handicapped sections of the society.
14.8.5 The above mentioned terms of reference given to the Cabinet Committee on H.R.D. would also bring out that the intention of the Government was clearly to bring about coordination between the various Departments/Ministries engaged in some aspect or the other of human resource development coming within the areas of their competence.
14.8.6 The Cabinet Committee on H.R.D. did not meet at all. Coordination between the various Departments in the ministry so as to bring about human resource development through convergence of services rendered by them is also not seen to have taken place effectively. This is reflected by the simple fact that the parameters of NPE, 1986 relating to Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), Youth Affairs & Sports and Culture remain unfulfilled. Earlier on, the Department of Education used to operate a scheme for providing assistance to ECE Centres. With reference to the NPE 1986 stipulation that ECCE could be suitably integrated with the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Programme this scheme was transferred to the Department of Women & Child Development. That Department concentrating as it does on expansion of ICDS as such to cover larger areas (as distinct from larger allocations for and emphasis on, any specific component of activities, has not been able to enrich pre-school education by itself significantly though there has been some expansion of the ECE scheme.
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14.8.7 The fact that coordination as between the Department of Education on the one hand and Departments of Culture, Youth Affairs & Sports on the other has not been brought about pursuant to paras 8.1 to 8.3 and 8.22 of NPE has already been brought out in the chapter on 'Content and Process of Education'.
Recommendation The Ministry of H.R.D. should undertake a serious review of the situation regarding inter-departmental coordination, to bring about convergence of services coming within the purview of the individual departments under the Ministry'. The Ministry should also lay down specific modalities of bringing about this coordination and convergence of services. An appropriate institutionalised mechanism should be created for the purpose by the Ministry. Interdepartmental coordination should percolate down to the grass root levels for the purpose of bringing about convergence of services particularly, for facilitating girls' universalisation of elementary education through- support services such as-provision of access for them to water, fodder and fuel.
Central Institutions: Functioning style 14.9.0 Educational management within the Government is to be viewed afresh in the new decentralised perspective proposed above. All major resource institutions and standard setting agencies at the Central, State or District level may redefine their respective roles. so as to strengthen institutional capabilities at the local levels all along the line, rather than building themselves up into remote control agencies.