EDUCATIONAL PLANNING AND ADMINISTRATION
18.01 In the present chapter, we shall deal with educational planning an some major aspects of educational administration which have not been dealt with before and in particular with administrative responsibilities and arrangements at the local, State, and national levels and their interrelationships.
EDUCATIONAL PLANNING 18.02 Basic Problem. The crux of the problem of educational planning in India is to evolve a national policy in education in spite of the fact that education is largely a State subject in the Constitution and that a multiplicity of authorities at different levels make decisions on all aspects of the situation. This is not an easy task and as there is little similar experience to guide us, we will have to evolve our own techniques in most cases. It is also necessary to review and improve our planning techniques.
18.03 Some Suggestions for Reform. A review of the first three five-year plans in the different States and at the national level highlights the need to improve the planning techniques in some directions. These have been indicated below.
(1) over-emphasis on Enrolment and Expenditure. There has been an over-emphasis on achievement of targets in enrolments and expendi- ture. It is true that expansion was badly needed and that it will have to continue. But an over-emphasis on this aspect leads to the neglect of the still more important aspect of quality. Similarly, an over-emphasis on expenditure targets tends to distort priorities and often leads to wastage. There is thus a need to take a more comprehensive view of the problem and to evolve a broader pattern of goals, especially those relating to qualitative improvement.
(2) Need for Concentration of Effort and Adoption of a Selective Approach Throughout the first three plans, the general policy has been to do something in every sector or for every programme with the result that the meagre resources available were spread thinly over a very large
814 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 18.03
area. This policy involves considerable wastage. It has, therefore, now become important to concentrate on a few crucial programmes such as improvement of the quality of teachers, development of agricultural education, provision of good and effective primary education for all children, liquidation of illiteracy, vocationalization of secondary education, establishment of major universities, expansion and improvement of postgraduate education, increase in the number of scholarships and development of about ten per cent of institutions at each stage to optimum levels of quality.
(3) Emphasis on Programmes which Need Talent and Hard Work. The emphasis on reaching expenditure targets to which a reference has been made tends to place a premium on programmes where it is easy to incur expenditure, e.g., construction of buildings or expansion of enrolments. This is unfortunate because there are a number of pro- grammes which call for determined effort, organization, talent and hard work rather than large financial investment. The following are some examples of such programmes:
- production of literature in the modern Indian languages needed for their adoption as media of education at the university stage;
- educational research;
- examination reform;
- preparation of school textbooks and teaching and learning materials ;
-in-service education of teachers and officers of the Education Departments;
-improving techniques of supervision;
-improving contact with the local communities and parents;
-providing enrichment programmes and guidance to gifted students and some special assistance to retarded or backward ones.
A number of instances of this type can be cited. What is important to note is that, in the existing situation where the financial resources are limited, it is programmes of this type that need for greater emphasis than those which involve heavy financial investment.
(4) Lack of Adequate Evaluation and Research. Yet another weakness in our planning is the inadequacy of evaluation and research. Since planning is a comparatively new process and we have to evolve our own techniques, it is necessary to evaluate our programme continuously and develop a strong research programme which will enable us to cut down costs and increase the effectiveness of the investment in education. But, by and large, this has not been done. Some attempts at evaluation have been made recently in the Planning Commission, viz., the COPP
18.05 EDUCATIONAL PLANNING AND ADMINISTRATION 815
Teams have studied three problems 213 two which were not of major significance. What we would recommend is the deep involvement of universities, professional organizations, training colleges, etc., in a periodical evaluation of all major programmes includes in the plans and in the development of a large-scale research programme on the lines recommended elsewhere.214
(5) Weakness of Existing Machinery for Educational Planing. The existing machinery for educational planning leaves much to be desire. It is not adequately staffed nor is the personnel engaged in it suitably trained. There is hardly any educational planning done at the district level. The planning cells in the offices of the Directors of Education are inadequate and staffed mostly by persons who have had no training in the field. Their work also is mostly administrative and financial and confined field. Their work also is mostly administrative and financial and confined to the compilation and reporting of educational and financial statistics.
18.04 There is need to improve the organization an methods of educational planning and for training competent personnel to staff the planning units in the Central Ministry of Education, the State Departments of Education and District School Boards, It should be possible for the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the Asian Institute of Educational Planning, to undertake studies of educational planning in the different States and to conduct intensive courses for training the personnel involved in the process of educational planning in India. The subject is of such great significance that the UGC should also consider the possibility of setting up an Advanced Centre for Studies in Educational Planning. Administration and Finance.
18.05 Different Levels of Priorities. Education is essentially a responsibility of the State Governments. But it is also a national concern and in certain major sectors, decisions have to be taken at the national level. This implies the need to regard education as Centre -State partnership. On the other hand, it is necessary to remember that education which concerns every parent and every family has to be taken as close to the people as possible and that its administration can be best conducted by or in close planning has to be decentralized to the district level and still further down to the level of each institution. The process of educational planning in federal democracy like ours has thus to be the right blend of centralization, in the appropriate sectors, with a large amount of decentralization in other sectors and especially in administration. Care should, however, be taken that the parts fall coherently
213 These are: teacher training, literacy among industrial workers and rural institutes.
214 Chapter XII.
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into the totality of a broad national plan, and all discordant features and contradictions are eliminated. For this purpose, it will be necessary to devise an effective machinery of Coordination. This the direction in which administration has to strive and planning has to grow.
18.06 One useful suggestion which can be made in this context is to adopt a system of priorities at different level-national, State and local. Programmes of national significance such as provision of good and effective primary education to every child, vocationalization of secondary education, postgraduate education and research, or education for agriculture and industry may be regarded as national priorities in the sense that the decisions regarding them would have to be taken by the Centre in consultation with the States and, once they are taken it should be obligatory on every State to implement them effectively and vigorously. In several other matters, and these would form the bulk of the decisions to be made, a system of State-level priorities should be adopted, i.e., each State may be left to make its own best decision in view of local conditions. These would include problems such as making secondary education free of tuition fees and, in such matters, no attempt at a national uniformity need be made. In certain other matters, as for instance, in the provision of amenities in schools, and determining the type and scale of non-teacher costs, a system of local priorities may be adopted. The State Governments may create appropriate authorities at the district and school levels and leave them free to take decisions, within the powers delegated, and best suited to the local conditions. There should be not need to expect any uniformity in these matters between one district and another and even between one school and another. A system such as this which centralizes a few essential sectors at the national level would be much better than the present trend to take more and more decisions- crucial or otherwise-at the national and State levels. This Sometimes results in the curbing of local initiative and disregard of local conditions.
18.07 Redefinition of the Roles of the different Agencies Providing Education, It is necessary to redefine that role of the four different agencies which have been providing educational facilities in the country, viz., the Central Government, the State Governments, the local authorities and the voluntary organizations. Their present roles have arisen, not out of conscious planning but from historical circumstances many of which have now ceased to have any relevance. For instance, the divorce of the Central Government from education which was so conspicuous a feature of our educational system from 1921 to 1947 arose out of a political necessity, viz., the decision of the British Government to transfer education to Indian control (as a part of the system of Dyarchy.
18.10 EDUCATIONAL PLANNING AND ADMINISTRATION 817
introduced in the Provinces in 1921 and of Provincial Autonomy introduced in 1937) while retaining all authority at the Centre in the hands of the Governor-General. This tradition has been considerably modified by the Constitution and even more, by the developments in the first three plans, but it still dominates the scene. The local autho- rities were first placed in charge of primary education in British India as a part of a programme of transferring power to Indian people and, later on, they were permitted to develop other educational programmes in their discretion. In princely States, however, this political need did not exist and hence local authorities were not generally associated with education. The private educational institutions played an important role in all British Indian Provinces, especially in post-primary education, because direct governmental enterprise was limited and they had to meet almost all the growing demand for education. In the princely States, however, private enterprise was not much encouraged and sometimes it was even discouraged. It is obvious that these traditional roles are out of tune with the massive needs of educational development in the country and that they will have to be modified.
18.08 In the complex process of educational planning and implementation, the State Governments occupy a central and key position. They have to accept, for instance, full responsibility for all School education, but it is advantageous for them to discharge it in collaboration with local authorities. The day-to-day administration of schools, which should be as close to the local communities as possible, may preferably be delegated, with adequate resources, to duly constituted local authorities at the district level. In higher education, on the other hand, they will have to share the responsibilities with the universities, the UGC and the Government of India. In other words,
- school education is predominantly a local-State partnership; and
- higher education is a Centre-State partnership.
In our Opinion, it is this basic principle that should guide the evolution of that delicate balance between centralization and decentralization which our planning needs.
ROLE OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE 18.09 Present Position. We shall first discuss the role of private enterprise in education. This varies from area to area and also from one stage or sector of education to another. The statistics of 1960-61, the latest available and given in Table 18.1, throw light on this problem.
18.10 it will be seen from this table that the percentage of educational institutions managed by voluntary organizations is
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TABLE 18.1. PERCENTAGE OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
TO TOTAL NUMBER OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS (1960-61)
State Percentage Stage or Sector Percentage
1. Andhra Pradesh 8.0 1. Pre-Primary 70.9
2. Assam 19.1 2. Lower Primary 22.2
3. Bihar 74.0 3. Higher Primary 27.1
4. Gujarat 36.0 4. Secondary 69.2
5. Jammu and Kashmir 1.7 5. Vocational Schools 57.4
6. Kerala 61.6 6. Special Schools 69.0
7. Madhya Pradesh 4.6 7. Institutions for
Higher (General
8. Madras 33.0 Education 78.8
8. Colleges for Professional
Education 49.8
9. Maharashtra 48.0
10. Mysore 34.3 9. Colleges for Special
Education 74.9
11. Orissa 65.3
12. Punjab 7.4 Total for all Sectors 33.2
13. Rajasthan 3.5
14. Uttar Pradesh 14.5
15. West Bengal 36.3
Total for India 33.2
Source. Ministry of Education, Form A.
The local authority institutions are not included.
-low in Jammu and Kashmir (1.7), Rajasthan (3.5), Madhya Pradesh (4.6), Punjab (7.4), Andhra Pradesh (8.0) and Assam (19.1); high in Kerala (61.6), Orissa (65.3), and Bihar (74.0); low at the primary stage: lower primary (22.2) and higher primary (27.1);
- medium in vocational schools (57.4) and colleges for professional education (49.8); and
- high in pre-primary schools (70.9), secondary schools (69.2), special schools (79.0), institutions for higher (general) education (78.8), and colleges for special education (74.9).
With such large variations in traditions and in the present position, it is obvious that no single policy can be suitable for all parts of the country. In fact, even in the same State, the policy will have to vary from stage to stage, sector to sector and even from organization to organization. All that we can indicate, therefore, are a few general principles.
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18.11 Recommendations. In our opinion, the future role of private enterprise in education should be broadly governed by the following principles:
(1) It is true that some forms of private enterprise have made a negative rather than a positive contribution to education. At the same time, we should recognize that private enterprise has played an important role in the development of education in modern India, that a large proportion of our good institutions are in the private sector and that it can continue to make a useful The State should, therefore, make all possible use of the assistance contribution to the development of education in the years ahead. that can come from the private sector for the development of education.
(2) The growing educational needs of a modernizing society can only be met by the State and it would be a mistake to show any over-dependence on private enterprise which is basically uncertain. As the State has now rightly assumed full responsibility to provide all the needed educational facilities, private enterprise can only have a limited and minor role.
(3) Under the Constitution, private schools have a right to exist and if they do not seek aid or recognition from the State, there need be little or no interference with them. In fact, we have only suggested compulsory registration for unrecognized schools.215
(4) The position with regard to private educational institutions which seek financial support from the State is, however, different. Even now, they depend upon Government for the larger part of their expenditure; and when fees, which is their main source of income, are abolished, their dependence on public revenues would be very large. These should, therefore, be gradually assimilated with the system of public education on the lines described earlier.216
(5) In dealing with private enterprise, problems relating to their teachers, grant-in-aid and control are very important. These have already been discussed elsewhere.217
ROLE OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES 18.12 Present Position. As pointed out earlier, there are two historical traditions with regard to the role of local authorities-one of associating
215 Chapter X.
216 Chapter X.
217 Chapters III, IV, X and XIII.
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