(i) Strengthening of the administration at the national level through the reorganisation of the Ministry of Education; the creation of the I.E.S.; the expansion of the Central and Centrally sponsored sectors and the provision of national leadership of a stimulating but non-coercive character in educational thought and programme;

6 Ibid, PP, 183-209,

(ii) Strengthening and reorganisation of State Education Departments through improvement of service conditions and recruitment procedures of departmental staff;

(iii) Development of State Institutes of Education as academic wings of the State Education Department;

(iv) Adoption of the district as the principal administrative and planning unit and the creation of District School Boards to administer all education in the district below the university level;

(v) Strengthening of the offices of the District Educational Officers as the principal service and supervision centres for all the schools within the district retaining only a general coordinating and supervisory rate with the State-level directorates;

(vi) Improvement of existing grant-in-aid codes and methods of financial assistants to private schools;

(vii) Provision of in-service education for all officers of the Department non-gazetted officers being trained at the State level in the State institutes of Education and the gazetted officers being trained at the national level in a National Staff College for Educational Administrators; and

(viii) Promotion of research and comparative studies in educational development with a view to vitalising and improving administrative procedures."

H. Higher Education: Objectives and Improvement

(1) Establishment of Major Universities: The most important re- form for higher education is the development of some major univer- sities where first-class post-graduate work and research would be possible and whose standards would be comparable to the best insti- tutions of their type in any part of the world. In this regard the Commission has suggested:

(i) The major universities are to be selected from amongst the existing universities and to include one of the I.I.T.s and one agricultural university;

7 Ibid., PP. 249-273,

(ii) These universities must make an effort to recruit talented students on an all-India basis and intellectually distinguished group of teachers and provide satisfactory conditions of work;

(iii) A national scholarship scheme combined with a placement programme should be organised. the scholarship being tenable at the major universities or advanced centres They should be continued at its post-graduate level.

(2) Centres of Advanced Studies: Partly as a preparation and partly as a consequence of the establishment of major universities. the Commission observed that it was necessary to strengthen and expand the UGC programme for the establishment of Centres (Clusters) of Advanced Study. The Commission recommended that fifty such centres, some in modern Indian languages and one in education, should be established over the next five to ten years. The programme should be extended to agriculture. engineering. medicine and modern Indian languages. not covered under the scheme at present.

(3) Improvement of other Universities and Affiliated Colleges: The major Universities should be utilised to provide teachers of quality to the other universities and affiliated colleges. From this point of view the Commission has suggested:

(i) Talented students from the major universities should be induced to join the teaching profession and majority of them placed in universities and colleges other than their own so that they can help raise standards;

(ii) The U.G.C. should sponsor an identification and placement service to facilitate the recruitment of outstanding persons to the teaching profession;

(iii) The U.G.C. should make available fellowships to outstanding persons and send them to work in departments of universities, and

(iv) Strong inter-university ties should be formed among the major universities. advanced centres and outstanding affiliated colleges in particular fields of research. by encouraging conferences for presentation and constructive discussion of papers.

(4) Medium of Education in the Universities: The Commission has Made the following recommendations with regard to the medium of education:

(i) The regional languages should be adopted as media of education at the university stage in a phased programme spread over ten years;

(ii) At the earlier stage of the under-graduate course, the bulk of the instruction may be given through the re- gional language while at the post-graduate stage, it may be in English;

(iii) In due course, all teachers in higher education should as far as possible, be bilingual and post- graduate students should be able to follow lecturers and use reading material in the regional language as well as in English;

(iv) The maintenance of college teaching through Hindi in the non.-Hindi areas or of Urdu in any part of the country where there is reasonable number of Urdu- Speaking students should be permitted and encouraged;

(v) Centres of advanced studies should be established for the development of all modern Indian languages including Urdu;

(vi) The classical and modern Indian languages should be provided as elective subjects, no language being made a compulsory subject of study at the university stage; and

(vii) The teaching of important library languages other than English should be stressed, in particular the study of Russian on a large scale. *8

I. Adult Education

(1) Liquidation of Illiteracy: The Commission stressed that every effort should be made to eradicate illiteracy from the country as early as possible and in no part of the country, however backward, the process should take more than 20 years. The Commission urged that the national percentage of literacy should be raised to 60 per

8 Ibid., pp. 274-297,

cent by 1971 and to 80 per cent by 1976. As a first step to arrest the growth of illiteracy following measures have been suggested:

(i) Expansion of universal schooling of five years' duration to the age-groups 6-11;

(ii) Provision of part-time education to children of age group 11-14 who either miss schooling or drop prematurely out of the school;

(iii) Provision of part-time general and vocational education to the younger adults of the age group 15-30; and

(iv) Wide-spread correspondence courses should be organised for those who are unable even to attend part- time courses.

(2) Role of Universities for Eradication of Illiteracy: The Com- mission feels that the universities in India should assume a much larger responsibility for educating the adults. In order to have an efficient machinery for launching carefully planned adult education programmes, each university should establish a Board of Adult Education with representative from all departments involved in adult education programmes.

(3). Organisation and Administrations The Commission has recommended the establishment of a National Board of Adult Education on which all relevant Ministries and agencies should be represented. The Board would advise the Governments, at the Centre and in the States, on all matters relating to informal adult education and train- ing and draw-up plans and programmes for their consideration. Similar bodies should be set up at the State and District level.

Voluntary agencies working in the field of adult education should receive every encouragement, financial and technical.9