PROGRAMMES
4.01 In this section we shall discuss a few programmes of high priority which will have to be developed over the next ten years or so to provide good education for all our people and to create a national system of education which will meet the needs and aspirations of the people.
A. ADULT EDUCATION 4.02 Significance and Priority. We shall begin this discussion with adult education (an adult being defined in terms of the Constitution as a person above 21 years of age) because we attach the highest significance to this programme. We believe that illiteracy and lack of `proper' adult education is a serious impediment. not only to the growth of the individuals concerned but to the socioeconomic development of the country as a whole. We also believe that any investment in adult education, especially of the illiterate poor, will yield quick results in terms of socioeconomic progress and will be extremely rewarding in proportion to its quantum. It is also our considered view that a massive programme of adult education should have been developed on a priority basis as soon as we became free and that illiteracy should have been liquidated within a few years of independence. But this priority was unfortunately not adopted. The Constitution gave the franchise to all adults, but it made no provision for adult education which would have made it more meaningful. On the other hand, it adopted the traditional view that we should provide universal elementary education for children in a short period (1950-60) and that the problem of adult education would solve itself over the years. This has led to a neglect of adult education in the post-independence period; and as the implementation of the programme of elementary education itself has been delayed, we have really missed the bus. The percentage of literacy increased from about 14 in 1947 to only about 30 in 1971. What is even worse, the people have not been
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strengthened and organized to participate in development so that national development itself has received a great set-back. It is high time that these wrong policies were abandoned. We must realize that the programme of educating and organizing the people to create a new social order cannot be implemented except through adult education.
4.03 Objectives and Content. We believe the initiative in the creation of the new egalitarian social order will have to be taken by the poor and oppressed people themselves. They can effectively do so if they are made aware of their innate strengths and of the exploitative social reality around them, if they are actively involved in socially productive useful work (i.e., are guaranteed useful employment), if they are assisted to create institutions which can give them a sense of self-reliance and a capacity to raise their standards of living, and if they are fearless and organized to resist all exploitation effectively. The object of adult education of the poor, therefore, can only be to awaken the `I' and the `us' in them so that they can assert themselves, both individually and collectively, and to enable them to perceive that they can be free from fear, want, and dependency. We must especially guard against the danger, ever present, that adult education may be used as a tool for educating the poor to their present marginal status, conformity and resignation or for encouraging escapist trends. This does not mean direct political mobilization which is a task for political parties. But it does mean that the education of the poor must have an essential political component to enable them to come into their own.
4.04 The content of adult education of the common people who are mostly illiterate should ordinarily include literacy which is an essential prerequisite for autonomous access to the growing knowledge in the world. But it need not be overemphasized. A literate adult who has a closed mind and does not use his literacy. For continuously adding to his knowledge is no better than an illiterate. It is also necessary to emphasize that the best learning takes place, not in school, but in work and life situations, that learning, working, and living are inseparable, and that each of these acquires a meaning only when fully correlated with the others. This is especially true of adults so that a literacy programme unrelated to the working and living conditions of the learners or to the challenges of the environment and the developmental needs of the country is not likely to enthuse or lead to any meaningful individual or social gains. While emphasizing the acquisition of literacy skills by the illiterate people, therefore, a programme of adult education must also have a broader content of
26 Education For Our People
education relevant to the environment and to the immediate felt needs of the learners and the challenges of improving their own socio- economic status and national development in which they must themselves participate with conviction and enthusiasm. In particular, such a programme should contain an `appropriate mix' of the following themes suited to the needs of different individuals and groups:
(1) Development of vocational skills to improve earning capacity.
(2) General Education (including health education and family planning).
(3) Citizenship education (including essential political education).
(4) Development studies or a knowledge of the developmental problems of the country in which their own problems are rooted, the role of the people in the solution of these problems and their actual involvement in social and developmental programmes.
(5) Physical education, games and sports, recreation. and participative cultural activities.
The programme should also be extremely flexible with regard to duration, time, location or instructional arrangements and should be as diversified as the needs and capacities of the individuals or groups participating in the programmes. Consequently, the planning of the exact content of the curricula needed by specific individuals or groups can never be done centrally. They would have to be intensively local and dialogic in the sense that they should be evolved, in a highly decentralized fashion, by the local worker in discussion with the adults with whom he is working. All that a central organization can and should do is (1) to create a cadre of good and sensitized workers, (2) to provide them with good training in social objectives, curricular construction, and appropriate methods of teaching and evaluation, and (3) to put out a large variety of well-prepared and tested teaching and learning material from which each worker can choose what suits his requirements best. The critical significance of these central roles is obvious.
4.05 Motivation. Adults cannot be made a captive audience and have to be motivated to learn. This will be possible only to the extent they perceive that the programmes offered are of use to them. The best motivation is seen where an attempt is made to create awareness or when the programmes involve them in the solution of their day-to-day
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problems and strive to bring about some improvement in their life, however small. Good workers who have established a rapport with the people, a well-organized programme which fits the needs and interests of the learners, and good methods of teaching which make learning a joyful, cooperative enterprise between the teacher and students, will be of great help. It will also be of advantage if adult education can be made an integral part of a development programme or a social movement.
4.06 Organization. Perhaps the most difficult and complex issues about adult education relate to organization: motivating adults, selection and training of workers, production of teaching and learning materials, and, above all, the actual development of this massive programme on the ground. The problem assumes greater significance because it cannot be solved by money alone. There is enough experience to show that, if money is poured into the scheme without the other essential inputs or adequate preparation, we will only end up with corruption and bogus statistics. The non-monetary inputs are, therefore, crucial, not only to save money which is certainly not overabundant, but to save the movement itself. Yet another factor which deserves serious attention is that the adult education, movement can also be used to stimulate the young to national service and to channelize their energies and idealism in fruitful directions and thus make them development-oriented. It would be almost criminal not to explore and exploit the fullest potential of this possibility.
4.07 In the light of past experience, we find that three alternative approaches are possible. If quality is the main objective and not numbers, the movement may be organized on a selective basis, by giving full encouragement and providing the needed facilities and financial support in ail cases where one finds dedicated and competent workers or adults desiring to learn. Alternatively, quality can still be maintained and numbers can be increased to some extent, if it is organized as a mass campaign in a small selected area(s) where conditions are favourable. While both these methods are important and should be widely used in the early stages of the campaign, our ultimate objective should be to adopt the third approach and to develop programmes of adult education as a nation-wide movement of good quality. This is the most difficult challenge and will demand supreme skills of organization, as a mass movement and a massive involvement of all agencies and individuals capable of participating therein.
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4.08 To what extent can we use the teachers and students in the existing formal system for promoting literacy and adult education? The potential of the proposal is obviously immense because there are nearly 16 million students (from the secondary school upwards) and nearly four million teachers and administrators who can be used as workers for this programme. One view is that the inertia and inefficiency of the system and the class orientation of the teachers and students will make it impossible to work out the scheme in its proper perspective. Another view is that it would be wrong to ignore the formal system altogether, especially because the development of this programme can be an instrument to start the process of transformation within the formal system itself. Moreover, it may be contended that a massive programme of adult education cannot be developed without fully exploiting the large intra-structure of the formal system. We do not, therefore, think that this is an `either- or' issue. We must involve students, teachers, and institutions within the formal system of education on a selective and increasing basis. Any voluntary initiative shown in this programme by individual schools or groups of teachers and students should receive due recognition and support. There should also be adequate incentives for individual educational institutions to participate in the programme by linking such participation to developmental grants for buildings, libraries, laboratories, etc.; and it should be possible for students to participate in the scheme and to earn a part of their maintenance costs. Even the possibility of making participation in the programme obligatory for all teachers and students (as a part of the national service scheme) should be explored; and a beginning in this direction can certainly be made by individual educational institutions committed to the programme. At the same time, we must realize that there are definite advantages in beginning this programme in a big way outside the formal educational system by utilizing the large teaching resources, both individual and institutional, which are available in the society and which, though largely unused or underutilized at present, can be harnessed for the programmes. For instance, village panchayats, cooperative societies, youth clubs, mahila mandals, etc., can play useful roles; and large numbers of educated persons who are not professional teachers but who have the necessary enthusiasm and commitment could be selected and trained to organize literacy and other adult education programmes.
4.09 All things considered, it appears that we are more likely to
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obtain the best results only if we combine the various approaches and techniques suitably. The backdrop of a mass movement is in any case inescapable. But against it, we may combine the selective and mass campaign approaches. The workers can be selected, on a large scale, from both among the teachers and the students within the system as well as from the stock of enthusiastic and committed individuals outside the education system, and especially from among the poor people themselves. If anything, the latter may prove to be the better and larger source for the supply of key workers.
4.10 In the development of this programme, voluntary orga- nizations will have a significant role to play. Drawing upon non-for- mal resources of society will call for more, not less, organizational effort on the part of government. There should be special schemes to assist them and an adequate organizational effort to harness their services. Institutions known for their competence and commitment should be given a large measure of autonomy to innovate and experiment. Similarly, industry and other employers of labour should be under legal obligation to make their employees literate and, where necessary, certain forms of assistance (such as training of workers) may be made available to them. Literacy and adult education programmes should also be organized for all illiterate workers employed on government projects and development works.
B. OUT-OF-SCHOOL YOUTH (AGE GROUP 15-21) 4.11 What has been said above about the education of adults will also apply, mutatis mutandis, to the education of out-of-school youth (age- group 15-21) which, in our opinion, is the second major programme for the education of the people. The significance of this group is immense (it is about 85 per cent of the total population of this age) and investment in its education will obviously pay rich and early dividends. The motivation of this group is stronger and its educability greater. As peer group learning is very significant, we can effectively use students as well as persons selected and trained from among the group itself, for the development of the programme. Vocational education has a special import for this group most of whom will be looking for a career. We will also have to provide adequate opportunities for continuing formal education, interrupted for various reasons, to all those who desire to improve their career prospects through such education.
30 Education For Our People
4.12 Programmes of adult education, whether for out-of-school youth (age-group 15-21) or for adults (age 21 and over), will need the production of a large volume of imaginatively planned teaching and learning materials of the best quality, not only for literacy work but also for post-literacy and follow-up work with the neo-literates. A wide network of libraries and reading-rooms will also have to be organized for the purpose. Effective use may also be made of posters and wall-papers. The universities will have to play an important role in generating materials, conducting research, evaluation, and training of workers. The mass media, such as the press and radio, can play a major role in the promotion of the massive programmes of adult educa- tion we have in view and should be fully utilized. The development of the programme in rural areas and for women will need special efforts and emphasis. Needless to say, it will also be necessary to organize a massive programme for the training of workers and to develop a good system of -supervision, evaluation, and continuous monitoring. The programme will have to be launched immediately and will have to be kept up at a very high pitch for about ten years. This is one of the most challenging tasks that education in this country has ever faced.
C. UNIVERSAL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 4.13 We shall now turn to the discussion of the third programme for the education of the people, viz., the provision of universal elementary education for children in the age-group (6-14) with which we shall link the problem of pre-school education also.
4.14 Past Achievements and Failures. While we have travelled far ahead of our position in 1947, the remaining journey to the destination visualized in Article 45 of the Constitution is very long and difficult. This will be clear from our achievements in the four specific goals of the programme, viz., (a) universal provision of facilities, (b) universal enrolment, (c) universal retention, and (d) improvement of standards.
(1) The first step in the programme is to provide an elementary school within easy reach of every child. So far we have been able to provide a primary school within walking distance from the home of most children in the age-group 6-11 and a similar facility at the middle school stage is available for about 60 per cent of the children in the age-group 11-14. It will, therefore, be possible to realize the goal of universal provision of schooling facilities, i.e., providing a primary and middle school within walking distance from the home of every child
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within a few years and without much difficulty.
(2) The next step is to ensure that every child is enrolled in a school. The enrolments in 1975-76 in classes IN stood at 66.5 million and those in classes VI-VIII, at 16.5 million. These figures, however, conceal a good deal of bogus enrolment which is proportionately greater in the more backward-States. If universal enrolment in the agegroup 6-14 is to be reached within ten years, i.e., by 1985-86, these enrolments will have to increase to 85 million and 50 million respectively. in other words, there would have to be an additional enrolment of 52 million in about ten years or about 52 lakhs per year as against an average of about 24 lakhs a year achieved in the past 30 years. This, in itself, is difficult; and it becomes all the more so because the children who are now out of school consist mostly of the hard core of non-attendants, viz., girls and children from scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other weaker sections. Unless a major effort is made, it will not be possible to reach the goal of universal enrolment.
(3) The third step in the programme is to ensure that there is universal retention, i.e., no child once enrolled in school drops out till he completes the elementary course or reaches the age of 14 years. Unfortunately, a great weakness of the present programme is that there is a large proportion of drop-outs or push-outs, due partly to the irrelevance and poor quality of education, but mainly to the insistence on full-time attendance which is not possible for children of poor families who are required to work. There is clear evidence to show that the proportion of such drop-outs (or wastage) between classes IN and classes I-VIII is very high (about 60 per cent and 75 per cent respectively) and has remained almost unchanged during the past 30 years. The problem of universal retention is, therefore, even more difficult to be solved.