OVERVIEW OF EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Plans in Retrospect The promotion of education on meaningfully systematic lines was taken up in 1951, with the initiation of planned economic and social devel- opment. The successive plans emphasized the significant role that education could play in bringing about social and economic changes. The First Five Year Plan (1951-56) emphasized the relevance of mass education in democracy which requires intelligent participation of the masses in the affairs of the country. The Second Five Year Plan (1956-61) stated that education had a determining influence on the rate at which economic progress could be achieved and the benefits derived from it. The Third Five Year Plan (1961-66) felt that educa- tion was the single most important factor in achieving rapid economic development and technological progress and also in creating a social order founded on the values of freedom, social justice and equal opportunity. The Fourth Five Year Plan (1969-74) emphasized the need to remove deficiencies of the education system and to link it more purposefully with increasing demands of social and economic develop- ment. The Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-79) assigned to education a crucial role. It stated that as a key factor in production, education helped to supply the man-power of requisite quality and number and also helped to inculcate in the masses appropriate attitudes, skills and personally traits.
2. The Sixth Five Year Plan (1980-85) has assigned to education the important task of human resources development. The plan has laid stress on the provision of facilities for mass education through universalisation of elementary education and eradication of adult illiteracy. Consistent with the goal of alleviating unemployment, the plan envisaged increasing the practical bias in secondary education, vocationalization of higher secondary stage and restructuring of undergraduate course. In technical education provision was made for the identification of emergent technological tasks for which manpower would have to be trained. The main objective of the plan in education was to enable all citizens to acquire literacy, numeracy, computation- al skills, basic understanding of the environment and functional skills of relevance to daily life. It was expected that with these, it would be possible to establish a dynamic and beneficent link between education, employment and development with due regard for the economic and social progress of the community.
Quantitative Expansion 3. With the implementation of various programmes included in the Six Five Year Plans, a phenomenal expansion has taken place in the facili- ties available for education. The number of institutions, students enrolled in them and investments in education have shown substantial increases. The increases that have taken place are discussed below briefly:
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Institutions 4. As the table below indicates, the number of recognised educational institutions has increased many times between 1951-85:
Institutions Year
(Actual) (Actual) (Actual) (Actual) (Likely)
1. Primary 2,09,671 3,30,399 4,08,378 4,85,538 5,50,000
2. Middle 13,596 49,663 90,621 1,16,447 1,40,000
3. High/Higher
Secondary 7,288 17,257 36,738 51,594 60,000
4. Colleges
a) Art, Science
& Commerce 548 1,161 2,587 3,393 3,500
b) Professional 147 381 1,017 1,382 1,500
c) Universities
& Deemed
Universities 28 44 93 123 135
The number of primary schools has increased from 2.09 lakhs in 1951 to 5.5 lakhs at present. Institutions providing middle school and Second- ary education have grown many times -- nearly ten times in the case of the former and more than nine times in the case of the latter. Simi- larly, the number of colleges has increased seven times during the period.
ENROLMENT 5. As in the case of institutions, enrolment at different stages of education has shown substantial increase in the past 34 years of planned economic development as the table illustrates :
Enrolment By Stages
(in '000) 1950-51 1960-61 1970-71 1980-81 1984-85
i) Primary 19,155 34,994 57,045 76,688 84,766
(I-V Classes) (42.6) (62.4) (76.4) (83.1) (97.6)
Targets
ii) Middle I-VIII 3,120 6,705 13,315 19,846 27,383
Classes (12.7) (22.5) (34.2) (40.0) (51.9)
Targets
iii) High/Higher
Sec./Intermediate 1,481 3,483 7,167 11,281 13,490
iv) University &
above (Ist Degree) 174 557 1,956 2,752 3,442
(Figures in parenthesis indicate enrolment as percentage of the popu- lation in the age group)
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The total enrolment at different stages of education has increased from 24 million in 1950-51 to about 129 million in 1984-85. The rate of growth in enrolment has been much higher at second and third levels of education. While overall annual compound rate of growth in enrol- ment at primary stages has been 4.3% during 1981-85, it has been 6.4% at the middle stage, 6.5% at the high/higher secondary stage and 8.9% at the collegiate stage. If we compute the rate of growth in enrol- ment in the last 5 years, the rates of growth works out to 3.1% at primary stage, 6.6% at the middle school stage, 3.6% at the secondary stage and about 6% at the collegiate stage.
6. The establishment of a net work of educational institutions has helped to a great extent in providing educational facilities nearer to the homes of pupils. In the case of the under privileged sections of the population, particularly, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, enrolments have increased considerably, indicating thereby increased access to educational facilities so the table below illus- trates :
Stage of Instruction Percentage coverage
Boys Girls All Commu- Scheduled Scheduled
nities Castes Tribes
Primary (I-V Classes)
1951 59.8 24.6 42.6 11.7* 5.3*
1981 99.4 66.9 83.7 86.0 73.7
Middle (VI-VIII)
1951 20.7 4.5 12.7 9.3* 3.5*
1981 54.2 29.1 41.9 32.6 21.9
Secondary (IX-XII)
1951 8.7 1.5 5.3 0.1* 1.7
1981 34.2 14.0 22.0+ +
Collegiate
1951 0.75 0.10 0.4 + +
1981 4.8 1.92 4.0 + +
* Relates to 1967-68 + Not available
The effort to increase the provisions of education, has helped in reducing rural urban differentials. For instance, while in 1951 enrolment in rural areas constituted 3% of the total enrolment at the collegiate stage, in 1977-78 this percentage had increased to 15%. Similarly, at the secondary stage the percentage of enrolment in rural areas to total enrolment increase from 28-51.
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EXPENDITURE 7. Expenditure on education between 1951-84 has shown a fifty-fold increase, increasing from Rs. 114 crores in 1950-51 to more than Rs.6,000 crores in 1984-85. The overall annual rate of growth works out to 11.2% during this period. The table below summarises the position ;
Expenditure on Education (Rs. in crores)
1951 1961 1971 1981 1985
(Estimates)
Total 114 344 1118 3746 6000
Plan 20 90 115 520 800
Non-Plan 94 254 1003 3226 5200
QUALITY OF EDUCATION 8. Apart from providing resources for expansion of the system, efforts were also made to improve the quality of education and enhance its relevance. During the period, 10+2+3 educational pattern was adopted which assisted in bringing about the much desired uniformity in educa- tion structure. Effort was made to upgrade curriculum and syllabi, particularly in mathematics and science so as to reflect the advance- ments that had taken place. In States, where these subjects were optional, mathematics and science were made compulsory for all chil- dren upto the matriculation stage. Socially useful productive work has been made a compulsory part of the school curriculum with a view to providing to school leavers skills which they can use in their commu- nities. Although on a small scale, attempts were made to vocationalise secondary and higher secondary education with a view to meeting the requirement of middle level skills, in areas where shortages of per- sonnel were experienced.
9. Large expansion of facilities for training of teachers was under- taken during this period. Consequently, the proportion of trained teachers working at different levels of education has increased subse- quently. At present, almost all teachers working in primary, middle and secondary schools are trained.
10. A number of institutions of excellence have been set up. These include among others, the Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Management, Regional Engineering Colleges, and Universi- ties fully financed by the Centre. Because of the establishment of these and other institutions providing quality education, it has been possible to undertake tasks of scientific and technological develop- ment by utilising indigenously trained manpower rather than depend on skilled manpower imported from abroad as has been the case in many newly independent countries.
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11. An extensive infrastructure has been build for undertaking re- search and development functions. Among others, institutions set up during the period included the National Council of Educational Re- search and Training, the State Council of Educational Research and Training etc. The experimental work done by these institutions has been of good quality and has provided experiences which can now be usefully utilised to undertake more massive programmes of quality improvement.
12. Efforts to utilise modern communications technology for education- al purposes were initiated. The experience made available by Satellite Instructional Technology Experiment has come handy in developing modalities for utilising the national satellite. A beginning has also been made towards introduction of computer literacy courses in second- ary schools.
13. In the area of language development substantial work was undertak- en, which included among others, evolving of technical terminology in Indian languages, publication of quality books in Hindi, Sanskrit and Modern Indian Languages, training and appointment of language teachers with a view to facilitating the introduction of the language formula. A number of institutions have been set up for undertaking research and training functions in different languages.
14. A large number of scholarship programmes for supporting further education of meritorious children without means were implemented. Among others these included National Scholarships for Meritorious Students, Scholarships for Talented Children from Rural Areas, Nation- al Talent Research Scholarships etc. The number of awards under these programmes has increased from year to year. The Government of India would be providing scholarships to over 70,000 meritorious students by the end of the Sixth Plan. These would be in addition to the scholar- ships and other financial concessions that are allowed to students by State Governments and educational institutions.
DEFICIENCIES 15. In spite of large expansion that has taken place and the substan- tial investments that have been made, deficiencies continue to prevail in the education system. The task of providing free compulsory and universal education to children upto the age of 14 has yet to be completed. It has not been possible, partly because of sparseness of population to establish primary school in all the habitations. In 1978, for instance, 1.91 lakhs habitation had no primary education facility within walking distance of one kilometer. Inter and Inter- state disparities in the availability of educational facilities con- tinue to prevail, often intra-state disparities are much sharper than inter-state ones. The holding power of educational institutions con- tinues to be low with the result that a large percentage of children drop out of the system without acquiring basic skills of literacy and numeracy. It has, for instance, been estimated that, of every 100 children entering Grade-I, 60 fail to complete 4-5 years of schooling. At public examinations 50% or more of the candidates fail to qualify. The low quality of education
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reflected by dropouts children repeating grades and failures can largely be accounted for by the deficiencies of facilities and equip- ments from which educational institutions suffer. The Fourth All India Educational Survey, conducted by NCERT, indicated that a large propor- tion of primary schools are without buildings and do not have even the minimum basic teaching equipments, including black boards.
16. Education provided in schools and colleges continues to be general in character providing to school leavers few skills necessary for gainful employment. Without any meaningful programme of training students in skills, rush to colleges and universities, particularly for general education courses, continues to be unabated. College and university graduates are found to have no employable skills with the result that the ranks of educated unemployment continue to grow from year to year.
17. Strengthening of administrative machinery has not kept pace with the expansion of the educational system. Consequently, many of the institutions remain unsupervised and teachers receive little technical and academic guidance. Infrastructure at levels where help is needed to improve the quality of education has not come into existence. Of late, teacher absenteeism has grown considerably, partly because of the lack of adequate inspecting machinery. The deficiencies of educa- tion system are largely a consequence of inadequate investment. Bulk of the expenditure provided for education is incurred on the mainte- nance of the system, particularly on salaries of personnel. Conse- quently, very little amount is available in the system for implement- ing programmes which could improve the quality of education and help the system to adopt innovative ideas and practices. Outlays for educa- tion in proportion to total plan outlays have shown a decreasing trend as the following table illustrates :
(Rs. in Crores)
Plan Outlay for Percentage of outlays for
Education Education to total plan outlay
First Plan 170 7.2
Second Plan 277 5.8
Third Plan 560 7.5
Fourth Plan 822 5.2
Fifth Plan 1285 3.3
Sixth Plan 2524 2.6
Achievements in the Sixth Plan 18. In the Sixth Plan, the likely plan expenditure is of the order of Rs.2930.32 crores(Rs.705.16 crores in the Centre and Rs.2225, 16 crores in the State Sector), which is Rs. 406.58 crores in excess of the approved outlay of Rs. 2524 crores for education). The sector-wise progress of plan expenditure is given below :
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(Rs. in crores)
(1980-85) (Actual) (Actual) (Actual) (Likely (Outlay)
expd.)
Elementary 905 103 115 153 230 278
Education
Adult 128 15 19 26 47 59
Education
Secondary 398 77 100 148 177
Education
University 486 66 80 87 134 383
Education
Other 203 28 47 45 54
Programmes
Total(Gen. 2120 289 361 459 642 720
Education)
Technical 300 38 48 62 93 100
Education
Art & Culture 104 13 19 22 31 33
Total 2524 340 428 543 766 853
It may be seen that except for elementary education where a shortfall is envisaged, plan expenditure in other sectors is likely to be in excess of the approved outlay. Analysis of plan expenditure indicates outlays provided for improving quality are not likely to be fully realised, more particularly in the university education.
19. The Sixth Plan for education provided inter-alia for mass educa- tion through universalisation of elementary education (formal and non-formal courses) and of adult education, practical bias in second- ary education, vocationalisation of higher secondary stage and re- structuring of under-graduate courses with a vocational bias. Forging of beneficial linkages between education, employment and development was stressed in higher education and technical education. The main achievements during the period are briefly discussed.
Elementary Education 20. A target of enrolling of additional 180 lakhs children in classes I-VIII was fixed for the Sixth Plan. According to the information made available by the states, this target is likely to be exceeded, it is estimated that 220 lakhs additional children are likely to be
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enrolled between 1985-1990. An indicative target of 80 lakhs addition- al children to be covered under non-formal education was laid down. Since it could not take off in the first two years of the Plan, this target may not be fully realised. On the basis of the information made available by the States, it is estimated that a coverage of 30-40 lakhs children will be achieved under this programme. Thus the total additional coverage under the programme of universalisation of elemen- tary education may be of the order of 250 lakhs making the total enrolment at the end of the Plan to be 11 crores.