PLAN IMPLEMENTATION
 

The Seventh Five Year Plan essentially a reaffirmation of commitments to certain priorities and goals, basic to the process of educational development in course of the next five years, while at the same time providing much needed new thrusts. The Plan objectives in education are set in the context of certain national perspective: "Education for All" through universalisation of elementary education and adult and non-formal education to be achieved by 1990, vocationalisation of education at the plus two stage, lending a practical bias to higher education; consolidation of technical education, optimising applica- tion of technology in education and improving the relevance and quali- ty of education at all stages are some of the major thrusts of the Seventh Plan. The basic goals to be achieved during the Seventh Plan are indicative of the major concerns emerging out of a national con- sensus on a broad frame of development in which education is not merely a sector of development but an input common to all sectors of development. To achieve a nation-wide impact of the educational pro- grammes, it would be necessary to develop a national consensus on issues and approaches of plan implementation.

2. The process of plan implementation during the last thirty years or more is characterised by a few weaknesses. Firstly the conceptual understanding of education has often varied at various levels. In the absence of consensus and understanding of the basic goals of educa- tion, the result is far from uniform. Also, the various educational schemes proposed in the previous plan periods have been interpreted differently. Another major problem is that development of education and implementation of educational programmes have been seen in isola- tion of other developmental efforts. As a result educational develop- ment has not been linked with the main stream of development of the country.

3. The approach to the Seven Plan envisages effective involvement of all sectors of development in the educational process and also linking the education system to other relevant sectors of development where the objective is to strengthen the educational component under each relevant programmes and improving the functional relevance of educa- tion. Again the emphasis during the Seventh Plan will be on improving the quality of education at all levels, inculcating socially relevant values and attitudes, eliminating of wastage, improvement of efficien- cy, linking education to technological changes and developing and integrating education with other developmental sectors. in short, the emphasis will be more on improving the efficiency of the system of delivery, with appropriate changes in content so as to achieve desired results, instead of only quantitative expansion.

4. The translation of the basic goals envisaged during the Seventh Plan into a set of action oriented programmes would need legislative support, in addition to effective community involvement and generation of mass initiative in support of programmes. Through legislative support, formal recognition of efforts and policies in education can

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be created in the State budget on education providing additional resources for educational development, public and private sectors can be brought to accept responsibilities in education, participative management of education involving the community can transcend from a social gesture to a responsibility through legislation, recognition of the skills acquired as a consequence of vocationalisation at the plus two stage for jobs can be granted. Legislation should be resorted to ensure the quality in education through the process of accreditation by the relevant bodies like the University Grants Commission, Univer- sities, State Boards of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, State Boards of Technical Education. Legislative support is also required to regulate the undesired proliferation of sub-standard educational institutions, in particular opening of new institutions of higher education technical institutions, so as to prevent low quality products from such institutions, entering the labour-market, who are largely unemployable.

5. Education although a Concurrent subject is at present essentially within the sphere and competence of State Governments. Also Plan investments or new additional outlays on education through central schemes are only a small part of the total outlay on education the capacity of the "Plan" t influence or modify the total system to that extent is rather limited. What is needed therefore, is to identify the basic strategies in the totality of Plan and non-Plan together; not only from the financial point of view of zero-base budgeting, but with a view to arrive at a basic consensus and understanding among the States and Centre as to the substance of what is sought to be achieved and the means of achieving goals in the next five years. It is sug- gested that the first year of the Seventh Plan should be devoted to achieving this consensus and arriving at a broad blue print of action that should help in the implementation of educational programmes in the Seventh Five Year Plan.

Restoring Community Initiative in Education

6. India has a long tradition of community initiative in education. The government involvement came more as a support to the local initia- tive. but over the years the configuration changed, and government has become solely responsible for education. The negative effects of withdrawal of community initiative on education is being increasingly realised. A fresh effort needs to be made to restore the initiative of the community. Community's involvement only to the extent of a cata- lytic role will not be adequate. The objective of mass education by 1990 has to be achieved through an integrated model of educational development. And to this extent, `education for all' has to be achieved by `education by all'. To develop a culture of renewed en- thusiasm of the community in education and ensure the development of an integrated popular model. A campaign to educate the masses regard- ing the constitutional commitments, plan objectives and schemes is to be conducted through mass media; parent-teacher's meetings, seminars and cadre based campaigns. Rural youth organisations sports clubs, recreation clubs, libraries, mahila samities have to be mobilised. Alongside this programme of awareness, it would be necessary to in- volve the members of the community in the

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activities of education-in enriching physical facilities like build- ings, books, equipments, boards, etc., improving instructional quality by teaching supplements in vocationalising with the help of develop- ment agencies and local resources in managing the institutions; and in significantly using the educational institution - its physical and human resources in the development of the community as a whole. In achieving these objectives, various activity committees have to be constituted with members from formal and non-formal groups and organi- sations in the community.

7. The implementation of the plan is proposed on a project based model. The plan objectives are visualised to be achieved through a series of schemes. Each scheme should be studied and examined in terms of the implications in the given local socio-economic and cultural background. The schemes should be analysed and spelt out in the form of a number of interrelated activities. Project should be designed around each identifiable major activity, at the state district and block levels. Thus the methods of micro level planning in interface with project approaches should be fundamental strategy of ensuring implementation. The main stay of such projects would essentially be at the block and district level implying a shift in the focus of educa- tional activity from the state to local levels. It would be necessary to strengthen the infrastructures at the district and block levels. Additional infrastructural facilities would be needed also to monitor the activities at subsequent levels.

8. Monitoring and evaluation are important components of the implemen- tation strategies. In order to ensure implementation the concept of monitoring has to be changed from periodic reporting to activity assurance and performance auditing. Monitoring has to be continuous and provision should be made to utilise monitored information in such a way as to secure results. Evaluation is another component which needs to be built in the plan implementation processes. instead of using evaluation to classify activities as `successful' or `unsuccess- ful', it should be used as a diagnostic tool. it should be possible to diagnose the weaknesses during the process of implementation so that effective steps can be taken to remove the same. monitoring and evalu- ation should be taken up for major schemes in Education and Culture and provide requisite manpower and organisational support.

9. As mentioned earlier, education so fare has operated in isolation of other developmental efforts. In order to achieve the educational goals and contribute to the total developmental goal, education must be structurally linked with other developmental efforts and agencies. Education as a sector must find place in the District Rural Develop- ment Agency, and at State level. it should develop linkage with indus- try, programmes of development of agriculture health, enterpreneur- ship, alleviation of rural poverty, and other appropriate rural devel- opment programmes, as well as programmes for development of women and children.

10. Another aspect of structural redesign would be development of intra-structural linkages within education. The primary, secondary, higher secondary, collegiate and university education and professional

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education should be interlinked. Another structural change would be to develop the network of institutions. At the school level, the concept and practice of school complex needs to be rejuvenated and implemented in right earnest. The NCERT and the state level counterparts in the form of SIEs and SCEPTs is another network. In the field of education- al planning and management, the NIEPA has provided a useful service. It would, however, be necessary to develop a network of institutions in the country imparting training, research and consultancy in educa- tional planning and management. State governments should identify some of its specialised institutes, universities, institutes of public administration, etc. to act as nodal agencies for training in planning and management. The national level agencies in such a nationwide network can take up the training of trainers as their major responsi- bility. The concept of network of institutions should also find place in technical and vocational education and engineering.

11. The plan objectives, for successful implementation would demand decentralization, particularly in the priority sector of mass educa- tion, with the locus of control shifting from state level to district and block level. The new structure envisaged here would result in concentration of activities at the level of blocks and districts, for mass education programmes which should be considered as the main organizational units responsible for planning, curriculum designing and implementation. The details of the operational shift of emphasis is discussed in a few paragraphs at a later stage.

12. Teachers should be involved in local level project design, de- veloping community initiative in education, school mapping, etc. Teachers should be encouraged to set up teachers' centres, and form professional associations. Their active participation in planning and implementation should be encouraged.

13. The use of Educational Technology, in teaching, management and particularly in developing educational information system should be encouraged. Computer technology, informatics, production of hardware and software, self-instructional media, radio and television, tape archives, learning resource centres media for neoliterates etc. should be emphasised for use in education.

14. It has been proposed earlier to shift the locus of control from state level and preferably to block level. It must, however, be real- ized that the personnel in the district level has not increased in correspondence with the increase in number of institutions or students attending such institutions. The work load has increased manifold and the district and block level staff are not able to inspect and super- vise the schools for years together. Where the inspection has been carried out, even with subject specialist panels, the result has not been much different. Thus both infrastructure and the work design of the inspectorate staff at district and block level needs to be exam- ined.

15. Although the need for decentralisation of educational planning at the district and institutional levels is fully appreciated, little efforts has been made to formulate such plans and integrate them with

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the state and national plans. It is well recognised that socio-econom- ic conditions differ to a great extent in the state, not only from one district to another, but also from one block to another block within the same district, so that the fulfilment of targets, both quantita- tive and qualitative of the state plans cannot be ensured, unless detailed planning, project formulation and evaluation are attempted at the district level to meet, for example, the requirements of the under-privileged groups or of the economically backward areas. Fur- ther, in several matters such as location of schools, the planning of vocational education at the school level, the planning of school buildings, laboratories and libraries, provision of facilities for games and sports, the provision of text-books, mid-day meals etc. appropriate decision could be taken only at the local level.

16. The administration at the district level is by and large engaged in routine activities as appointments, promotions, transfers or issu- ing financial sanctions or meeting audit objections. This kind of administration is concerned more with control functions. one the other hand, what is required in our situation is `development administra- tion' which focuses its attention on the objectives of the systems and strives relentlessly to achieve them by adopting flexible and dynamic approaches and is more concerned and keen to provide opportunities for initiative, creativity and experimentation to individuals and institu- tions.

17. In spite of some efforts made in some states, the information system has remained weak. It takes years to collect and compile educa- tional statistics at the state and national levels. Even the important data relating to enrolment, teachers and educational expenditure required for making realistic plan proposals becomes available long after its utility is over. The quality of the data collected is also doubtful. in fact no in-built mechanism ha been designed to collect and make available accurate data in time, when needed. We have also no research studies at the district level undertaken to find solution to local problems and also to test the efficacy of the remedial action proposed. Absence of monitoring and evaluation machinery at the dis- trict level results in defective implementation of the plan programmes and the objectives and targets laid down in the plan remain un- achieved.

18. In the process of work redesign a DEO is expected to shoulder increasingly, professional responsibilities. he has also to deal with thousands of teachers and other employees involving transfers, promo- tion, payment of salaries, grievances, etc. in this context, it would be necessary to develop in the DEO, in addition to professional compe- tence, managerial abilities as may be required to help him in the performance of multi-tasks.

Professional Intervention

19. The actions suggested in the preceding paragraphs are neither exhaustive nor conclusive. They hold certain promises and need to be adopted. The adoption of the strategies would require additional financial resources. Over the years, the expenditure on educational

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administration, direction and supervision which was about 5% of the total expenditure on education before independence, has declined to about 2%. This is not a comforting trend as it implies that the ex- penditure direction and supervision have not been commensurate with the expansion of education - the institutions, teachers, students, etc. In order that the plan objectives are achieved, the expenditure on administration, direction and supervision has to be increased ade- quately and effectively. Adequate funds should also be provided for research and experimentation and for training and reorientation pro- grammes based on a careful assessment of training needs at various levels. Assistance has to be provided for project formulation, exten- sion of education to the poorest of the poor, weaker sections, minori- ties, women and remote and sparsely populated areas, establishing block level training neucleis, and district institutes f education, strengthening block and district level infrastructure, providing technology in education, and for successful training and research interventions. The details of financial implications are given in the annexure.

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