FIRST ALL-INDIA EDUCATIONAL SURVEY
1. The main objectives of the First Educational Survey were :
(i) to identify and enumerate every distinct habitation and prepare registers giving relevant information about them;
(ii) to enumerate the existing primary, middle and high schools and habitations served by them; and
(iii) to plan school areas for each primary, middle and high school in a rational manner so as to derive the maximum benefit with the minimum of additional outlay from the existing schools and those to be opened or enlarged in future.
2. The information collected in respect of habitations and schools included:
(i) rural habitations in different population slabs served by existing independent, group and peripatetic teacher schools at the primary stage, according to the distance children had to walk;
(ii) rural habitations without educational facility at the primary stage in different population slabs;
(iii) habitations to be served by proposed schools;
(iv) habitations (and population) without schooling facilities after planning on the basis of the Survey;
(v) enrolment in schools;
(vi) number and area of class rooms; and
(vii) number of teachers.
3. The first step in the First Educational Survey was to identify and enumerate every distinct habitation throughout the country and to prepare a systematic register of urban and rural habitations. The identification of
*In this chapter a very brief account is given of the objectives of the First Educational Survey, its organization and important findings. For a detailed account of the First Educational Survey the reader is requested to refer to the Report of the All-India Educational Survey published by the Ministry of Education (publication No. 462). The Ministry of Education also published A Brochure on Educational Survey of India (publication No. 422) which gives a brief account of the First Educational Survey.
habitations was a major item in the Survey since no proper record of distribution and location of habitations was available in the States. The Census of India gives data pertaining to villages but not to population centres. The villages are revenue villages and respresent the parcels of land, the boundaries of which are defined and settled by the revenue survey or by the cadestral survey. For the purpose of educational planning, it is the population centre that constitutes the unit for planning educational facilities. It is a well-known fact that the population in a revenue village is generally settled at one or more than one convenient places in more or less distinct house clusters. The rest of the land and that forms the major portion is not gaothan but constitutes agricultural fields or waste land, plain or hilly. In some revenue villages, the entire population may be in a single compact habitation with a local name marking its distinctiveness as a residential locality, the gaothan or gramsthan of that village, while in others it may be distributed in two or more habitations, the main village gaothan and its hamlet or hamlets. In some villages there may be no population at all, i.e. these villages may be uninhabited or bechirag villages. There are also villages covering a fairly large area where the distance between the constituent hamlets may be considerable. It is possible that in many cases there are physical obstacles in the passage between the hamlets in a village, the information in respect of which is not available in the revenue records. In the absence of such details, the planning the location of schools was considered very difficult. Thus it was decided that in the First Survey, all habitations would be identified and enumerated and that other necessary data for them would also be collected.
4. In the task of identification of habitations the census data were used as the starting point. The 1951 Census provided the list of villages and the population. For every village, information regarding its habitations and population figures for every habitation were collected. In the case of villages with schools, the information was
SECOND ALL-INDIA EDUCATIONAL SURVEY 9
collected mainly with the help of teachers. In other cases the data were collected with the help of teachers and village officers (Talathis, Lekhpals or Patwaris). The Survey of India topographical maps also proved useful for this purpose. The cooperation of village revenue officers was secured through the good offices of the district and tahsil revenue officers. Wherever necessary officers of other departments for example, forest guards in forest areas, assisted in the collection of data.
5. Necessary adjustments were made for the various changes that had taken place since the 1951 Census. In the light of the information collected from the various sources and on the basis of local enquiries, certain corrections and adjustments were carried out in the census data. Some of the villages enumerated in the census were reported to be uninhabited while others had consequently been submerged, flooded or deserted for one reason or another. Some of the villages could not be traced in spite of all efforts by the District Survey Officers. Some rural areas had become urban or had merged into neighbouring towns or cities.
6. The habitations were enlisted in the registers of habitations and they were identified on maps of the tahsils or talukas. After this, the schools were also plotted on the maps and school areas were delimited, both for the existing schools and the proposed ones.
7. The Survey was initiated by the Ministry of Education and was organized through the active cooperation and collaboration of the State Governments. It covered all areas except West Bengal, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, the Laccadive, Minicoy & Amindivi Islands, NEFA, the Naga Hills area (which has now become the State of Nagaland), Pondicherry and 18 villages of the Lahul and Spiti area in Punjab, which were snowbound. Goa, Daman & Diu, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli which at that time were under Portuguese possession and became part of the Republic of India later on were also not covered. Officers for the Survey were appointed at the State and the district levels. A central seminar was organized for the State Survey Officers who in their turn organized the seminars for District Survey Officers. Data were collected through village level officers and headmasters of schools.
8. Some of the limitations of the Survey are given in the following extract from the report* :
It may not be out of place to mention here what the survey does not include. It being an approach mainly to the problem regarding location of schools, it does not deal with (a) the need for separate schools for boys and girls at any stage, (b) the number of divisions or classes available or *Report of the All-India Educational Survey, Ministry of Educa- tion, Government of India, New Delhi, 1960. Pages 14-15.
necessary in a given standard, (c) the optimum size of a school or a class, (d) the necessity of having different schools or branches of a school at different places in bigger habitations, (e) the exact location of the school in the habitation or outside it, (f) the availability of land, the suitability and adequacy of the existing school buildings, and (g) the possibilities regarding these where the new school is proposed. All these, it would be appreciated, the entirely outside the scope of this survey, though by themselves these are very crucial and important points to be tackled by the local educatioal administration.
The Survey does not deal with the problem of enrolment versus actual attendance as also the existence and causes of wastage and stagnation or availability of teachers, trained or others. Being mainly a survey of rural areas, the question of provision of adequate educational facilities in different parts of urban areas has not been taken into consideration. It may happen that in a given town or city, though the number of schools may appear to be adequate, certain parts of these towns and cities may not have educational facility within easy reach of the children due to various difficulties such as the peculiar lay-out of the urban area.
9. An important feature of the Survey was the delimitation of school areas for the then existing schools and the planning of school areas for the proposed schools, according to sets of criteria adopted for the three stages of education, as given below: 10. Primary Schools : Habitations with a population of 500 or more were considered for separate primary schools in them. Habitations with populations ranging between 300 and 499 were considered for separate primary schools only in cases where there were no primary schools (existing or proposed) within a walking distance of half a mile. In the case of habitations with a population of less than 300, these were tagged to existing or proposed schools within a distance of one mile (with a few exceptions). Alternatively these habitations were grouped in such a manner that their total population within a walking distance of one mile around the proposed school added up to at least 300. Habitations not fulfilling any of these conditions were considered for peripatetic teacher schools.
11. Middle Schools : A habitation with a population of 1,500 was considered for a middle school. Habitations with a population of less than 1,500 each were grouped in such a manner that the total population of the habitations within a walking distance of three miles from the school added up to 1,500 or more.
12. Secondary Schools : A habitation with a population of 5,000 or more justified a secondary school. Habitations with a population of less than 5,000 each were grouped in such a manner that their total population within a walking distance of five miles from the school added up to 5,000 or more.
13. Maps were also prepared to show the location of existing and proposed primary, middle and secondary schools and the areas in respect of every school in these categories.
10 FIRST ALL-INDIA EDUCATIONAL SURVEY
14. The main findings of the First Survey for the rural areas are given below :
(i) Number of rural habitations identified 8,40,033
(ii) Population of rural habitations according to the 1951
Census........ 27,95,50,946
Primary Stage
(iii) Number of habitations served by primary sections in them on
31 March, 1957 2,29,023
(iv) Percentage of habitations served by primary sections in
them on 31 March, 1957 27.26
(v) Population of habitations with primary sections in them on
31 March,1957 16,70,44,295
(vi) Percentage of population served by primary sections in their
own habitations on 31 March, 1957 59.75
(vii) Number of habitations served by primary sections in the
neighbourhood on 31 March, 1957 3,70,962
(viii) Percentage of habitations served by primary sections in
the neighbourhood on 31 March, 1957 44.16
(ix) Items (iii) and (vii) together as percentage of item
(i) 71.42
(x) Population of habitations served by primary sections in the
neighbourhood on 31 March, 1957 6,52,57,397
(xi) Item (x) as percentage of item (ii) 23.34
(xii) Percentage of population served by primary sections in
their habitations or in the neighbourhood on 31 March,
1957 83.09
(xiii) Percentage of population not served by primary sections
in any manner on 31 March, 1957 16.90
(xiv) Percentage of population proposed to be served by
primary sections after planning 99.30
Middle Stage
(xv) Number of habitations with middle sections in them on 31
March, 1957 26,267
(xvi) Percentage of habitations served by middle sections in
them on 31 March, 1957 3.13
(xvii) Number of habitations served by middle sections in the
neighbourhood on 31 March, 1957 3,96,542
(xviii) Percentage of habitations served by middle sections in
the neighbourhood on 31 March, 1957 47.21
(xix) Items (xvi) plus (xviii) 50.34
(xx) Number of habitations to be served by middle sections in
them after planning 47,992
(xxi) Number of habitations to be served by middle sections
in the neighbourhood after planning 7,00,106
(xxii) Percentage of habitations to be served by middle
sections in them or in the neighbourhood after planning 89.05
Secondary Stage
(xxiii) Number of habitations with secondary sections in them
on 31 March, 1957 4,500
(xxiv) Percentage of habitations with secondary sections in
them on 31 March, 1957 0.54
(xxv) Number of habitations served by secondary sections in
the neighbourhood on 31 March, 1957 2,97,053
(xxvi) Percentage of habitations served by secondary sections
in the neighbourhood on 31 March, 1957 35.36
(xxvii) Items (xxiv) plus (xxvi) 35.90
(xxviii) Number of habitations to be served by secondary
sections in them after planning 13,487
(xxix) Number of habitations to be served by secondary
sections in the neighbourhood after planning 6,85,387
(xxx) Percentage of habitations to be served by secondary
sections in them or in neighbourhood after planning 83.20