 APPENDICES

APPENDIX I

A DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE SURVEY

1. A nation-wide educational survey in a country like India is a gigantic task. To collect data from nearly a million habitations and about half a million schools at primary, middle and secondary stages could not have been undertaken without an efficient machinery and elaborate organization. The organization for the Survey was set up at three levels: (i) at the Centre, (ii) in the States and (iii) at the district level, and specific tasks and roles were assigned to each.

Organization at the Centre

2. At the Centre the National Council of Educational Research and Training have been responsible for plan- ning and supervision. The aims and objectives, the scope and procedure were decided by the National Council of Educational Research and Training in con- sultation with the Advisory Committee for the Second All-India Educational Survey and the State Governments. An Educational Survey Unit was established in the Council which has been responsible for the organization of the Survey. Its functions have been:

(i) to evolve the procedure of the Survey;

(ii) to prepare tools for the collection of data;

(iii) to prepare forms for tabulation at various levels, get them printed in adequate quantity and make them available to the Educational Survey Units in the States;

(iv) to train the State Survey Officers in the organiza- tion of the Survey;

(v) to give general guidance to officers in the States from time to time and to supervise the work at various levels;

(vi) to finalize the national report of the Survey.

3. The training course for the State Survey Officers was organized in November 1965 and attended by officers from all the States and Union Territories except Nagaland, NEFA, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Laccadive, Minicoy & Amindivi Islands. Separate arrangements were made later for training officers from these areas who did not attend the workshop at Poona. After the Poona workshop, arrangements were made for immediate printing and supply of forms to the State Units. Steps

were also taken to ensure that appointments were made in time in all the States and the Union Territories and arrangements for the training of officers at district level finalized. In cases where the progress was slow, officers of the Educational Survey Unit personally contacted the appropriate authorities in the States to get the work expedited. In a few cases where the efforts of the officers of the Educational Survey Unit were not effective, the matter was referred to the highest level and the Union Education Minister was requested to write to the Edu- cation Ministers concerned, requesting them to give due priority to this work.

4. The staff of the Educational Survey Unit helped the State Survey Officers in most of the States and Union Territories in organizing training courses for the District Survey Officers. Assistance was also extended in the organization of data collection and in the finalization of the district and State tables in some States. Special assistance was given to the State Survey Officers in Assam and West Bengal -where teams from the Centre were sent for a considerable period to help in the organization of work.

Organization at the State Level

5. The Directors of Public Instruction/Education in the States and the Union Territories also acted as Directors of the Survey for their respective regions. They were assisted by their Educational Survey Units. The staff in a Unit in a State generally included a State Survey Officer, who was incharge of the Educational Survey Unit, supervisors (one for every ten districts), two statistical assistants and other ministerial staff. The main functions of a State Survey Officer were:

(i) to train the officers at the district level;

(ii) to supervise the collection and tabulation of data in the districts;

(iii) to give guidance to the officers in the districts in the work of the Survey;

(iv) to finalize the tables for the State and make them available to the National Council of Educational Research and Training; and

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(v) to prepare the report of Educational Survey in the State.

6. The list of the State Survey Officers in all the States and Union Territories is given in Appendix XLV. The response of the States in the matter of the selection and appointment of State Survey Officers was on the whole very encouraging. In 411 the States the officers were appointed without delay and were deputed for training at the Poona workshop. The State Govern- ments took proper care to select suitable officers who had initiative and the capacity for hard work. There were, however, a few difficulties at some places. In Assam, the officer who was selected for the post and was sent for training to Poona was formally appointed in September 1966. The appointments of the District Survey Officers were also delayed in Assam. In Uttar Pradesh, the officer who was sent for training to Poona was promoted to some other post immediately after his return from Poona and the formal appointment of his successor was not made until April 1966. In Orissa also the officer who was trained did not take the position of the State Survey Officer and another officer was appointed in his place. In West Bengal, the officer who was sent for training at Poona was not formally appoint- ed State Survey Officer because of certain administrative difficulties. He was designated Assistant State Survey Officer while the Assistant Director of Public Instruction (Statistics) was designated State Survey Officer.

7. The State Survey Officers in almost all the States gave a very good account of themselves and the speedy and successful completion of this Survey is largely attri- butable to their hard and devoted work.

8. In Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Kerala, Madras, Maha- rashtra and Punjab, the Educational Survey Units were located in the State Institutes of Education. In all other cases they were located in the offices of the Directors of Public Instruction/Education.

Organization at the District Level

9. The Survey has been organized either according to educational districts or administrative districts, depending upon the convenience of the individual State Govern- ments. In Kerala, Madras and Orissa the number of educational districts is more than the number of ad- ministrative districts. In Assam and Rajasthan, edu- cational districts are fewer than administrative districts. In Assam, the educational district and in Rajasthan the administrative district has been the unit for the purposes of the Survey. In the remaining States and Union Territories, the educational districts are generally co- terminus with administrative districts.

10. At the district level, the District Educational Officer

(Parishad Education Officer or District Inspector of Schools) was put in charge of the Survey. He was assisted by a District Survey Officer. The functions of a District Survey Officer were:

(i) to train the inspecting officers at the block level in the collection of data;

(ii) to make arrangements with other departments whose cooperation was necessary in the collection of data;

(iii) to collect the documents required for the Survey and to make them available to the inspecting officers in the blocks;

(iv) to help the inspecting officers in the blocks to prepare the block tables;

(v) to prepare the Survey tables for the district and make them available to the State Survey Officer for the preparation of the State tables; and

(vi) to help the District Inspector of Schools in the preparation of the district report.

11. The block has been the primary unit for the collec- tion and analysis of data. The inspecting officers at the block level were responsible for collection and tabu- lation. No separate appointments were made at the block level. The inspecting officers at the block level (their designation vary from State to State) were res- ponsible for the work of the Survey in addition to their normal duties. It is obvious that the bulk of the work of the Survey was done by inspecting staff at the block level in addition to their normal duties.

The Data Collected

12. The data collected may be broadly classified under the following heads:

(i) Habitations, their number and population, and in case of villages with more than one habitation, the distances of the smaller habitations from the main habitation.

(ii) Habitations with schools of different stages.

(iii) In case of habitations without educational facilities at primary/middle/secondary stage, the distances at which school facilities (primary, middle and secondary) are available in neighbour- ing habitations.

(iv) Distances which children in school-less habita- tions walk to attend schools.

(v) Schools, their classes, management, teachers, enrolment, buildings and playgrounds, etc.

Sources of Data

13. The primary sources of data were:

(i) School headmasters and village officers;

(ii) Records, including District Census Handbooks;

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(iii) Maps.

Tools for the collection of Data

14. There were five forms for the collection of data. These are described below:

(i) Form C I was for collecting information about villages and their habitations and was to be filled in separately for every village. This form asked for information regarding habitations in a village, the estimated population of every habitation, distances between the main habitation and other habitations in a village, schools in habi- tations and in case of habitations without primary, middle or secondary schools, the dis- tances at which these were available to each. In villages which had a school, this form was filled in by the headmaster of the school, while in villages without a school, the form was filled in by the village officer, i.e. the patwari, the talathi or the gramsevak. In cases where the forms were filled in by the headmasters, they were required to be countersigned by the village officers concerned. This arrangement was made especially to ensure that the habitations identified and their population estimates were more reliable.

(ii) Form C II was for collecting information about primary and middle schools in rural areas. In this, information was sought regarding enrol- ment, teachers, school buildings and habitations from which children attend school. This was to be filled in separately for every primary and middle school. In the case of schools which had both primary and middle sections, only one form was to be filled in for the school.

(iii) Form C III was for collecting information for every rural secondary school. In the case of secondary schools which had middle classes also, only one form was to be filled in. In the case of schools with primary, middle and secondary sections, form C III was to be filled in for the middle and secondary classes and form C II for the primary classes. In form C III, information was sought regarding , management, enrolment, teachers, school building, habitations from which children attended school, science laboratories and the qualifications of the teachers teaching science.

(iv) Form C IV was for primary and middle schools in urban areas. A separate form was to be filled in for every primary or middle school. It corresponded to form C II except that in the former enrolment from different habitations had

not been asked for.

(v) Form C V was for secondary schools in urban areas. It corresponded to form C III with the difference that the former did not include items relating to enrolment from different habitations.

15. Instructions for filling each form were given in the forms themselves. The forms actually used, and the accompanying instructions have been reproduced in Appendices III to VII respectively.

Preliminary arrangements for Data Collection

16. Some preliminary arrangements had to be made at the district level before data collection could begin. The following records had to be obtained and kept ready:

(a) The habitation registers prepared under the First Survey

(b) The District Census Handbooks

(d) Latest maps of the blocks

(e) Lists of village officers with the villages assigned to each.

17. The latest maps are obtainable from different sources. The Survey of India have prepared topo- sheets which are topographical maps for the different areas. Revenue Departments or land record offices have also prepared maps for the blocks or the tahsils. Some- times private publishers also publish maps for some blocks or districts.

18. The District Census Handbooks provide the lists of villages and also the 1961 population data for every village. The villages are not listed according to blocks, and therefore, separate lists of villages for every block had to be prepared and checked with the District Census Handbooks to ensure that no village was left out. The population of every village according to the 1961 Census was to be recorded in these lists. In many States, there was one difficulty in the preparation of these lists. The District Census Handbooks had not been published for all the districts. In some States only a few District Census Handbooks had been published. Therefore, the District Education Officers were required to send some members of their staff to the offices of the Superintendents of Census to copy the lists of villages and their popu- lation according to the 1961 Census from the manu- scripts of the District Census Handbooks. In some States, this was a big task in itself. The work of copying had to be done on a large scale and, therefore, it would not be surprising if a few clerical errors crept in copy- ing the lists of villages or in the population data. It is, however, assumed that the errors are not significant and do not affect our data in any significant manner.

19. Arrangements had to be made with other depart-

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ments whose staff were required to cooperate in data collection. For example, the Revenue Department or Development Department was required to send necessary instructions to the village officers, asking them to co- operate by filling in or countersigning forms as was required in different cases. In the forest areas, arrange- ments had to be made with the Forest Department to secure the cooperation of forest guards for filling up forms in these areas. The District Survey Officers were also required to get covering letters which were to be used for sending forms to the village officers, etc., signed by the appropriate authorities.

Procedure for the Collection of Data

20. As mentioned earlier, the block was the primary unit for the collection and tabulation of data. The data were to be collected by the inspecting officers at the block level. The District Survey Officers were advised to organize the work in the following manner:

(i) Workshops of the inspecting officers in the blocks were to be organized for two or three days. In these workshops the inspecting officers were to be trained in the procedure of collection of data and scrutiny of forms. Also the forms were to be got ready for distribution.

(ii) The inspecting officers were to organize meetings of the headmasters at a few selected centres in their blocks in which the forms were to be ex- plained and distributed to them. On return of the forms from the headmasters, these were to be scrutinized by the inspecting officers. All dis- crepancies, had to be clarified by contacting the headmasters concerned.

21. The inspecting officers were given a copy each of Guidelines for Survey Officers published by the Edu- cational Survey Unit of NCERT. Also some supple- mentary material was given to them for more detailed guidance. The instructions for the collection of data given in this booklet are reproduced below:

A. (i) In the form C I, information regarding the villages and their habitations has to be collected. In case of a village with a school the form C I has to be filled in by the village school headmaster. In case of villages without schools these will be filled in by the village officers. It is, therefore, necessary to know the villages with and without schools so that it could be decided in each case whether the form C I is to be sent to the village school headmaster or the village officer. In case of villages with more than one school it is also necessary to know the name and address of the headmaster to whom the form is to be sent. This may be done with the help of 'Data Progress Sheet', a copy of which is given at Appendix VIII.