FIRST AND SECOND ALL-INDIA EDUCATIONAL SURVEYS
As already mentioned in the preceding chapter, the earlier two surveys had limited objectives. It is worthwhile to review these surveys.
FIRST ALL-INDIA EDUCATIONAL SURVEY The First All-India Educational Survey, which was started in 1957, had the following objectives:
(i) to identify and enumerate every distinct habitation;
(ii) to enumerate all the existing primary, middle and secondary schools and habitations served by them;
(iii) to plan the location of schools at different school stages, viz., primary, middle and secondary in a rational way so that maximum benefits are derived from minimum investment by utilising the existing schooling facilities and by upgrading or opening new schools.
The information covered in this survey was :
(a) rural habitations in various population groups served by the existing independent, group or peripatetic teacher schools at the primary stage according to the distance they have to walk in order to have access to the school;
(b) habitations not served by schools under various population slabs;
(c) habitations to be covered by location of new schools;
(d) habitations along with population not covered by schooling facilities after planning the location of the new schools based on the survey;
(e) number of children in the schools;
(f) number of classrooms and their area and
(g) number of teachers.
The uniqueness of this survey lay in that it identified every rural habitation in all the States and the Central Administrations covered in the survey based on the data of 1951 Census. From this Census the revenue villages were identified and the population of these villages as on the date of the survey was estimated. Later, the habitation(s)/hamlet(s) in each village were enumerated and grouped under different population slabs.
Due to some administrative, topographical as also political (since some pockets were still under foreign domination) reasons, West Bengal, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakkadive, Minicoy and Amindivi Islands, NEFA, Naga Hills, Pondicherry, some parts of the Punjab (Lahul and Spiti), Goa, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli were not covered in this survey.
Limitations of this survey as provided in the report are:
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 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, lie entirely outside the scope of this survey, though by themselves these are very crucial and im-
6 THIRD ALL-INDIA EDUCATIONAL SURVEY
portant points to be tackled by the local educational 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.
The significant contribution of this survey, apart from identifying every rural hahitation and enumerating the same, was the demarcation of the school areas in the then existing schools and the planning of the school areas for the future schools on the criteria for various stages of school education.
SECOND ALL-INDIA EDUCATIONAL SURVEY The objectivies of this survey were slightly wider than those of the first survey. These objectives were:
(i) To revise the data of the First Educational Survey in terms of the distribution and size of habitations and delimitation of school areas of existing primary, middle and high schools and to collect data required for the preparation of district development plans for education.
(ii) To study intensively: (a) the existing conditions of educational institutions-primary, middle and secondary schools, colleges, engineering institutions at the degree and diploma levels, and other institutions (that may be decided later on)-in respect of staff, their qualifications, experience and age, enrolment and wastage, physical facilities in the form of buildings, libraries, laboratories and equipment etc;
(b) Some special educational problems such as factors impeding opening of schools in backward areas, dropouts at primary stage, single-teacher schools, etc. (iii) To conduct studies in a few industrially deve- loping areas on manpower requirements and educational needs and demands and such other matters as pertain to human resource development and educational planning.
The objective under (i) above, envisaged preparation of district development plans with a view to location of institutions. For this purpose, the following objectives were laid down :
(a) To identify and enumerate :
(i) every distinct habitation ;
(ii) every primary, middle and secondary school ;
(iii) habitations which have in them provision for educational facilities at primary, middle and secondary stages ; and
(iv) habitations without educational facilities in them at primary, middle and secondary stages.
(b) To know:
(v) in case of every habitation under (iv) above, the distances at which educational facilities at the various stages are available for habitations in different population slabs;
(vi) the distribution of primary, middle and secondary sections and enrolment in these sections according to the number of teachers and classes in a section ;
(vii) the distribution of primary, middle and secondary sections according to the number of teachers and enrolment in each section ;
(viii) class-wise enrolment in schools with diffe- rent sections ;
(ix) the distances which children at primary, middle and secondary stages walk from their school- less habitations to the schools in the neighbouring habitations ;
(x) distribution of teachers in primary, middle and secondary sections according to their qualifications ;
(xi) enrolment in different classes at primary, middle and secondary stages ;
(xii) the distribution of untrained teachers according to their age and teaching experience ;
(xiii) distribution of schools according to their management and the nature of ownership of school buildings ; and
(xiv) the qualifications of teachers teaching science in secondary schools and laboratory facilities available to them for teaching science.
In this survey, the entire country was covered except some pockets-Lahul and Spiti in the erstwhile Punjab and Mizo Hills district in Assam.
The main findings of the First and Second Surveys are given below.
FIRST AND SECOND ALL-INDIA EDUCATIONAL SURVEYS 7
FIRST SURVEY
(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 neighbour-
hood 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) Item (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 Secondary stage 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) Item (xxiv) plus (xxvi) 25.90
(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
8 THIRD ALL-INDIA EDUCATIONAL SURVEY
(xxx) Percentage of habitations to be served by
secondary sections in them or in the neighbourhood
after planning 83.20
SECOND SURVEY
(Date of Reference 31.12.1965)
(i) Number of rural habitations
identified 9,82,251
(ii) Estimated population of
rural habitations 39,65,80,123
Primary education
(iii) Number of habitations served by primary
sections in them 3,73,086
(iv) Percentage of these habitations to the total 37.92
(v) Population of habitations with primary sections in
them 28,34,81,088
(vi) Percentage of population covered by primary sections
within the habitations 71.48
(vii) Number of habitations served by primary sections up
to a distance of 1 mile 4,83,730
(viii) Percentage of habitations served by primary
sections not within the habitations but up to a
distance of 1 mile 49.25
(ix) Percentage of habitations served either within
the habitation or up to a distance of 1 mile 87.23
(x) Population of habitations served by primary
sections not within the habitations but up to a
distance of 1 mile 9,30,90,978
(xi) Percentage of the population served by
primary sections not within the habitations but
up to a distance of 1 mile 23.48
(xii) Percentage of the population served by
primary sections either within the habitation
or up to a distance of 1 mile 94.96
(xiii) Percentage of population not served by
primary sections up to a distance of 1 mile 5.04
Middle stage
(xiv) Number of habitations with middle sections
in them 69,424
(xv) Percentage of habitations with middle
sections in them 7.07
(xvi) Number of habitations served by middle
sections outside the habitations but up to
a distance of 3 miles 6,43,470
(xvii) Percentage of habitations served by middle
sections outside the habitations but up to a
distance of 3 miles 65.51
Secondary stage
(xviii) Number of habitations with secondary
sections in them 16,231
(xix) Percentage of habitations with secondary
sections in them 1.65
(xx) Number of habitations served by secondary
sections not within the habitation but up to a
distance of 5 miles 5,84,923
(xxi) Percentage of habitations served by
secondary sections not within the habitation
but up to a distance of 5 miles 59.55