NON-FORMAL EDUCATION,
ADULT EDUCATION Up to 1976, in this important area, particularly important for researchers in Afro-Asian countries, only two research studies were conducted, both in the same year in the same university-Poona. Both were sociological in tone and about educational television (ETV). Jafar (1976) wanted to find out what relationship, if any, there was in Iran between concern for social mobility, receptivity and demand for ETV programmes. Sekhavat (1976) took up the same topic in the department of sociology.
Between 1976 and 1985, five studies have been reported, all about Thailand. The enhanced interest in this area is an outcome of the increasing need being felt for Distance Education and the use of technology in education in most developing countries. Non-formal edu- cation (NFE) needed or desired in the Bangkok Metropolitan Area of Thailand was the subject of Somrit's (1985) research study. The needs were identified on the basis of interviews with, and response to a questionnaire filled by students, organizations and concerned experts. The findings included the opinions of the target population about the quality of the programme and the problems faced by the personnel concerned.
The relevance of the NFE programme in Region 5 of Thailand from the educands' point of view in respect of employment opportunities, professional growth and economic betterment, was examined by Thongplea (1985) for Ph.D research. Courses in industry, business and agriculture were, the respondents felt, 'relevant' and yet most of the trained persons remained 'unemployed'. Nor was there any significant increase in the income of those who were in employment already. Pramua Unchai (1987) constructed and standardized an attitude scale in order to compare the attitude of various groups of teacher educators towards programmes of NFE leading to lifelong education in Thailand. Male as well as female teacher educators of high creativity level had more favourable attitudes. Saenghirun (1983) observes in a study completed in 1983 that, in Thailand, NFE began with the adult education programme. That explains why, for research about the administration of adult education, the available documents about NFE were examined and information was sought from the NFE authorities. It appears that the enquiry focused only on the organizational and administrative set-up.
Sanguan Songwiwat's (1984) objective was the development of Programmed Learning Material (PLM) of B.Ed. level in the North East Region of Thailand, and to use it for comparison of, (i) traditional, and (ii) programmed learning methods. This experimental study concluded that the former yielded better results.
MOTIVATION, ACHIEVEMENT
PERSONALITY Mathew (1944) had, way back in 1944, made a comparative study of educational ideas in the writings of Freud, Adler and Jung. Srinivasan (1969) compared (i) scholastic achievement, (ii) proficiency in language of certain class categories to find out if there was any relationship between these. Kureshi et al (1978) made a cross-cultural study of n-Ach, hope of success and fear about failure among African and Indian students, Giani (1982) carried out research for a Ph.D. in psychology to find out to what extent personality and achievementmotivation determined appeal and retention of the content of advertisements among students: (i) Indian and (ii) foreign. Based on analysis of data collected from a sample of 50, the interesting findings were that Indian students had a higher mean recognition score on coloured advertisements, and that foreign advertisements appealed more to girls than to boys.
Sultana (1983) and Md. Sahjahan (1982) both produced these for Ph.D. in psychology. The former's comparative study was about the effect of internal-external locus of control, and purpose in life on the adjustment patterns of adolescent boys and girls in Bangladesh; the
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latter compared the need-patterns of university students of Bangladesh and India. The main educational implications of Sultanas' study were that the curriculum should suit the students' interest and aptitudes. They should be allowed free expression of their emotions and normal interest in sex, and greater participation in health-related activities. Sahjahan's conclusion was that Indian students felt the need for change more strongly than their Bangladesh counterparts. Prasad (1980) also made a cross--cultural study for a PhD in the psychology of Indian and American college students' dreams. Such investigations have relevance for education because they may be useful to teachers interested in counselling, mental health and psychosomatic diseases.
The subject for Basu's (1981) investigation, carried out in a department of psychology, was about personality characteristics of East Pakistani and Tibetan backward refugee children. Poor,ego- function, rationalization, and need for autonomy were found to be characteristics common to both groups. Tibetan children were found to be more intelligent, maybe because of the 'better academic atmosphere' they enjoyed. Whether certain personality traits of college students in Thailand had any relationship with their social maturity was Saovaluk's (1983) study. For measuring social maturity, a scale was prepared by the researcher and a personality inventory in use in India was translated into Thai. Students high on social maturity were found to-be high on traits such as dominance, leadership and radicalism. Taking samples of academics in Bangladesh and Chandigarh, Hossain (1983) examined the nature and distribution of their scores on the dimension of temperament, emotional characteristics and intelligence to see if these were interrelated. Great pains were taken about the use of suitable-tools and elaborate statistical techniques; but what educational implications the study has, if any, is not clear.
Findings from Kanchana Watthayu's (1985) research clearly show, as was evident from investigations carried out previously, that in boys' as well as girls' n-Ach scores, besides their anxiety level, the organizational and administrative set-up was a factor. The four tools made use of had been translated into Thai by the researcher.
ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION Only two studies were made in the economics of education in the 70s, one in Gujarat University by Dave (1979) and the other in the Department of Economics of Bombay University by Pandey (1976). Analysing data collected from various reports and documents of the Government of India, Dave's main conclusion was that, with a higher percentage of income from the agricultural sector, the expenditure on primary education increased but there was more secondary as well as higher education in areas which offered more employment in industry. Pandey attempted a cost-benefit analysis of education in Nepal. His attempt to estimate 'the precise' contribution of education to Nepal's economy is based on yet unresolved controversies about 'returns' from education, 'earnings pattern 'and' private cost and public cost'.
After nine years of Pandey's study Mail (1985) examined the procedure, policy, procurement and utilization of financial resources in school education in Nepal. Findings from the data, collected from primary and secondary sources and responses to a questionnaire given to social workers besides administrators, were that only meagre funds are left for important items, e.g. library equipment and audio-visual aids; because income from local resources is declining and a lion's share of the grants is utilized for payment of administrators' and teachers' salaries. Several other countries, both Afro-Asian and European, (e.g. the UK) have had similar experience and hence the stress on the use of technology of education, as observed by John Vaizey.
In the same year, Roy (1985) investigated into quantitative and qualitative progress of education during the first five-year and the second two-year plan in order to identify some--of the factors responsible for economic development in Bangladesh, and to suggest more effective factors in economic growth. The abstract of Roy's thesis sheds no light on the latter objective.
SOCIOLOGICAL STUDIES Sociologists have an omnibus repertoire because their interests are manifold. There is Sociology of Education, of Medicine, of Law, and what not. Educational issues and problems which for a long time were primarily looked upon from the individual's and, therefore, from the psychologist's point of view, have now come to be considered more and more from that of the sociologist and the social psychologist
Beg (1962) made a cross-cultural study of Indian and American students' desirable and undesirable concep-
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tions of life. To find out if language abilities of children belonging to class categories had any relationship with their scholastic achievement, Srinivasan (1969) carried out an investigation. Five studies were made concerning Iranian students. Bakshai (1973) examined the causes of indiscipline among students in Iran; two enquiries, Sekhavat's (1976) and War's (1976), were concerned with the sociological study of educational television (ETV) in Tehran; Mehr (1976) in the same year carried out a socio-economic survey of students of Tehran University; and Karbassi (1981) compared the social adjustment and occupational aspirations of Indian students in Indian and German universities.
Comparative studies for the Ph.D. degree were made by Kerawalla (1979) and Hossain (1978) about the linguistic tangle in India and the introduction of universalization of primary education in Bangladesh respectively. It is difficult to understand why Hossain could not present in the study a comparative perspective by including, even if briefly, references to, say, India as Kerawalla did by comparing and contrasting the situation in India and the U.S.S.R. Some researchers' concern was with comparison of systems of education: Patel's (1975), Mammotil's (1977), and Sirirassamee's (1980).
Surveys were conducted to examine: education as an agent of change by Islam (1983), social background of college students by Dharamvir (1978), impact of education on a community in Nagaland by Sarkar (1979), image of 'self of and 'other national groups' by Marr et al (1979), socio-cultural background of teachers, foreign and native, in Ethiopia by Raj (1981), and role perception and expectation of university students in Thailand by Bunturngsook (1979). Survey type research has attracted researchers in increasing numbers because, as explained above, more and more researchers in comparative education conduct 'area studies'. A welcome shift in very recent years appears to be their interest in people's attitude towards and participation in educational programmes which have an impact on society.
Kanchana Watthayu, (1985) studied the attitudes of participating people from the community towards functional literacy and family planning programmes in central Thailand. Analysis of data collected by using a self-constructed Likert-type scale revealed that, generally, people from urban areas, women and younger persons on the whole, had more favourable attitudes. A similar study was made by Suwimon (1985) who collected data by means of a self-constructed tool. A not unexpected finding was that highly educated parents in urban areas had favourable attitudes towards school programmes. Problems and obstacles that stand in the way of agencies and, organizations responsible for rural development in general and agricultural education in particular engaged the attention of Phangcham (1985). Khatun's (1986) objective was to present data on the expansion of education and its effect on modernization of rural population in Bangladesh. The study was carried out in two villages. A descriptive comparative method was employed. The study revealed that, although the educated had, comparatively, a more modern outlook, their secular and civic orientation was not different. Ugai (1983) also had compared Nigerian and Indian college students by using a 'modernity' scale, and discovered that Nigerian students had higher scores. It is not clear whether the composition of the parallel groups was similar.
Pant (1984) made a more comprehensive and important study of village communities in Nepal. A survey of people's involvement in educational development and the modalities of interaction between school and society showed that the institutional set-up did not provide any effective participation to the common man, except in the form of 'labour donations'. This is true of several third world countries, as foreign participant observers have pointed out: 'Educational claims are expressed by governments to reflect the internal trends in favour of mass education, but are implemented in favour of the political elite on which the governments depend for their survival (Dave, L.A., 'Educational Policy in Bangladesh': 1978-8 1, Comparative Education, Vol. 19, No. 1, 1983, p. 86). Education left the ascription-based structure and traditional values untouched. To make suggestions for improvements in vocation-based education suiting the needs and aspirations of Indian society, Thrasia (1983) prepared a curricular framework' in the light of opinions' received from people who had spent 'years in long visits to U.K., U.S.A.'. After comparing the educational systems of the USA and India, Rebellow (1986) came to the conclusion that the Indian school system was not preparing students to face the future. Reghavakumari (1286) found, by carrying out investigation in scheduled caste (SC) and scheduled tribe (ST) girls' social attitudes, that SC girls had more favourable attitudes towards work than ST girls. Ara (1983) studied in Bangladesh student activists' sociopolitical attitudes towards nationalism, minorities, religion, and violence.
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HISTORICAL STUDIES A large number of researches conducted from 1951 to 1981 were area studies. Educational development in a country or a region of a country was presented in a historical perspective. In a few cases, the researchers compared educational development in two regions of one country, i.e. attempted what may be called 'intra-national' studies.
Gokhale (1951) studied the 'origin' of Buddhist education and its 'development' in India and some other countries. Ghosal's (1973) study is described as 'comparative' because it examines the curricular trend in India during as well as after the British period. Karmali (1975) too adopted the historical approach to compare educational development in the 'Old' and 'New' Conquests in Goa from 1910 to 1961. Dave (1979) and Singh (1980) completed inter-state studies of develop- ment of education in India-that of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Bihar in the former case; and that of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh in the latter (1947-74).
Ali Abd Al Rahman (1964) wrote a thesis on educational development in Iraq during the 'Abbasid Period', Sahib (1963) of Fiji during the colonial period, Aino (1964) of Southern Nigeria (1887- 1953), Lall (1981) of Singapore (1819-1969).
Sirirassame (1980) compared the systems of higher education in Thailand and India, beginning with a historical account. Coonjan (1973) presented education in Mauritius in a historical perspective and compared the existing structure with that in India, with a view to stressing the need for improvement.
Mushtar (1975), Lingajammanni (1976) and Sreenivasan (1978) adopted the historical approach in examining the 'foreign influence' on Indian education. Sharma (1978) confined himself to examining the influence of the USA alone.
Masih (1976) dipped into a much-explored field: the contribution of Christian missionaries towards education in India in the early colonial period. This is one of the subjects which cry for original and new interpretations from historians in general and educationists in particular. But what content analysis technique was applied by Masih to the primary sources, viz. the Despatch of 1854, Press, etc., is not clear. Similarly Rakshit (1985) did not break new ground in the study of Tagore's contribution to the spread of education in modem Bengal. This study could easily be excluded from the comparative education section but for its claim that it includs a comparison of the educational thought of Tagore and his contemporary 'educational thinkers' like Sri Gurudas, Ashutosh Mookerjee, Gandhi and several others. It is highly unlikely that what Nurul Islam (1983) researched into had been left unexplored during the 25 years or so after the end of British rule; nevertheless, it was worth doing in the new national set-up in Bangladesh. An attempt was made to make suggestions for a workable time-bound plan by examining the factors which have in the recent past impeded universalization of primary education in Bangladesh.
Siddique (1986) covered educational developments over very recent years in Nepal under the New System Plan, 1971-76. It is not a 'critical study' as the title claims and is overloaded with statistics taken from official documents in Nepal and UNESCO publications. The contents may, however, prove useful to contemporary comparative education specialists and future historians.
Das's (1986) claim to provide 'a tool for researches in Chinese education' sounds too tall; yet the study 'Education in Post-Mao China (76-90)', painstakingly carried out, is of great interest to comparative educationists. The conclusion that Mao's approach to education was eclectic and not antithetical to Confucianism is open to question.
PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES It is difficult to say why for a decade or so no study of a philosophical nature in a comparative perspective has been made while a very large number of scholars obtained Ph.D. degrees during this period after conducting research on topics from Manusmriti to Sai Baba.
Even earlier, only five comparativists took up research which can be mentinoned in this section. Subrahmanyam (1958) compared the educational ideas of Tagore and Gandhi, presenting profiles to bring out contrasts. But 'character building', 'inner sides of life', 'the unity of truth', which, the researcher says, characterized the philosophy of one or the other of the two thinkers were really shared by both. Later, Mishra (1977) dipped into. the writings of Rousseau, Nunn, Dewey and Gandhi in search of similarities. Goswami (1961) stereotyping the East and the West as spiritual and material, underrated the variety subsumed under each. Kuzhandavelu (1965), and Robinson in 1970, worked on an already much-explored theme, viz., Dewey's educational philosophy and Gandhi's.
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All these five comparative, reflective type studies were taken up by researchers who appear to have preferred to go along the beaten track, which tendency per se may not detract from the quality of the research. But there must be a new vision, a new approach, if not novelty; otherwise these look like a rehash of earlier studies taken up by Ph.D. scholars who keep an eye on the calendar and/or are diffident about venturing out into uncharted territories.
This holds true, though to a lesser degree, about a large number of empirical studies as well. The worst offenders are some of the researchers who completed correlational-type studies using foreign tests, inventories, check-lists, etc. or their translated versions, and in many cases, without reference to the calculus of logic, they draw conclusions. What may be merely coincidental is interpreted in terms of cause and effect, like the increase in the import of whisky bottles and in the arrival of missionaries. In such cases, to make amends for lack of adequate clarification of concepts, formidable satistical techniques are arrayed, where simple tests of significance or percentages would do. The tail is made to wag the dog. During the last two or three years there have been some exceptions. Examples are evaluative studies concerning teaching of school subjects, investi- gations into the traditional curriculum with a view to formulating the new, new educational programmes for community welfare etc. and people's attitudes towards and participation in these.