Survey studies regarding wastage, stagnation and non-enrolment were actually initiated in its Worli area of Bombay city by the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) in 1955. The corporation published several reports on this crucial subject. These include surveys of non-enrolment (1956), wastage (1956), age of entry of children (1958), and wastage and stagnation in the whole of the Bombay region 1950-58 (1967). Besides these efforts of the BMC, Sane (1960) investigated the phenomena of non-enrolment and irregular attendance of primary school children in the backward areas of the Poona Municipal Corporation. Tiwari (1970) analysed the dynamics of dropout children in the same city. These seven studies on the problems of universalization in urban areas were conducted up to the early 70s. Thereafter, the emphasis appears to have shifted in favour of studies in the rural sector. The SIE, Haryana (1974) made a beginning by studying primary education in Hayatpur, a village about ten kilometres from Gurgaon. Dass (1975) undertook a comparative study of educational wastage in 743 rural and urban schools of Assam. Sarkar (1980) of the Demography Research Unit (DRU), Calcutta, conducted a pilot investigation on dropouts among the rural population and then made a survey of primary education in 72 sample villages in the districts around Calcutta (1980). Seetharamu and Usha Devi (1981) studied rural dropouts in Karnataka, Naik (1982) in the agro- climatically different areas of Pune, Hussain (1982), in the rural areas of Bhilwara district of Rajasthan and Prasad and Sharma (1982) in six rural districts of Andhra Pradesh.
3.2 Habitation Studies Two reports appeared as rejoinders to the surveys conducted by the BMC in the Bombay urban area (1958) and by Sarkar of the DRU in the rural area around Calcutta (1980). These studies reported observations on the census conducted by the investigators. The BMC found that the 1951 census had failed to enumerate more than half the number of non- attending children. Even of those who appeared before enumerators, 58.5 per cent failed to join the school. A large majority of them had gone to their native places outside Bombay and had not taken their school-leaving certificates. Domestic work and the reluctance of the parents were found to be the two major causes for non-attendance. Gainful employment of children, contrary general belief was not found to be a substantial reason for non-attendance. In the Calcutta survey, reporting errors were analysed and it was found that there was suppression of facts regarding non-enrolment, more by females, especially literate mothers.
3.3. Population Studies In the addition to the 37 area studies and ten relating to the universalization of education, separate studies on special target groups of SC/ST were also conducted. The beginning was made by Gujarat Vidyapeeth where Bihari (1969) and Massavi (1971, 1976) studied wastage and stagnation among tribal children. Pratap and others (1971) conducted a similar study in the tribal area of Andhra Pradesh and Agarwal (1972) in Mahendragarh block of Madhya Pradesh. Shrivastava (1986) investigated the phenomenon of stagnation among tribal and non-tribal students of VIII grade having a bearing on socio-psychological aspects.
A second set of findings on tribal populations related to cases in which several schools were on record but many of them were non- functional. Thus the wastage was quite high. Ashram schools had lower wastage ratios than panchayat schools. The first grade was the most critical stage for wastage. Agricultural operations, festivals and marriage ceremonies were directly related to absenteeism. Child labour was another factor. Wastage and stagnation, by and large, were due to ignorance among parents. III-equipped schools, teaching through a language other than the mother-tongue, physical fitness and unsuitable curriculum were other factors.
Three studies were conducted to identify the problems of scheduled caste children. Punalekar (1975) studied the reasons for dropout among Harijan children of Eastern Uttar Pradesh; Pimpley (1981) investigated the problem of non-attendance among scheduled caste
1254 J.S.GREWAL,I.D.GUPTA
children in Haryana; and Dhongade (1986) conducted a critical study on non-enrolment, wastage and stagnation among scheduled caste boys and girls in Aurangabad district during the first two years of schooling. The UP study indicated that there was a growing awareness among parents concerning the need for education but some of them felt helpless in the matter of continuing the education of their children. The panchayats paid only marginal attention to education and-village leaders were generally apathetic and unmotivated. The teachers were often found to be biased and guilty of discriminating between children on the basis of caste.
Women education was the theme of only one study. Majumdar and Chaudhary (1978) explored the reasons for disparity in the sex ratio the level of primary education.
3.4. Universalization Measures Fifteen studies related to the measures taken or experimented on to improve universalization of education. Like the survey studies, experimental measures were also initiated by the BMC. It conducted an experiment to check stagnation and under achievement through parallel classes in Bombay's municipal schools (1968) and also an ungraded unit experiment (1969). Both these experiments suggest that ungraded classes should be arranged for under-achievers and, since the lag in their achievement is generally of not more than six months they should not be held back for a full academic year. Gupta (1974) conducted a similar study in Delhi schools; Joshi (1980) in schools of Rajasthan; and Pillay (1982) in Tamil Nadu schools.
Sharma (1977) and Saxena (1982) studied the impact of an enrolment drive in Rajasthan. Sharma (1982) studied this activity from another standpoint. He found that if teachers were posted in places of their liking it had a positive influence on enrolment and retention of children.
An experimental study to check wastage was conducted by Shah (1983) in Bombay schools. He found that parents of the 60 per cent dropouts, though their duties not were of a regular nature, still stayed away from home all day. III-health of younger brothers or sis- ters, child labour and pre-engagement of children in household affairs were other factors. Stagnation was maximum in Grade I. An experiment, which had an impact on student behaviour, suggested that 11 am to 5 pm was the ideal school timing and that the activity method was the most useful. Provision of midday meals (MDM) was another measure that improved the retention capacity of schools. The MDM programme of CARE, India (1977), was found to be effective in the state of Karnataka. Its effectiveness at the national level also was confirmed by Saxena and Mittal (1985).
Two studies were conducted on the effectiveness of the media and community involvement. Mohanty and Mohanty (1984) studied the effect of the SITE programme on attendance and enrolment in Orissa, and the NIEPA (1986) conducted an experiment under project ARISE to study the impact of community involvement on universalization. An analytical study was also conducted in this regard by Acharya (1984). He made an evaluation of education policy in India with special reference to the Andhra Pradesh Primary Education Act, 1961, and reviewed the implementation of the policy in Warangal district. He found that Headmasters and teachers did show genuine interest in accelerating enrolment and retention and supported schools for girls but the attitude of the rural elite was not encouraging; there were no extension services and no inspectorate, and the census of children attending the school was not conducted effectively.
IV. PUPIL ACHIEVEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT Universalization is one problem of elementary education, another is the poor quality of such education as is provided. Admission of children to school at the primary level was not sufficient, in itself, to achieve the desired objectives. Despite schooling, the children remained educationally backward.
A break-up of studies on pupil achievement and development is given in Table 25.4
Table 25.4
STUDIES ON PUPIL ACHIEVEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
Aspects/Decades 50s 60s 70s 80s Total
Backwardness .. 5 2 2 9
Test Construction .. .. 1 3 4
Correlates of
Achievement .. 2 3 8 13
Development .. .. 4 4 8
Total: .. 7 10 17 34
RESEARCH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION-A TREND REPORT 1255
Lohitakshan (1961) conducted an experimental study to determine the association of social environment factors with backwardness. Shah and Darji (1966) presented reports of their investigations identifying the academic causes of backwardness in mathematics, social studies and general attainment. Puranik (1969) studied academic backwardness in Nagpur schools. The SCERT, Andhra Pradesh (1976), investigated the causes of poor results of common examinations at seventh grade level. Sharma (1978) studied the academic progress of children in Sibsagar district of Assam and Desai (1985) investigated problems of learning among primary school children in Gujarat. Devi (1985) has analysed the barriers that exist in the school achievement of scheduled caste students. All these studies indicated that conditions in schools were far from satisfactory, the methods defective, teaching unplanned, textbooks inadequate, examinations subjective, teachers inefficient and parents non-supporting.
Any attempt to improve the quality of education requires reliable and valid procedures of assessment, especially of the diagnostic tests so that remedial measures can be taken. Sinha (1971) constructed a diagnostic test of concepts used in arithmetic at the upper primary level. Gadkari (1982) constructed a diagnostic test in general science for fifth grade children and Rao (1985) studied the nature and extent of reading disabilities. Besides these three diagnostic tests, Keskar (1981) developed a test of problem-solving ability in mathematics for children in the age group of 3-7. Achievement of children, however, depends also on several other factors. Thirteen researches have been conducted to study achievement in relation to relevant variables, bilingualism being the first to engage attention. Rao (1963) studied the achievement and adjustment of bilingual children in Madras and Chikramane (1967) studied this phenomenon in schools located on the border of Maharashtra and Karnataka.
Pre-school education is an important input for feeding primary education. Desai (1970), Sarma (1973), Muralidharan and Banerji (1974), Mohite (1981), Das and Garg (1985), and Lal (1986) investigated the effects of early admission to the pre-school system on school enrolment and their subsequent academic achievement.
Another academic variable of the study has been reading ability and its contribution to school achievement. Jain (1981) conducted a study on the impact of various subjects. Socio-economic conditions and silent reading comprehension ability on achievement in related variables also play a significant role in success at school. Shukla (1984) studied students' achievement in relation to socioeconomic status and size of the family. Deshpande (1985) conducted a specific study en language ability in relation to deprivation suffered by chil- dren at home.
The personality of the child affects his scholastic attainment. Mohanty (1985) studied the learning and personal adjustment of children in relation to their anxiety level. Sundersmita (undated) studied creativity, emotionality and self-concept of gifted average children through the projective technique of kinetic family drawings.
Cognitive and psychomotor abilities of children can be nurtured through primary school experiences. Chattopadhyaya (1971) investigated developmental problems relating to nine different aspects of common skills among nursery and primary school children of Warangal. Reddy (1971) investigated the development of causal thinking and concept of life among children in grades I-VI. Basu (1977) studied the development of concepts of weight, number and energy among urban and rural children in grades III-V. Arya (1981) also investigated the development of the concepts of weight, volume, classification and association among children in the age group 6-10. Manika (1983) investigated acquisition of concepts in mathematics in relation to personal and environmental variables. Rath (1972) studied the cognitive manifestations of certain caste groups-Brahmins, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes children. While the Brahmin children were consistently better in verbal abilities and concept formation, the tribal children were ambitious and vigilant. Banga (1980) investigated the cognitive processes of classification and seriation along with personality characteristics of boys and girls in English and Hindi medium schools of Jodhpur. Padhy (1986) studied the development of logical thinking ability and adjustment of school children.
V. CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT Forty-three of the 208 studies under review related to curriculum development and its various aspects. Chronologically the trend has been one study during the 50s followed by two, eight and 35 during the 60s, 70s and 80s. Thematically, four studies relate to trends in cur- riculum development, 19 to improvement in school learning six are on the use of textbooks and three each on graded vocabulary, educational television and mis-
1256 J.S. GREWA, I.D. GUPTA
cellaneous curriculum programmes. Five studies relate to the concepts of hidden curriculum which include ethnicity, socioe-conomic status and teacher attitude. The break up of these studies is presented in Table 25.5.
Table 25.5
STUDIES ON VARIOUS ASPECTS OF CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
Aspects 50s 60s 70s 80s Total
Curriculum Trends .. 1 1 2 4
Improvement Studies 1 1 3 14 19
Textbooks .. .. 3 3 6
Graded Vocabulary .. .. .. 3 3
Educational Television .. .. .. 3 3
Hidden Curriculum .. .. 1 4 5
Misc. Programmes .. .. .. 3 3
Total: 1 2 8 32 43
5.1 Curriculum Trends The earliest study on curriculum in elementary education in India was conducted by Chaudhary (1968). It was followed by a study by Shukla (1975) which investigated various aspects of curriculum development in Gujarat during the period 1940-70. It found inadequate curriculum concern at the schools level, lack of monitoring and evaluation as well as lack of involvement of teachers. Biswas (1986) studied the curriculum for the primary stage in Bangladesh. In India, the UNICEF- sponsored CAPE project has been undertaken to improve curriculum so as to provide to children access to primary education through the use of local-specific learning materials. Yadav and others (1986) conducted an evaluation of these programmes.
5.2 Quality Improvement Studies Improving the quality of education is the major concern of curriculum projects. Sixteen studies have been made in this direction. These started at the initiative of the BMC (1957). It was found that child- centred teaching practices and correlated play activities influenced the quality of pupil attainment, attendance and discipline in class I. Chickermane (1964) conducted an experiment to evolve a teaching technique for children of single teacher schools which compared favourably with those of the multiple-teacher schools. Chokshi (1977) investigated the effects of psychological inputs in the form of achievement motivation and other psychological traits on the academic performance of children. At the national level, a UNICEF project titled, Primary Education Curriculum Renewal (PECR) was undertaken by the NCERT in collaboration with different state education departments. The SCERT, Rajasthan (1979, 1982) studied the impact of the PECR project materials in Banswara district schools. Dave and others (1988) conducted a national-level survey and studied the effectiveness of PECR. Another UNESCO-APEID sponsored project was undertaken to improve the achievement level of primary school children in the states of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi where improvement was noticed in the teaching and learning of language, mathematics, science and environmental science. Singh (1987) reported that innovative methods of teaching were effective in developing active learning style and character among children. Teacher behaviour, supervisory practices by the inspectorate and parental attitudes also improved as a result of interventions of various types.
Specific studies in various subjects have also been conducted. The first was a language development project for pupils of grades III and IV by the BMC (1970). The two recent studies by Desai (1986) and Kachhia (1986) experimented with reading improvement programmes. Five programmes pertain to mathematics, science and environmental studies. Rajput, Saxena and Jadhao (1980), in-an NCERT-financed project, studied the effect of the environmental approach in teaching science on environmental awareness of primary school children. In another project (1985), these investigators extended the use of the environmental approach to social sciences. Sharma (1978) conducted a study on teaching natural sciences. Pandey (1980) investigated the effect of programmed instruction on mathematics learning. Sastry (1982) investigated the effectiveness of the use of talking toys in teaching science, while the SCERT, Andhra Pradesh (1981), evaluated the UNICEF pilot project in teaching science and mathematis. Eshan (1985) conducted an evaluative study of the environmental education programme in Bangladesh primary schools. One study has also been conducted on the physical fitness of children. Moorthy (1981) conducted a survey of minimum muscular fitness of school children and compared the influence of yogic exercises and physical exercises on fitness.
5.3. Textbooks Textbooks, as tools for curriculum transaction and improvement, have also been studied through research. The
RESEARCH IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION-A TREND REPORT 1257
MSBTPCR (1974) conducted a statistical survey on the use of textbooks in classes I to VII. Another survey on textbooks was conducted by Krishna Kumari and others (1980) on the use of mathematics textbooks in Harytana. Three studies have been evaluated in specific subjects in mathematics by Walvakar (1971); in Hindi by Chaudhary (1976); in environmental studies by the SCERT, Andhra Pradesh (1980) and one specific study has been conducted by Kurup (1984) who made linguistic and content analyses of Malayalam readers.