FOREWARD
 

The Fourth All-India Educational Survey was conducted during 1978-79 with a view to providing data on the existing educational facilities at the school level. The survey was taken up mainly to meet the data requirements of the Sixth Plan. The reference date was 30 September 1978. In the context of the high priority given to the programme of universalisation of elementary education in the Sixth Five Year Plan, the need was felt for updating the base line data for the formulation of the Plan. Unlike the Third All India Educational Survey (for which the date of reference was 31 December 1973), the Fourth Survey did not cover all the different types and levels of education; it was confined only to school education.

The specific objectives of the survey were

(i) To assess the present position of the provision of educational facilities at various stages of school education in respect of coverage of school-going population; the distance to be covered by a child to have access to the school; enrolment of children belonging to the weaker sections of the society and enrolment of girls, etc. ;

(ii) To assess the availability of minimum basic facilities in the schools, such as building, furniture, library, equipment, health and sanitation and incentives ;

(iii) To prepare block maps with existing schooling facilities and to identify clusters of habitations where institutions need to be opened or existing schools need to be upgraded; and

(iv) To prepare the ground for conducting quarterly monitoring of information relating to school attendance, and systematic updating of the data relating to enrolment and other educational facilities provided in institutions at block level annually.

The present report provides the findings of the survey at the national level in respect of the first two objectives. In the survey, two schedules were used-(a) Village Information Form-to collect data on rural habitations and educational facilities available in these habitations, and (b) School Information Form-to get information about the existing facilities, enrolments and teachers in schools. The required information was collected from every village and every recognised school in the country. In each State the data were compiled first at the block level, then at the district and State levels. Finally, national tables were prepared from State tables. This report presents these tables and the findings of the survey in respect of the facilities that existed from primary to higher secondary stage of education, students enrolled and teachers teaching in the existing recognised primary, middle and high/higher secondary schools.

Apart from the survey findings presented in this report, a good deal of useful information which was collected in the survey is available in the form of block tables, block maps and district tables at the block and district levels. The survey would serve its purpose fully, only when this information is used most effectively in planning of educational facilities at these levels.

The survey was conducted in collaboration with the Departments of Education in different States and Union Territories. We are grateful to the Directors of Education/

(vi)

Public Instruction of States and Union Territories for their cooperation and help in conducting this survey. We are particularly grateful to the State Survey Officers and the officers in charge of education at the block level for painstakingly collecting and compiling the data at their respective levels. Our thanks are also due to the Principals/Headmasters and teachers who provided the data for their schools and villages in the required form.

Finally, I thank the officers of the Planning Commission for their keen interest in the survey and of the Ministry of Education and Culture for providing continuous administrative support for the survey work. I am also grateful to Dr. A.B.L. Srivastava, Shri K.N. Hiriyanniah and their colleagues in the Survey and Data Processing Unit for the hard work put in by them in completing the survey successfully and for bringing out the report in its present form.

I hope this report will be found useful not only by educational planners and administrators at various levels, but by educationists, social scientists, research workers and, in general, by all who use educational data.

                                                          SHIB K. MITRA
                                                          Director
        New Delhi                          National Council of Educational  
        31 December 1980                             Research and Training