NON-FORMAL EDUCATION
DURING the last couple of years some concerted efforts have been made towards fulfilling the objective of universalisation of elementary education. An important measure adopted was opening of non-formal education centres for children in the age group 6-14. this measure was essentially meant for those children who, though in the age 6 to 14, were out of school either because they never went to school or were withdrawing from the school prematurely that is, before completion of the elementary education. While the children under the formal system are accounted for in the normal educational statistics compiled by official agencies, the children who attend such non-formal centres are not covered anywhere. Hence, in the present survey information was sought in the village information. Form about the availability of such centres in the village as well as the number of participants, boys and girls, enrolled in such centres. There are also nonformal education centres for higher age groups 15 to 35 and above. Similar information has been sought about these centres as well. As in the case of school enrolments, the information collected relates to 30.9.1978. Obviously, many centres which were started later on, particularly on 2.10.1978, Gandhi Jayanti Day, when a massive programme under National Adult Education Programme (NAEP) was initiated have not been covered.
In the Third All-India Educational Survey also an attempt was made to collect information on non-formal education programmes, However, it was found that in some States the coverage of such centres was incomplete and in some others these centres were not covered at all. Consequently, no meaningful comparison of this data with that of the earlier surveys is possible. Further, information provided here is in respect of rural areas only since no schedule was canvassed for urban areas and hence no information in respect of urban areas was collected.
Among 5,73,842 villages in the country only 25.194 (4.39%) village have provision for non-formal education for one or more of the age-groups `6-14', `14+ -35' and `above 35'.
Of the 50,416 villages in the population slab `2000 or more', 7,023, (13.93%) have facility for one type of non-formal education or the other. Similarly, in the population slab of `1000-1999', 7,330 (8.04%) of the existing 91,178 villages have the facility. Only 4,590 (1.57%) of 2,96,344 villages having less than 500 people each, have this facility. Most of the villages have only one type of facility. There are a few villages where more than one centre exists for the same age group but their number is insignificantly small.
The States of Gujarat (1,768, 9.66%), Karnataka (1,568,5.88%), Rajasthan (4,151, 3.45%), Tamil Nadu (1,081, 7.33%), Uttar Pradesh (6,392, 5.70%) and West Bengal (1,164, 3.06%) together account for 52.09% of the total number of villages having some form of nonformal education centres for one age group or the other. Also these are the States in which more than 1000 villages have a non-formal centre. But even in these States the percentage of villages having any form of non-formal education facility does Dot reach even 10%.
Among the Union Territories, Chandigarh, Delhi, Goa, Daman & Diu, Lakshadweep and Pondicherry have more than 20% villages each within their jurisdiction having facility for one form of non-formal education or the other. Since these administrations have small areas not much significance can be attached to them.
192 FOURTH ALL-INDIA EDUCATIONAL SURVEY
STATEMENT 11.1
Villages having non-formal education centres for various age groups
Age-groups Villages having non-formal education centres in the population slab
2000 or more 1000-1999 500-999 Below 500 Total
1 2 3 4 5 6
6-14 1823 1732 1679 1397 6631
(27.78) (26.44) (25.30) (20.48) (100.00)
14+35 5005 5384 4363 3190 17942
(28.67) (30.39) (23.70) (17.24) (100.00)
above 35 665 685 668 652 2637
(24.89) (25.74) (25.00) (24.37) (100.00)
Total Villages 50416 91178 135904 296344 573842
(8.79) (15.89) (23.68) (51.64) (100.00)
Figures within parentheses indicate percentages with respect to row totals.
11.1 Villages having non-formal education centres for age-group
6-14 It is observed that hardly 6,631 (1.16%) villages in the country have facility for non-formal education for this age-group. Of an estimated child population of 13,13,49,000 in this age-group only 7,36,22,154(56.10%) children are studying in schools at different stages under formal system. This leaves a gap of 5,77,26,846 (43.90%) children under compulsory education age-group, who are outside the formal system either having not attended the school at all or having withdrawn form the school prematurely before completing the formal system of education.
The problem is to provide education to these children who are out of school but are still within the age-group of compulsory education. Of course, some of them may be attending unrecognised schools but their exact number is not known and most of them are concentrated in urban areas. Apparently the nonformal education centres (as in 1978) have touched only the fringe of the problem of providing a suitable alternative.
It is observed that in the category of villages having one centre and two centres each, the number of villages having facility goes on decreasing as the population of the village decreases. But in case of villages having. more than 2 centres each, the trend is slightly disturbed since the maximum number of such villages are in the population slab `1000-1999.'
Tripura is the only State which does not have even a single village having the facility for the age-group 6-14 and the Union Territories A & N Islands, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Delhi, Lakshadweep and Pondicherry do not have any village with this facility. Among the States, Assam (709), Karnataka (456), Rajasthan (654), Tamil Nadu (1,081) and Uttar Pradesh (1,566) each, have more than 400 villages providing non-formal education for this age-group and together they account for 4,466 (67.35%) villages having this facility. Even though Bihar has hardly 42.63% children of this age-group in the formal school system there are just 8 villages having this facility which is the lowest amongst the States. Also in many other States the programme has not picked up the tempo and calls for greater efforts in this direction.
NON-FORMAL EDUCATION 193
STATEMENT 11.2
Villages according to number of non-formal centres in various population slabs
Villages with non-formal centres in population slab
Number of 2000 and 1000-1999 500-999 Below 500 Total
centres above
1 2 3 4 5 6
One 1616 1566 1547 1340 6069
Two 154 111 86 34 385
More than 53 55 46 23 177
two
Total 1823 1732 1679 1397 6631
(3.62) (1.90) (1.24) (0.47) (1.16)
Note: Figures within parentheses indicate percentages w.r.t. total number of villages
in each slab.
Of the 6,631 villages having these centres, in 6,069 (91.52%) villages there is only one centre and another 427 (5.83%) villages are having two centres each. In the remaing 177 (2.65%) villages more than two centres are functioning. Strangely enough even villages with less than 500 population each, there are 60 villages where two or more centres are functioning.
11.2 Villages with number of participants per village under
various population slab The number of participants enrolled in these centres varies from ten to more than 40 per village. Only in higher participants groups, i.e. 31-40 and above 40, there is distinct trend in the number of villages decreasing from higher population slabs to the lower popula- tion slabs. Similarly there is an increasing trend in the lower enrolment groups, i.e. 1-10 and 11-20. This phenomenon is not contrary to what one should expect. The minimum number of villages. have 21 to 30 participants. It may be observed that the programme has not reached the villages in lower population slabs where changes of opening of new schools are less and consequently the children in these villages do not have access to formal education in schools. More than 75% (79.5%) of the villages which have these centres, have a population of 1000 or more.
In the 6,631 villages having facilities for non-formal education in the age-group 6-14, 1,94,173 participants have been enrolled of whom 57,985 (29.860') are girls. The total number of participants constitutes just 0.52% of the 3,92,32,052 children who are still in the age, group 6-14 but out of school. States of Assam (21,148), Karnataka (13,894), Rajasthan (15,321), Tamil Nadu (42,481), and Uttar Pradesh (46,502), each of which have more than 400 villages with this facility have more than 10,000 participants each. In fact, States like Gujarat (4,629), Himachal Pradesh (7,505), Kerala (4,743), Madhya Pradesh (6,366), Meghalaya (4,822), Orissa (6,233) and West Bengal (4,961) have also sizable number of participants considering the number of villages equipped with the non-formal education centre. The earlier five States with more than 10,000 participants each together account for 1,39,346 participants i.e. 71.87% of the total participants. It is observed that there are 26.85 participants per village, on an average, attending the centres for the age-group 6-14. Looking into the availability of the same, the goal of achieving universalisation of elementary education through the non-formal education centres is still far remote.
194 FOURTH ALL-INDIA EDUCATIONAL SURVEY
STATEMENT 11.3
Villages according to number of participants in different population slabs
Number of Villages having non-formal centres in population slabs
participants
per village 2000 and 1000- 500- Below Total
above 1999 999 500
1 2 3 4 5 6
1-10 127 144 163 230 664
11-20 213 292 331 330 1166
21-30 549 674 625 467 2315
31-40 547 393 403 236 1579
Above 40 387 229 157 134 907
Total 1823 1732 1679 1397 6631
11.3 Non-formal education for adults
11.3.1 Age group 14+35 Programme of non-formal education has been in existence for the young adults for a long time in various forms. Consequently largest number of villages, 17,942, in comparison to other age groups are having this facility in them. Still this hardly covers 3.13% of the total number of villages in the country. The States of Gujarat (1,768), Karnataka (1,568), Uttar Pradesh (6,392) and West Bengal (1,164) each have more than 1000 villages having non-formal centres. Kerala, with high literacy rate, understandably has the lowest number of villages, only 70, having centres for this age-group. Among the Union Territories, only Chandigarh (5), Dadra & Nagar Haveli (4) and Mizoram (7) have less than 10 villages having this facility whereas in Arunachal Pradesh the facility is available in 228 villages.
In all 5,005 villages, having the facility, are in the population slab '2000 and above' and 5,384 in the population slab '1000-1999'. These two together account for 10,389 (57.90%) villages having this facility. Of the 17,942 villages having these centres 15,830 (88.23%) villages have only one centre each 1,477 (8.23%) villages two centres each and the remaining 635 villages have more two centres each.
In 14,266 (79.5 1 %) villages the number of participants is more than 20. Of these, 7,995 villages have between 21 to 30 participants. Only 845 (4.71%) villages have 10 participants or less each.
There are 5,89,622 participants in this programme which includes 1,24,527 (21.12%) women. In the absence of exact number or even an estimated number of literates in the age groups, these figures do not mean much. But one thing is certain that this is a very insignificant figure in comparison to the number of illiterates in the age group. Only three States namely, Gujarat (81,608), Karnataka (51,314) and Uttar
NON-FORMAL EDUCATION 195
Pradesh (2,00,338) have more than 50,000 participants each in this age group and another seven States each have more than 10,000 participants. Assam, Manipur and Punjab have less than 5,000 participants each. Among the Union Territories, Chandigarh (92) has even less than 100 participants whereas A & N Islands (2,212), Arunachal Pradesh (5,964), Goa, Daman & Diu (3,136) and Pondicherry (2,156) have more than 2,000 participants each. The three States each having more than 50,000 participants, together account for 3,33,260 i.e., 56.50% of the total participants in the age group. Himachal Pradesh among the States has larger proportion of women participants, 62.11%. So also the Union Territory of Delhi where women outnumber men, the proportion of women participants being 64.55%. In Mizoram, the proportion of male and female participants is almost the same, the actual number being 136 males and 133 females respectively. On a average, about 27.8 participants per village are attending the non- formal education centres in the age-groups 14-35.
11.3.2 Age group above 35 In spite of the fact that the facilities of non-formal education for this age group have been in existance even since the non-formal education was introduced, this has made little progress since only 2,673 villages, a poor 0.47% of the total villages in the country, have got facility of non-formal education for this age group. While there is no facility for this age group in Manipur, in the States of Assam (4), Bihar (7) and Tripura (3) the figure does not reach even double digit figures. Among other States, Rajasthan (421) and West Bengal (476) have more than 400 villages each catering to this age group while Karnataka (247) and Uttar Pradesh (288) account for more than 200 villages each. The four States having more than 200 villages each providing facility for this age group, together account for 1,432 (53.57%) villages having the facility while all the eight-States having more than 100 villages each having this facility account for 2,070 (77.40%) villages which have this facility.
A and N Islands does not have any facility for this age group while only Arunachal Pradesh (71), Delhi (35) and Goa, Daman & Diu (36) each have more than 30 villages with the facility for the age group above 35.
Unlike the earlier age groups where the distribution of villages under different population slabs exhibited considerable fluctuations in the availability of the facility, for this age group the facility is almost evenly distributed, 665 (24.88%) villages in the population slab '2000 or more', 688 (25.70%) villages in the population slab '1000-1999', 668 (24.99%) villages in the population slab '500-999' and 652 (24.43%) villages in the population slab 'below 500'.
Even in the pattern of distribution of villages according to the number of participants, the trend is reversed with respect to the earlier age groups in that the number of villages goes on decreasing as the number of participants per village goes on increasing except in the participants range 11-20 and 21-30 where there is a slight increase. In 1,392 (52.08%) villages out of 2,673, the member of participants is 20 or below per village. Amongst these villages, 2,365 (88.48%) villages have only one centre, 175 (6.32%) villages two centres and the remaining 133 (5.20%) villages more than two centres.
There are 56,928 participants including 13,933 (24.47) women attending the non-formal education centres in the 2,673 villages. In the States of Gujarat (5,655), Karnataka (6,666), Rajasthan (8,191), Uttar Pradesh (8,627) and West Bengal (10,813) more than 5,000 participants per state are taking advantage of the system and contribute 39,942 (70.16%) of the total number of participants. In the States of Assam (89), Bihar (98) and Tripura (54) the number of participants is less than 100 in each State. in Haryana women (367) outnumber men (279). Although there are 421 villages having this facility in Rajasthan the number of participants is only 8,191 as compared to Uttar Pradesh where even though there are 288 villages, the number of participants is slightly more, 8,627. Among the Union Territories, Arunachal Pradesh (549) and Delhi (514) have more than 500 participants each whereas in Chandigarh (14) and Mizoram (64) the number of participants is less than 100 in each case. The average number of participants per village in this age group is 20.53.
From the above discussions it is evident that the non-formal approach at all stages, particularly in the age group 6-14, has still a long way to go to make any reasonable impact on the masses.