Concepts and Definitions

2.29. The Ministry of Education has adopted the standardised definitions and concepts as recommended by

the UNESCO keeping in view the Indian situations. The Committee noted with satisfaction that the concepts and definitions adopted by the Ministry of Education are mostly in conformity with the UNESCO's recommendations and well-adopted to suit India's system of education. The Committee, therefore recommends uniform adoption of these concepts and definitions by all agencies concerned with the collection and compilation of education data at the Centre like UGC, NCERT and others, as well as the State Governments.

ISCED Classifiation

2.30. The ISCED classification of education as suggested by UNESCO envisages collection, compilation and presentation of data by (a) level, (b) fields of study (courses), and (c) detailed programmes under each field of study. This is called 5-digits classification, levels being denoted by the first digit, fields/courses in the next two digits, and programmes in various fields/courses by further two digits, so that in total it becomes five digits classification.

2.31. While the Committee appreciates the efforts made by the Ministry of Education to adopt ISCED classification, it is of the view that the various concepts and definitions used in educational statistics should be further standardised, wherever necessary, and adopted uniformly by various agencies concerned with educational statistics at the National and State levels. It would be desirable to incorporate these concepts in the syllabus for teacher training courses. It would also be necessary to bring out a handbook explaining the concepts and definitions for the use of educational administrators.

Scope and Coverage of Educational Statistics

2.32. In regard to the scope and coverage of educational statistics, brought out by the different agencies,

the Committee noted that the educational statistics collected are only in respect of the recognised institutions in India whereas a number of institutions, themselves unrecognised are offering instructions for regular courses of study.

2.33. Similarly the structured formal system alone is being taken into account, almost to the exclusion of the non-formal system such as correspondence courses, etc., which are otherwise well recognised. To the extent that these statistics are ignored, the official statistics do not present the total education effort.

2.34. It was noted that the non-formal system of education is yet to be defined in our statistical system. A very broad classification of the non-formal educations relating to out of school education or outside regular programme unlike the formal system was not considered adequate. Classification on the basis of the institutions engaged in the activity was also not proper inasmuch as the definition of `recognised institutions' was comprehensive and apply for both formal and non-formal education. Considering that both recognised and non- recognised institutions will be operative in the field of non-formal education and taking into the view the difficulties in the compilation of data relating to courses operated by unrecognised institutions, the Committee recommends that for the present the statistics in regard to non-formal education be collected only in respect of the programmes organised by recognised institutions/agencies. It would, however, be necessary to make a distinction between the non-formal education programmes which are intended to lead specifically to a link with formal system or for appearing in the public examination, with those which are not so intended. The collection of data in regard to the latter variety of programmes is more an administrative need of the agency concerned

2.35. After careful deliberations on the nature of the non- formal education courses available in the educational system and the need for educational statistics in regard to these courses on the one hand and the feasibility of collection of data from the recognised and unrecognised institutions relating to these courses the Commit- tee gives, the following recommendations:--

(a) Relevant educational data should be collected in respect of recognised institutions in regard to both formal and non-formal courses of education by the Ministry of Education or through other Departments administering the educational institutions, if considered necessary.

(b) The data in respect of unrecognised institutions relating to formal education should be collected by NSSO as part of their annual rounds on periodical basis.

(c) In regard to unrecognised institutions dealing with the non-formal education, special surveys or studies be taken up, according to the needs, as regular collection is not feasible.

However, in view of the increasing number of unrecognised schools it is desirable to have a system of compulsory registration and submission of statistics. This has been further discussed in a subsequent chapter.

2.36. The Committee expressed concern in regard to the quality of the data collected, particularly relating to the school stage. Generally, it has been observed that there is tendency to over report in classes I-V for certain extraneous benefits inbuilt in the administrative system By and large, the school data is collected from schools through teachers. There is no system of checking the data even during the inspection of the schools. Whereas

it is desirable that the State Governments made it obligatory on the part of the inspecting staff, to check the details during their school inspection, this procedure may not have much impact as inspection machinery is not of adequate strength. The Committee, therefore, re- commends sample studies being undertaken to test the quality and reliability of educational data collected by the States, such studies should be taken up both by the State and Central agencies engaged in statistical activities.

2.37. The Committee observed that a large amount of available data should be analysed. Strengthening of the machinery with qualified staff at the Centre and States would be necessary to undertake work relating to projection, forecasting and model building, including timeseries analysis, and research studies based on primary and secondary data which may help the policy makers, planners and administrators. The problem of storage and retrieval of data is quite serious in most of the States. Statistical returns are destroyed after 2-3 years as a result of which a lot of useful data is lost without being fully analysed. Besides, it also creates problem in reconciling any discrepancy which is noticed at a later stage. The Committee recommends increasing use of computerization of the educational data to, the extent possible, which will help in the preservation and retrieval of such data.