 PROCEDURE FOR DATA COLLECTION

5.1 The existing procedure of data collection is based on complete enumeration of all the Schools in the country every year. All the recognised schools from the pre-primary to the university level are required to complete a questionnaire in which some basic information is sought on enrolments, and number of teachers. The common pattern is that the data collected through these questionnaires for the primary and middle schools are compiled first at the Block/Tehsil/Taluka level, and then from the compiled Block level Tables, the District Tables are prepared. The data from secondary and higher secondary schools are collected directly from schools by the District Education Officer/District Inspector of Schools. The Dis- trict Tables are finally sent to the State Headquarters where the State Tables are prepared. The data from the universities and colleges are collected directly by the Officer Incharge of Educational Statistics at the State Headquarters. The data in respect of institutions functioning under other departments such as Health, Agriculture, etc., are also collected directly from the institutions with the co-operation of the concerned departments. Finally, all the State level Tables are sent to the Ministry of Education in New Delhi on certain prescribed forms for the purpose of compilation at the national level. Although there is some variation in the procedure prescribed above dependIng on the administrative set-up In the States, the levels of compilation am more or less the same as described above.

5.2 In addition to the educational data collected annually by the Ministry of Education with the assistance of State Governments. All India Educational Survey have also been conducted to collect data in educational variables which are not normally covered in the annual census. So far, four All India Educational Surveys have been conducted. The first was conducted by the Ministry of Education in 1967 and the other three surveys have been conducted by NCERT in the years 1965, 1973 and 1978. Although the specific terms of reference and the coverage have changed considerably from survey to survey, the main purpose of all these surveys was to provide data on habitations served by primary, middle and secondary schools, classwise enrolment, teachers by qualification, school buildings and other facilities in the schools in order that the same could be used for the preparation of Five Year Plans in Education.

5.3 Although in many of the All India Conferences on Educational Statistics which the Ministry of Education organises from time to time, recommendations have been made to use sample survey method for data collection and for conducting theme-oriented special investiga- tions, so far only a few such studies have been conducted by the States. The main reason has been the lack of trained manpower and resources for conducting such studies. Some sample studies have been conducted by NCERT, Planning Commission and certain State level Agencies and Institutions, but most of these provide data only for limited geographical areas. Also there is no systematic pattern and most of the investigations have been undertaken on an ad-hoc basis.

5.4 The Committee, however, has taken note of a Pilot Project which was initiated by the Ministry of Education recently in collaboration with NCERT for collecting data

on some educational variables on a sample basis. This Pilot Study is being conducted in four States viz. Haryana, Bihar, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. It is hoped that the Pilot Project would lead to a suitable methodology for collection of data sample basis.

5.5 The Committee is of the view that different strategies and procedures of data collection should be used depending on the nature and purpose of the data. For educational planning, a good deal of data is needed on a number of educational variables. The data which are collected through the annual census do not adequately meet the data requirements of educational planning and administration. The data collected through the All India Educational Surveys fill the data gaps to a considerable extent, but these surveys have not been conducted with regularity and due to various reasons in organising them there have been delays in making the survey data available to the users in past. It is necessary to use a combination of different methods of data collection including sample surveys to collect data on some educational variables for which the census method is not economical.

5.6 The Committee is of the opinion that the following four types of data collection programmes should be organised by the Centre in co-ordination with the States:-

(i) Annual Census of Educational Institutions;

(ii) All India Educational Surveys quinquennially;

(iii) Sample Surveys;

(iv) Theme-Oriented Studies.

5.7 In the Annual Census of Educational Institutions only some basic data should be collected about the schools,

enrolment and teachers. The following items are suggested on which data should be collected annually:-

(i) Type of School P.M., P.M.S., etc., according to grade taught, management, (boys, girls or mixed); type of management; rural or urban;

(ii) Enrolment by grade and sex;

(iii) Number of repeaters by sex in each class;

(iv) Number of students belonging to Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes by grade and sex;

(v) Number of teachers by sex and qualification;

(vi) Number of shifts;

(vii) Number of scholars in each class.

This would imply that the schools should also be classified in the same manner as in All India Educational Survey namely, P, PM, PMS, etc. A simple questionnaire should be devised on which the above data should be collected on a fixed day in the year, say, September 30th. The data collected through these questionnaires should be compiled at the Block, District, State, and finally at the national level.

5.8 It has been noticed that most of the States collect data on classwise enrolment and number of teachers every month from schools. Also in some States there are a few additional items on which data are collected in addition to those already prescribed by the Ministry of Education. The data which are collected monthly from schools are compiled only at the Block level and in some cases at the District level also. These data are mainly used for monitoring and administrative purposes at the local level. In addition to this, in some States, data are also collected once or twice in a year from the schools

for sanctioning grants to the school. There is hardly any co- ordination between the Departments or Units which collect data for different purposes in a year from the schools. The Committee feels that with better co-ordination there will be substantial reduction in the amount of data that the schools supply every year to different agencies for different purposes. Even for monitoring purpose, it should not be necessary to collect data on enrolments, number of teachers. etc., every month. It should be sufficient if these data are collected once in quarter and are compiled at the Block and District levels. There should be no separate forms and procedures for collecting the same type of data for different purpose, such as for giving grants to schools and for compilation of educational statistics. The State Governments should devise a simple form on. which they should collect all the data which are required for different purposes. If some additional data are required by the State Government, a few additional items could be included in the same form as the Ministry of Education prescribes for all the States.

5.9 The schools, in general, maintain certain Registers e.g. Attendance Register for recording attendance and Admission Register for recording age and other data relating to new entrants and schools leavers. In some States, teachers also conduct a door-to-door survey periodically to enumerate unenrolled children and maintain their records. It is recommended that all the schools, should maintain at least four types of Registers, (1) Admission Register, in which information about students' date of birth, sex, religion, mother tongue, parents' occupation and address; S.C. or S.T., date of admission, distance from home record of previous schooling, etc., is maintained and also information about those who leave the school is recorded, (2) School Information Register, for facilities ;and equipment (building, covered area, furnitures and

other equipment), participation of students in extra-curricular activities, games and sports, etc., is recorded, (3) Attendance Register, which is separate for each class and contains information on sex and date of birth of the student, whether the student is a new entrant, repeater or promotee, and of course, day to day attendance in the school. and (4) Teachers Register, which contains full data on age, qualification, subjects taught, residence, salary, etc., of the teachers. Private schools should preferably maintain an additional Register on income from different sources and expenditure incurred on different items each year.

5.10 The Education Officers working at the Block and District levels should maintain certain Registers for the schools of their area, which contain full information about enrolment, attendance, repeaters, teachers, facilities. etc., for all the schools. They should also compile the data annually (or quarterly/half-yearly) to provide totals of grade-wise enrolments, etc., as per requirements of the State Educational authorities. Certain minimum data for the primary and middle levels of education should be available in easily retrievable form at the Block level and for other types of schools (and consolidated Blockwise figures for primary and middle schools) at the District level. At the District level, the basic data on schools, enrolment and teachers should also be published in the form of periodic statistical bulletins. Necessary guidelines for all this should be provided by PMS Division and SISUs. to the DEO's and BEO's.

5.11 The original school returns should be maintained in the Block Education Office for at least three years, and the tabulated data for at least ten years.

5.12 The District-wise and Block-wise basic educational statistics should be maintained in an appropriate

form at the State Level/District level so that required information as be easily retrieved. The information should be maintained on number of institutions of different types, their enrolment and number of teachers.

5.13 The data on income and expenditure of schools should be collected annually. At the elementary state, the data should be only on (a) teacher salaries (b) other recurrent costs grouped together and (c) capital costs; at higher levels a more detailed classification of items of expenditure is necessary. In all those cases where the schools are fully financed by the Government or local Bodies, such data should be collected from the concerned educational authorities who prepared the budget and, other records of the State Governments and Local Bodies In the case of private aided and un-aided schools where the Schools do not fully depend on the Government grants, a separate form should be used to collect data on the Income and Expenditure of such schools.

5.14 The data which are to be collected in the All India Educational Surveys should help in preparation and evaluation of Five Year Plans. As such, these Surveys should be conducted regularly at 5 year intervals. In these Surveys. data should be collected on items as may be deemed important at the time of Survey, especially in the context of the succeeding Plan. Some suggested items to be covered in such Surveys are:-

(i) Rural habitations served by Primary, Middle and Secondary Schools within different distance slabs;

(ii) Facilities for Non-Formal Education in the Rural Areas;

(iii) Schools belonging to different Management categories, Boys, Girls and mixed, in Rural and Urban Areas;

(iv) Enrolment by Grade, Sex and Age;

(v) Number of Repeaters by Sex and Enrolment in the previous years (for calculation of drop-out rate) ;

(vi) Enrolment for Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes;

(vii) Languages and Media of Instruction;

(viii) Incentive Programmes with number of beneficiaries;

(ix) School Buildings, Class-rooms, Covered Area and other Physical Facilities in the Schools;

(x) Facilities for Games, Sports, extra curricular ac- tivities, Libraries and Text-book Banks;

(xi) Scholarships, Stipends, Free-ships, etc.

(xii) Facilities for Health check-up, Vaccination, etc.;

(xiii) Number of Teachers by Sex, Qualification, Age, Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes;

(xiv) Number of Teachers qualified to teach different subjects particularly Science and Mathematics at the Middle and Secondary level.

(xv) Attrition Rate of Teachers.

In general, in these Surveys, two separate schedules should be canvassed (1) Village Schedule and (2) School Schedule. In the Village Schedule, data should also be collected on the child population.

5.15 Since the number of un-recognised schools have been increasing in most of the States, it is necessary to collect some basic data from these schools also. Now these Schools cater to a sizeable child population not only

in urban but some rural areas also. It is not quite right if the children enrolled in these schools are counted as children out of school. At present these schools are not being covered under the data collection programme of the State Governments. In fact, these schools are not under the control of the State Education Departments and, therefore, it is not easy to collect data from them. However. since a large number of children are receiving education in these schools, particularly at the primary level, the Committee feels that such schools should also be counted and included in the data collection programme. Due to practical difficulties it may not be possible to cover them while conducting the annual census of schools; they should be covered in periodic Educational Surveys. Efforts should be made to count and cover such schools in Special Surveys.

5.16 In the quinquennial Educational Surveys, of course, data on more items can be collected but it can be done only once in five, years. Since it is done on complete enumeration basis, it is not possible to ensure accuracy of information on some items which require careful scrutiny and checking of records. It is, therefore, recommended that Sample Surveys should be used more frequently for collecting data on items which are required for specific purposes and on which, it is very expensive and time consuming to collect data on a census basis. The Centre and State Governments should have programmes of conducting regular Sample Surveys to provide data on different edu- cational variables from time to time.

5.17 The Committee feels that the Sample Surveys should be used for collecting data on certain items like age of students, students by sex and grade and by single year of age, socioeconomic back-grounds, availability and utilisation of certain facilities in schools and other

characteristics of schools and teachers on which information is needed frequently, but is not covered in school questionnaire nor it is easy to collect the data on complete enumeration basis.

5.18 In each State there should be an infrastructure for conducting such surveys on a regular basis. While data on some selected items could be collected in each round of Sample Survey, it should be possible to include some new items in each survey depending on the need and the problems facing the education system at a parti- cular time. The States should maintain lists of schools in such a form that good representative sample of schools could be drawn easily for such surveys. While the Statistical Units in the States which will be responsible for conducting these surveys, should gradually develop the expertise and facilities for this purpose, initially they should organise these surveys with technical assistance from NCERT, Ministry of Education and the State Bureaus of Economics & Statistics.

5.19 The Sample Survey methodology should also be used for checking the accuracy of the data collected by the census method. There should be a system for checking 5 to 10 per cent school returns on a regular basis in order to ensure that the schools supply correct information. Such sample checking will not only provide an estimate of the error, but would have a positive psychological effect on the respondents. The Committee recommends that the system of sample checking should be introduced at all stages of data collection and compilation, and particularly for the data collected from educational institutions at school level.

5.20 In addition to the regular Sample Surveys, it is also necessary to have a system of collecting educational

data required for planning and policy making through special theme- oriented studies or indepth ad-hoe studies on certain problems to provide data which cannot be collected in large scale surveys. The Committee noted the recommendations made in the various Conferences on educational statistics organised by Ministry of Education about undertaking such studies. However, due to lack of trained personnel and pre-occupation of the existing staff with the collection of annual statistics hardly any theme-oriented studies have been undertaken by the States. Such studies should be conducted to provide data relating to specific problems being faced by the State Governments. In these studies, it may or may not be necessary to collect data from a large sample. These could also be one time studies to provide the relevant data for a specific problem, which need not be repeated. The following are some examples of the studies which would fall in this category:-

1. Diagnostic Studies such as studies for throwing light on the REASONS FOR DROPPING OUT and repeating at different levels of education;

2. Evaluating Studies such as studies for the different incentive schemes launched for attracting children to school;

3. Status Studies such as studies for special educational programmes launched by the States, such as programmes of correspondence courses, use of mass media for education and other programmes of non-formal education;

4. Studies of the community and parents, through household surveys for collecting data relevant to educational planning (planning, curricula, determination of educational needs, identifying vocational courses needed in a given area, etc.).