OTHER FORMS OF EDUCATION
9.1 Pre-primary Education The importance of pre-primary education as a feeder and support programme for Primary Education now stands established. It was envisaged that, by 1990, it would be possible to establish a minimum of 2.50 lakh Early Childhood Education Centres.
In the rural areas, 87,539 villages have Balwadis/Anganwadis, 5,381 villages have independent pre-primary schools, and 9,087 villages have the pre-primary stage attached to a school. There are 1,14,401 Balwadis-Anganwadis, 6,198 independent pre-primary schools, and 12,655 schools with pre-primary stage attached to them. These are, respectively, 20.56%, 1.11%, and 2.27% of the total number of schools having the primary stage.
Four States--Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu-have more than 10,000 Balwadis/Anganwadis each. Only two. States-Gujarat and Karnataka-have more than 1,000 independent pre-primary schools each, and three States-Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Manipur-have more than 1,000 schools each with the pre-primary stage attached to them. A maximum number of Balwadis/Anganwadis-18,442-is in Tamilnadu; a maximum number of independent pre-primary schools- 1,151- is in Karnataka, and a maximum number of pre-primary divisions attached to schools -4366- is in Maharashtra Further, out of 12,655 schools with pre-primary classes attached, 6,536 are primary schools, 1,743 upper primary schools, 3,748 secondary schools, and 628 higher secondary schools, which are,respectively, 1.37% 1.54%, 9.64%, and 8.80% of the total number of schools at each of the above levels.
As regards the urban areas, 1,256 urban areas have Balwadis/ Anganwadis, 710 urban areas have independent pre-primary schools, and 1,083 urban areas have the pre-primary stage attached to a school. There are 14,918 Balwadis/Anganwadis, 2,580 independent pre-primary schools, and 9,575 pre-primary sections attached to a school, which are, respectively, 19.98%, 3.46%, and 12.83% of the total number of schools having the primary stage.
Five States and one Union Territory-Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Delhi-have more than 1,000 Balwadis/Anganwadis each in urban areas. Six States-Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh- have more than 100 independent pre-primary schools each, and only two States- Karnataka and Maharashtra-have more than 1000 schools each with the primary stage attached to them. A maximum number of Balwadis/Anganwadis-3,681-is in Tamil Nadu; a maximum number of independent pre-primary schools-543-is in Karnataka, and a maximum number of schools with the pre-primary stage attached to them-3,183-is in Maharashtra.
Further, in urban areas, out of 9,575 schools with pre-primary classes attached, 4,564 are primary schools, 2,618 upper primary schools, 1,542 secondary schools, and 851 higher secondary schools,which are,respectively,8.63%,10.10%,11.26%, and 10.22% of the total number of schools at the respective levels.
9.2 Non-formal Education During the last couple of years, the attention of our educational planners has been intensively directed towards the education of those members of society who cannot or do not avail themselves of formal schooling. These include children who either do not enter the primary schools at all or subsequently drop out. Attempts to provide non- formal education to this large and growing population belonging mainly to the socially and economically deprived sections of society are reflected in the proposals for universalization of elementary education. While the children under the formal system are accounted for in the normal statistics compiled by official agencies, the children who attend nonformal education centres (NFE centres) are usually not covered. Hence, in the present survey information was sought about the availability of such non-formal education centres as well as the number of participants enrolled in such centres both in rural and urban areas. Primarily, these centres cater to the age- group 6-14, but children in the age-group 14+ are also enrolled, hence information about such children was also sought.
In the Fourth All-India Educational Survey, information on non- formal education programmes was collected only from rural areas. On comparison it is found that whereas 27,210 (4.74%) villages out of a total of 5,73,842 villages reported having NFE centres in the Fourth Survey, 93,763 (16.19%) villages out of 5,79,148 villages reported having NFE centres in the present survey. Statistics thus show that there has been a phenomenal increase of nearly three times in the number of villages having NFE centres during the period 1978-1986.
110 FIFTH ALL-INDIA EDUCATIONAL SURVEY
9.2.1 Non-Formal Education Centres (NFE Centres) in Rural Areas
As shown in Statement 9.1, out of 5,79,148 villages 93,763 (16.19%) villages have provision for non-formal education either at the primary level or at the upper primary level, or both. Out of these, 11,968 (2.07%) villages have separate NFE centres for girls. Further, 90,988 (97.04%) villages with NFE centres cater to the primary level whereas only 6,079 (6.48%) villages with
STATEMENT 9.1
Non-Formal Education Centres In Various
Population Slabs In Rural Areas
Population Total No. No. of Villages with NFE Centres
Slab of Villages ---------------------------------------------------------------
Total Primary Upper-Primary Separate Centres
Level Level for Girls
2000 and above 65257 20730 20171 1520 3598
1000 - 1999 105527 25606 24721 1991 3448
500 - 999 145515 23021 22272 1503 2658
Below 500 262849 24406 23824 1065 2264
=8
TOTAL 579148 93763 90988 6079 11968
NFE centres cater to the upper primary level. Of the 65,257 villages in the population slab "2000 and above", 20,730(31.77%) have the facilities of non-formal education. Of these, 20,171 villages have these facilities for the primary level and 1,520 villages have the facilities for the upper primary level. Similarly, of 2,62,849 villages under the population slab "Below 500", 24,406 (9.29%) have the facilities for non-formal education. Of these, 23,824 villages have NFE centres catering to the primary level whereas 1,065 small villages have NFE centres catering to the upper primary level.
In rural areas, at the primary level there are 1,10,943 NFE centres available in 90,988 villages, which means that, on an average, there are 1.22 NFE centres in a village having the facilities of non- formal education. Of these 1,10,943 NFE centres, 13.89% are for girls only, 15.20% for boys, and 70.90% are both for boys and girls. Similarly, at the upper primary level there are 6,297 NFE centres in 6,079 villages, which means that there are 1.04 NFE centres per village having facilities for non-formal education. Of these, only 3.96% are for girls, 17.20% are for boys, and 78.84% are co- 8educational.
The State of Andhra Pradesh with 11,257 (41.27%) villages, Bihar with 13,812 (20.46%) villages, Madhya Pradesh with 11,544 (16.29%) villages, Uttar Pradesh with 21,106 (18.82%) villages, and West Bengal with 8,346 (22.02%) villages, of the total number of villages having non-formal education facilities at any of the levels. These five States together have 79,476 NFE centres at the primary level, which accounts for 71.64% of the centres. The Union Territories where the villages have NFE centres at the primary or upper primary level are Andaman and Nicobar Islands with 44(9.42%) villages, Chandigarh with 3(15.7%) villages, and Delhi with 15(7.58%) villages. The other Union Territories have drawn a blank in this respect. Further, among the States which have NFE centres at the upper primary level, the State of Uttar Pradesh ranks first with 2,631 villages having2,702 NFE centres, which accounts for 43.28% of the total number of villages having these facilities. In this category the villages of Madhya Pardesh and Bihar rank second and third with 1,447 (23.80%) villages and 911 (14.99%) villages having 1,499 and 1,016 NFE centres, respectively, at the upper primary level. These three States together account for 82.01% of the villages having 82.85% of the NFE centres at the upper primary level.
9.2.2. Non-formal Education Centres (NFE Centres) in Urban Areas
Out of a total of 3,878 urban areas in the country, 1,612 (41.57%) of the urban areas have facilities for NFE centres either at the primary level, the upper primary level or both. Of these, 1,284 (33.11%) urban areas have a total of 8,386 centres catering to the primary level, which means that there are 6.53 centres on an average catering to the primary level in urban areas. Of these, 2,284 (27.24%) centres are exclusively for girls. Further, 328 (8.46%) urban areas have 717 centres catering to the upper primary level, which comes to 2.19 centres on an average per urban area. Of these, only 84 (11.72%) centres are exclusively for girls. Andhra Pradesh with 137 (53.73%) urban. areas, Bihar with 120 (54.05%) urban areas, Madhya Pradesh with 304 (87.11%) urban areas, Uttar Pradesh with 228 (34.49%) urban areas, and West Bengal with 115(31.17%) urban areas have 6,728 (80.23%) NFE centres at the primary level. These five States account for 70.40% of the urban areas with 80.23% NFE centres at the primary level. At the upper primary level, the prominent States which have NFE centres; are Bihar with 23 (10.36%) urban areas, Madhya Pradesh with 157 (44.99%) urban areas, and Uttar Pradesh with 89 (13.46%) urban areas.These dim States account for 66.92% of the facilities available at the upper primary level with 631 (88.01 %) of NFE centres in urban areas. Among the Union Territories only Delhi has
OTHER FORMS OF EDUCATION 111
74 NFE centres at the primary level. Of these, 56 NFE centres are exclusively for girls.
9.2.3 Management of Non-formal Education Centres
Of 1,10,943 NFE centres in rural areas catering to the primary level, 90,887 (81.92%) are managed by the government/the local body whereas 17.96% of these centres are managed by private agencies aided by the government. The contribution of the private agencies aided, by the government, which are running 27.18 % of the NFE centres, is slightly more in urban areas than in rural areas. 72.69% of the NFE centres are government managed. The role of private-unaided agencies is negligible. In the same way, 94.57% of rural and 98.19% of urban upper primary NFE centres are
STATEMENT 9.2
Management-wise Non-formal EducationCentres
In Rural and Urban Areas
Level Management Rural Urban
Primary Level Government/Local Body 90,887 6,096
Private-aided 11,920 2,279
Private-unaided 136 11
Total 1,10,943 8,386
Upper Primary Level Government/Local Body 5,955 704
Private-aided 305 11
Private-unaided 37 2
Total 6,297 717
STATEMENT 9.3
Enrolment In Non-formal Education Centres at Primary Level
Area Age-group No. of Children enrolled in NFE Centres
Drop-outs First Time Total Girls
6-14 12,76,647 16,61,815 29,38,462 12,48,358
Rural 14+ 1,27,586 1,22,534 2,50,120 1,03,906
Total 14,04,233 17,84,349 31,88,582 13,52,264
6-14 1,13,157 1,48,747 2,61,904 1,25,270
Urban 14+ 8,227 8,182 16,409 7,915
Total 1,21,384 1,56,929 2,78,313 1,33,185
6-14 13,89,804 18,10,562 32,00,366 13,73,628
Total 14+ 1,35,813 1,30,716 2,66,529 1,11,821
Total 15,25,617 19,41,278 34,66,895 14,85,449
managed by the government/ the local body. The corresponding percentages of the centres managed by aided institutions in rural and urban areas are 4.84 and 1.54, respectively. Here too the role of the private-unaided agencies is almost negligible.
9.2.4 Enrolment in Non-formal Education Centres at Primary Level
(i) Enrolment of age group 6-14: Of 32,00,366 children in the age group 6-14 benefiting from the NFE centres at the primary level, 13,89,804 (43.43%) are the ones who had attended the formal school but dropped out due to some reason whereas 18,10,562 (56.57%) are receiving education for the first time through the NFE centres. Of these, 29,38,462 (91.82%) are from rural areas and only 2,61,904 (8.18%) from urban areas. The percentage of girls benefiting from NFE centres is 42.92.
112 FIFTH ALL-INDIA EDUCATIONAL SURVEY
STATEMENT 9.4
Enrolment in Non-formal Education Centres at Upper Primary Level
Area Age-Group No. of Children enrolled in NFE Centres
Drop-outs First Time Total Girls
6-14 56,876 29,723 86,599 31,084
Rural
14+ 37,901 29,277 67,178 24,366
Total 94,777 59,000 1,53,777 55,450
6-14 9,311 6,835 16,146 6,935
Urban
14+ 5,007 4,035 9,042 3,495
Total 14,318 10,870 25,188 10,430
6-14 66,187 36,558 1,02,745 38,019
Total
14+ 42,908 33,312 76,220 27,861
Total 1,09,095 69,870 1,78,965 65,880
(ii) Enrolment of Age Group 14+: The total number of children who are receiving education through NFE centres, at the primary level, is 34,66,895. Among these, 2,66,529 (7.69%) belong to the age group 14+. Most of these children-2,50,120-(93.84%) are from rural areas. Further, 1,35,813 (50.96%) of these had dropped out from formal schools and 1,30,716 (49.04%) of them are receiving education for the first time. Among these, 1,11,821 (41.95%) are girls.
9.2.5 Enrolment in Non-formal Education Centres at Upper Primary Level
(i) Enrolment of Age Group 6-14 : At the upper primary level, a total of 1,02,745 children in the age group 6-14 benefited from NFE centres. Of these, 66,187(64.42%) were drop-outs from formal schools, and 86,599 (84.29%) were from rural areas. The number of girls benefiting from NFE centres at the upper primary level is 38,019 (37.00%).
(ii) Enrolment of Age Group 14+ : The total number of children receiving education at the upper primary school through NFE centres is 1,78,965. Among these, 76,220 (42.59%) belong to the age group 14+. Of these, 67,178 (88.14%) are from rural areas and 27,861 (36.55%) are girls. The proportion of the children who had earlier dropped out from formal schools is 56.29.
There is a growing realization that formal and full-time education cannot by itself meet all the educational needs of different sections of the society, particularly the drop-outs and persons deprived of educational facilities. Non-formal education has been introduced with the motive of bringing educational opportunities near to the pupils.To what extent non-formal education has filled the gap is shown in Statement 9.5 and the discussion thereafter.
STATEMENT 9.5
Enrolment of Children In the Age Group 6-14
Area Population of Enrolment Unenrolled
Children Formal System Non-formal Children
Total Girls Total Girls Total Girls Total Girls
Rural 11,64,10,605 5,61,60,948 7,38,91,614 2,79,91,256 30,25,061 12,79,442 3,94,93,930 2,68,90,250
(63.47%) (49.84%) (2.60%) (2.28%) (33.93%) (47.88%)
Urban 3,41,68,509 1,65,44,760 2,63,22,773 1,17,70,387 2,78,050 1,32,205 75,67,686 46,42,161
(77.04%) (71.14%) (.81%) (.80%) (22.15%) (28.06%)
Total 15,05,79,114 7,27,05,708 10,02,14,387 3,97,61,643 33,03,111 14,11,647 4,70,61,616 3,15,32,418
(66.55%) (54.69%) (2.19%) (1.94%) (31.25%) (43.37%)
Non-formal education has been able to provide education to a mere 2.19% of the children in the age group 6-14 and 31.25% of the children in this age group are either out of school or attending unrecognized institutions. Among the girls in this age group 54.69% are attending formal- schools, 1.94% are attending nonformal schools, and 43.37% are out of school.