 FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS : GENERAL

5.1 The problem of preparation and production of text books for college & Universities in India in the view of the Review Committee is not primarily a "linguistic" problem but an "educational problem specific to the higher education." The issue of coining and fixing and standardisation and large-scale use of regional language terminology is no doubt important but not the decisive one. The main issue is that of preparation of 'Indian' Text Books for use at higher education stage. The text books should be Indian not only in the sense that they are written by the Indian authors but in the sense that they adopt Indian perspective and use Indian materials, examples and illustrations so that they are intelligible to and attractive to the Indian students from the point of view of understanding of the curriculum. Thus, the first order of business is to prepare 'Indian' Text Books in the above sense and since English was the initial medium of education that is the point of departure, Indian text books in English are thus required to be prepared on priority basis. Such English text books once they become standard can then be translated into Hindi and other regional languages. We have earlier referred to the NBT, UGC and ICAR schemes of encouraging Indian authors to write text books. The logic of the scheme is rooted in this perspective. The Education Commission also understood the problem in this light and emphasized not so much the language aspect as the aspect of preparation and production of text books on a large scale.

5.2 The perspective of looking at the problem as the "higher

education problem has the advantage that it can then make use of the structures and actors within higher education sector to tackle it. Their difficulties in rapid adoption and dissemination of text books in regional languages can then be taken into account so that the scheme can become successful.

5.3 A third advantage of looking at the problem as a problem of "higher education" is that the dimension of quality of text-books and its relationship to standard of higher education can then be given its due importance. The difference that can be made to the students coming out of the higher education stage who use good text-books is decisive. To take an example in an individual discipline viz. Economics : Students in metropolitan colleges using English medium would be using text-books written by authors like Samuelson or Lipsey. But the rural student in regional language medium may be using authors like 'Dewett, Singh & Verma' or bazaar notes based on similar text- books. Students in rural areas are thus at a distinct disadvantage. The solution to the 'problem is to have economics text-books written by Indian authors' like (late) Sukhomoy Chakravarty. These authors would initially write in English only but their text-books would be Indian text-books though written in English. Such high quality text- books can then be translated in Hindi or other regional languages.

5.4 It would then be seen that the problem of text-books is a problem of higher education bearing on standards of Education. This is a problem which is required to be tackled by appropriate bodies at higher education stage like UGC, ANTE. ICAR etc. and the general Universities, Agricultural Universities and Technical Teachers Training Institutions under ANTE. The problem of training of teachers for writing of text-books is vast and cannot be handled by a single body like CSTT. It is required to be

addressed by colleges of education (B.Ed colleges and "Academic staff colleges" newly set up under the UGC. Even with the involvement of this vast institutional structure, the problem will not be amenable to an easy or quick solution but at least, it can be effectively tackled in a realistic time frame.

5.5 However, by treating the problem as a language problem, the whole programme was apparently put in a wrong perspective and its implementation weakened. First of all, it was considered that preparation of only 8th Schedule, Language text-books was permissible. Hence, English was totally left out Hence several States like States of North-East were left out'. even though in their case, the problem of preparing 'Indian' text-books was very important from the point of view of bringing those regions in the national mainstream. The question of standards was neglected. The agency Viz. CSTT identified for the programme was a technical body with inadequate linkages with University structures and was therefore, ineffective. At the State level, these problems got multiplied and the Granth Academies and Text Book Boards worked in an isolated fashion. However, inspite of successive reviews, which exposed the weakness of the programme, no thought was given to the rectification of the perspective.

5.6 We consider that time has come to shift gear and to identify, the problem as a problem of higher education and of standards at higher education and to locate the implementing institutional structure squarely within the field of higher education. if necessary, statutory backing. for the programme can also be derived by framing appropriate guidelines under UGC Act. In this connection we refer to the recent Supreme Court decision in University of Delhi versus Raj Singh reported in J. T. 1994/16SC1/AIR1995SC336

in which the Supreme Court upheld UGC guidelines vis-a-vis provisions of Delhi University Act in the interests of standards of higher education.

5.7 In the light of what we stated in the earlier Chapters, the Committee wishes to suggest an alternative structure for making a success of the scheme of switch over to regional languages as medium of instruction. While suggesting this alternative structure, the Committee has kept in view the following considerations

1 First of all, the policy of adoption of regional languages as medium of instruction is to be taken as National policy for which all the Departments and agencies of the Govt. of India and also the State Govts. and Union Territories are responsible. The policy is not the sole responsibility of the language bureau of the Ministry of HRD, the Department of Education or of one particular office of the language bureau namely CSTT but all agencies are required to be committed to the implementation of the policy. This being so, all the agencies involved with higher education namely, not only, the U.G.C. & AICTE under the Department of Education but also ICAR under the Ministry of Agriculture (Deptt. of Agricultural Edu. & Research) and the Medical Council of India under Ministry of Health & Family Welfare are required to be involved both financially and technically. Their financial involvement is necessary because ICAR funds the Agricultural Universities, which are required to adopt text books in agricultural subject, AICTE funds Engineering Colleges and Polytechniques which are required to adopt text books in Engineering subjects and Health Ministry fund

Medical Colleges which are required to adopt text-books in medical subjects. Their technical involvement is equally necessary because any agency whether called Text Book Board or Granth Academy which works as part of the University or State Government has to take the assistance of the specialists in the respective subjects, namely, the agriculture scientists, other scientists and technologists, engineers, physicians and surgeons and in general, practitioners in the respective areas for writing text-books, prescribing the text-books and teaching the subject with the help of these text books.

2. Therefore, since the coordination and determination of standards in the field of higher education is a 'Union', subject under the constitutional scheme in India, there is required to be a Central Agency to see that all these agencies work together towards the common goal by pooling the funds. which may be derived from diverse sources. It is also required to be a national agency which is, required to work as a model in organisational structure as well as a model for the contents of the text-books to be produced.

3. We have considered whether higher education institutions involved in distance education like the Open Universities should be involved in the endeavour: for example, whether IGNOU at the central level and the respective Open Universities at the State level could be involved in the work of preparation and production of text-books. This is because the distance education institution are expected to cover disadvantaged

sections of the Society which are deprived of opportunities of access to higher education and secondly, it is one of the crucial functions of the Open Universities to prepare appropriate materials for use in their own course. We consulted the authorities of IGNOU. The reply received from IGNOU was only partial and did not look at the problem in its proper perspective. They only sent to us materials relating to computer courses and we gather that there is a general practice of translating English courses into the Hindi Courses after a gap of two years. We have, however after careful consideration decided to exclude the IGNOU as the national level organisation mainly because Open University prepares materials suited to the requirements of 'distance education mode' which is quite different from the 'class room mode' for which the conventional Universities are required to prepare textbooks. We are primarily concerned with the problem of conventional universities and while there could be fruitful exchange of materials between the two types of instituions, we consider that Open University at National Level and the Open Universities at State Level cannot function as nodol State organisation for the task of preparation of production of University level text- books. We additionally note that all States do not have open Universities.

4. According to us, the most appropriate locus for the national level agency for preparation and production of textbooks would be the U.G.C. This is because it is the apex body for the higher education in India and

because in view of recent amendment to its Act, it is in a postion to establish and manage new institutions dedicated to a specific mission. In this connection, we refer to the recent trend towards Inter-University Centres consortia and networks. The Inter-University Centres are established for a particular discipline of highly theoretical nature like nuclear science, astronomy and astrophysics, instrumentation, crystal growth or MST Radar applications or alternatively there are consortia for functional areas like consortium for educational communication (CEC) or net works like information and library network (INFLIBNET) in particular, we wish to take the model of consortium in educational communication and we give below relevant extract from the latest (1992-93) UGC Annual Report.

"To provide an institutional framework to sustain and enhance the on going media activities, provide further thrust in related activities, explore and tap new technological advances in the field and to provide guidance on policy for media related activities, the Commission approved the proposal to set up a Consortium for Educational Communication as an autonomous centre under Section 12 CCC of UGC Act. The activities of CEC were started in project mode at the Nuclear Sciences Centre w.e.f. 1.4.1991 pending registration of CEC as a society. The UGC Insat Cell which was functioning at Jamia Millia Islamia was also merged with the Consortium."

"UGC constituted a sterring Group to provide necessary guidance on policy matters to CEC. A full-time Director was also appointed. The Planning Commission and Ministry of HRD have given their approval for setting up of CEC as a registered

society and set ups are under way for registration. It is likely to be registered soon".

5.8 We are of the view that the organisation for preparation and production of text-books at University level should be of the consortium type especially because organisations like ICAR, AICTE and Ministry of Health which are not directly under the UGC have also to collaborate in the venture. We, therefore, recommend that there should be a National Consortium for Higher Education Text-books (NC- HET). This consortium should be established with the financial and technical collaboration between the UGC on the one hand and AICTE, ICAR and Health Ministry on the other. This national consortium will work in the "Mission mode" with a view to produce higher education text-books not only in social sciences and humanities but also in the scientific and technological, agricultural engineering and medical subjects. It should identify the list of core titles in each of the areas with the help of experts in the respective areas, at graduate and Post-graduate level and produce and dissaminate these books in a time bound manner. The consortium should work on a no profit no loss basis without any subsidy from the Government except for the initial period of five years during which it should receive a substantial capital assistance in the nature of, seed capital and also annual assistance. This national consortium should also incorporate within itself the existing set up of CSTT relating to scientific and technical terminology in view of the fact that the working of CSTT covers not only the preparation of terminology but also preparation of standard works by making use of the terminology so prepared. The State level text-book production booard should work as state level agents of this consortium for translation of the works initially prepared

in Hindi and English into regional languages. The existing schemes of the UGC for "preparation of University level books by the Indian authors" and of the ICAR relating to "preparation of University level books in agriculture and allied sciences by Indian authors" should also be implemented by this consortium.

5.9 This National Consortium should work in close collaboration with IGNOU and have an arrangement for mutual exchange of textual materials.

5.10 In Hindi speaking areas, the national level consortium will have a special role. The Hindi speaking areas comprise. Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, the Union Territory of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The market for Hindi text-books is very large but except for granth Academies in M.P. & Rajasthan. Academies in Hindi speaking areas are not functioning properly. The National Level Consortium should also exploit the economies of scale which would be available because of the very large size of the market for Hindi text- books. To the extent national level organisation functions effectively, the need for individual Academies in Hindi speaking areas will diminish but wherever they exist they should function under the over all umbrella of the national consortium. However, their organisational set up should-be restructured in the nature of consortium of the local universities in the respective states. We considered the possibility of entrusting the work of preparation and production of the text-books to individual Universities in states b--- we felt that such arrangement would deprive the Academy of the economies of scale which would be available if there is a single Academy for, one language group. We, therefore, consider it

desirble that the State level organisations work as a consortium of the various universities with in the jurisdiction of the State Governments concerned. The consortium at State level would however, function as a unified management unit. It would have a dual role. On the one hand, it will be the principal for prepartion and production of regional language titles which are produced by itself independently. In other words, the State level Academy would continue to discharge its existing responsibility, But it will have the added responsibility of working as an agent of national consortium and take translation of English/Hindi titles produced by National consortium. However, we would like to emphasise that the State level organisation would not be entrusted with any other work except the work of preparation and production of textbooks and where such work is entrusted to the Academy, we recommend that no assistance should be given to it.

5.11 Our recommendation in relation to individual Apex bodies are as below :

MCI/Health Ministry

In our view, Health Ministry and the MCI are bound by the NPE 1968 & 1986 policy guideline i.e. switchover to regional language as a medium of instruction in the field of Medical Education. Health Ministry should have a dialogue with MCI so as to modify the resolution of MCI on medium of education. A Committee can be apointed to go into the question and a phased programme of switchover may be chalked out and fresh resolution passed by MCI on the basis of a consensus. No doubt, the time limit of 5 to 10 years laid down in POA would not be realistic but a feasible and acceptable time schedule should be worked out.

ICAR

There should be follow-up to the Randhawa Committee Report. ICAR should prepare a policy statement and a feasible time-frame and create necessary administrative and technical

infrstructure for a complete switch over to regional languages as medium of education in its area of work. Agricultural Universities, of course, will have to be involved and the question of the machinery at the State level is to be thought of Except in a State like Maharashtra, most States have only one or at the most two Universities and therefore Coordination of arrangements among them may not be difficult. The question of linkage between general Universities and agricultural Universities will also have to be addressed.

AICTE

AICTE is under the Deptt. of Education and has more intimate linkages with the UGC and also with the State Governments through its regional offices. However, as in the case of ICAR, a beginning has to be made with a policy statement and time-table at the national level. Polytechnics are under ANTE and TTTI's have already close linkages with polytechnics. A beginning towards switch over should be made through Polytechnics and then the operation extended to engineering colleges and Technical universities.