APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY
1.00 Three Broad Approaches The National Commission or, Teachers-II in its very first meeting resolved to base its work on an objective study of the teaching community and the profession as well as wide ranging interaction with teachers in universities and colleges of the country. Three broad approaches were adopted for this purpose:
(i) to have general discussion with teachers throughout the country on the terms of reference:
(ii) to receive and deliberate upon memoranda from teachers' organisations; and
(iii) to carry out detailed studies on various aspects of the teaching profession on the basis of data generated through a carefully designed survey.
A Central Technical Unit (CTU) was set up at the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) to provide technical support to the Commission in the implementation of the above.
1.01 Wide ranging discussions
1.01.01 Nodal Centres and Identification of University and
College Teachers In pursuance of (i) and (ii), 29 universities located in different parts of the country were selected as nodal points for interactions with teachers of the town/city as well as of adjacent districts. (for details see Map I and Table 1). With a view to meeting a wider body of teachers serving in different types of colleges such as Government. Private, Constituent. Affiliated and from different cadres, namely, lecturers, senior lecturers, readers, professors, principals and belonging to different disciplines. namely Arts. Science, Commerce, Professional subjects like Engineering, Medicine, etc., the teachers having the above characteristics were randomly identified from the records of individual colleges available with the University Grants Commission and invited by name to meet members of the Commission.
Besides the 29 nodal centres, 35 colleges located in rural/urban areas within a radius of 20 to 100 km. from the place of the meeting, were identified by name for visits of members of the Commission to have a first hand knowledge of the educational facilities and working and living conditions of teachers.
TABLE 1
List of Universities where Teachers interacted with
members of NCT-II
S. Name of the University
No.
1. Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh
2. Allahabad University, Allahabad
3. Bhopal University, Bhopal
4. Bombay University, Bombay
5. Calcutta University, Calcutta
6. Central University, Hyderabad
7. Centre for Post Graduate instructions and Research, Goa
8. Cochin University, Cochin
9. Delhi University, Delhi
10. Gujarat University, Ahmedabad
11. Gulbarga University, Gulbarga
12. H.P. University, Simla
13. J & K University, Srinagar
14. Kakatiya University, Warangal
15. Madras University, Madars
16. Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai
17. Manipur University, Manipur
18. Marathawada University, Aurangabad
19. Magadh University, Bodha Gaya
20. Meerut University, Meerut
21. M.L.S. University, Udaipur
22. M.S. University. Baroda
23. North Eastern Hill University, Shillong
24. North Bengal University, Siliguri
25. Osmania University, Hyderabad
26. Panjab University, Chandigarh
27. Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
28. SNDT Women's University, Bombay
29. Utkal University, Bhubaneshwar
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1.01.02 Division of Work Five group's of Commission members were constituted to visit five different Zones of the country, each zone covering 5-6 centres of meetings and 6-7 colleges in the adjacent districts. The CTU utilised these visits to pre-test the schedule prepared for' the survey proposed in 1.00 (iii).
1.01.03 Purpose of Visits The purpose of the visits was specified as follows:
(a) to interact with teachers of universities and colleges on the terms of reference of Commission-II:
(b) to visit universities and nearby colleges to assess the working and living conditions of teachers;
(c) to hold discussions with representatives office bearers/members of university and college teachers' associations federations;
(d) to deliberate on the terms of reference of Commission-II with eminent educationists in the. town; and
(e) to receive memoranda/resolutions from individuals or organisations including Government. pertaining to the terms, of reference of the Commission.
1.01.04 Outcome of Field Visits (a) Members bad discussions in groups of varying size with 4.211 teachers from 29 universities and 356 colleges (See Map 1) These included 912 teachers from all a univertity faculties, and 620 college teachers from towns of population 10,000 to towns of population over a 1,00,000.
(b) During visits to 35 colleges they met 879 teachers- to assess their working and living conditions.
(c) Members had meetings with 360 represen- tatives/office bearers/ members of 47 university and college teachers' associations federations, and received 67 memoranda from them.
(d) Members had discussions with 239 eminent educationists of the country, 5 state education Ministers and two Chancellors of Universities on the terms of reference.
(e) Members received 97 and 53 memoranda/ resolutions from individual teachers and colleges respectively, pertaining to the terms of reference.
1.02 Convergence of Experiences With a view to enable the members of the Commission to exchange experience gained from visits to different parts of the country a meeting of the Commission was held in Delhi in September, 1983. This provided members an opportunity to have a feel of the problem in the country as a whole. A report giving detailed account of the field visits along with teachers' views, summary of memoranda and text of memoranda submitted by the teachers' associations organisations was prepared by the CTU and presented to the Commission for their information.
1.03 Research Studies With a view to carrying out detailed studies on various aspects of the teaching profession, the Central Technical Unit arranged. consultative meetings and prepared the following 11 conceptual framework papers:
1. Research Design of the Moonis Raza & G.D. Sharma
Survey
2. Higher Education in India Moonis Raza, Y.P. Aggarwal
-A Survey & Mabud Hasan
3. Economic Status G.D. Sharma
4. Social Status D.N. Sinha
5. Recruitment : Base and Amrik Singh
Procedures
6. Mobility and Inbreeding K.A. Naqvi. K. Chopra &
Aasha Kapoor
7. Professor & Career Moonis Raza & Marjorie
Development Fernandes
8. Work Ethos Shakti Ahmed & S.M. Luthra
9. Participation in Decision N.P. Gupta
Making
10. Grievances and their Anita Banerjee & M.V. Pylee
Redressal
11. Professional Values S.C. Dube & Hemlata Swarup
1.03.01 Research Advisory Committee The Research advisory committee of the CTU had the following membership:
Rais Ahmed : R. K. Chhabra S. C. Dube : N. P. Gupta; K.H. Hiriyanniah: V.G. Kane: M.R. KolhatKar; S. Krishnaswamy; S.M. Luthra; R.C. Mehrotra
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K.A Naqvi: Moonis Raza; G.D. Sharma; D.N. Sinha; Amrik Singh and Hemlata Swarup.
4 1.03.02 Approach and Methodology of Research Studies
(a) Research Studies as Input A document entitled research studies as input in the work of NCT- II was prepared by CTU in collaboration with members of the Commission and the research advisory committee. This document outlined the objectives, the questions that are to be addressed by each of the studies, the sampling design and the sample size. This document was discussed at length by academicians and members of the Commission. After discussion the following design was adopted.
(b) Sample Design (i) For drawing up the sample of teachers, members of the community and students, universities and colleges were made the base. In order to give adequate representation to different administrative and economic regions of the country, universities and colleges were classified according to States and Union Territories (31), and, within these, in 70 geo-economic regions as defined by the National Sample Survey.
(ii) Furthermore, the universities and colleges were stratified by their various characteristics within the above administrative and economic regions. The characteristics considered significant for the universities and the colleges, are as, follows:
Universities : 1. Year of Establishment.
2. Whether established by Parliament, or state assemblies.
3. Character, i.e. Unitary/Residential, or Affiliating.
4. Whether Co-educational or Exclusively for Women.
5. Whether Multi-faculty, or Exclusively Professional.
Colleges:
1. Management by Government. or Private bodles.
2. Whether or not assisted by the UGC.
3. Whether Co-educational, or Exclusively for Women.
4. Whether offering General Arts, Science & Commerce courses or Professional courses.
5. Location, whether Rural, or Urban and urban located in different city sizes.
(iii) Since the pattern of views of the members of the community and students may depend on their different backgrounds the following background characteristics were taken into account.
Members of the Community: Occupations Agriculturist, Artisan, Lower Middle Class Employee, Middle Class Employee, Officer (Public), Officer (Private), Small Entrepreneur, Big Entrepreneur, Political Leader (Ruling). Political Leader (Opposition)
Students Good Student, Average Student. Students good in sports/extra curricular activities, Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes Students, Parent's occupation, such as, Farmer, Businessman, Skilled worker. Employee in Government Office, Employee in Private Office, Professional.
(c) Sample Year and Sample Size (i) The year 1981-82, for which latest list of universities and colleges with their characteristics was available. was, chosen for determining the size of the universe. There were 131 universities and institutions deemed to be universities having nearly 28.682 teachers. There were 4,854 colleges having nearly 1,63,224 teachers.
(ii) Since the number of teacher in the colleges is far larger than in the universities, it was considered advisable to fix the size of the representative sample at 20 per cent for the universities and 5 per cent for the colleges.
(iii) All the teachers serving these sample universities and colleges were covered for the purpose of this study. it was hoped that the number of teachers, serving in 20 per cent of universities; and 5 per cent of colleges would provide an adequate sample of teachers.
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(iv) Accordingly, 27 universities (21 per cent) and 300 colleges (6 per cent) were selected through proportionate stratified random sampling technique. The list of sample universities thus selected is given in Table 2. The sample universities are also shown on Map 2.
(v) The distribution of the universe and the sample colleges by different characteristics is given in tables 3 and 4. The sample colleges are shown on Map 3.
(vi) The number of teachers in sample universities and colleges and their percentage to the total universe is shown in Table 5.
(vii) It may be mentioned that, as proportionate representation was accorded to each of the above characteristics in the background of administrative and economic regions the actual size of the sample is slightly larger than the size envisaged.
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TABLE 4
Universe and Sample Colleges, Professional Education
Characteristics No.of No. of %of sample No.of %of colleges
total sample colleges to colleges responded to
colleges colleges total universe who total
(universe) responded colleges
Total 1395 93 6.67 50 3.6
I. Management
Government 490 25 5.1 20 4.1
Private 905 68 7.5 30 3.3
II. Students' Groups
Co-Educational-
1369 88 6.4 48 3.5
Women 27 5 18.5 2 7.4
III. Courses Offered
Engineering-
159 13 8.2 8 5.0
Medical 284 19 6.7 10 3.5
(a) Allopathy-
128 10 7.8 5 3.9
(b) Homoeopathy-
22 2 9.1 1 4.5
(c) Ayurvedic-
103 5 4.9 3 2.9
(d) Nursing-
31 2 6.5 1 3.2
Agriculture-
77 11 14.3 5 6.5
Teachers' Training-
296 23 7.8 15 5.1
Oriental Language-
332 13 3.9 8 2.4
Law 166 8 4.8 1 .6
Music 62 2 3.2
Physical Training-
19 4 21.1 3 .16
IV. Assistance
UGC assisted 2(F)-
570 37 6.5 21 3.7
Not assisted by U.G.C.: Non-2(F)-
825 56 6.8 29 3.5
V Location
1.Rural 122 7 5.7 3 2.5
2.Urban 1273 86 6.8 47 3.7
V (a) City Size
I. 862 65 7.5 41 4.8
II. 187 11 6.0 2 1.6
III. 137 4 2.9 2 1.5
IV. 87 6 6.9 2 2.3
TABLE 5
Universe and Sample teachers in Universities and Colleges
Universe Sample % of % of
sample to response
universe to universe
I. Universities 131 27 20.6 16.7
Teachers in
teaching
partment of
Universities 28682 12305 42.9 7.0
II.Colleges 4854 304 6.3 4.5
Teachers in
colleges 163224 15418 9.4 4.0
(viii) The size of the universe of the students and that of the members of the community is so large that no sampling design could be meaningfully followed. Besides, as the focus of the study is on teachers, views of students and the community were obtained with the limited objective of getting and indication of the manner in which these sections perceive the status of teachers. Keeping this in view, it was decided to choose 20 members of the community and the same number of students in the case of a university and 10 each in the case of a college by giving equal
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weightage to the characteristics mentioned above. The number of the students and the members of the community who were contacted and those who responded are given below :
Contacted Responded
1. Students 2340 2114 2. Members of the Community 2340 1658
(ix) Reference Year
Though the size of the sample of reacher was determined on the basis of data for 1981-82, information was actually collected from the teachers, members of the community and the students in 1983.
(d) Research Design A proper research design was developed for conducting these studies. The design included the following distinctive steps :
(a) development of questionnaires.
(b) canvassing of questionnaires.
(c) verification and processing of data
(d) analysis and report writing.
These steps are briefly discussed below
A. Development of Questionnaries As the sample size of teachers runs into nearly 20 thousand, it was thought proper to develop structured questionnaires to solicit information from teachers,members of the community and the students. As the focus of the enquiry is on the teachers, it was thought proper to pre-test the questionnaire :
(i) Accordingly, a structured questionnaire for teachers was pre-tested or nearly 2,000 teachers located in different parts of the country and serving in universities and colleges with different characteristics. In the light of the analysis of pre- testing, the questionnaire for teachers was revised and the final questionnaire was developed.
(ii) Similarly, questionnaires for the members of the community and for students were developed in the light of analysis of the pretested teachers' questionnaire.
B. Canvassing of Questionnaires In order to canvass the questionnaires, senior faculty members of the sample universities (as nominated by Vice-Chancellors of respective universities) and principals of the sample colleges or their nominees were requested to act as Chief Research Investigators for their respective universities and colleges :-
(i) The methodology of canvassing the questionnaires was discussed with the Chief Research Investigators in 8 workshops held in different parts of the country.
(ii) To ensure secrecy, instructions were issued to teachers to put the questionnaire in envelopes provided and either to hand it over to the Chief Research Investigator, or to send it directly to CTU under registered post.
C. Verification and Processing of Datn With a view to ensuring internal consistency of the data and making it fit for computer processing, a plan was prepared for codification and checking the internal consistency of the data/information. After developing suitable computer programmes. the data/ information were processed of, the fourth generation computer of the National Informatics Centre, New Delhi.
D. Analysis and Report Writing Analysis :-The following background variables were considered for the purpose of analysis:-
1. Rural/Urban institutions.
2. Govt./Private Institutions,
3. Universities/Colleges.
4. Academic Streams.
5. Co-education/Women's Colleges.
6. Sex Groups.
7. Status : permanent, temporary, ad hoc.
8. Experience.
9. Age Groups.
10. Position Groups.
11. States.
12. NSS Zones.
1.04 Conceptual Framework and First Report of Quick Results Members of the Commission, in one of its sittings, discussed the results of the first run of computer results on the basis of responses of 3,000 teachers. The conceptual framework papers as detailed in 1.03 were also considered by the Commission.
11.
1.05 Preliminary Findings Preliminary findings of the studies based on the 2nd run of computer results of 6,000 teachers' responses were also discussed later. The final data pertain to over 8400 responses.
1.06 Exchange of Views
1.06.01 National Seminar The Commission also organised a national seminar from 5th to 9th September, 1983, where 242 eminent scholars from different parts of the country participated. The seminar deliberated and passed reso- lutions on the following subjects :
(1) Objectives of the teaching profession;
(2) Status of the teaching profession and ways of vitalising it;
(3) Pre-service and in-service training/orientation of teachers;
(4) Universalisation of elementary education, adult education, non-formal education, continuing education, open schools and universities;
(5) To identify the role of teachers' organisations for professional growth and professional consciousness; and
(6) Welfare schemes for teachers and the question of a code of conduct for teachers.
1.06.02 Meeting with Teachers from Engineering and Technical
Colleges With a view to discussing the position of teachers in engineering and technical colleges, a special meeting of selected teachers from these institutions was organised in Delhi in November, 1983.
1.06.03 Four Seminars on Terms of Reference Four seminars reflecting on terms of reference Nos. 5, 6, 8 and 9 were also organised by the secretariat of NCT-II in Varanasi (U.P.), Chandigarh (Punjab), Baroda (Gujarat) and Meerut (U.P.). These seminars discussed
(1) In-service and pre-service training of teachers.
(2) Training of teachers through distance education and through non-formal education.
(3) Education and national development,
(4) Methods and techniques of teaching.
1.07 Reports of the Commission An Interim Report was made by the Commission to the Government in June, 1984, when the conceptual framework papers had been discussed together with the first analysis of the computer data. The approach of the Commission to the various issues before it had thus been crystalised. The first draft of the final report was discussed by the Commission when all the data had been received and a basic analysis had been made. The discussions were continued during the next phase of drafting and fully working out the recommendations. In all there were eight meetings of the full Commission.
1.08 Profile of Teachers as indicated by the Survey The following profile of teachers in higher education, as shown by the survey, is presented since this might be indicative of the overall figures.
1.08.01 Age Composition
(a) College Teachers : Data pertaining to 6306 teachers in the sample reveal that the majority of teachers is below 41 years of age; They accounted for 60 per cent of the total. Teachers in the age-group 41-50 accounted for slightly more than a quarter. Those between 51 and 60 years constituted nearly 9 per cent of teachers in the colleges.
(b) University Teachers Those serving in the universities were relatively older. Teachers below 41 years accounted for less than half (46.2 per cent) of the total. About one-third of teachers were in the age-group 41-50 years. Those between 51 and 60 years accounted for 16 per cent.
TABLE NO. 6
Age Composition of Teachers in Colleges and
Universities 1982-83
Age Group Colleges Universities
21-25 5.39 1.77
26-30 15.64 10.01
31-35 18.87 16.46
36-40 20.77 60.67 18.00 46.26
41-45 16.56 19.82
46-50 10.51 27.07 13.95 33.77
51-55 6.68 11.10
55-60 2.28 8.96 4.99 16.09
Non-responses 3.30 3.87
Total 100.00 100.00
Total Sample
Teachers 6306 2144