ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
 

In the preparation of this report, the Committee received valuable inputs from different officials from the States, UTs and the Central Government. We must particularly mention the support given by the Department of Education, (Ministry of Human Resource Development). Specialists from various research institutions and representatives of non-government organizations also contributed substantially. The Committee would specially like to acknowledge the contribution of the following :

1. The State Governments of Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Mizoram, and UT administration of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Lakshadweep and Delhi, for sending comments on the Terms of Reference.

2. The officials of the Department of Education (MHRD), Viz. Shri S.V. Giri, Secretary, Department of Education who took keen interest in the work of the Committee and other officers of the Department, especially Shri L. Mishra, former Director General, National Literacy Mission and Prof. J.S. Rajput, Joint Educational Adviser, who provided technical support in the form of status papers, brief notes and relevant statistics pertaining to Adult and Elementary Education.

3. Dr. J.B.G. Tilak, Dr. M.V. Varghese and Dr. R. Govinda of the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, and Prof. C.J. Daswani of the National Council for Educational Research and Training, for preparing technical papers and notes required by the Committee.

4. Dr. Malcolm Adiseshaiah, Shri Govind Narayan Mishra, Shri Mushtaq Ahmed and Fr. G.J. Gonsalves, for sending written comments on the Terms of Reference; and

5. Dr. Sayyid Hamid, Dr. Prayag Mehta, Dr. Anita Dighe, Prof. C.J. Daswani, Dr. R. Govinda, Dr. Rajlakshmi Murlidharan, Shri S.C. Behar, Dr. Rajammal P. Devdas, Shri Satyen Maitra, Dr. B.H Krishnamurti, Shri Poromesh Acharya, Shri G.V. Bhaktapriya, Shri Satish Girija, and Shri B.C. Garg for making presentation before the Committee on the various Terms of Reference.

The Secretarial support to the Committee was provided by the staff of the Education Division of the Planning Commission as also by my personal staff. We thank them for their sustained help. We are grateful to Shri M.R. Kolhatkar, Adviser, Education, for ably coordinating the work of the Committee and maintaining good pace of work. we must also record our appreciation of the zest and interest with which Dr. S.Y. Shah, (former Joint Adviser, Education, in the Planning Commission and currently Senior Fellow at National Institute of Adult Education) prepared the first draft of the report in accordance with the guidelines suggested by the Committee. We thank him for his contribution, our thanks also go to Shri N. Venkateshwarlu, Shri R. Ganesh Ram, and Shrimati Promila Tyagi for providing statistical assistance and Dr. V.K. Arora, Smt. Usha Srivastava, Shri K.N. Pathak and Shri Sahu for assisting the work of the Committee on different occasions.

Dr.(Mrs.) Chitra Naik

Member-Secretary