ELEMENTARY AND ADULT EDUCATION IN INDIA - HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
PART A Elementary Education
Early history 1.1 India has a long tradition of education both through formal- ly organised institutions (such as Institutes of Higher Learning at Takshashila and Nalanda) as well as less formal ones like hermitages or 'ashrams' where pupils were under the complete custodial care of their Gurus. A mass education movement, however, began during the age of Jainism and Buddhism when a widespread attempt was made to use the people's spoken language to impart education related to the needs of people.
1.2 In the medieval times, the system of education developed two main types of schools : (a) 'Pathshalas' and 'Madrassahs' whose cur- riculum included traditional classical learning and religion; and (b) informal village-schools which imparted instruction in the three R's to any child desirous of such learning.
1.3 By the end of the 18th century, India had a fairly wide- spread village-based indigenous system of child education comparable to the primary stage. Extensive surveys conducted by Thomas Munroe in Madras (1822-24), Mount-Stuart Elphinstone in Bombay (1823-25), Wil- liam Adam in Bengal and Bihar (1835-38) and in Punjab (1849) , provide ample information on this popular system of indigenous education. These schools were independent. They neither received any funds from the state nor were they
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under state-control. A school learning centre, generally functioned in the teacher's house / local temple / under a tree, and so on. Hours of instruction and working days were adjusted to the local requirements. There was a 'monitorial' system in which the advanced pupils guided the new entrants and slow learners. Peer-group learning, multipoint entry, need-based studies and adaptability to the local environment were the chief merits of these indigenous schools in which, around 1854, 9 lakh pupils were receiving education.
1.4 The process of decay of the indigenous system of education in India started with the advent of the British rule when a system modelled on English schools was established mainly in urban centres. The urban upper classes took advantage of this system for capturing government jobs. The bulk of the Indian. population living in the rural areas remained outside the system.
1.5 In England, compulsory education Acts had been passed in 1870, 76 and 80. As a result an emphatic demand for 4 years of com- pulsory primary education was made by Dadabhai Naoroji & Jyotiba Phule from Bombay Presidency in their evidence before the Indian Education Commission (Hunter Commission, 1882) which accepted the logic and stated that "while every branch of education can justly claim the fostering care of the state, it is desirable, in the present circum- stances to declare the elementary, education of the masses, its provi- sion, extension and improvement, to be that part of the educational system to which the strenuous efforts of the State should now be directed." The
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Commission also recommended the transfer of the control and adminis- tration of elementary education to local bodies, as done, in England. This was acted upon. State finances for making primary education universal could be reduced or even ultimately withdrawn, under this doctrine of local self-government. But local bodies had little re- sources to take up this burden.
UEE in the 20th Century 1.6 In 1910, Gopal Krishna Gokhale moved a resolution in the Imperial Legislative Council that "a beginning be made in the direc- tion of making elementary education free and compulsory throughout the country", which was opposed by the official side, A Bill to that effect moved by Gokhale on March 16, 1911 was thrown out.
1.7 In 1917, Vithalbhai Patel was responsible for getting the first Law on Compulsory Primary Education in India passed by the Bombay Legislative Council. By 1930, every Province of British India had a law on primary education. But among the princely States, Baroda was the first to pass an Act for compulsory education of boys from age 7 - 12 and girls from age 7 - 10, in 1906.
1.8 After the passing of Government of India Act, 1919, the control of elementary education was transferred to Indian ministers. This ushered in an era of rapid expansion of elementary education. Which, however, created new problems,. The Hartog Committee (an auxiliary Committee of Simon Commission, 1929) observed that "through- out the whole educational system,
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there is wastage and ineffectiveness."
1.9 The introduction of Provincial Autonomy in 1937 through the Government of India Act, 1935, gave more powers to Indian Ministers to act independently. Though detailed plans for large scale expansion of elementary education were developed, the implementation was restricted because of the outbreak of the Second World War. For overcoming the constraints of funds at the disposal of Congress Ministers, Mahatma Gandhi suggested that the plans of mass education need not be held up and that universal, compulsory and free primary education of seven years' duration could be given to every child if the process of schooling could be made self-supporting. With this object in view, Gandhiji formulated the scheme of 'Basic Education' which was dis- cussed and endorsed by the first Conference of National Education held at Wardha in October, 1937 which resolved that free and compulsory education be provided for seven years on a nation-wide scale, the medium of instruction be the mother-tongue, and the process of educa- tion during this period should centre around some form of manual productive work. This scheme was adopted in several provinces where the Congress was in power.
1.10 Consequent upon the continued efforts of the leaders, the provision, of free and compulsory education to all children till they reached the age of 14 years, was nationally accepted during the early 1940s as the responsibility of the State. The Post-War Plan of Educa- tional Development in India (1944) popularly known as the Sargent Plan, recommended the provision of
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free and compulsory education to all children in the age group of 6 - 14 years in a phased programme spread over a period of 40 years. However, the national leadership was determined to telescope the process and a Committee under the Chairmanship of B.G. Kher recommended that the goal should be achieved by 1960. It was this recommendation that formed the basis of Article 45 of the Directive Principles of the Indian Constitution enjoining that the "State shall endeavour to provide within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of 14 years."
1.11 The goal of providing free and compulsory education to all children upto the age of 14 years has, however, not yet been achieved in spite of considerable investment of resources in successive Five Year Plans. An ever-increasing population, financial and organisa- tional constraints, socio-economic problems and finally, lack of national will appear to have been the main hurdles in achieving the goal.
1.12 Consequent on the recommendations of the Education Commis- sion a Resolution on National Policy on Education was formally issued in 1968. It urged strenous efforts for the provision of free and compulsory education at the elementary stage, with emphasis on equali- sation of educational opportunities, correction of regional imbalances in provision of access and improvement of educational facilities, especially in the rural and backward areas. It also highlighted the need to emphasize the education of girls and spread of education among
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the backward classes and especially among the tribal. people.
1.13 In order to reach the children from the deprived groups whose circumstances prevented them from availing of full-time primary schooling facilities, the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) recommended, in 1972, the alternative channel of part-time education. Accordingly, part-time education was emphasised for the first time in the Draft Fifth Plan (1974--79). The Fifth Plan also treated Elemen- tary Education as part of the Minimum Needs Programme for which State Plan outlays were earmarked.
1.14 The Working Group on Universalization of Elementary Educa- tion set up by the Ministry of Education, Government of India in 1978 recommended a new motto : "Every child shall continue to learn in the age group 6 - 14, on a full-time basis if possible, and on a part-time basis if necessary It was stressed that in such an arrangement, the basic minimum knowledge of literacy, numeracy and inculcation of the social and civic responsibilities should not be sacrificed. The content of education should be meaningful and relevant to the socio- economic milieu and needs but should not thwart the scope of vertical mobility. This led to the initiation of a Centrally Sponsored Scheme for part-time non-formal education for backward States during the sixth Five Year Plan.
National Policy on Education (1986) 1.15 In spite of the massive expansion of educational
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facilities and efforts made for qualitative improvement of elementary education, the problems of access, participation and quality in respect of elementary education continued to persist. This, together with a variety of new challenges and social needs made it imperative to evolve a new design for education and new policy directions in the context of contemporary realities and future concerns. Therefore, a new National Policy on Education was formulated by the Government of India in May 1986. It was followed by the preparation of a "Programme of Action" in August, 1986 for the time bound implementation of the various recommendations.
1.16 The NPE-1986 resolved that all children who attain the age of about 11 years by 1990 will. have had five years of schooling or its equivalent through the non-formal stream, and "likewise by 1995 all children will be provided free and compulsory education upto 14 years of age. "For promoting equality, the NPE stressed equal oppor- tunity toall not only in access, but also in the conditions for suc- cess". To facilitate universal elementary education, the NPE envis- aged" a large and systematic programme of non-formal education for school dropouts, for children from habitations without schools and working children and girls who cannot attend the whole-day schools."
1.17 The policy also recommended the laying down of 'Minimum Levels of Learning' for each stage of education, provision of essen- tial facilities in primary schools through the scheme of Operation Blackboard (OB), adoption of child centred activity-based approach, and establishment of District Institutes of
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Education and Training (DIETs) for the pre-service and in-service education of teachers for elementary schools and District Resource Units for the personnel working in non-formal and adult education programmes.
1.18 The NPE (1986) was reviewed by the Ramamurthy Committee in 1990. Keeping in view its recommendations as well as various develop- ments, the CABE Committee on Policy (1991) suggested certain modifica- tions. The NPE (1986) with modification, was adopted in May 1992 and led to the revised POA (1992) in August, 1992. (The detailed Action programme of POA so far as it relates to Elementary Education has been summarised in Annexure III).
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PART B : ADULT EDUCATION
Early Efforts 1.19 Upto the end of World War I, there had been very little progress in the sphere of adult education in India which was confined to night schools in metropolitan cities. However, some of the en- lightened Indian rulers of the princely States of Baroda, Travancore and Mysore had extended financial support to night schools. They also set up rural libraries mostly in the 19th century, and gave them patronage. The national leaders who steered the freedom movement were also concerned with the question of educating the masses as a part of the independence agenda. When the Congress Governments came to power in some provinces in 1937, adult literacy and education got included among the responsibilities of the Government. A series of provincial mass literacy campaigns were launched during 1937-39. But the Con- gress governments went out of power and the campaigns petered out. A CABE Committee appointed in 1939 on the problem of illiteracy suggest- ed provision of facilities for adult education on the widest scale and introduction of free and compulsory primary education, as complemen- tary activities. Besides, the Committee also suggested supplementa- tion of official efforts by voluntary agencies interested in social amelioration. However, the Sargent Committee (1944) asserted that the State must accept the responsibility for these programmes and solve the problem within 25 years.
1.20 Eradication of illiteracy has been one of the major
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national concerns of the Government of India since independence. During the first Five Year Plan, the programme of Social Education, inclusive of literacy, was introduced as part of the Community Development Programme (1952). A new implementation machinery comprising male and female Social Education Organisers at grass-roots level and a Chief Social Education organiser at the project level was created. A comprehensive training support was provided through the establishment of Social Education Organizers' Training Centres (SEOTCs). Model community centres, rural libraries, Janata Colleges, youth clubs, mahila mandals and folk schools were encouraged. Folk schools on Danish High pattern called Vidyapeeths in Karnataka and Jagriti Vihars in Bihar provided a variety of skill-oriented adult education programmes to the rural youth. Government of India estab- lished a Council for Rural Higher Education for promoting the provi- sion of graduate-level manpower through the scheme of Rural Insti- tutes. These gave fillip to rural development including literacy programmes. A Standing Committee of the CABE on Social Education was constituted in 1956. A National Fundamental Education Centre was started to provide high-level training facilities and undertake re- searches related to adult education. Efforts of varied types were made by the States for the spread of literacy. Among these, the Gram Shikshan Mohim initiated in Satara District of Maharashtra in 1959 was one of the successful mass campaigns. It aimed at completing litera- cy-work village by village within a short period of 3 to 6 months, through the honorary services of primary teachers and middle-school and high school students, supported by the entire community. It achieved a good deal of
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success but suffered from the lack of follow-up due to financial constraints and sore of its good work was lost as a consequence.
1.21 In spite of these varied initiatives the programme of adult literacy did not rake much headway. The Community Development Pro- gramme got weakened and was soon abandoned. it was assumed that adult literacy would automatically become universal as soon as the universal and compulsory elementary education became a reality. The literacy rate in India, therefore, increased only from 16.67 per cent in 1951 to 24.02 per cent in 1961. But the Kothari Commission (1964-66) took up the threads again and emphasized the importance of spreading lit- eracy as fast as possible. It suggested the following measures :
(a) Expansion of universal schooling of five-year duration for the age group 6 - 11.
(b) Provision of part-time, education for those children of age group 11 - 14 who had either missed schooling or dropped out of school prematurely.
(c) Provision of part-time general and vocational education to the younger adults of age group 15 - 30
(d) Use of mass media as a powerful tool of environment building for literacy.
(e) Setting up of libraries.
(f) Need for follow up programme.
(g) Active role of universities and voluntary organisation at the State and district levels.
It was hoped that with the help of these measures, the
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national percentage of literacy could be raised to 60 by 1971 and 80 by 1976. The Resolution on NPE 1968 not only endorsed the recommenda- tions of the Education Commission but also reiterated the significance of universal literacy and developing adult and continuing education as matters of priority.
1.22 The Education Commission had observed that "literacy if it is to be worthwhile, must be functional". The launching of the inter- ministerial project of Farmers' Training and Functional". Literacy in 1967-68 aimed at popularisation of high yielding varieties of seeds through adult education was a step in this direction. The programme covered 144 districts where nearly 8640 classes were organised for about 2.6 lakh farmer-adults by 1977-78. But in this programme, the clientele remained selective and several largely illiterate groups viz. artisans, landless labour, SCs, STs, and women got neglected.
1.23 The Central Advisory Board of Education at its meetings held in 1974 and 1975 lent strong support to non-formal education pro- grammes for adults with emphasis on functionality dimension. The scheme of Functional Literacy for Adult Women (FLAW) started in 1975- 76 in the experimental ICDS project areas was gradually expanded in 1981-82. The FLAW aimed at enabling illiterate adult women to acquire functional skills along with literacy to promote better awareness of health, hygiene, and child care.
1.24 A policy statement on adult education was adopted by Parlia- ment in April, 1977 which spelt out the Government of India's resolve to wage a clearly conceived, well-planned and
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relentless struggle against illiteracy to enable the masses to play an active role in social and cultural change. Subsequently, the National Adult Education Programme (NAEP) was launched on October 2, 1978 with the objective of imparting 'literacy, functionality and awareness' to approximately 100 million persons in the age group 15-35. New structures were created for the programme, viz. State Directorates of Adult Education, State Resource Centres and the Directorate of Adult Education at the national level for providing research and training support. In the sixth Five Year Plan, adult education was made a part of Minimum Needs Programme with the goal of reaching 100 per cent literacy by 1990.