PLANNING FOR FURTHER ACTION - SUGGESTIONS BY THE COMMITTEE
The Task 3.1 Achievement of basic literacy is one of the cherished goals of the developing nations. Adult basic literacy and primary education, being the two dimensions of basic education top priority to these two sub-sectors of education is undoubtedly imperative. Notwithstanding the various strategies devised during the earlier Five Year Plans and the institutional mechanisms developed at national and state levels, the target of 100 per cent coverage of the 6 - 14 age group and adult illiterates has been elusive because of several constraints. The Revised National Policy on Education and the Programme of Action (1992) and particularly the deliberations of this Committee have made it clear that universal literacy can be achieved in India only if a strong thrust is given to adult literacy and elementary education both, simultaneously. The components of such a thrust must include not only structural and pedagogical reorganization but, most importantly, democratic decentralisation which can involve the people purposively in these programmes at the local level. Decentralization is crucial not only because of the vast numbers to be covered but equally because the varied geographical factors and the diversity in the socio-cultural composition of the population of our country call for such a step to meet the challenge of education and development. While 10.58 crore illiterates have to be covered to achieve total literacy in the 15 - 35 age group, universalization of elementary education would
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require the coverage of nearly 5.61 crores children, by the end of the Eighth Plan. These massive targets require commensurate financial resources which can be mustered only if governmental and public resources are combined in appropriate ways. The Committee strongly feels that literacy which is basic to human development has to be a concern of the entire Indian society and An atmosphere must be created for enthusing all citizens to give their best for achieving this great task which must be accomplished before the end of this century.
Elementary Education : Structural aspects 3.2 NPE Better implementation
In pursuance of NPE (1986), several schemes have been launched to expand and improve UEE. Enrolment, retention, and achievement have been emphasised as a package. Disparities arising from gender, caste, tribal situation and regional factors are sought to be overcome through such schemes as Operation Blackboard, part-time non-formal education centres for out-of-school children in the 9 - 14 age-group, improved teacher training facilities, insistence on the attainment of the Minimum Levels of Learning as part of achievement dimension of UEE, establishment of Village Education Committees for ensuring community participation in universalizing basic education, and so on. But implementation problems need more critical attention. Review reports of the operation Blackboard scheme show that oil an average, only 50 per cent teaching-learning material has been utilized, storage facility for these materials are inadequate, and that inadequacies in training the teachers have been the
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reason for this situation. Besides, decentralization of the purchase of materials would be advantageous. To begin with, the Block Level may be the point at which needs are assessed, materials ordered, checks on the material are made efficient, and timely distribution is made to the schools concerned. Such a decentralized arrangement would give a chance to the teachers to apply their minds to ascertaining the needs of their respective schools, approach the community to discuss this matter, select materials, and use them purposefully for getting the children the best educational returns from this national investment. Powers must be given to headmasters to write off unserviceable materials or to get them repaired after placing the matter before the VEC for its consideration and obtaining its concurrence. It would be useful to provide a small contingency to each school for repairs and maintenance of equipment. This should be a part of the 'non-teacher cost' of elementary education. In this connection specification of some indispensable teaching-learning equipment needed for each primary class and for a school of I - V classes and I - VIII classes is essential for the guidance of the teachers and the VEC and other types management / supervisory agencies, whether public or private.
3.3 Supply of text-books : For each pupil in classes I to V, a full set of textbooks and writing material such as slate / notebook / pencil must be made available. These are basic tools of learning and there should be no exception to this rule in any case. Provision of text-books and their proper use is not merely a question of governmental incentive to the child or of resource
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mobilisation by the community, local bodies, private managements, etc. At the start of the school year, the text-books and materials must be available to pupils as soon as they come to school where the supply should be ready for them. The practice of providing free textbooks to all pupils must be accompanied by the practice keeping them in the school itself and not giving any home-work which requires taking the text-books home. To ensure that every pupil gets the needed text-book in a timely fashion and that the text-books are used so carefully that each copy remains usable for about 2 to 2 years, should be dual objective of such a step. It would also enable the education system to face the ever-rising costs of paper & production, to some extent. It may be noted that keeping the text-books in school is a practice followed at the primary stage in some affluent countries also, for enabling children to treat the books with due care and respect. Facilities for the storage of text-books should be provided class- wise. Along with this arrangement, the existing scheme of book banks may be suitably adapted. At the sane time, the process of text-book production be enabled to observe the triple criteria of good quality, minimum cost, and timely distribution.
3.4 Mobilization for enrollment and retention: In some experiments, it has been possible to organize the school children themselves as mobilizers for enrollment and guides for younger children so as to help retention. The child-to-child approach which seems to work well in the health sector for motivating older children to orient younger to acquire good health-habits
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can be adopted for primary education as well. The indigenous practice of 'monitors' who helped younger learners in their play and studies was admired by the missionaries Bell and Lankaster who transferred it to English schools. We may revive and modernize it for ensuring enrolment, retention and achievement at the primary stage, especially in classes I to III where the dropout is the largest and rust be stemmed. School children have already shown their tremendous potential for helping adults to learn and various aspects of social responsibility in the Total Literacy Campaigns. It may also be profitable to enthuse large urban primary schools and both urban and rural secondary schools and colleges to adopt at least one rural / tribal primary school and send to it reading materials, toys, teaching-learning aids and even cash assistance to the extent possible. Institutional interaction and bonds of mutual support and consideration among children and youth must be built up in such ways not only to universalize primary education but to build a cohesive society for the benefit of the younger generation.
3.5 Caring for teachers: The majority of teachers in rural schools function under conditions of total academic and professional isolation. This leads to lack of interest in the job and has a deletarious effect on their own personalities as well as on the studies and development of the children placed in their care. Teachers must, therefore, be provided with area-based mechanisms for periodical interaction. It is the practice in some countries to have 'Quality Circles' and some countries have "Teacher Development Centres'. In Maharashtra there is a
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practice of 'Gat Sammelan' (Village-cluster meetings) which began in the early 50s and has proved useful for teacher-interaction. Teachers' camps also are occasionally organized for specific purposes. Other such devices exist in the ODA assisted primary education project in Andhra Pradesh and UNICEF assisted project in a tribal district in M.P. where the teacher's empowerment approach has been adopted. Such informal mechanisms can be structured in a more advanced fashion as "Teacher Development Centre" be encouraged in the area of an Education Complex. Self-training and group-interaction could be facilitated through such mechanisms. They may lead to 'professional accountability' and encourage teachers to develop their creativity.
3.6 Reading materials: Production of supplementary reading materials suitable to the age and reading abilities at the primary stage needs urgent attention. Newly literate and semiskilled readers of this stage need much reinforcement beyond the language text-book for acquiring a good grasp over reading with comprehension and writing for communication. The experiment conducted in Bangladesh under the "Operation Book Flood" has shown very positive results in enhancing the achievement of not only young learners but also adults. A variety of reading materials for pupils, teachers, VEC Members and the generality of semi-skilled readers may be made widely available in the rural & tribal areas. In this connection, the cooperation of NBT, CBT, State Resource Centres, organisations of writers for children and educational publishers may be sought.
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3.7 Space for increased enrolments: In order to meet the increasing enrolments likely to be generated as a result of the Total Literacy Campaigns and a. general awakening to promote primary education, innovative and cost-effective measures need to be evolved in collaboration with the local community. Accommodation for the growing numbers in existing structures of the community or fresh construction of classrooms of proper dimensions with local materials, and community contribution through donation of land, funds and labour would be the best way to involve the community in the education of its children. It is necessary that the creative imagination of the community and its traditions in construction are given full scope in designing well-lit, well-ventilated, educationally useful and culturally acceptable school-houses or school-rooms, with guidance from our most innovative and culture-conscious architects. The old 'type-plans' prescribed since the early days of the British rule are uncomfortable for the children, obstructive of creative pedagogy, costly and alien to the people's culture. These academically restrictive imposition on community-culture should be abandoned. Experiments in various regions of the country have been taking place to construct school-buildings with local materials, environment friendly design and people's participation. These have proved that India can definitely provide enough and good learning space to the children in primary education at a much lower cost than the outdated 'type-plan' structures. Such modernised and localised school construction may have two side- benefits : improvement of local housing through the training of local people in new construction skills and a feeling in the
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community of 'owning its school' leading to its good maintenance.
3.8 Teachers and equipment: The requirements of additional teachers, text-books, blackboards, etc. can be met by suitably grouping the children and staggering school hours for holding the sessions of various classes. For instance, all children in class I may come to school for three hours when all teachers could be available to teach them in small groups of 20 - 25. The remaining classes could be adjusted later in the day. Schools working in shifts and staggered schedules of primary schooling are to be found in many an advanced country also and these have shown that intensive learning in a short duration is much more useful for good achievement since it prevents boredom and fatigue. The goals of enrolment, retention and achievement may approach nearer through three hour sessions for classes I and II than a five hour or six hour schooling which reduces the child's time for play and makes it reject schooling. For older children newly entering primary education, NFE Centres, early morning schools, or night schools with primary education facilities in selected urban areas, could be systematically organized. The coverage of urban out-of-school children could be attempted through afternoon classes also. Many of these arrangement can be carried out with the help of part-time professional or nonprofessional teachers.
3.9 Wherever TLC's have resulted in a rush for fresh enrolments, the question of provision of additional teachers has
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risen. Unconventional arrangements may not be possible in all places and situations. Expenditure on additional posts of teachers would have to be ultimately met by increasing the allocations for elementary education, while ensuring that non-teacher costs are not reduced.
3.10 Problems of difficult areas: In remote, hilly and Tribal areas, the qualification of primary teachers should not be looked at merely from the academic angle but the rapport the teacher can establish with the local community should constitute a very important element in selection. If this element is strong, even relaxing the formal qualifications, whether for full-time school or part-time classes, should be considered. Such measures as appointing community health guides and other educated persons available in the community as part-time teachers, especially for NFE Centres could be advantageous and may be tried out wherever necessary. Academically qualified local youth, retired persons, educated farmers and artisans, desirous of helping to educate out-of-school children, could be oriented in the basic principles and skill of pedagogy and given recurrent training every month. Utilisation of their services as nonprofessional teachers would help the village communities to accelerate the spread of primary education. Voluntary agencies, public trusts, factories, cooperatives, registered industrial establishments, and all types of work-places where out-of-school children may be found, should be encouraged to set up learning arrangements like coaching-groups, NFE Centres and 'release-time' from work. Voluntary primary schools have been recommended in
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the Eighth Five Year Plan to serve groups of children belonging to hilly, desert, marshy, flood-affected, snow-bound & forest areas as well as nomadic tribes, seasonal migrants, urban poor and so on. According to this scheme, there will be freedom to adjust the curriculum, number of school days and institutional hours, to suit the convenience of learners, but with insistence on good achievement. For such schools, teachers may be appointed on contract basis. The scheme formulated by the Department of Education (HRD Ministry) in consultation with Planning Commission should be vigorously operationalised. Alongside, the Shikshan Karmi model of Rajasthan may also be considered for adaptation elsewhere.
3.11 Provision of primary education in remote villages with scanty population, is a matter of serious concern. Obviously, non- formal education centres are an alternative where establishment of formal primary schools may riot be a viable proposition. Recognising this problem, in some parts of Malaysia, enrolment of school children is done only in alternate years. This idea may be tried out as an experiment in remote and sparsely populated areas where there are not enough children to be enrolled annually. In those States or particular areas of some State where enrolments have reached a saturation point, the question of enrollment may have to be tackled in similar innovative ways.
3.12 Removing disparities
A critical analysis of enrolment shows that the traditionally upper, better off and more powerful segments of
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society have taken full advantage of the primary system even as it stands at present and continue to do so. The question of universalization now concerns the disadvantaged whose socio-cultural and economic conditions obstruct their children's schooling. This question is still not fully understood by those who would wish to support universal primary education because its ramifications have not been clearly placed by researchers before educational administrators and the society as a whole. This lack of a sharp focus on the education of the rural, tribal and urban disadvantaged that has made the task of spreading primary education difficult. Besides, the gender-related problems of enrollment and retention have been neglected. Consequently, the progress of universalisation of primary education is obstructed by the non-participation of girls in the system. Conservatism of tradition-bound families and illiterate groups, the practice of early marriage despite preventive legislation, reluctance to release girls from domestic chores, rapid population growth which compels girls to look after younger siblings, need for girls to release older women in the household for wage-employment, need for girls themselves to work for wage-employment increasingly seen among the rural poor, traditional preference to sons as providers for the parents in old age and looking upon daughters as economic burden, and the overall low status of women, are parts of the cluster of reasons for the educational deprivation of girls in India. Such administrative measures as reservation of seats for women in teacher- training institutions, selection of women teachers especially for handling lower primary classes,
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construction of quarters for women teachers etc., have been tried out in the past as a blanket provisions for tackling the problem of girls' enrolment without a critical attention to the feasibility of implementing such measures in a predominantly rural and tradition- bound society which is largely illiterate and male-dominated. The inability of urban-educated women to work as primary teachers in an isolated manner in the rural areas, the lack of educated women in the rural areas themselves, the orthodoxy and outdated customs which treat women as a lower order of citizens, and uncharitable male attitudes have led to the failure of these schemes based on urban viewpoints, Disregard of the Constitution in the case of SC/STs, and girls has been most noticeable all along. Such are the factors that have been the major hurdles in the path of universal primary education. Dependence on mere administrative efforts will not solve this problem. Mobilizing public opinion against this social injustice and finding specific solutions to the predicament of different disadvantaged groups, State by State, district by district, block by block, and even habitation by habitation is now most essential. Disaggregated micro- level planning which treats each rural and tribal household and each habitation as the basic unit for planning and and socio-political action for implementation has been the major thrust if equality of educational opportunity at the primary stage is to be realized before the year 2000.