ACTION POINTS SUGGESTED BY THE EXPERTS
I. ELEMENTARY EDUCATION: 1. Education in classes I & II should be a joyful activity centred around children.
2. Pre-primary, primary and non-formal education must be be linked in a dynamic and organic manner.
3. Multiple shifts in schools with different timings to suit every individual need to be developed.
4. Non-formal education centres should be called Sanskar Ken- dras.
5. Children studying in non-formal centres should be given scholarship.
6. The honorarium of non-formal teachers should be raised from Rs. 105 to Rs. 150 per month.
7. Education package for deprived children should be for the age group of 3-10 years instead of 6-14 years.
8. Primary education should be imparted through mother tongue and for Muslims, special facilities for teaching Urdu in primary and secondary stages should be provided.
9. In order to achieve universalisation of elementary education an open learning system should be introduced.
10. Children of artisans should be given some concessions in admission in craft training institutions.
11. Penality should be imposed on parents who do hot send their children either to formal or non-formal schools.
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12. Vigilance committee should be given the authority to punish absentee teachers.
13. To promote girls education their transportation cost should be borne by the State.
14. Total cost of boarding and lodging for girls must be met by the State.
15. To encourage the participation of Muslim girls, hostels should be provided.
16. Programme of primary and adult education should be decentra- lised and responssibility should rest primarily on the village or urban education committees.
17. Instead of the prevalent practice of measuring the effec- tiveness of primary education through the system of prescribed quanti- tative targets, each primary school should be made to report on the number of children enrolled in class I and the number who have com- pleted their studies till class V. Besides, the amount of learning acquired by children during five years of schooling should be measured without suing the instrmentality of formal examination.
18. Universalisation of elementary education should receive more priority than adult education.
II. CURRICULUM: 1. Gender bias in curriculum needs to be eliminated.
2. Curriculum needs to be integrated with local dialects, Spoken language so that the learners are able to use the material to upgrade literacy.
3. Righteousness and reasoning should become part of
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literacy curriculum.
4. A cadre of women trainers in rural areas should be de- veloped.
5. Creative and innovative vocational courses for women, need to be designed with a view to impart marketable skill to women.
6. Duration of training of non-formal instructors should for atleast 200 hours to improve their quality.
7. An audio visual approach must be used in training.
8. All evaluation whether of a learner in adult education class or a learner in the school or non-formal centre must be done in asso- ciation with the community or entrusted to the rural/urban bodies.
9. Parents role in supporting the education of children should be part of literacy curriculum.
10. Each One Tech One should be Each One Persuade One.
11. State resource centres must be made permanent institution and they should be given freedom to develop their own programme.
III. JANA SHIKSHAN NILAYAMS: 1. Post-literacy movement should continue for a long time.
2. JSN must be set up on permanent basis.
3. JSN should not be given 100% grant.
4. There should be branches of JSN in each village
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and the preference to run them should be given to women.
5. JSNs should be started before the launching of the campaign.
6. There is a need to have a fresh look at the whole functioning and budget of JSNs and to prepare an Action Plan for activating them in order to help them work for continuing education.
7. People should be activated for undertaking continuing educa- tion and increasing the participation of women and other weaker sec- tions of society in the programmes of JSNs.
IV. GENERAL 1. Eradication of literacy has to be taken up by all as a national concern in which all political parties, should participate: national commitment should be both in letter and spirit.
2. Liquidation of illiteracy has to be dealt with determination and target should be specified in terms of block, villages, district etc.
3. A programme of action at the national level should emerge more as a symbol of state level action plans rather than state level action plans becoming derivatives of national programmes of action.
4. National Literacy Mission must be converted into a full scale permanent statutory commission on the lines of UGC.
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5. In NLM, the post of Chairman and the Director General should not go to the officials; at least one should go to a non-official.
6. There should be suitable structures at village level for bringing about permanent literacy; and local bodies should be given power and financial resources to enable them to discharge their re- sponsibilities.
7. An integrated administration at district level is required to deal with literacy and universal elementary education.
8. For the active participation of community and NGOs in adult education, the centre and state leadership should sit together and prepare a framework.
9. Community-wise literacy figures would be essential to data regarding community wise status of literacy from 1951, should be pub- lished.
10. Total literacy campaigns should. not be spaced out too long if they are to be effective and they should not become national cam- paigns and they should be renamed as district campaigns only.
11. There is a need for pluralism of strategies for reaching the illiterate adults.
12. Total literacy Campaign should be linked with non-formal education.
13. Duration of campaign should be reduced to three months.
14. To sustain the total literacy campaigns they should be linked up with the developmental programmes and not
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remain confined to Ministry of HRD only.
15. Programme of literacy should be time bound; monitoring should be done every two years. Total literacy campaign should be completed by 1995 and the target of literacy should be 6-35 instead of 15-35.
16. All Centre-based programmes and MPFL should be dropped.
17. TLC must start with districts which have lowest literacy rate.
18. Instead of a district, two or three blocks in a district should be selected for launching TLC so as to cover the entire State.
19. Every educational institution should be given responsibility for liquidating illiteracy in a specified area.
20. The educated members of disadvantaged group should be used as catalyst for further education of the same category.
21. Women volunteers who go to other villages for teaching need to be paid honorarium.
22. A substantial representation of women in village education committees is essential.
23. Literacy must help the women to get full confidence of drinking water, fuel facilities etc.needs to be provided for women so as to relieve them from day to day burden and enable them to partici- pate in literacy programme.
24. The problem of education of Muslims should not be
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left to Muslims alone.
25. In the elected bodies it should be made compulsory for a person to be functionally literate before he is entitled to contest.
26. The suggestion of not giving symbol of a political party on a ballot paper may also be considered.
27. Voluntary organisations should be consulted at the formative stage of literacy programme and they should not only be entrusted with the responsibility of eradication of illiteracy from a particular area but also given the task of organising training programme for the functionaries, production of teaching learning materials, conducting evaluation etc.
28. Monitoring should be strengthened: The community involvement in the monitoring of schools with balwadis has to come from village literacy committees.
29. Language wise census should be conducted.
30. Loans for self-employment should be linked on a priority basis to those who become literate and send their children to school.
31. Increased outlay for adult education particularly for intro- duction of vocational courses should be given.
32. Education schemes are to be conceptualised on a long-term basis.
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