Education: Views And Vision - A Suggestive Study With Critical Analysis Under The Backdrop Of Bihar

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Knowledge is our weapon HAZRAT MUHAMMAD (Peace be upon him)

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Dedicated to my parents Late Bibi Mehrunnisan Late Dr. S. A. Fazal Their constant care and prayer enabled me to do something for the cause of education.

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Quotable quotes “Human History becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe” – H. G. Wells, An outline of History.  “The destiny of India is now being shaped in the class rooms” – D. S. Kothari, Education and national Development.  “It is not the strongest of the species that survive nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change” – Charles Darwin, Origin of Species.  “We must teach our children to take calculated risks for the sake of larger gain — Inquiry, Creativity, technology, entrepreneurial and moral leadership are the five capabilities required to be built through education” – A. P. J. Abdul Kalam , The President of India, Address at the Valedictory Function of the Platinum Jubilee Celebration of CBSE, 28 th July 2004.. 

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Acknowledgement I, from the core of my heart, do acknowledge the bounty of God the Almighty for His favour bestowed upon me for health and happiness, the mental capacity and opportunity to do some creative works. May Allah continue His favour for ever! (Ameen).

I am thankful to all those thinkers, philosophers, educationists and public men to whom I am benefited a lot to form my ideas and to whom I quoted in this work profusely.

I am specially thankful to my wife Rashda Naheed ( M.A., B.Ed.) for her constant support and encouragement . She is the real strength behind me.

Her understanding of Indian milieu is unique which has helped me a lot in shaping my views on different aspects of education. She took all pains to provide me comfort in course of this work. She is well anxious to see it published at earliest.

My heart goes in love and affection of my son Khalid Kamal Rumi (B.Tech) and my daughter Aiman Kamal Arshi for their moral and material support. My son went through the whole manuscript minutely and suggested various improvements in language and presentation at several places. My daughter has the keen insight. Sometimes her casual enquiry and uncanny remarks unlock the many knots I was trying to open. These ‘tiny philosophers’ in my house are constant source of inspiration.

Last but no the least, I am grateful to all my friends, relatives and well wishers particularly Sri Budhdev Biswas, Professor Madan Prasad Sinha, Mr. Sami Ahmad, Nadeem Ahsan and Sandeep Kumar and the publisher for their cooperation in bringing out this book in this form.

Author

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CONTENTS Acknowledgement LET MY COUNTRY AWAKE:Preface

Rabindranath Tagore

Chapter – I – Vision of Education 1.

Education -Views and Vision 2.

Dawn of a new era – Policy Imperatives of 21st Century 3.

Some Thoughts on Dimensional Change in Education Chapter – II – Issues in Syllabus & Language Teaching 4.

Issues in Syllabus 5.

Syllabus Making – Issues Revisited 6.

Issues in Language Curriculum 7.

A Case for Hindi 8.

A Case for Urdu 9.

A Case for English Chapter – III – Challenges before Higher Education 10. How to Revamp Intermediate Education in Bihar 11. Challenges before Higher Education in India 12. Problems & Prospects of Privatisation of Education in India 13. The Role and Responsibility of The College Principal 14. Academic Staff College – How to make it more meaningful 15. Introduction of Research Methodology – Some Basic Propositions 16. Student Unrests – Causes and Cures Chapter – IV – Examination Reforms 17. Examination Reform ---Meaning & Method 18. Examination Reforms & The Grading System Chapter –V – Vocational and Non-conventional System of Education 19. Vocational Education in India -- A Perspective Analysis 20. Vocational Education in Bihar 21. Open School System--- An Introduction MY VOYAGE :REFERENCES INDEX

Rabindranath Tagore

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LET MY COUNTRY AWAKE Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and actionInto that heaven of freedom, my Father, Let my Country awake.

(Gitanjali : Rabindranath Tagore)

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Preface There can be many a measurement to assess the development of any country, community, region and state. Education is a better index to measure the development of a region or a state. There is a corresponding relationship between education and development and vice-versa. The stories of all developed nations affirm this proposition. We are underdeveloped because we are educationally backward. Thus, education is key to development and empowerment particularly for the weak and the backward. We cannot think for any model of development without education. Without joggling any controversy one can say it safely that human resource has unending recourse. Only that country or community has legitimate right to survive that strives to do better in the field of education.

India as a matter of fact, does have the potential to poise for a big leap, but to our dismay the general education scene in the country is quite disturbing which mars our progress. In Bihar the situation is worse. There is a wreckage of the ages, which has brought it to the brink of disaster. The emergency bell is ringing fast. A rescue operation must be initiated immediately to save the fabric of the nation otherwise there is nothing that can save the young budding generation from on imminent peril.

In a developing economy and a caste ridden, complex and composite tradition bound society education for all is a big challenge. Since independence we have strived hard and achieved remarkable successes but the goal of total literacy and high quality education is still a far-off dream.

Sustainable growth is not possible without proper education of people. We cannot afford the luxury of illiteracy and ignorance any more in the 21 st century. It requires a four-sided attack to overpower this enemy. The Govt. of India as well as the state governments have come out with various plans and proposals to meet this challenge in a constant determined fashion. But due to many a drawbacks at the implementation level many well-thought schemes and plans of action have failed to bring desired results. I am of the view that unless people’s participation is guaranteed in the true sense of the word no policy measure and scheme of work will achieve any success. It is utmost necessary that plan should be devised at local levels taking into consideration all the relevant points, the local situation, the depth and gravity of the problem, the weak and strong spots and how to mobilize the people. Government should provide financial and technical support to local initiatives. Each caste and community should be given the responsibility to launch a literacy campaign within the group to attain the goal of total literacy (in a phased manner within a stipulated time) with full 8

support from the government machinery. This scheme should be backed by well-thought wide spectrum social security measures. Any lapse on the part of community leaders and parents should be declared cognizable offence and punishment with fine and imprisonment should be awarded in full public gaze. The government of the day must be ready to sacrifice itself for this greater social cause. Educating people is no less important than national defence. Like national security there should be no compromise on the standard of education. Public expenditure on education and defence must be at par with one another. To start with, 6% of the GDP must be spent on education for its quantitative expansion and qualitative improvement. Human resource is the real wealth of a nation. This is the real investment on which the internal peace, prosperity and the strength of the nation depends. If India wants to emerge as a potential superpower in the near future it will have to redefine its priorities. This book emphasizes the importance of education in a candid way. The author holds the public authorities more responsible for the lacunae in the system. It gives some policy resolutions to reform the system. The present system of primary education, the secondary education, the intermediate education and the higher education is in a state of shambles. It has either been orphaned or being given a step-motherly treatment with no sympathy with the toiling masses. Men at the helm of affairs deal with the people so ruthlessly and mercilessly, as if they are aliens belonging to hostile nation. Unless this mindset is changed and genuine sympathy for people dawns in the heart of the authorities we can hope nothing despite huge financial investment and big bang schemes. We have to bring back Gandhi in the corridors of power for the amelioration of the lot of the deprived and the destitute.

Symbolism, ritual and rhetoric will not bear fruit. This book tries to invoke that sincerity which is missing and has been lost somewhere in the crowd of selfishness. Ideas are not new and innovative, but the concern is genuine and emerges out from the heart of a person who loves his country, his people without any distinction of caste, creed, colour and sex. India belongs to all Indians. So, it needs inclusive, not exclusive doctrine.

Patriotism demands equal concern for all citizens. One must feel safe, respected and cared to realize that one belongs to this great nation. Any narrowness will defeat the whole purpose. Educational model must reflect the federal, composite and mosaic character of our society and country. All languages, culture and social norms should have a respectable place in our curriculum. Scientific temper must guide our moral character. Human being is a combination of body and soul. So requirements of both must be addressed in a judicious fashion. If we could resolve this matter with the 9

satisfaction of all the segments of our society it would be a great service to the country, because that would serve as a solid foundation for peace and amity in the nation, which will reflect in the strength and solidarity of the country. Education can be a means to that end.

It is a lamentable fact that despite all tall talk education is at the lowest ladder of the priority of both the centre and the state governments, which is evident from the plan allocation of fund as well as the scheme of implementation. We are a democratic nation where a government is chosen by the popular will of the people. The majority of the people of this country are poor living in a state of abject poverty. Illiteracy and poverty is twin sisters living in the same hutment unless one goes the other will not go. So in the literal sense of the word India is the country of the poor.

Naturally, in the democratic system of government the poor enjoy the right to vote. So it can be said that it is the government of the poor and by the poor, but whether it is for the poor is a doubtful proposition. Government is elected by the poor but it works mainly for the rich and the powerful.

The poor gets simply the symbolic gesture, a lip-service and eye-wash.

Education is a glaring example of this postulate. We boast to bring education in the list of fundamental rights of the people, a birthright of every child with a provision of free universal compulsory education between 6-14 years of age. We have launched a massive campaign of education for all with a big bang, but what is the reality? Over ten crore children of 6-18 years age group are out of school in the country. Over 65 million children in Bihar alone are out of school according to government reports. This depicts the quantitative failure in terms of education. On the quality front our performance is quite inexplicable. It is because the poor are ignorant and unconscious of their rights. They are disorganised and weak to raise any voice and check merciless joke mooted on their name.

We have made our democracy deep and strong through various institutions and organizations, yet the bourgeois control over these institutions has failed to deliver the fruit of democracy at the doorstep of the poor. These articles have been written to enthuse with genuine sympathy for the toiling masses irrespective of caste and creed to bring them in the mainstream of development. Education is an essential prerequisite for a happy, independent, civilised life with peace and prosperity. So long it will remain the privilege of the few it would be divisive. For the unity and social equality of the Indian nation quality universal education is of utmost importance. I am deeply hurt to see that even those who have come to power riding on the popular support of the poor and the downtrodden, never tired to remember that their government is for the poor, they too lack 10

genuine sympathy and willingness to improve their lot. Thus the poor feel doubly cheated today. These articles are warning bells to stop this cruel joke. The political establishment and the bureaucracy will have to solve the genuine grievances of the people; otherwise the undercurrent will overthrow them in the dustbin of history.

This book is written with a degree of experience that gives the factual picture of education prevailing in our schools and colleges right from primary level to the higher level. This is not a research work and any attempt of theorization has been avoided. It tries to go through the real problems and suggests means and measures to improve the situation.

This book has not been written in a designed fashion under one topic rather it is collection of articles written at different occasions to highlight different aspects and problems of education. Due to centrality of theme they have been clubbed together under different chapters to give a comprehensive treatment to every aspect of education. The articles included in this collection bear a stamp of practicability and pragmatism with a sole purpose to improve the educational scenario in this country as well as in the state of Bihar.

Education in the country more particularly in Bihar has been derailed. It is imperative to go back to basics to restore the system. Any talk of reformation and improvement in the system will be meaningful only when education is allowed to be back on the rail.

We are in the 21st century -- a century of knowledge. Power flows not from the barrel of the gun but from the barrel of knowledge. Knowledge is power, ignorance is weakness. So knowledge should be used as a weapon to save and seek one’s share. It is an essential tool of empowerment.

Empowerment and development can only be achieved by knowledge and education. This brochure impresses upon all the functionaries to work in unison to realise this goal.

This book touches most of the aspects of education and tries to examine its problems in an objective, analytical and critical manner with a touch of realism. It suggests a scheme of work, a road map and policy measures to ameliorate the present situation. This is an attempt to acquaint the people with the problems and seek their cooperation in the process of reform. How far this approach is appropriate and conducive to reform is for the readers to decide. The writer is open to all sorts of comment and criticism.

Dr. Abuzar Kamaluddin Ex-Vice Chairman Bihar Intermediate Education Council, Patna July 28, 2006 11

Chapter – I

Views on Education Education is a wide and complex subject. Diversities in Indian society have made it more complex. Sometimes the multi layers society for wrong reasons have posed as rivals. The uniformity of cause and concern is still a far off dream. We have yet not realized the goal of universal education. It is a colossal national loss, an unpardonable sin no less than a disaster of unparallel scale – the thousands of tsunami. We cannot afford to continue this luxury in twenty first century. All means and might should be directed to realize this goal at earliest. Education has been conferred as fundamental right of an individual. Let it not be restricted to the privileged few. Education is the right of an individual, duty of the society and responsibility of the government. Right without duty is unjust and duty without right is inexpedient. A government ceases its right to govern if it fails to perform its basic duty. It is democracy the age of commons. So, common people should get priority in all collective decisions and actions.

Thus all segments and institutions engage in the process of education must work in tandem with well defined blue-prints to achieve this goal.

Quality and competitiveness in tune with modern necessities to inculcate the leadership qualities in the young generation to face the rough and tough world boldly and successfully should be the goal of education. In this chapter there are three articles that discuss the views and vision of education in a wide spectrum, under well defined ambit with solid arguments in a lucid style. An intelligent reader will have a good insight on this subject that may be helpful in policy resolutions and practical programming.

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1.

Education --Views and Vision

Background Education is the basic need of an individual and a society. It distinguishes man from animal. It is the foundation stone of culture and civilization. It is necessary for social consciousness, empowerment and development. No responsible and conscious person or society can dare to enjoy the luxury of ignorance to invite perpetual, disgrace and ignominy, deprivation and degradation. The choice between education and ignorance is a choice between peril or prosperity, competence or catastrophe. So the need of education is not a debatable issue. It has now been recognised as the fundamental right of an individual and one of the fundamental duties of the state. Every individual male or female belonging to any caste, community, colour or creed has equal right to access of education. Any barrier and discrimination is against the spirit of the age. Today, we cannot think of a free civilised and a democratic society with essential rights and duties of its citizens without education. The controversy lies in the basic philosophy of education, the means and method and the goal of education.

In this paper I would like to throw some light on these issues as precisely as I can. It is not a research paper, but an impression note which I gained through personal observation and study on this subject. I know my limitations so I would avoid giving any judgment. There is no final word. I will make some observation which will open a vista for discussion on this subject under the context of 21st century.

During the past centuries human society and civilisation have traveled a long distance from pastoral age to modern age of science and technology. Man has not only reached to all the nooks and corners of the earth’s surface, he has overhaul the seas, trounced the virginity of Antarctica and set his feet on the peaks of the high mountains. Scaling the moon is an old story. Now he has taken a long leap into the space. Time is not far off when he would be able to travel in space to different planets with as ease as he goes to one country from another. But it is a broad picture patched with vast terrace of illiteracy and ignorance, starvation and misery, exploitation and backwardness and dark areas in the mid noon.

Every society and country is not equally fortunate. The gap between one community and country to another community and country is so vast and wide that questions the basic veracity of human nature. Are they the same human being, living in different regions and societies or some other species? The moot question is, whether a traveler in space has learnt to 13

tread like a human being on the surface of the earth. The animal instinct has overpowered the human instinct. Here the role of education and its basic aims gain importance. Education is the need of an individual, a community, a society and a country. Man lives in an integrated whole, so cosmopolitanism can not be divorced to this scheme of thought. India is a country of vast multitude complex contradictory juxtaposed in a composite whole. So as discussion looms large on a vast canvass, need local connotation too to translate into programme of action at local levels.

Value the Difference & Diversity We sometimes remain so familiar with a thing that comes so often in our common parlays that we suppose to know it very well. But when it comes to a definition it becomes a difficult task. Education is a word we usually come across hopefully knowing its meaning and dimensions very well. But not exactly, it becomes a blind exercise like six blind men trying to define an elephant. Any definition of education brings more disagreements than agreements. It is because individuals and societies differ from one another. So everybody tries to define education according to his own perception. If we insist to frame everything in the monolithic trajectory of perception, it is bound to create conflict and crisis in the society. So while recognising the individual’s right to education we have to allow the diversity of exercise to attain the goal of universalisation of education. Diversity does not imply disunity. So it should not only be tolerated but also respected to allow everybody a comfortable space to roam in freely. It is the essential lesson of civilisation which has been learnt through the cultivation of mind. Education in this sense is a means to that end. In a diverse but composite society of India it becomes more important -- an essential tool in the national cohesion.

The fable written by educator Dr. R. H. Reeves “The Animal School” is an apt expression to this phenomenon.

“Once upon a time, the animals decided they must do something heroic to meet the problems of a “New World”, so they organised a school.

They adopted an activity curriculum consisting of running, climbing, swimming and flying. To make it easier to administer, all animals took all the subjects.

The duck was excellent in swimming, better in fact than his instructor and got excellent grades in flying, but he was very poor in running. Since he was slow in running he had to stay after school and also drop swimming to practice running. This was kept up until his web feet

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were badly worn and he was only average in swimming. But average was acceptable in school so nobody worried about that except the duck.

The rabbit started at the top of the class in running but had a nervous break down because of so much in swimming.

The squirrel was excellent in climbing until he developed frustration in flying class where his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of from the tree top down. He also developed charley horses from over-exertion and he got a C in climbing and a D in running.

The eagle was problem child and had to be disciplined severely. In climbing class he beat all the others to the top of the tree, but insisted on using his own way of getting there.

At the end of the year, an abnormal eel that could swim exceedingly well and run, climb and fly a little had the highest average and was valedictorian.

The prairie dogs stayed out of school and fought the tax levy because the administration would not add digging and burrowing to the curriculum. They apprenticed their children to the badger and later joined the ground hogs and gophers to start a successful private school.

(Quoted from Stephen R. Covey: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People PP 278-279) I am reminded of another story of the same nature told in a different way. Once, a philosopher boarded in a boat to cross a river. On the way he asked the sailor if he knew mathematics, the sailor replied no. Then he asked if he knew geography the sailor said no. Then he continued to ask about various disciplines and branches of knowledge. On his every question the sailor only replied in negative. The philosopher pitied a lot on the poor fellow thinking how he led his life. When the boat reached the middle of the river there was a torrent wave misbalancing the whole boat.

The sailor asked the philosopher if he knew swimming. The philosopher said no. Then the sailor said now go with your knowledge of philosophy, science and mathematics and plunge into the river. Finally the boat drowned with the philosopher, this story reminds two things. 1) No knowledge is perfect and 2) All knowledge has its own importance at its own place. The society needs different knowledge and expertise, for its proper functioning. So, difference should be valued and accommodated in any scheme of education. The modern philosophy of education does emphasize this fact and recognizes the multiplicity of approach - a right method of education to address different needs and aspirations of the society taking in view the different capabilities of different people and

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segments of society. If we go on to insist one model we will frustrate the whole endeavour. It is the greatest gift of modern philosophy of education.

Individual & Society The subject matter of education is man—an individual, a member of a family, a unit of a society a representative of a community, a citizen of a country and an essential part of the world human civilization. Education in the essential sense of the word helps to build that character and characteristics which enables him to meet the changing requirements of the time. Human society is on a march. A generation succeeds the previous one with all its belongings. This is the reason man dies but society lives on. Man is the by product of society or society is collective expression of man is a mind boggling question. The thinkers and philosophers differ with one another. To Aristotle man is a social animal who can not live without society. But according to two American thinkers Dealey and Word man by nature is not a social animal. Society is the by product of his logical exercise and mental evolution. He has developed society as a beneficial institution for his common benefit.

Now society is so integral to man that one cannot imagine about a human being without reference to his social surroundings. Thus we find a process of continuous give and take between the man and the society, both enriching one another in the course of human civilisation. In this case man being an inseparable part of society must enrich the society for common benefit and in return society must respect the individuality and privacy of a man and allow him to prosper as per his own design. The very purpose of education in this sense is first, to allow intellectual enrichment of each individual as per his mental and physical capacity and second, to strengthen the society through collective endeavour. Thus society is like a building, built of bricks and brick being a unit of society. You can not conceive a whole without a unit and a unit is like a stray brick without the concept of building, useless and unutilized. Education helps to carve a balance between man and society and provides an opportunity to develop one another by mutual cooperation and control. Thus the essential aim of education is to help the individual and the society to grow on healthy lines.

Education in the institutional form is a social phenomenon. It is a part of public policy. There are four players in this game, the individual (the child), the parents, the society (the teacher and the institution) and the government. It is a micro approach in a macro frame work. So, according to Bertrand Russel the aim of education is to learn the technique for a better utilisation of one’s intuition and ability to express oneself in fine 16

arts and scientific discoveries to shape a better world of living. This in wholesome according to him is human character. Dewey describes individual character as innovation invention inquisitiveness and a spirit of freedom of choice both in terms of faith and practice. In his view these are not the gift of nature but acquired abilities which are brought through education. Thus education is an expression of inner self of an individual, his abilities and capabilities, an urge to create his own world of dwelling.

The society shapes up the individual intuition in a concrete form. It gives them an institutional framework.

A child is born under a system of social relationship and grows with it. The social heritage contributes a lot to his mental and physical make up.

At the end he becomes the by product of that society, a symbol and representative of set values prevailing in it. That social heritage grows with time and every generation contributes towards its richness which is reflected in the life and institutions of that community. Every succeeding generation is more knowledgeable and experienced in comparison to the previous one. A five year child of today living in some urban society knows more than a person of 75 years of age of previous century living in some remote village. George Bernad Shaw in one of his drama, “Back to Methuselan� professed a time when a born baby would be of the 17 years of age mentally by virtue of his mental faculty. Till yesterday it was amused as a fiction or a fine fig of imagination. But as the knowledge is growing and there is boom in the knowledge delivery system, it looks no longer astonishing. It is near to reality.

So, in a developing society the need and requirement of education also develops. The society and the individual both contribute one another in the development of their common pursuit.

Views on Education Education has many dimensions. Different thinkers, commissions and committees have reflected on this subject as per their perception and understanding. Sociologists view education as a process of socialisation of the new generation in the ways of life of the society. In their opinion the aim of education is to prepare cultured men as per the perception of society.

In relation to culture, education might be referred to as a process instilling in young people the traditionally inherited and contemporaneously renewed values and beliefs which lie at the core of culture. Education is an agent of cultural transmission while culture provides a context for educational institutions and constitutes an essential 17

part of educational contents. Emil Durkheim, the famous sociologist says, “Education consists of methodical socialization of the young generation and that staples of education—knowledge, values, attitudes, skills, habits, disposition etc. are part of man’s social heritage and can not come from within the child”(Education & Sociology, NY 1956 PP 61-67). Inkles says that socialization is the process of acquiring a particular role or number of roles in a society and objective here is to produce “competent people” as competence is defined in any given society. According to John Dewey, the great American educationist, education is that social process in which our experiences and understanding are constantly reconstructed and reorganised (Democracy & Education, Macmillan, 1916 ch. 5) Brook gives three basic premises to explain the concept of education, first human behaviour is essentially social. Second, education is concerned with teaching the members of society how they are expected to behave in a variety of selected social situations. Third, it is education through which societies are perpetuated (W. B. Brook Over, A Sociology of Education NY: American Book Co 1955, PP 3-5).

Developmental psychologists regard education as a process which facilitates the mental and emotional development of the child at different stages of his biological growth and assists in developing his potential abilities. They consider education as a process of growth. This concept is characterised as child centered approach to education.

Rousseau in his famous work Emile had given a marvelous treatment to this idea due to which he is considered the greatest apostle of modern education. Cominius an early seventeenth century thinker has also expressed similar views. Froebels in his book, Education of Man, explicitly likened education to the biological unfolding of inner potentialities of child. In recent times Jean Pinget, a developmental psychologist formulated a theory of cognitive development and advocated that educational environment be organised in terms of children’s pattern of growth and according to their stages of cognitive development. However, Dewey has emphasised that the growth process referred here is essentially a social process rather than a natural process.

According to educationists and thinkers education is the process of developing the natural endowments of a child rather than forcing knowledge into the mind from outside. Pastalozzi, the German educationist was among the first who advocated that by developing the inner capacities the power of an individual can be enhanced—so unfolding of capacity and not imposition of knowledge from outside should be the focus of attention. He further suggested that education should strictly be in 18

accordance with the growth pattern of a child and suited to the features and complexities of his development. Fredrich Froebal, the disciple of Pastlozzi explaining this concept emphasised that education is a process by which the child makes the internal external. He said the purpose of teaching is to “bring evermore out of the man rather than to put more and more into man”. Mahatma Gandhi gave a comprehensive view of education. He says, “By education I mean the all round drawing out of the best in the child and man- body, mind and soul” (NCTE Gandhi on Education, New Delhi, 1998 P- 1-34). He meant physical intellectual and spiritual development of the individual through education and emphasized all round development of the child.

From the educational administrator’s point of view, education is a process of developing such abilities in the learners which will help them to get through the rigours of examination successfully for pursuing further education or for shouldering the employment related responsibilities. This idea represents the partial view of education as it emphasizes only intellectual and occupational development of learners and ignores other dimensions of human development through the medium of education.

For economists education is an important source of improving and increasing production and augmenting economic development at national and individual levels. Education, thus affects economic development directly and indirectly. Directly it influences the productivity of workers, their employment and employability, composition, division and mobility of labour force etc. And indirectly it helps in improving saving, limiting family size, formation of right kind of attitudes and skills and removing obstacles to social change and progress by way of broadening the outlook of the people. S. C. Goel, in his book, Education and Economic Growth in India, (New Delhi, Macmillan, 1975 PP 3-25) has worked out the productivity of workers in terms of education in Indian context. As per findings the productivity of primary education passed worker was better than that of illiterate workers by 17%, the productivity of middle school passed was higher than the productivity of the primary passed workers by 14%, the secondary school passed was better by 10% than the middle school passed and the rate of return of university educated workers was found better by 8% than the secondary school educated workers.

This emphasises two things, one, universal free and compulsory elementary education to all members of the society to enhance the productivity of future generation. Second, as emphasised by Delors Commission (Report of International commission on Education for Twenty first century Op cit P 136) a process of learning to learn or 19

learning to know to educate oneself throughout life. Because in the fast changing technological and scientific world as per Delors report once learnt skills become static set of skills as they become obsolete and redundant within a short period of time. The report emphasises the need to learn throughout the whole of life because it is essential for adapting to the evolving requirements of the labour market and for the changing requirements of time and rhythms of individual existence (Bid. P. 97-100).

Thanks to the human resources investment revolution, in the economic thought the development planners view expenditure on education as an investment that produces returns comparable to investment in physical capital activities. The empirical literature abundantly shows that investment in education contributes to increase labour productivity, higher individual earnings and high level of national economic growth.

Further it helps to reduce poverty and improvement in income distribution in addition to social, demographic and political development. Thus, the objective of education, it is clear is human resource development which in turn would help in overall national development. D. S. Kothari in his report, “Education & National Development” (1964-66) had recommended sustained investment in education for achieving the goals of national development. The report begins by declaring that, “The destiny of India is now being shaped in the classrooms”. In the present world of science and technology it is the level of education that determines the level of prosperity, welfare and security of people. If we plan “to change on a ground scale” without violent revolution education is the only instrument, the commission emphasised.

Education is a vast subject. We have tried to give various versions on this subject and addressed many a dimensions, but in no case it is free from flaw. Each view presented here has its own limitation. So, education has to be understood in a wider context with its varied connotations in order to realise its potential benefits for a society and for its people.

Education as such means the all round development of the individual. The UNESCO’s International Commission on Education also highlights that aim and suggests that every education system must try to attain this aim. The commission firmly believes that the child is endowed with a treasure of innate abilities and capabilities which is brought out through the process of learning and this treasure within the child has to be unearthed to develop him into a balanced person who is able to face the challenges and tensions of the 21st century successfully. Jacques Delors argues that the commission sees education as one of the principal means available to foster a deeper and more harmonious form of human 20

development and relationships among individuals, groups and nations. The commission feels that the mission of education in 21 st century is to enable each of us, without exception, to develop all our talents fully, the best possible all round development and to the realise our creative potentials, including responsibility for our own lives and achievement of our personal aims (UNESCO Report PP 13-19).

Thus education in the wider sense is a lifelong continuous process through which all abilities of the individual are developed which help him in controlling his environment and realising all his potentialities.

Education in this sense is a dynamic process which wants to see individual not as dead clean slate ready for scribing or as an inert entity but as an active person who believes in his mutual and dynamic interaction with the surrounding environment and with the experiences emanating out of this environment. The entire process of education leads to development of such knowledge, understanding, values, skills, attitudes etc. in the individuals which are considered important by the society and considered as its cultural heritage and treasure and the society wishes to transmit them to the members of the new generation.

In order to implement the wider concept of education the very process of education and its agencies, especially the state is duty bound to ensure that these values attitudes, information, skills, etc. which are considered worthy of transmission to the new generation should not be allowed to become either static, obsolete, prejudiced or unbalanced. Thus the responsibility of the entire educational enterprise increases multifold in those societies which believe in pluralistic and multicultural ethos and whose cultures have been jointly developed and enriched by different cultural and ethnic groups through a long-drawn mutual interaction, cooperation and co-existence. In fact, in such societies it is the additional responsibility of the process of education to ensure and promote among their members a spirit of living together by extending respect and cooperation to each other so that the society can remain integrated and its people can live a peaceful and prosperous life. Considering this need of living together as all the more important for all the societies of the world, the UNESCO’s International Commission on Education has declared it as one of the four basic pillars of education on which will rest the entire edifice of education in future (Prof. M. A. Siddiqui : Empowerment of Muslims through Education, IOS New Delhi 2004 PP-1-57).

Challenge of Education – the Contemporary Indian Vision

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With the change in time and circumstances, people and places, the whole gamut of approach also changes. India an ancient land of young aspirations is bubbling with energy to scale new heights. Education, thus is supposed to shape the destiny of the nation in the 21st century. In terms of population, India is the second largest country of the world after China comprising 1.05 billion people as per 2001 census. This is about 16 percent of the world population on 2.4 percent of total land area with 2.14 percent annual growth rate of population as per 1991 census. The population of people less than 30 years of age constitutes about 65 percent of our total population. Seventy percent people live in rural areas and 30 percent in urban areas.

In such a vast country full of diversities education is a big challenge.

According to national education policy 1986, “education in India stands at the crossroads today”. It has to meet the challenges of physical expansion as well as the challenges of quality improvement. In the Government of India document titled, Challenge of Education, it has boldly and candidly envisaged, “to achieve the multiple but interdependent goals of personal economic, social, political and cultural development, it is necessary to make appropriate provisions for integrated programme of education for people who happen to be living at different levels of personal and economic development possessing different linguistic, social and cultural attributes (1.9).” In this case the report emphasises that change rather than status quo should become the watchword.

In the light of the fundamental role assigned to education in national wellbeing and development, it is essential that quantitative, qualitative and temporal objectives should be determined through an interactive process and emphasis has to be laid on the socio-economic wellbeing, competence and creativity of individual which encompasses: i.

“Physical, intellectual and aesthetic development of personality. ii.

Inculcation of a scientific temper and democratic, moral and spiritual values. iii. Development of self confidence to innovate and face unfamiliar situations. iv. Creation of an awareness of the physical, social, technological, economic and cultural environment. v.

Fostering a healthy attitude to dignity of labour and hard work. vi. A commitment to principles of secularism and social justice. vii. Dedication to uphold the integrity, honour and foster the development of the country and, 22

viii. Promotion of international understanding” (4.8) “In addition to developing the personal attributes listed above, education has to assume the responsibility for imparting knowledge about concepts and facts relating to different subjects for developing skills in the areas of languages and communication, as also interest in hobbies, games and sports” (4.9) Since independence various policies have been adopted. The National Policy of 1968 marked a significant step in the history of education in post-independence India. It aimed to promote national progress, a sense of common citizenship and culture and strengthen national integration. It laid stress on the need for a radical reconstruction of the education system and quality improvement at all stages with greater attention on science and technology, the cultivation of moral values and a closer relation between education and the life of the people.

The National Policy on Education 1986 is the watershed in the history of modern India. With high sensitivity and realisation as a way of Indian thinking, a human being is a positive asset and a precious natural resource which needs to be cherished, nurtured and developed with tenderness and care coupled with dynamism. Education serves as catalyst to this end. The NPE 1986 recognises education as essential for all, a fundamental tool to all round development, material and spiritual. It says, “Education has an acculturating role. It refines sensitivities and perceptions that contribute to national cohesion, a scientific temper and independence of mind and spirit – thus furthering the goals of socialism, secularism and democracy as enshrined in our constitution (2.2)”.

“Education develops manpower for different levels of the economy.

It is also the substrate on which research and development flourish, being ultimate guarantee of national self-reliance” (2.3).

“In sum, education is a unique investment in the present and the future. This cardinal principle is the key to the national policy on Education (1986)” (2.4).

The programme of Action 1992 goes a step further and asks to implement it with all earnestness. The NPE, 1986 has the distinction of giving an operational meaning to concurrency i.e. it can only be implemented if the union and the states/Union Territories work together in a meaningful partnership given the rich diversity of a continental nation like India it would be in the fitness of things if each state and UT formulates a state POA which is in line with the situational imperative as well as the POA 1992. This process has to be carried to its logical 23

conclusion with each district and educational institution formulating a POA of its own. A certain amount of flexibility is assumed in tailoring the POA 1992, to suit their contexts and emerging scenarios.

Accordingly, the foremost priority to reorganization of the content and process of education the POA 1992 laid emphasis, “Time is of essence and unless we act now, we stand in danger of once again missing the opportunity of educational reform, so critical not only for the development of our nation but for our survival”.

National Focus Groups on National Curriculum Framework Review 2005 view, “education as a planned endeavour, at a personal level on a small scale or institutional level on a large scale, aims at making children capable of becoming active, responsible, productive and caring members of society. They are made familiar with the various practices of the community by imparting the relevant skills and ideas. Ideally, education is supposed to encourage the students to analyse and evaluate their experiences to doubt, to question, to investigate, in other words to be inquisitive to think independently” (Position Paper Vol. II, systemic Reform P.10).

In his vision for the nation Shri APJ Abdul Kalam, The President of India views education as capacity building to transform India into a developed nation by 2020.

In his scheme of thought, “for realising the above vision, the capacities required in educational institutions are: The capacity for research or inquiry, the capacity for creativity and innovation, particularly the creative transfer of knowledge, the capacity to use high technology, the capacity for entrepreneurial leadership and the capacity for moral leadership.”

To him the 20th century was for the generation of knowledge. The st 21 century will be about the management of all knowledge and information that we have generated and give value to it. There should be a lifelong learning process to meet the requirement of technology, sustained economic growth and political development. It is beyond the capacity of individual to manage knowledge because the amount of information is overwhelming and has exceeded the capacity of an individual, so the management of knowledge must move out of the realm of the individual and into the realm of the society.

He further emphasises that every student in our schools should learn to know how to use the latest technologies for aiding their learning process. He is of the opinion that, “We must teach our children to take calculated risks for the sake of larger gain. By moral leadership he means 24

two things 1) the ability to have compelling and powerful dreams or visions of human betterment and 2) disposition to do the right thing and influence others also to do right things.

“In sum, inquiry, creativity, technology, entrepreneurial and moral leadership are the five capacities required to be built through the education process.” (Address at the valedictory Function of the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations of the CBSE at Vigyan Bhawan New Delhi: 28 th July 2004: Children Friendly Education)”.

Conclusion This in wholesome are the views of thinkers, philosophers, educationists, sociologists, psychologist, economists and men engaged in various activities related to education. As I said in the beginning I am not capable to pass any judgment. The views expressed so far give various dimensions and a broad picture of education. We can weave a set theory of education taking all important points from each one of them. What I can say as per conclusion precisely education helps to live like a human being on the earth and provides the wherewithal to control and contain the natural forces and to build a safer and prosperous world in the dynamic process of development and helps further the natural selection and cultural advancement. At the end I would like to quote Charles Darwin, “It is not the strongest of the species that survive nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” This is the basic crux of modern philosophy of education. How early and how quickly we learn this lesson, our future will lie upon this basic fact.

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2

Dawn of a new era ----Policy Imperative of 21st Century

Right to education is an essential corollary and part and parcel of right to life, a natural and ineffable aspect of dignity of man. Human society throughout the past ages remained defaced and degraded due to this oblivious omission that was the root cause of all human wrongs.

Religion has played a very significant role in shaping up a civilised society but it could not invoke popular desire for education. Governments of the past did not recognize it as their responsibility. But with the dawn of democracy, a new era has begun. A more accountable and responsible system of government has taken its root. Health and education have been recognized as one of the essential duties of the government on which its performance is being judged and on this account a government is voted in or out of the power. We are in the 21st Century. It is a century which calls upon the Government to provide better governance and education which have been recognized as essential conditionalities of good governance. So performance of a government will be judged not only by the kilometer of road it constructs, or the electricity it provides or the maintenance of law and order, but its performance will be judged on the basis of human index and most particularly the human resource development. It is a means as well as an end itself. And now no government can ignore the responsibility.

Education in Bihar from primary to higher level for various reasons is in bad shape. There is no need to enumerate those failures. What is required is how we can check it? The government of the day is serious and it is trying its level best to improve the situation. It is not a sudden collapse but a wreckage of the ages that will take time in amelioration. I don’t see any easy, immediate and short cut remedy of present going. But a step in right direction is better than hundred steps in wrong directions.

Usually education is divided into three layers, (I) Primary (II) Secondary and (III) Higher education. These are managed by three different streams of administration in a well-coordinated manner. Still adhocism and piecemeal approach is rampant in the system. There is lack of consistency and co-ordination is different segments of department. And at the apex level there is complete chaos and confusion resulting in dismal performance. The policy is fine but the practice is bad thus in real sense of the word its registers a negative growth - a colossal loss of the nation. Our delivery system and the implementation machinery are corrupt, inefficient and lack basic social concern. The list is unending. There is no benefit of 26

breast beating. Let us put our mind together to get rid of the circumstances otherwise we would be nowhere in the race of development. All claims of development and social justice will take a nose dive. So let us begin with the ABC of education, unless primary education is strengthened, we cannot hope to reclaim secondary education and if secondary education is not back on track we cannot hope to do better in higher education. So if the foundation is strong and straight, the further edifice will naturally be strong, straight, elegant and comfortable.

It is noteworthy that some serious exercise is going on to improve the educational scenario of the state under the SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN. Perhaps for the first time quality issues in elementary education with regard to minimum requirements and facilities commensurate with the specific needs of children are being given due importance. And the concept of primary school with minimum of the requirements are planned to develop. In a primary school a minimum of three teachers and three class rooms is being proposed with a toilet and drinking water facility and a sitting arrangement for forty children in a classroom. The other facilities for a neighbourhood school such as playground, library, laboratory, computer and adequate access and support facilities for children with disabilities are under way. The children from weak socio-economic backgrounds will be given textbooks, stationery and uniform apart from mid-day meals. In the mid day meal programme various flaws have come to the fore. Apart from corruption, it consumes much of the time of teachers in making arrangement for the preparation and distribution of meals. At some places due to caste-ridden prejudices it has resulted into social tension. The quality of meal served under this scheme is also questioned. Now the responsibility of preparation and distribution of meal has been transferred to mother’s committee organised for this purpose. It is hoped this may solve many of the problems that have cropped up in this scheme. If the government is determined and there is active support from the people and various voluntary groups that would certainly revolutionise the primary education in the state. And the target of total literacy in the age group of 6-14 years can be achieved in a decade.

Thus, as per the 86th amendment made in the constitution of India under constitution Amendment Act 2002, the Article 21 A says, “The state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of 6 to 14 years in such manners as the state, may by law, determine.�

Justice J. S. Verma former Chief Justice of India and also former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission explain the meaning 27

and scope of the Article 21. According to Justice Verma, providing free elementary education can be put in the category of essential sovereign function of the welfare state. This was substantiated by the often quoted Unikrishnan judgment in 1993, which accorded the right to free elementary education the status of fundamental right even before the constitution was amended and Article 21 A inserted in December 2002.

Thus the judicial intervention and activism played a decisive role in the realisation of one of the fundamental directive principles of state policy enshrined in our constitution.

With the UNESCO backing education for all scheme this endeavour has got further impetus and a massive exercise to expand the facilities are going on. Different states have taken a pioneering lead. Recently Education Guarantee Centres (EGCs) under SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN in Punjab, the state government has announced that the number of Alternative Innovative Education (AIE) Centres could be increased to bring all children not attending school under the ambit of elementary education. A special health and hygiene kit comprising (1) a comb (2) soap (3) oil (4) toothpaste and brush as well as school readiness kit containing a) a uniform b) bag, c) tiffin, d) pencil box, e) stationary and f) footwear would be provided to each enrolled child. Further a comprehensive education kit of games, picture charts, calendars story book, and blocks would also be provided. It all sounds like a fairy tale, if even fifty percent of this scheme is realised that will surely revolutionize the primary education in the country. The Government of Bihar is keen enough to achieve the goal of cent percent elementary education by 2015.

Once the goal of primary education is achieved it will certainly provide impetus to secondary education in the state.

This scheme will require huge expenditure. It is important to know from where the money will come and how that cost will be met? Without cost management and planning this scheme can not be materialized? If the government is serious it has to take bold decisions with regard to fiscal management and harnessing extra resources for this purpose.

Secondary Education Secondary Education is the anchor-bay of education. It is critical for the development of the country. It helps to transform the society. It equips the students with the necessary abilities and stills to face the challenges of future life. It prepares them for entry into the world of work or to pursue higher courses of study. According to its assumed importance, it must be of requisite quality. It will have to take note of the rapid scientific and 28

technological achievements, emerging developments and trends both at the national and global level. It must, therefore, be relevant to the changing needs of the society. Since independence various commissions and committees have been appointed which have given far reaching recommendations. Although we have not achieved the target of universal education upto the age of 14, yet we have achieved remarkable successes in the field of education both in terms of physical expansion and quality improvement. In 1992-93 there were 726,462 primary and upper primary schools (Grade I to VIII) with an enrolment of over 144 million, as against 12 million in 1946-47. The gross enrolment ratio in 1992-1993, for grades I-V (age group 6-11) was 105.7 percent and for grades VI-VIII (age group 11-14) it was 67.5 percent. The expansion of secondary education during this period was also phenomenal. In 1950-51 there were 7300 secondary and higher secondary schools in the country with an enrolment of 1.22 million. The number of secondary and higher secondary schools and junior colleges in 1992-93 was 84,086 with an enrolment of over 20 million. This is an old data. During last twelve years we have seen tremendous development in the field of education. India has, therefore the largest educated workforce of different level to meet the growing demands of the country and abroad.

According to Prof. R. H. Dave, twentieth century was the century of developing primary education whereas the 21st century is going to be the century of developing secondary education.

According to Dr. Dave the need for extending universal education to the secondary stage stems from at least three inter-related factors: 1) Spectacular advancement in knowledge, skills and technology in quick succession.

2) The high level of skills and competencies required for achieving employability, vocational development, entrepreneurship and self employment, and 3) Equipping oneself with the high level competencies of self-learning and self-directed learning for continuing general as well as vocational education throughout one’s life in the larger framework of life long education.

These three factors are basic for the quality of secondary education in the twenty first century.

Under new perspective some radical changes in the secondary school education is the need of the hour. With high rate of knowledge expansion and equally rapid rate of obsolescence of knowledge, from curriculum to competencies it needs the restructuring of whole system.

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In order to understand the changes and for the purpose of safeguarding future and hitherto unknown developments, it has been found that first five to six years of primary education is not adequate enough and that basic universal education will have to be extended to about 10 to 12 years.

In India education up to 14 years of age is compulsory. This need revision under the present trend, during past few decades, a large number of developed countries have already extended the age of free and compulsory education up to the age of 16 which includes secondary grades and most of these students continue their studies in the senior higher school level that is beyond the compulsory age of 16. In certain advanced countries like Germany, the secondary stage of education is already universalized and is made compulsory up to the age of 18. In Japan the first nine year of education up to junior high school level is compulsory. In several developing countries such as Venezuela, education up to class IX has been made compulsory and this trend is growing fast in different parts of the world. According to president APJ Abdul Kalam, “the prime learning period is from 6th to 17th years of age. In his opinion twelve year value based education is essential to establish an open and transparent society or a society with integrity. Up to the age of 17 years, the father, the mother and the teacher lead a child to become an enlightened citizen.” So in my humble opinion the universal and compulsory age of education should be extended up to the age of 17 as emphasised by the President of India.

Secondary education in India needs some more radical changes. First of the agenda is the restructuring of secondary school curriculum.

Secondary schools will have to add a new objective to their curriculums the objective of fostering skills and competencies of learning how to learn. In its ultimate analysis the process of learning will itself become an important component of the content of learning. In this fast changing technological and complex world the illiterate of the twenty first century will not be the one who does not know how to read or write but will be the one who has not mastered the skills of learning how to learn and who has not internalised the value of self, learning and self directed learning throughout one’s life cycle. Thus according to Dr. Dave secondary education tomorrow should be situated within this larger framework of life long learning if we wish to prepare the new generation of learners to face the challenges of the 21st century with confidence and poise.” (Secondary Education in Twenty First Century

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Towards Quality Secondary Education COBSE, Vikas Publishing House PVT. LTD., 1995. PP 23-25) Poverty is our major concern. The major cause of mass illiteracy and low performance in education is poverty which is defined as lack of resources both at micro and macro level to meet even the bare necessities.

Education has always been visualised as a means to get out of this quagmire and attain economic freedom. In colonial era it was considered a “passport for entrance into government services.” During freedom struggle some more objectives were added to this scheme of education and there was a call to restructure the whole educational system with a view to attain self-sufficiency and dignity of life. Dignity of labour was emphasised in a way that no work was considered low. More particularly physical and semi-skilled works were made part of education to inculcate a sense of dignity towards these works from the early childhood. But due to various reasons this scheme of education could not succeed. And gradually this has been abandoned. In recent years the importance of vocational education is being re-emphasised. The objectives of secondary education are being summed up as to equip students adequately with civic as well as vocational efficiency and the qualities of character that go with it -- so that they may be able to play their part worthily and competently in the improvement of national life. It is a sorry state of affairs that vocational education is not imparted in a way it should be imparted. This scheme of education can be made effective tool to eradicate unemployment and poverty. In several developing countries which are suffering from severe financial stringency secondary education has been consciously designed as an antipoverty programme having provision for earning while learning.

The example of a secondary school at KIBAHA in Tanzania is a case in point where school students maintain a large poultry, piggery and dairy besides doing agriculture together with teachers and local community members. In fact the “earning experience” coupled with ‘learning experience’ may prove more sound academically besides solving the financial problems of learners, their parents or the state at least partially. In a country like India particularly in a state like Bihar such scheme does have merit. It should be made a part of possible future modified model of secondary education in the state at least to some selected centres of learning on trial basis. Under the new phase of secondary education, the goal of universal secondary education is proposed to be achieved within a period of five years. The Planning Commission has already initiated a discussion on this upgraded objective with respect to universal education.

Lest Bihar be left behind in yet another phase of development in the 31

country, a beginning ought to be made right away towards this goal along with other states.

Higher Education The world and inevitably India are in the throes of major economic and technological changes. The market economy is changing so the cultural environment and ethos. Education is being internationalised and universities are losing their territorial boundaries. Information technology is further contributing to this change. We are living through a period of social and economic revolution. When we compare these phenomena to ourselves, it looks like a race between sputnik and a bullock cart. We don’t have a level playing field to respond to the crisis of change which is global, yet within our scarce resources. The situation demands a complete restructuring of higher educational system in the country as well as in Bihar.

India’s National Policy on Education, 1986 (Revised in 1992) states about higher education: “Higher Education provides people with an opportunity to reflect on the critical social, economic, cultural, moral and spiritual issues facing humanity. It contributes to national development through dissemination of specialised knowledge and skill. It is therefore, a crucial factor for survival. Being at the apex of the educational pyramid, it has also a key role in producing teachers for the educational system (NPE, 1992, P-24).”

Recognising the key role that university system plays in the development and leadership of the country, in providing the wide number of professions and personnel required, the programme of Action, 1992, states that “the university system should move to the centre stage (POA 1992, P-116).”

Frederico Mayer, Director General UNESCO in recent document emphasises the higher education as an instrument for reaching sustainable human development (UNESCO, 1995 PP 3 and 4).

Yet, as the above mentioned UNESCO paper says, “higher education is in a state of crisis in practically all countries of the world. Although enrolments are on increase, the capacity of public support is declining, the gap between the developing and the developed countries with regard to higher learning and research, already enormous is becoming wider (Ibid P3).”

In the 21st century, it is the country’s policy option to decide whether the complex university system, built over six decades since India’s independence with tremendous investment of both human and material 32

resources, should be adequately supported so that is it is able to play a key role in the world through its major presence in various world institutions educational, economic and professional and be able to face the competition unleashed by a new world economic order, or decline for want of the necessary support which has characterised it for over half of the last decade of 20th century.

Unfortunately, because government university linkages have been weak, much of the research and policy implications, whether in humanities, social sciences or the sciences are inadequately utilized in policy formulation. As a result, investment in research and field action, initiated in the universities has not been adequately integrated for achieving national development goals. The place of the university in national planning and development, as also that of higher education system has become increasingly marginalized. A reversal of the process is imperative if government has to utilize the results of such new knowledge generated in the universities and at the same time universities should respond to public needs for the type of knowledge society will require for fulfilling the goals of sustainable human development (Planning Commission working group IX Plan Development of Higher Education: Executive summary PP- 1 to 3).

Policy Imperatives Under the changed scenario following are supposed to be the policy imperatives of higher education: 1) Improvement in relevance and quality of education.

2) Gradual process of internationalisation of education.

3) Change in the institutional and organizational structure, management and funding.

4) Removal of disparities.

5) Enhancing knowledge and competencies through a life long learning model.

Thus, finally education should be an instrument for developing not only an economically prosperous society, but one which can live comfortably in the context of pluralism and democracy, also providing equality and social justice with respect to gender, caste, clan and creed.

In Bihar, Higher education is in bad shape. It requires major change in the whole structure. The number of universities is increasing but the quality of education is decreasing. There are many players who are equally responsible for the decline in the system.

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It is no time for breast beating or for blame game. If our concerns are genuine and we really want to improve the system nothing is impossible.

First we need to resolve it truly to follow the basics of the system and bring the education back on the rail. It will get speed as soon as it is back on track. Second, priority should be given to infrastructural development of universities and colleges. Without proper infrastructural facilities the quality of education cannot be maintained to the desired standard. Thirdly, courses and curriculum should be designed keeping in view the relevance of education and fourth, promotion of excellence and quality in education should be emphasised at all levels. Objectivity and justice should be allowed to become the guiding principle. Fifth, close co-ordination with the management of higher education in the state and UGC administration should also be sought. Sixth, government should ensure proper autonomy to universities and colleges and last but not the least proper financial support is required to make the system working.

Conclusion Education is the fundamental right of the people. How this right can be functional from elementary to higher level some views have been expressed in this paper. We are in twenty first century a century of remarkable change and revolution. If we want to become party to this change process we have to change our system radically to make in tune with the time. The time is running fast we have no option but to run with the same speed. If we want to save ourselves with imminent peril we have to say good bye to ghettoism lethargy and status quoist syndrome. We have to change to survive and prosper.

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3. Some

Thoughts on Directional Change in Education

Like food, shelter, clothing and medicine education is one of the basic requirements of human beings. It is a fundamental right of every child. It brings awareness, social consciousness and right to live and work with dignity in a democratic society. It is an important tool both for development and empowerment. The goal of an egalitarian society and development cannot be achieved without education. So education and development are two facets of the same coin. The ideal of democracy cannot be realised without proper and quality education of the children. In a developing pluralistic society of India education is important in many ways. It is a social need, an economic essentiality, a cultural necessity and a political requirement. Thus education has no option. Emphasising the importance of education H.G. Wells in his Outline of History has aptly remarked, “Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.�

Bihar, due to certain historical constraints, lags far behind in modern education. This is one of the basic reasons for its backwardness. We have failed on both the counts, the quality and quantity of education.

Still a large mass of people particularly the women, the schedule castes, some sections of OBCs, the minorities and other poor classes, are illiterate. Despite our best endeavour they have not yet tasted the fruit of education.

Those who somehow manage to enroll themselves leave the school at early stages. Very few of them go up to secondary or pre-degree level.

By and large the quality of teaching in these institutions is very poor. The majority of pass-outs lack basic knowledge and training.

The college and university education is also not up to the mark. The whole environment of education (in Bihar) is murky. It requires a breakthrough to salvage the system from an imminent disaster. We have manifold challenges before us: 1. Challenges of mass education i.e. the universalisation of education more particularly the education for all deprived sections of our society in an effective manner.

2. Challenges of quality education to create able manpower to fulfill the growing requirements to help create a developed egalitarian society in which everybody is able to get a workspace to lead a dignified life.

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3. To enable our people to meet the challenges of globalisation and other challenges that have characterised the 21st century.

Bihar has the potential, the resources and the capabilities. It is up to us how we guide our destiny to meet these challenges. Education is a vast and intricate subject. I, knowing my limitations, restrict myself to some pertinent suggestions, which I think can go a long way to improve the present educational scenario.

The founding fathers of our constitution in Article 45 of the Directive principles of state policy have given us a national goal in the field of education. “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 fourteen years.�

It is unfortunate that even over six decades of independence this goal is still a distant dream. If government throughout the country had gone ahead and stuck to this aim, it might have been achieved by 1960. Now this goal has become more difficult because the population of boys and girls in the age group of 6 to 14 have increased manifold There are two ways to deal with this goal. One is simple and straight i.e. to repudiate this goal and second is to revise and update this goal. I prefer the second option.

In Bihar, in my humble opinion, this target should be revised in the following ways: 1. Children who are going to attain 5 years of age on 01-01-2004 must be enrolled in some school private or public, traditional or modern centre of learning. To achieve this target throughout the state the government and other public institutions should launch a massive movement. Voluntary organisations and all other people working in this field must participate in this programme. At village level panchayats should be asked to ensure 100% admission of this group of children.

All members of local self government, Zila Parishad, Municipal Corporation and other local bodies should be involved. Every MLA/ MP must have the moral responsibility to see that no child of his/her constituency may remain out of school. All public representatives should actively participate in this programme. I know this is not easy and simple. It involves many a factors, which have to be addressed for 36

the successful implementation of this scheme. It requires a comprehensive package to achieve this goal. The task is difficult but it is imperative and possible.

2. Secondly, many programmes which we are following in the field of education such as adult literacy and other schemes of non-formal education are, in my opinion, of either little or no public utility.

Thousands of crores of rupees have been siphoned off from the public exchequer on such futile exercises. All such schemes should gradually be bundled out and we must have the single minded devotion to one goal i.e. the eradication of illiteracy from a target group.

Children male or female born on 01-01-1990 and onward should be made target group. We must carry out a survey to know as to how much of this population is out of school and why. We should simply focus on this group of children and make them 100% literate through various methods. We should mobilise all our energy, intellect and resources to meet this goal within a specified period of time. If we could achieve it we will surely boast of our performance and no one can check our march towards a knowledge-based society, which is the need of the hour.

3. The another point that I want to emphasise here is that the division between the elites and the common people is becoming wide and bright day by day which is more pertinently reflected in educational institutions. On the one hand there are private schools with good and grand buildings with all facilities and amenities and on the other there are thousands of roofless, wall-less schools with no bench, desk, blackboard, urinal and laboratory and no facility of safe drinking water etc. This is not education, but simply a joke in the name of education. Schools are upgraded without adequate number of teachers and classrooms. Citing a UNICEF report the Bihar government itself admits in white paper on Bihar finance tabled in the Bihar Assembly on 27th March 2006 that there is huge shortage of classrooms in the so called schools of the state. Against the requirement of 379,089 classrooms as per national norm (40:1), there are just 143,027 available – 199,014 less. In the same way the state has also more than three times the teacher pupil ratio in primary school at 122:1 compared to the national figure of 40:1. All these reflect in poor results in grade 8 exams in 2002, 76 and 86 percent students received grade C or below in Math and Hindi respectively 37

(Hindustan Times-Patna 7th April 2006). Is this method conducive to promote education in any society or community, region or state?

Who are we befooling the people at large or ourselves? This practice must stop. If there is a school at any level, it must have a minimum provision of amenities and facilities to meet the basic requirements of teaching. It should have proper building with adequate number of classrooms, required number of teachers, a washroom, provision for safe drinking water, adequate number of benches, desks and blackboards so on and so forth.

The maintenance and other responsibilities should be given to panchayats and the municipal corporations. It requires huge amount and there is a resource crunch. But to meet out this requirement along with government support, voluntary contributions from the public should also be mobilized. We provide crores of rupees to MLAs and MPs annually under area development scheme, 25% of that grant should be earmarked for this purpose by legislation to meet the education requirements of their area particularly the building construction and other infrastructure facilities. This method will enhance at one stage the people concern towards education and on the other will help provide the minimum required facilities which I think will bring a sea-change in our education scenario. It is good that to provide universal access to education a two percent cess on all taxes have been proposed in budget 2004. It is estimated to fetch Rs. 400-500 crores of extra resources which along with other allocations on education can meet this expenditure very well, if we are able to utilize it properly.

4. Fourthly to bring a meaningful change in our education system I want to emphasise that the recruitment process of teachers should be remodeled. There should be a written test followed by viva-voce for each level of teachers by BPSC or some other competent board created for this purpose. Of course reservation policy should strictly be followed but there must be a minimum eligibility scale, which is essential and non-volatile. We must not bet the future of our generation on the present discount? There should be a strict criterion for promotion and that is based on merit assessment through written test and continuous monitoring of their academic growth. A willful exercise to check corruption is the need of the hour to salvage this system from further damage.

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5. Fifthly, education is the birth right of every child, but nothing is spoken about higher education. Higher education for those who can afford is an unjust proposition but higher education only for those who deserve is the rightful thing. Education up to secondary level should remain universal and compulsory, but for higher education it should be restricted for those who deserve. So I propose a written entrance test examination at each level of higher education so that only deserving students get entry into colleges, universities and professional courses. A student should be given three opportunities to prove his/her worth for higher education. This will bring a sense of sincerity and seriousness among the students and most of the obnoxious effects can be eliminated through this process. Rest of the students should be guided to be admitted into vocational stream of their choice to have ready employment opportunities both in the public and private sectors and particularly under self-employment schemes.

6. Often regionalism, casteism and communalism are dubbed as dark forces. But it is reality you cannot deny or defy. Most of our decisions are guided by these considerations. Despite its negative manifestations I propose to utilize these instincts as positive formulations. In positive sense regionalism, casteism and communalism are phenomena which indicate an enthusiastic support for one’s caste or community, sometimes against others or sometimes to have special share or the denied due. A sense of deprivation is responsible for the creation of such feelings. The group mentality of the caste and community leaders may be mobilised to work with the government and other agencies to educationally uplift their castes and communities. A mere change in perception can bring revolution both in the field of education and other social sectors.

Prof. Amartya Sen supports this view in a different way. In an Interview (Frontline, 25 Feb. 2005) he said “If caste is used for solidarity of low castes in order to demand some right and to have a less unequal society, then it has clearly a positive function.�

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Chapter II Issues in syllabus & Language Teaching Syllabus is the key to education. The philosophy and policy as well as the standard and quality of education are well reflected thorough syllabus. At most of the time we take it casually giving no thoughts to its direction and goal. Sometimes it is imposed from the above. It is a dangerous design. It should purely be the domain of Academics. Autonomy should be restored to maintain the sanctity of education away from petty politics. In a democratic setup governments come and go more frequently. Probity demands that like National Defense, National Education with all internal considerations must have a permanent feature. Any change required must have academic justification and not be a playground for pass time politicians. The community values, the local needs, the regional aspirations must scientifically be put in the national framework taking care of the contemporary and competing aspects and elements. In an age of knowledge explosion and to meet the challenges of 21 st century issues in syllabus need to be addressed in a more scientific and objective manner.

This segment consists of six articles. Two of them discuss the issues and syllabus on a broad canvas under the backdrop of Bihar. Language education has largely been ignored which has played a havoc in education.

Four articles are devoted to highlight the importance and means and method of proper language teaching. Language chauvinism has a telling effect not only on our society but also on the general education.

Importance of different languages under the three-language formula has been given a new treatment. It is particularly important for our policy framers. Language is the mark of civilization and trademark of education.

A new emphasis is required to impart proper language teaching in our schools and colleges to get the best of opportunities for our budding generations. In this segment the cases of Hindi, Urdu and English have been pleaded forcefully to make them an integral part of education under the trilingual formula. Apart from education it will go a long way in imparting the community understanding and bolstering social cohesion, national solidarity, peace and integration.

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4. Issues in Syllabus Preparation of syllabus is a serious exercise. Many aspects have to be contemplated, which need serious consideration. We are a multilingual, multi-cultural and multi-ethnic society. Education is an all-encompassing business, which is the key to unity and development of the country. It is an investment in present and premium for the future. So it should not be made a battlefield marred with conflicts and controversies leading the nation towards a disastrous end. It should have the cognition, co-relation, coordination, graduation, evolution and accommodation to all related aspects and concerns in wholesome to meet the needs and aspirations of each and every segment of society. Education should not be a battlefield; it should be a conjunction, a meeting point. For which, a consensus with objectivity is required with a tuned scientific treatment to all such controversial issues without any imposing agenda. Every stream of knowledge, faculty and subject has it own peculiarity distinct from others. So every stream of knowledge requires special treatment. Faculty of Science is different from faculty of arts, commerce and humanities. So while revising the syllabus of these streams, we must be careful towards the issues and problems of each stream.

India is a commonwealth of communities. In our federal polity education is a state subject but it is also in the Concurrent List i.e. both local as well as national needs and aspirations should suitably be accommodated to make the country inherently strong on account of human resource development.

Education is on fast track. There is knowledge explosion all around.

Time and space have shrunk. Communities and cultures have come closer.

There is exposure all around. A silent movement of give and take, leave and adopt is on the anvil. Borders and boundaries have got blurred.

Cosmopolitanism and internationalism have arrived. A world culture is evolving. Truly, globalisation has dawned. Fierce competition is going on.

A new value system and a new code of conduct is gaining ground. There is a challenge to adjustment, accommodation and development. Education is a basic tool to meet this challenge. The challenge of Internationalism, the challenge of nationalism, the challenge posed by local values and the challenge of ethnic, cultural and lingual aspirations, all these challenges make the syllabus making process an awful exercise which requires sagacity, acumen, professional competency, a holistic approach and proper understanding of the present and future requirements. Besides, one needs to be aware of the ground realities, the quality of student intake, the sum 41

and substance of the teachers, the infrastructure, the social and economic milieu and the political setup and the wherewithal of the administrative machinery.

Under the above said circumstances syllabus making is not simply the addition and deletion of certain chapters and topics nor a carbon copying of any syllabus that is in vogue in any other board or educational setup. It is more than that. It requires full view of issues and aspects in the process. This issue becomes more important and practical while we go on discussing the syllabus of social sciences and humanities.

In Bihar for over a decade the syllabus of Social Sciences, Humanities and Commerce have not been revised and updated due to which some boards and courts ridicule our system? There is a general recognition of the fact that Bihari is no inferior a race in terms of mental capabilities. They have proved the superiority of their gene both inside and outside the country. But it is the failure of the system that has made them sluggish, stagnant and stereotyped. This prototype image can only be changed through proper orientation and education with system improvement. Syllabus is the key to it.

Bihar Intermediate Education Council is in a process to revise and update the syllabus of Social Sciences, Humanities and Commerce. I like to suggest certain basic factors to be incorporated in the process of revision and update of the syllabus of Arts and Commerce Stream.

1) The first and foremost principle that should be taken into consideration is the principle of grading i.e. stepping. There should be no binary jump. Principle of Co-efficient and Corelation must be observed in this process. Intermediate is a step further to secondary standard and a step below the under graduate level. While formulating the syllabus of intermediate level we must keep in mind the syllabus of class X and that of 1st year degree courses. Any dichotomy and gap will create a lot of problems. So this should not be an exercise in isolation. It is more particularly important because education of Science is a turning point in this sense that door for first class professional courses such as medical, engineering and allied branches do open from here itself. While in Social Sciences or Arts stream doors for first class competition such as civil services, Commerce, trade, law, taxation, MBA and others open after graduation. So keeping in mind the development in the field of Arts and Humanities one should go with the revision and updating of syllabus in a fashion that does not mar the vertical 42

2)

mobility of students. Since it is a crucial phase of education it needs “handle with care� approach.

The second principle involved is the principle of accommodation. That is more important in the case of Humanities particularly the languages. Unity in diversity is the soul of India so there is no room for linguistic chauvinism.

Intermediate Education is different from Primary and Secondary education where language teaching is somewhat compulsory.

Here there is a choice with alternative i.e. freedom to choose any language at its own free will. But this preference can only be exercised if there is a provision for teaching in all such languages, which are thought to be necessary in that State. Bihar is a multi-lingual State. Hindi is the national as well as the first official Language of the state, which is taught as compulsory language to all students with no exception. Urdu is the second official language but it has become the language of the Muslim community only in the State. This is a basic bottleneck in its progress. Bhojpuri and Maithili are two other major languages that are also part of our curriculum. So in the group of modern Indian languages these four languages occupy the dominating position as far as the numbers of students are concerned. In the classical language group Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, Pali, Prakirit and other languages are included. Some other languages such as Bangla, Oriya and some tribal languages do have a place in our syllabus.

The principle of three language formula, that once thought to be the best solution of language problem, should be the guiding principle while formulating the language syllabus. Apart from adhering to this basic principle, contributions of Bihari poets, novelists, dramatists and critics in Hindi, Urdu and English must get place along with contributions of great people from all over the country. The second thing that should be taken into consideration is the modern trend that is evolving in the field of literature both locally and nationally. Our language syllabus must be scientifically designed in a way so that a) It must give the students basic understanding of the language. b) Make students able to read & write correctly. c) Have a blending of local, national, classical and modern aspects.

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d) Infer the inner unity of languages and provide basic understanding of different modern Indian languages to forge a bridge between different linguistic groups of the country. e) Develop better communication skill and good command over the languages. f) In a globalised and competitive environment basic thrust should be given to Hindi, English and Urdu languages.

Students studying in government schools of Bihar face language problem, which mar their progress and competitiveness. Those who go out of the state feel this brunt and a sense of inferiority complex erodes best of their talent.

In order to improve the language education it should be kept away from politics. Anybody who plays politics on language issue is anti-people and Anti-Bihari and such a move should be thwarted with firm determination.

3)

4)

The third underlying principle is that our syllabus must reflect our national goal and ethos. It should create awareness towards the contemporary issues and problems and help the synergy of conflicting ideas and ideals to serve as an integrating force in our country and society.

Syllabus of Social Science and Humanities should be designed so scientifically as to inculcate scientific temper in the students devoid of superstition and unreasonable thinking. It should give a holistic view, strengthen the secular, social and democratic values, and provide impetus to nationalistic ideas and common cultural ethos.

It should create awareness about the modern uneven distribution of wealth and income, social discords and discontents, women rights and participation, Human rights, rights of downtrodden, backwards, poor, schedule castes, schedule tribes, minorities, children and other unidentified groups etc.

Education is the weapon of social change and awareness. Our syllabus must reflect this proposition.

The fourth underlying principle that should form the part of syllabus particularly of Social Science is the promotion of regional studies. In Economics, Civics, Political Science, Sociology, Anthropology and other fields not only Bihari scholars should get their due share, a section should also be devoted to the studies of Bihar. For example in Economics the theory paper is mainly devoted to basic principle of Economics in which students must 44

5)

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have the understanding of Economics, it various aspects and issues that have a close co-relation with the real goings. In paper-II we usually study Indian Economics but rarely economy of Bihar is discussed.

So Indian Economy should be divided in two parts (a) Indian Economy as a whole (b) Economy of Bihar. This policy should be followed in all the subjects as far as possible and practicable. It will have twin benefits (i) It will provide insights into both national and regional studies (ii) It will help to understand the local issues also. It will help to have a comprehensive and comparable study, national vis-Ă -vis regional for better understanding and planning.

The fifth policy that is to be given prominence is the principle of objectivity. This should more particularly be followed in case of History. Recently we have witnessed a fierce controversy in formulation of CBSE syllabus of History. Politics should not be allowed to set academic agenda. There is no place of whim, bias and prejudice in the matter of academics. Recently History has done more harm than benefit. But History is said to be the memory of a nation, which has close bearing on the present and the future behaviour. So it should not be cooked and fabricated. There are three versions of History: Muslim version, Hindu version and the British version. All three versions have their limitations and there is lot of subjectivity in all of them. While Hindu and Muslim version lack scientific treatment, British version is based on the policy of divide and rule to suit imperialist design. Thus objectivity in History writing is the need of the hour. Facts should be put without fiction. As a matter of fact there was no clash of religion between Hindus and Muslims in the medieval period. The wars between the Hindu and Muslim rulers were mainly for their dynastic rule not for the supremacy of one religion over the other.

That is why a large number of Hindu and Muslim chiefs and army men participated form both sides without any qualm. So political bigotry should not be allowed to disturb our social peace and harmony. History should be presented as it is and at least care should be taken that it may not create confusion, hatred, prejudice and animosity among the different segments of society. Apart from this theoretical consideration the course of History must have a section of History of Bihar also.

The very purpose of revision of Syllabus is to give thrust on the studies of Bihar for better understanding of this state, its social 45

7)

8)

milieu, economic and civic life, problems and prospects vis-a-vis ways and means to develop human resources to meet present and future challenges in a competitive way.

This list is not final. Many more things may be added to these observations to make our syllabus up to date, objective, scientifically designed, value oriented and in tune with time and market needs so much so that our products may get easy access to higher courses and better job opportunities at home and abroad.

Recently Commerce faculty has gained more prominence than even Science faculty in terms of job opportunities and market possibilities. The recent globalisation trend has given new dimension to Commerce education. So the syllabus of Commerce should be revised and updated to bring our students at par with the national and international standard. The syllabus of Economics, Accountancy, Book Keeping, Business Administration, Sales Tax, Income Tax, Company Laws, Sales, Marketing, Commercial Arithmetic and other related subjects should be made up to date with a view to acknowledge the students with the real trends of the market, business, trade, commerce and industry vis-Ă -vis the money market, capital market, security market and sensex. The introduction of computer education should be an important part of commerce syllabus.

General Education has lost much of its sheen and shine due to shrinking of jobs in traditional sectors. So re-orientation of whole courses with a view to explore new avenues and opportunities is the need of the hour. A viable system of vocational education will help to play a major role. This is important in this sense also that services sector is the most emerging and growing sector globally and in India too it has a big market. We owe the responsibility of younger generation. So in tune with the national educational policy they must be provided a certificate of some vocational course along with general education. It is a stark reality that whole of our educational system has got derailed and only a strong willed person who is ready to sacrifice himself for the cause can do any good.

Otherwise it would be mere structure and system but no education.

Following measures have to be adopted to improve the system. As we are concerned with intermediate education, so we will limit our recommendations to this domain only: I. Unaided education policy i.e. the Vit Rahit Shiksha Niti as it is popularly known should be bid a good bye as early as possible.

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Either all such institutions should be closed or be given financial assistance so much so that they could maintain minimum prescribed standard.

II. All non-viable and fake institutions should be closed.

III. Academic calendar should be strictly followed.

IV. At least 180 days of teaching must be ensured with strict vigilance, surveillance, monitoring and inspection.

V. Practical and tutorial culture should be restored with all sincerity.

VI. Internal examination and evaluation must be conducted at every six months. There should be an internal examination from 1st year to 2nd year and only those students who pass the internal examination should be allowed to appear in the final examination after completion of two year course.

VII. Seventy five percent attendance must be made compulsory for the students.

VIII. Each teacher will have to submit the course completion certificate before the final sent up examination at the college level.

IX. All teachers of +2 standards will have to go through an orientation course in new syllabus for which an in-house orientation programme should be launched by the council in assistance with the state government and the universities.

X. A will to change and improve and public awareness programme is key to success of all such endeavours in which students, organisations, guardians, public men, concerned persons, Press and Judiciary should take an active part. Bihar Intermediate Education Council on its part should be ready to take initiative and strike at the root to bail out the system. ☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼

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5.

Preparation of Syllabus– Issues Revisited

Education in a fast developing globalised world is a big challenge for a backward state of a developing country like ours. It has to meet many a challenges at different fronts and address the issues in wholesome to build a viable system of education both to meet internal requirements and international demands. Syllabus is a core issue in education. In a dynamic and fast changing world there is nothing like static and straitjacket module of knowledge. Knowledge is somewhat innovation and invention.

Everyday there is some addition in the knowledge kit. So in a given time period and mental capability of a student that knowledge kit need to be so designed that it can give maximum knowledge and wisdom with other competencies to be competent and competitive in life.

We live in a global society of 21st century but we can’t afford to ignore the local issues. Science and Technology has impelled us to move into a new kind of civilization. We are heading towards a knowledgedriven common culture. The challenge of new civilization is entirely different to the past experiences. We need new tools of information and a new mindset to address those issues. India has peculiarity of its own. It has not come out from the quagmire of illiteracy, superstition and evil traditions of the past, while it is all for a big leap in the future. It dreams to become a global leader. The world of 21st century belongs to India. India is emerging as a giant--- a superpower in the twenty first century. Our human resource if harnessed in a proper way is potentially impressive to prove its worth far beyond our imagination.

Education now no longer is an elite domain. It is the birth right of every child. Education from 6-14 years of age is free, universal and compulsory. But we are still far off from our constitutional commitment.

According to Dr. Karan Singh, “So, we on the one hand, have to move horizontally to cover all children belonging to all segments of our society and on the other hand there is a vertical explosion of knowledge. Knowledge now doubles almost every five years. So with the horizontal expansion and vertical explosion we find many challenges to transform our society into a new kind of civilization on the basis of scientific knowledge and better understanding of our environment. Technology in the area of information and communication has transformed the very nature of human dwellings.

Today we have no choice but to adopt technology otherwise we will remain behind in the global race of civilisational development. The globalisation process in the 21st century has posed new challenge of 48

convergence of global culture. But it is not a smooth transfer, convergence will emerge out of conflict. Education now has to play a crucial role in resolving major tensions. This tension has many faces such as tensions between tradition and modernity, the tensions between permanence and transience, the tensions between global knowledge and indigenous knowledge, the tension between world citizenship and local identity and how to make an interface between these global values and local values.�

Under this scenario Ashok Ganguly, chairman CBSE argues, “The threat of globalization can be addressed meaningfully if we focus on capacity building, raising our competency level and focusing on the new requirements in our children giving emphasis not only on enrichment programme but also focusing on remedial teaching. Globalisation has also raised two parallel threat forces one leading to reconciliation, increased synthesis and assimilation and the other leading to conflicts and the fear of loss of identity. The forces are inexorably leading the world to new uncertainties. If the children today are to be protected from being washed away by the gigantic currents of globalisation they must be taught to equip themselves with skills and competencies that were never a part of our school curriculum.�

Thus in the new millennium we need a fresh look at our course and curriculum under following principles.

The first and foremost is the issue of relevance. Since the knowledge is being created at an exponential rate it calls for a combination of integrated and constructive approach to ensure a structured and continuous process of curriculum renewal through frontline curriculum.

The second principle is the issue of obsolete. As the quantum of knowledge is increasing it adds load to the students. Rationalization of curriculum is the need of the hour. While keeping intact all the relevant information for better conception of the subject it is almost necessary to unburden the subject with obsolete portions. CBSE replaces 10% of redundant and obsolete content with more updated content every year in a selective and subject wise manner. This principle may also be adopted in the other Boards also.

We live in a fast changing world. Commercialism and consumerism has taken over the society. In the bid to materialism the pristine social and moral values are more often kept at bay. The white collar criminals have out numbered the black collars. The fast deteriorating moral moorings is no less a threat than an atom bomb. Humanity despite all advancement is at the brink of disaster. We talk of disaster management, ecological erosion, environmental pollution, population explosion and excessive 49

exploitation of natural resources and we show acute concern about them.

Undoubtedly these are important issues that should be immediately looked into and that should form the part of our curriculum but what do we think about the moral pollution which has vitiated the whole society? Animal instinct has overpowered the human instinct. We live in a beastly society.

Despite tremendous development in science and technology we have yet not learnt to live like human beings. Knowledge like a sword is a double edged weapon; it may kill the enemy and may kill the friend and the person who possesses it. So this issue should be addressed properly in our syllabus.

Not all new things are good nor all old things are bad. There are many a healthy traditions that enrich our society and civilization.

Humanity is in continuity. So all old traditions that are part of our glorious heritage must be protected and observed and be handed over to new generation as a valuable asset. This is necessary for moral boosting and psychological satisfaction. Linkage with past provides enough support to launch into the future. It is like a liver that catapults to heavy loads. The issue of heritage must occupy the central place in the curriculum of Humanities and Social Sciences. But a word of caution is required here. It should not be a playing field for dirty games to divide the society in the name of heritage or settle scores to past crimes in the name of correction of cultural vulture-ism in the past. Butchery of all hue is abhorable whether it is committed in the past or in the present. We should not conceal the truth but not fabricate the false. The syllabus should be so designed that it should not embitter the relationship between different communities. So the issue of heritage needs careful handling. We should read the past but should not enact it to make our society a hell. Education must promote human integration to enrich and strengthen the national integration and help to build a more humane, peaceful and developed society.

We have thrown much light on the challenges of globalisation vis-Ă vis issues in modernisation of syllabus. But this aspect needs certain elaborations. The World Bank Education Sector Policy Paper (1980) describes the following three interrelated key roles of education: i) It is the basic human need which helps in acquiring a broad base knowledge, attitude, values, skills to respond new opportunities, to adjust to social cultural changes and to participate in capital, cultural economic and social activities.

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ii)

It is a basic means of meeting other basic needs for acquiring life skilled, vocational and professional skills ultimately improving productivity and income. iii) It is a basic activity that sustains and accelerates over all development of science and technology and prepares and trains skilled workers at all levels to manage capital, technology, services and administration in every sector, facilitating the advancement of knowledge in pure and applied field.

Syllabus making should take care of all those aspects that are necessary from the relevance and modernization point of view. Syllabus is a part of the system of education, important and crucial but not the whole thing. Its fruitfulness is interrelated to some other factors. So unless we resort to restructuring of question paper, counseling services, reducing the curriculum load, deleting the obsolete and an introducing the emerging disciplines and moving for continuous and comprehensive evaluation we can not hope to taste the sweetness of new exercise. An orientation programme for teachers with proper monitoring and academic auditing can bring us to the high quality world of knowledge in the 21st century. Are we ready to respond to these changes through our syllabus? This is a big question mark.

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6.

Issues in Language Curriculum

Language teaching is central to any educational scheme. Language is the vehicle of knowledge and information. It is a treasure, a chestnut of wisdom. It is the medium of thought delivery system and an important tool (optical fiber) of communication. So language proficiency is essential to any scheme of education.

What we mean by language proficiency?

Language proficiency means: 1. Reading the text fluently with correct accent.

2. Writing something correctly i.e. there should be no spelling mistake; basic rules of grammar are followed, avoiding common error.

Keeping in mind the correct tense, gender, number preposition and punctuation etc.

3. Good acquaintance with the genesis of words, its different forms and its appropriate use.

4. Good command over idioms and phrases, their meanings and appropriate usages.

5. Skill to deliver something in correct, appropriate, precise, lucid and clear language without ambiguity so that it can be understood easily in right perspective.

6. Ability to write simple, scientific, correct and clear language. Style should be simple, straight and pregnant with thought-provoking ideas. Sentences should be small and accurate. One should have the ability to express one’s views in an accurate and appropriate language.

The national curriculum review 2005 describes the following objectives of language teaching: i.

Competence to understand what one hears ii.

Ability to read with comprehension and not merely decode. iii. Effortless expression. iv. Coherent writing. v.

Control over different registers. Register here means variety and variation which form a part of a student repertoire. vi. Scientific study of language. vii. Creativity. viii. Sensitivity.

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(National social group, Position paper Vol-1 PP83-84) This can only be achieved by extensive reading, regular practice of writing, proper guidance and training. Eloquence and oration is somewhat natural but one can achieve a degree of level through constant practice.

Even if one need not be a word magician he/she must have the ability to express himself fully and correctly in a coherent and logical manner. This, I think, is sum total of language proficiency, which is the corner stone of our educational policy.

Language by design has been clubbed with humanities and social sciences. It belongs to the faculty of Arts. In the scheme of science teaching it is delegated a tertiary place. So, students belonging to science faculty do attach little importance to language learning and proficiency.

Only a few students have good command over language. The students of humanities and social sciences also appear to be little sensitive towards language proficiency. The whole scheme of thought is erroneous. This erroneous approach towards language is largely responsible for poor performance in studies, because without proper understanding of language one cannot conceptualise the basic concepts. Moreover if one is unable to express oneself properly and adequately both in writing and speaking how can his/her ability be judged and on what scale?

One cannot be a good student, a good teacher, a good writer, a good speaker, a good academician, a good scientist, a good scholar, a good poet, novelist or critic without having good command over language.

Language is the grammar of learning and education. Without which our whole scheme of education will remain half-backed. So, adequate emphasis should be given to acquire proper proficiency in languages that we teach in the course of our curriculum under the three-language formula.

Language and literature are two different things. Language is the tool through which thoughts and information are communicated in a simple and straight manner. Literature is the artistic presentation of any thing.

Literary language is somewhat different from the language that we read, write and speak in discharging our daily business both professional and domestic.

Literature is a specialised form of language which is deeper and wider.

It exhorts sophisticated expression, subtle feeling, bloom and gloom, the colour of sky, cloud, the waves of the sea, the morning breeze, the gentle shower, the stormy water fall, the swollen river, the high peaks of the mountain the chirping of birds, the bloom of the follower, the beauty of damsel, the grandeur of a king, the hut of the poor, the joy and sorrow of 53

life. It is the history, the art & craft, the tale of civilization, the story of mankind, the origin and evolution, the struggle of the fittest, the survival of the weak and the life of the toiling masses. It is poetry, it is drama, it is fiction, it is critical analysis, it is linguistics and it is history of art and literature, the annals of creative writing, the intellectual sojourn of humanity. These and many more are included in literature.

Those who opt for this branch of learning will be the wayfarer to creative and artistic learning of language, which differentiates the language of masses from the language of classes.

First step is the staircase for the other. No edifice can be built without foundation. Language is the foundation and literature is the edifice. If you want to live in any literary environment and enjoy its tradition, you must have the basic understanding of that language.

Every language has its culture and every cultural has its own language.

So, culture and literature go side by side. One cannot understand a language properly without understanding its cultural background or viceversa. The script is the form of language in which the spirit of a language lives in. So, one cannot imagine any language without script. Script reflects its genesis, evolution, age of maturity, grammatical formulation, idioms and phrases, accent and delivery process.

So, all such things should be taken into account while we go far formulating a syllabus of any particular language.

Language teaching in a pluralistic society needs proper amalgamation.

It should be a medium of social cohesion and understanding. So while we need multi language educational approach we further need intercommunication between different languages through a process of give and take. That will help to develop better understanding of our contemporary society and to maintain peace and harmony in the society that is the need of the hour. Language chauvinism is detrimental to our larger interest, so both way traffic should be encouraged in our language teaching.

I, think the exercise we have undertaken now will address all these issues in a coherent and scientific manner and we would be able to present before the nation a curriculum, which is truly national and scientific to realize our democratic and developmental goals.These should be the essential ingredients in our language curriculum.

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7.

A case for Hindi

Hindi is the national language of the country. It is the first official language of north Indian states, Bihar, U.P., M.P., Rajasthan and Delhi. It is now spoken and understood in almost every part of the country. It is spoken and written by over 40% of our population. The anti-Hindi tirade that was found in initial years of independence in south Indian states has very much vanished. Now they are readily accepting it and there is a tendency to accommodate Hindi in the syllabus also. Days are not far off when Hindi will be spoken and understood with equal ease and proficiency in every corner of country as it is spoken and understood in north India.

In the Constituent Assembly there was a fierce debate on the national language issue. It was a considered opinion of many of our stalwarts that instead of Urdu and Hindi, Hindustani (a blend of Urdu and Hindi) be given the national language status written both in Persian and Devnagri script. The nation has seen bitter controversy on this issue.

Among the factors that led to partition of this country the language issue was major one. So leaders of independent movement wanted to rectify that situation as soon as possible. It is a long story which we need not to go in detail. Finally, it was decided that Hindi with Devnagri script will be the national language of the country.

Hindi like Urdu is not read and spoken by Hindus only. It is a language which is read and understood by all segments of Indian society, the Muslims, the Sikhs and the Christians and others. In north India it is the language of common masses. People talk with one another in this language more easily and fluently than in any other language. But language chauvinism played havoc with this phenomenon and proved a roadblock towards social cohesion. Urdu is thought to be the rival of Hindi when the fact is that Urdu and Hindi belong to the same family of language and have almost same origin and place of birth with only difference that one is written in Devnagri script and other in Persian.

Almost 60% of the vocabularies of both the languages are same and easily understood by one another. What to talk of educated persons, even the illiterates speak and understand it well without any difficulty. Since Urdu has Persian script so it has borrowed 40% of vocabulary from Persian and Arabic with accent and some of the words have different meaning than in the Arabic and Persian lexicon. For example in Arabic ‘Gharib’ means stranger and ‘Amir’ means the ruler while in Urdu ‘Gharib’ means poor

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and ‘Amir’ means rich. There are thousands of words, which have local connotation and meaning though written and spelt as Arabic and Persian words. So in most of the times Urdu and Hindi appear to be the same language. As Hindi is written in Devnagri script so this language is more close to Sanskrit and it has borrowed many of the words from Sanskrit like Prakrit, Brijbhasha, Upbharansh and some other languages and dialects.

When chauvinism grew between the two languages there was a tendency to associate Urdu with more and more of Persian and Arabic words which become quite incomprehensible for the Hindi folk likewise in Hindi more and more Sanskrit words were used which too become difficult to understand for a common person particularly the Urdu knowing masses.

This was the basic reason the masses whose mother tongue was other than Hindi were reluctant and at some places hostile to learn Hindi and impart education through Hindi medium to their children.

In U. P. three-language formula was adopted and Urdu was removed from the syllabus at primary and secondary levels. This caused a lot of controversy. This was an ill thought out move, which retarded the process of adoption of Hindi as the lingua franca at the national level. Muslims in particular never have any objection to learn Hindi. In the pre-independence days itself many of the Muslim theologians and social and political leaders advocated the case of Hindi more ardently than any one else and urged the Muslim masses to learn Hindi to have better understanding and relation with the Hindi knowing people. Muslim contribution to classical Hindi literature is no less prominent than the contribution of Hindi poets and litterateurs. The History of Hindi literature will remain incomplete without enlisting the contribution of Rahim, Raskhan and Jaisi to Hindi literature or poetry.

The crux of the argument is that the language chauvinism prevailing in the pre-independence days and after must go and a sincere effort should be made to bridge the gap between Urdu and Hindi and other Indian languages. This exercise can well be taken through our syllabus. To have better understanding and social cohesion a comprehensive language policy should be adopted accommodating them in a balanced way in secondary and pre degree level syllabus. Politics in the name of language should be avoided. It has done more harm than benefit. Language unites people, it does not disunite them. Language reflects the inner unity of mankind on the level of feeling, thought and emotion. Every human being is intrinsically one in nature. That’s why people of different languages can easily communicate one’s thought, feeling and emotions to others. This essentially reflects the oneness of mankind. So language should not be an 56

apple of discord rather it should be a platform for human unity and solidarity.

In a multi-lingual country like India any language bias is detrimental to our national unity. Thus we should start afresh to reformulate our language syllabus in a spirit of accommodation. Which I think is in the larger interest of the nation and education.

We are now in the sixth decade of our freedom. During these eventful years we have witnessed many negative and positive changes.

One thing that is satisfying for us is that Hindi as a language is being read and spoken by a large section of society across the castes, communities and the regions throughout the country. Most particularly people residing in north Indian states love to learn this language and they have gained considerable proficiency in it. So time has come that we should look upon the Hindi language syllabus afresh.

Initially, the Hindi language syllabus for non-Hindi students was different and inferior, rather simple and short in comparison to Hindi knowing students. It was a good policy in the early years. But now we have come to an age. Now people have gained considerable proficiency in the language so the earlier difference to my mind has become a dichotomy that should be removed now.

Under CBSE syllabus we see that students of all segments of society read and learn Hindi from the same syllabus and this is no handicap to them in terms of their performance in the examination. So in my humble opinion the Hindi syllabus at secondary and intermediate level in Bihar should be the same for both Hindi and Non-Hindi students and full emphasis should be given to read and learn Hindi at par with the Hindi students.

We have adopted three-language formula in our syllabus, which is divided into National language, mother tongue and the link language.

Previously English was taught as link language in the country. Under the present wake of globalisation English language has gained added importance, so it should remain at the place in our curriculum. Hindi too has gained momentum and it’s really emerging as our national language.

There are almost 18 other languages, which are the regional and mother tongue of large sections of our population. Since the re-organization of states on linguistic basis many of the languages have got the defined boundaries, but there are certain languages, which do not have the definite boundary. Although Urdu along with Kashmiri is the language of Jammu & Kashmir but Urdu as such is read and spoken in every part of the country. In some respect it is more popular than any other Indian language.

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Urdu is spoken in different parts of world also. So it is local, national as well as an international language.

So when we look upon the compulsory segment of our syllabus all the three languages Hindi, Urdu and English should be given equal weightage and importance. At present a Hindi knowing student has been allotted 100 marks for Hindi and 200 marks for English and a non-Hindi student is allotted 50 marks for Hindi and 50 marks for Urdu and 200 marks for English. It is quite improper and illogical. This means we give more importance to English and less importance to our own languages. When it is a fact that we do 90% of our official and non-official works through Hindi or Urdu or any other regional or State language? English is generally the language of academia. I don’t want to undermine the importance of English. That will remain at its place. What I want to emphasise is that the importance and weightage of other languages particularly Urdu and Hindi must not be minimized. So my humble suggestion is that the syllabus of all the three-languages should be remodeled and each one should be given equal weightage that is 1. There should be one paper of Hindi of 100 marks and the syllabus should be same for all students. The present practice of inferior syllabus of Hindi for non-Hindi students of the value of 50 marks should go.

2. For those students who choose Urdu as their 2nd official language or mother tongue, the syllabus should be of 100 marks instead of 50 marks. The syllabus of other language for any non-Hindi and nonUrdu students should be devised according to this principle.

3. English syllabus should be made concise and it should be of 100 marks only instead of 200 marks giving equal weightage to all subjects.

These suggestions are given only for the compulsory segment of languages to be read by all students of all faculties (Science, Arts and Commerce).

Those students who prefer to opt for language study of his/her choice under optional subject the syllabus should be entirely different.

Naturally the basic standard of that syllabus will surely be high to provide extra edge to those students.

A comprehensive and logical framing of our language syllabus will go a long way in enhancing the standard of our education, which I think at present is our prime concern.

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8.

A Case for Urdu

Urdu is one of the 18 languages of the country, which has been included in the VIIIth schedule of the Constitution.

Articles 344 and 348 authorize the Union and state governments to use “any other language used for any official purpose of the state” 348(2) and under chapter V, title special Directives, Article 350 says “every person shall be entitled to submit a representation for redress of any grievance to any officer or authority of the Union or a state in any languages used in the union or in the state, as the case may be.”

Under Article 350A, it shall be the endeavour of every state and every local authority within the state to provide adequate facilities for instruction in the mother tongue at the primary stage of education to children belonging to linguistic minority groups.

Article 350B speaks for special officer to investigate the safeguards provided for linguistic minorities.

Under fundamental rights the minorities, religious or linguistic through Articles 29 and 30 have been conferred rights to establish institution, to preserve language and its script.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was very keen to provide adequate safeguard to Urdu. Allaying the fear of those who thought that Urdu would take over Hindi if allowed to flourish as second official language in Hindi speaking states he in a letter to the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Ravi Shankar Shukla on 29th March 1954 emphasized, “This is very important matter, because it affects the Muslim psychologically more than almost any thing else. According to our educational policy, we should give full facilities for learning Urdu to those who want it. This has nothing to do with opposition to Hindi, which stands firmly in its place as our national language.” He further said, “I am afraid that our general policy has not fitted in with our declared educational aims and has undoubtedly created a deep sense of frustration among the Muslims.”(Selected works of Jawahar Lal Nehru, Second series Vol-25 quoted from The Muslims of India, A.G.Noorani Oxford 2003 P-108) But these provisions and safeguards have yielded little positive results. Urdu is provided 2nd official language status only in few states and it is more on paper than in practice.

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Bihar in particular has taken lead and declared Urdu 2nd official languages of the state for fifteen specific purposes as mentioned in its notification.

But there is a big gap between the Principle and the practice. The real status of Urdu has not changed since it has been declared 2nd official language. Except some appointment of Urdu Translators in few of the places and some name plates in Urdu in some offices no serious attempt is made on the part of the government and Urdu knowing people. Rather we see a secular decline in use of Urdu language in our daily life.

Here are few examples.

1. There is acute shortage of Urdu knowing teachers at every level of schools, primary, middle and secondary. In many of the constituent colleges there is no Urdu teacher for over the years.

2. In most of the institutions when there is good number of Urdu knowing students but there is no Urdu teacher and the students suffer a lot due to none availability of Urdu language teachers.

3. It has been brought to the notice of the authorities concerned time without number that at several places non-Urdu knowing teachers are working on Urdu units and Urdu knowing teachers are working in non-Urdu subject making the mockery of whole arrangement.

4. Urdu knowing students are not provided textbooks in Urdu language. If it is provided that is not on time or in adequate numbers.

Most of the students remain deprived of this facility and are forced to read either Hindi or some other language.

5. Question papers are not set in Urdu and answers books written in Urdu are not evaluated by Urdu knowing examiners. That put the students at disadvantageous position. None Urdu Examiners cannot read and understand it properly. So most of the time copies written in Urdu script do not fetch good marks. It is because of this reason students do not take to answer in Urdu language, which is a great bottleneck in promotion of Urdu language.

6. Government notifications, Gazettes and other circulars are not published in Urdu language so Urdu knowing people do not get first hand information of these things on time and in proper manner.

7. Applications written in Urdu language are not properly received by the authorities. There are very few Urdu translators and they too are deputed for other works than to receive people’s representation written in Urdu. The very attitude of bureaucracy by and large is not sympathetic and cooperative towards Muslims. So they very much fear that their application may not get proper favour if written in 60

Urdu and that may cause delay on the pretext of translation. If the mind, the heart and the soul are not clean mere pronouncement will not work.

8. Urdu newspapers are not given adequate advertisements from Govt., semi Govt. and autonomous bodies.

9. Urdu is the creation of our composite culture. It can serve as a bridge between communities and cultures more particularly between the north and the south. Previously it was a language of cross section of people. But now it has become the language of only Muslim community. So special incentive should be provided to all those who want to learn Urdu at school level or beyond that. An open School facility and correspondence course in Urdu is the need of the hour.

10.

Urdu should be introduced as a compulsory subject of learning to Urdu knowing students in CBSE syllabus along with Hindi with immediate effect. Thousands of students appearing through CBSE have been deprived of this facility, which is nothing but a cultural genocide of a linguistic minority.

11.

As per the provision of Article 350B of the constitution to check any violation of the rights of linguistic minorities there should be a tribunal both at central and state level. The decision of the tribunal will be binding upon all the authorities.

Many things have been said and done in the past but the problem of Urdu by and large has remained unresolved. There is the lack of political will and genuineness on the part of the government, the bias that is found among the officials against this language and the weakness on the part of Urdu masses.

We all need a concerted effort to improve the situation. Let us rededicate ourselves to champion the cause of Urdu in the following ways.

I. We must commit ourselves to teach Urdu compulsorily to our children at the primary and secondary stage without hitch and aberration. This is the only safeguard against all onslaughts. This should be launched as a movement both in the rural and urban areas.

II. Urdu should be the language of our drawing rooms and the market place as well. It should be the language of social contact and cultural activities.

III. Original literature in science, social sciences and other form of knowledge must be produced in Urdu.

IV. High research work in all and every branch of knowledge should be encouraged in Urdu.

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V. VI.

Special programme should be launched to teach Urdu to nonUrdu masses.

A social movement to erase the biasness of the people against this language is the need of the hour. Urdu bodies should sit together to devise means and method to reach the masses in a big way.

Urdu is the representative of our composite culture. This character of Urdu should always be emphasized.

It is not only that Urdu is victim of official apathy and maltreatment.

Urdu teachers at all levels from primary to higher education are equally responsible for this state of affairs. Urdu teaching in classrooms is not up to the mark. Political campaign to get due share for this language is not enough if its teaching from the grass root level is not improved. We need a new scheme of awareness and a new method of orientation programme to augment this situation.

Urdu syllabus of our schools and colleges need to be revised to meet the changing needs of the society. Urdu is a beautiful language, a symbol of Gango-Jamni civilisation which encompasses the whole of our social milieu that defines the broad contours of our nation. Our Urdu syllabus must reflect this phenomenon for better understanding and national integration. Urdu is relatively a young language born and brought up in Indian soil and all segments of Indian Society did have their contribution in nurturing this language. Certain political developments in recent past have thwarted this process. We have to recycle it once again to make it a link language between the communities and cultures and different groups of people across the country.

Urdu syllabus should be devised on the basic of four guiding principles.

1. Twenty five percent of the syllabus should be devoted to classical literature to know the origin the evolution, the tradition, the depth, width and length of the language and the experiments made in the past ages.

2. Twenty five percent should focus the contribution of poets and literatures of 19th century to benefit from the literary treasure of the past centuries.

3. Twenty five percent of the syllabus should constitute the contribution of non- Muslim poet and writers to

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acquaint and acknowledge the cross-culture connotation of this language.

4. Twenty five percent should be earmarked for recent writings in Urdu language and literature to understand the recent trends and other experiments made in the field of Urdu language in different part of the country and abroad.

This comprehensive framework not only interconnects the past with the present but also develops a genuine relationship between races and communities and further broadens our horizon to beat the parochialism going around in the name of language. Thus Urdu along with Hindi and English can help to foster a better relationship between different sections of our society. So Urdu teaching deserves a better treatment keeping in view the broad national interest. Urdu teachers and students must realize their role and responsibilities in the changed social and political situation of the country. Quality teaching is the only solution to all problems the language faces today.

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9.

A Case for English

If one goes for writing anything that goes beyond the public perception one is bound to land oneself in a controversy – reasonable or unreasonable for which he might not have an answer. If you speak the essentiality of English Language in modern India you may be dubbed as still an un-free mind in the post colonial era. And if you favour to do away with English Language from our School Curriculum you may be called a conspirator who likes to disable a great workforce from attaining higher job and retaining this facility for a selected few in a non-egalitarian manner. This way or that way you can not escape this controversy. Though politics has overriding influence on all other aspects of our national and collective life but education should always be kept away from petty politics. It is the academics who should be assigned the role and responsibility to charter out the academic agenda. The role of politician should be of a manager not a formulator. The autonomy in the academic domain thus speaks of objectivity guided by the academic exigencies uninterrupted by day to day politicking.

In sixties of the last century we have witnessed a fierce anti-English tirade throughout north India culminating into a full generation of non-English knowing graduates and post graduates. This in actual sense of the word sparked the renegading process in our educational system and from there we see a sudden decline in our educational standard. Suddenly the elites withdrew their wards from the general stream of education and an alternative system was encouraged in the name of private institutions to cater to the need of growing demand of the elite class that got all sorts of encouragement and policy support and in due course they became the trend setter as well as epitome of standard education. Naturally students of these institutions were better equipped to capture over the large mass of higher learning, technical education, business schools, research centres and high quality jobs. In the present era of globalization they are the most thriving genre amassing wealth and power at a rocketing speed adding to a great divide of rich and poor in this country.

Modern education in India is the legacy of British Raj which had twin purposes 1) to create a workforce which was acquainted with the master’s language, so that it could carry out the dictates with ease and speed and 2) to create a constituency of loyal citizens to live in peace and harmony with the masters as a symphony of His master’s voice to allure and keep engage the masses and thus to enlarge a buffer zone to perpetuate the alien regime.

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This system of education attained tremendous success in its goal and scope of education. The infrastructure they built, the criteria they fixed, the standard they set and the norm they established was proper and appropriate according to the direction and destination of education. During freedom movement it was well thought that the British System of education was one of the contributory factors in perpetuating British Raj in this country.

People were well convinced of the utility and superiority of modern education over the conventional system of education prevailing in the name of Gurukul or Madarsa System. This system was scientifically designed and focused mainly on the material welfare. So it had immediate appeal for the masses. Further it brought through better knowledge and understanding of the environment, men and material resources and better techniques to use those resources for common benefit of large number of people. Independence was promised and projected, not only freedom from slavery but freedom from hunger, poverty, illiteracy and exploitation.

Education was thought as a means to achieve this end. Instead of education for few and selected, a major shift in our education policy in the post independence era can well be perceived in mass education and general education. A policy of universal and compulsory education up to the age of 14 for all children irrespective of sex, caste, creed and region was set as a national goal. Special stress was given to education of Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribes and Other backward groups of the Indian society.

Theoretically speaking it was no less a revolution that was planned to work out in India within a stipulated time frame. This time frame could not succeed but the goal remained intact. Though it is unachievable yet it still stirs and inspires our soul. Now we have two goals before us 1) General and Mass education i.e. education for all and 2) quality education to meet the changing needs and to go ahead. Globalisation has posed new challenges as well as new opportunities. The issue of English language has attained new importance in the changed scenario.

During the anti-English campaign it was stressed that English is an alien language, a symbol of slavery and British Raj. When we have thrown out the yoke of the British rule there was no logic to carry on this burden any further. It was further argued that all independent nations do have their own language which suits their cultural moorings as well as national aspirations. European countries in particular have their own languages and it is no hindrance to their progress. So, why India should not have its own language as official language, where the vernacular languages are also very rich in vocabulary and usage? Hindi tops the list because it is spoken and understood by almost 40 percent of the population. The whole of north 65

India with few exceptions constitutes the Hindi belt. The second argument that was advanced vociferously was that most of the Indians live in villages. The social milieu and the cultural environment of the village folk are quite unsuitable for learning English language and literature and to have mastery over it, particularly for Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes and other backward communities whose first generations have come to join school education. Hence the failure of large mass of students in English in the school examination was cited as one of the major factors responsible for dropout at the school level. When there is no British rule in India there is no essentiality to use English as official language in Govt.

Offices and institutions. At least at the local level and state level all official businesses can easily be done in local language preferably in Hindi. This movement had some earthly logic which caught the imagination of local population and a good number of students joined the bandwagon. Finally the essentiality of English was struck down from the curriculum and a new phrase “pass without English” became the order of the day.

Undoubtedly, seen dispassionately there is some grain of logic in AntiEnglish Campaign. English language is elitist in nature. It has created a class of its own in Indian Society which has its own vested interest contrary to the common interest of the people. By and large the English speaking people look upon the masses with contempt and their heart seldom throb at their misery. So a popular disdain of common people with this class of people is understandable. But the champions of Anti-English campaign were too short-sighted to look beyond their immediate political gain in the name of linguistic chauvinism. It paid them profusely at the hustings and many of them came to power to worsen the situation. If we go on to survey the standard of education since sixties to the present day we appear to be a failed nation in terms of number and quality of education. Amartya Sen & Jean Dreze in “Indian Development”(Selected Regional Perspective (Oxford India Paper backs IV impression 1999)) have given an extensive survey of UP which proves the point that how have we miserably failed both in terms of number and quality of education? In the recent white paper tabled on the desk of Bihar Assembly on 27th March 2006, the Govt. has accepted its failure in the field of education. The quality of education particularly in Govt. run schools is so poor that almost 78% students failed in Hindi in Class VIII examination and the percentage of failure in Mathematics was 72. English was sought to be abolished from the curriculum only because of large number of failures in English. Since, it was an alien language so it was difficult to 66

learn for the poor people particularly for the rural folk. Now it is same for Hindi and Math. Will the people argue to make both of them optional? It is not English, any language or branch of study is difficult if it is not properly taught. Pedagogy has to be trained for that. Education of under privileged children has some large issues to tackle with. If you go on abolishing English or Math from the curriculum or make it optional, it will not solve the problem. This piecemeal exercise is not only ill conceived rather harmful. So what is to be taught and what is not should be left to be decided by the teachers and teaching administration. Autonomy must be restored at least in academic matters. I just want to emphasise that abolition of English from our curriculum is no service to the nation. It is no way a hurdle in the path of educational development in this country. It simply adds to the great divide of India between Bharat and India with all disadvantages to Bharat under the present globalised environment. There is a need to give a fresh look at the whole issue. In the comity of developing countries India does have an advantage in comparison to China and all other countries because we have a sizeable number of technocrats and middle class which are well versed in English language. English nowa-days is not a symbol of British Raj. But like Pant, Shirt, Coat and Tie it has become a symbol of world culture. We have been given a historic opportunity that should never be missed.

Of late, realization has dawned on that class of politicians and they are convinced with the essentiality of English Language in the changed scenario. So to say, re-introduction of English in our school curriculum from Primary level is being thought as an utmost necessity. As per newspaper reports in a recent interview (on 17th April 2006, HT Patna) Chief Minister, West Bengal Budh Deb Bhattacharya admitted that Left front’s decision to do away with English from class one was a big blunder if not a historic one. In a reflective mood he admitted that the decision to drop English was taken by a panel of experts including a party MP, who was brought up in an English environment, went to English medium schools and sent his children abroad. In fact, some of them were English Scholars. This episode simply reflects the class bias and contempt for the mental faculty of the under privileged children. It is simply a foolish friendship – a short sighted and simpleton approach. In Bihar Assembly too when a bill to re-introduce English from primary level was presented in the house some two years ago it was vehemently opposed both by the opposition and treasury benches and finally the idea was dropped. This bill was opposed by those members who merrily sent their children to costly English Medium schools both inside and outside the state and abroad. It is 67

simply hypocrisy, an attempt to befool the masses. In the real sense of the word a disservice to the nation and a cruel joke with the future of young generation. People in general must realize that a conspiracy has been hatched against them to create an inbuilt incapability to keep them away from general competition. So sooner this injustice is done away the better it is for the younger generation.

I once again remind of the fact that English should not be taught as a superior language nor should it be treated as a competitor of Hindi or Urdu or any other Indian language. It should be taught as a supplementary language. It is no time to discuss the enrichment and desirability of a single language or more than one language; India has always been a multilingual country. So three-language formula i.e. mother tongue, Hindi and English is the best working device that fulfills all our needs. Where I differ from most of the experts of English language is that it should not be taught as a queen’s language. Now English is as an Indian language as Hindi, Urdu and other languages. Anglo-Indian tradition is very rich and wide and fulfills all our needs. Emphasis should be given on correct reading and writing of that language which is easy to comprehend and easy to communicate. To teach Shakespeare at school level is not always essential.

Why I emphasise so much on the re-introduction of English language in our school curriculum from standard one and onward has three basic reasons: 1) It will arrest the ongoing decline in the educational standard. It will infuse a sense of seriousness in the system, which is lacking at present? It will make both the teachers and students a bit serious and sincere.

2) We often compare ourselves with European nations. Every European country has its own language different from other. Yet they feel no hindrance in the way of progress and feel no inferiority complex because many of them are capable of making frontline scientific enquiry and are producing original research in the field of science and technology. We in general don’t have developed such capability to undertake research and scientific innovation in Indian languages.

The people who are engaged in such pursuits are trained to do research in English language. As such, unless we achieve the level of efficiency to produce higher research in Indian languages, English is the sole alternative. We cannot resort to check the pace of scientific enquiry out of linguistic chauvinism. I have no doubt when a high research work in science or other disciplines can be produced in French, German or Spanish languages why can that not be produced 68

in Urdu, Hindi, Tamil or other Indian languages. But it requires first the original brain that is both well versed in Science as well as in local language so much so that it is capable of coining terminologies and inventing signs and symbols. Until we achieve that level of efficiency we can not barter our future for petty chauvinism. The best course is to develop an independent centre to carry on research and scientific enquiry in Indian languages, a parallel exercise without obstructing one another rather in communion with one another for the common benefit of all. In due course we would be able to present high research work in our own languages. Till then we must accept the essentiality of English in the higher pursuit of knowledge. The argument that continuous use of English language will thwart the progress of Indian languages caries no weight. We really mean business and we are sincere enough to develop our own language and encourage its use more and more. After all Rome was not built in a day.

3) The third and the last earthly reason that goes in favour of English language is that it incapacitate the young generation coming out of our schools and colleges to go outside the state and seek job there. English language is one of the contributory factors in seeking job in any part of the country and abroad. It adds to one’s capability like an extra skill one has in comparison to others. Generally English knowing people get job easily in comparison to those who know only local languages. Today the corporate world prefers to employ most of their marketing agents who are well versed in English Language. So English language helps to secure a better job easily.

At the end of this discussion as per conclusion I would like to suggest three important things to be included as curricula reform. i) Introduction of English language from class one onward as compulsory subject. ii) Introduction of computer literacy and application course from class five onward to pre-degree level. iii) Introduction of one vocational training programme from class VIII onward in continuity to pre-degree level. So that if a students drops education at this level he/ she may enter into the workforce with better education and training to get gainful employment easily and immediately without any time lag.

Looking upon its various advantages one can simply conclude that reintroduction of English language and proper arrangement for its better education from the Primary School level is one of the essential agenda of reform in our School curricula. Three-language formulae is the best suited device in our circumstances.

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Chapter III Challenges before Higher Education Higher education in India and more particularly in Bihar is in a state of transition. It has not only complex and conflicting milieu, it is challenging too.

The future of the country lies on the qualified and competent workforce. Higher education is a means to that end. But due to various reasons it is in a bad shape.

Private public participation is an age old practice in India. Large number of institutions in the early period of 19th and 20th century were established under private management. In the beginning there were few and far government institutions but in the latter phase and more particularly after independence many institution of repute particularly professional and technical institutions and research centres were established under the government sector. That was to fulfill dual purposes one to provide quality education within the country to meet the need and challenges of modern world and second it was an extension of the concept of social justice i.e., to provide education to even poor but meritorious students at affordable prices. The present wake of privatization is new to our circumstances.

The globalization and liberalization have opened the door for private institutions to operate in this country. The bourgeois is welcoming this phenomenon but the teeming masses are afraid of this change. The government is under pressure. The situation is alarming. We have to keep balance between mass education and quality education. Education today is a costly affair. Public exchequer feels it unmanageable to yoke this load. Private institutions are not only welcomed rather it is devouring the public space. Can we afford to go on that line? This is a big question. In Bihar the situation is more serious. How to strengthen the existing system and to get the best out of the present institutions and how to revamp and reshape them are the issues that have been discussed in this chapter under different topics.

Intermediate education is the threshold of higher education so first article addresses it squarely. The second article discusses the challenges before higher education. The third one deals with problems and prospects of privatization of education in India. Fourth article discusses the role and responsibilities of Principals under changed scenario. Article five introduces basic research methodology particularly in social sciences. Article six throws light on the causes and cure of student unrests. That taken together builds a complete picture. They are suggestive and illuminating both.

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10.

How to Revamp Intermediate Education in Bihar

Introduction Intermediate Education lies between the Secondary and higher education. It is the gateway to higher education. From here itself all doors of professional courses such as medical, engineering and other allied branches do open. So, both matriculation and intermediate education play a pivotal role in the career of a student. If one loses an opportunity to excel in matriculation examination, one has a chance to improve oneself at the intermediate level. If one slips here too, there is little chance of recovery in the later stages. Thus the intermediate stage is far more crucial in comparison to any other level.

Plainly speaking, intermediate education in Bihar is in a bad shape.

Bihar Intermediate Education Council (BIEC) for various reasons has earned bad names both inside and outside the state. Negative impulses will not save the system. A positive and forward looking approach is the only answer. A damage control exercise is the need of the hour to improve the image and efficacy of this great organization in the larger interest of the state as well as the nation.

The Role of BIEC The Bihar Intermediate Education Council (In 1992 Act) has the power of direction, supervision and control of Intermediate Education (Art. 14). Under article 14(a) it may advise to the state government and recognize and de-recognize government institutions. Article 14(b) empowers it to inspect these institutions. Article 14(2), gives power to make regulations and prescribe conditions to be fulfilled by students.

Article 14(7) provides authority to grant or refuse permission to a candidate. Article 14(10) authorizes to prescribe academic session. Article 14(9) gives authority to call for any report or information from any institution. These clauses give the council enough power to look into the affairs of Intermediate Education and it is the council’s responsibility to revamp it as far as possible and practicable.

The Ground Realities 1. Intermediate Education is being imparted in four or five types of institutions, which have great variations in terms of infrastructure from zero to high quality facilities.

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2. By and large the administration of intermediate education is suffering from administrative apathy and negligence.

3. The educational norms, discipline and even minimum of the requirements is not followed so much so that as it were, there is no system.

4. Most of the faculties are so poor that they cannot impart proper instruction.

5. In most of the institutions teaching and non-teaching staff are not paid even a single farthing or a paltry sum is given at some festivals or other occasions.

6. In hundreds of institutions the enrollment of students is so low that they have lost their viability.

7. Education mafia of all hue and colour are well ensconced or has a tight grip.

8. In nutshell, it is a case of system failure or it is like a patient lying on the operation table waiting for a major surgery.

Impediments 1. Lack of will power to take this issue head on.

2. Lack of proper policy and sensitiveness to tackle this problem with earnestness and sincerity.

3. Lack of co-ordination among different functionaries of education.

4. Growth of vested interest, which serves as a roadblock to any attempt to restore the system.

5. Negative impulse that has cropped up into the system has crippled it to the terminal stagnation and degeneration.

6. No sound education policy and clear road map to improve the system.

7. Unaided education policy is eating into the vitals of the system.

8. Indifference of civil society towards education due to over all socioeconomic climate and the mismatch between job and job seekers.

The unemployment ratio of educated youth has undermined the importance of education in the lower and lower middle class people which is one of the major factors of low standard of education.

People in general have lost any enthusiasm towards education.

Big Questions?

Can we afford this luxury for long? No! A community or a state cannot bet its future on sheer negligence, apathy and indifference.

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In a backward state like ours the development of human resources is the only resort. The rate of development here cannot be accelerated by any other means except the rate of development of human resources in terms of education and other allied activities.

Too much time and resources have already been wasted, to save the state from imminent disaster we have to act honestly and swiftly.

Our problem is that the system is terminally ill. Degeneration knows no limit. The will to improve the system is lacking. It is not only the resource crunch that has a telling effect on our education system, more importantly, we lack work culture. Basics of the system are violated.

Teachers, students, educational administrators, and all others lack the basic concern. Without will there is no way out.

The Way out The first requirement is to adhere to the basic norms. It needs some hard measures and sincere and strict implementation. The following are the basic ingredients required to improve the system: 1. The minimum-working infrastructure in all institutions must be ensured.

2. Adequate number of qualified teachers should be appointed on regular basis without any hassle and delay.

3. Some method of faculty improvement should also be introduced. A new scheme of in-house faculty improvement programme should be mooted out. The present system of academic staff college has failed to deliver any good in this regard.

4. Lecture count of both-teachers and students should be enforced.

5. Inspection and Academic Auditing should also be implemented with all earnestness.

6. Not only the question pattern should be changed but a special training programme should also be launched for the proper evaluation of answer books.

7. The syllabus should be remodeled keeping in view the ground realities. It should meet local requirements as well as the national standard.

The second necessity is that intermediate education should be completely withdrawn from school system. It has proved to be a failure.

The third major step should be to do away with the unaided education policy. It has played havoc with intermediate education. It does not mean that government should take over all those institutions. It would be a wrong proposition. They should be re-organised on the line of private 73

C.B.S.E. institutions. The conditions regarding land, building etc. should be relaxed under the changed scenario. A revised minimum criteria should be fixed and strictly be implemented.

The very purpose of creation of Intermediate Council was to separate intermediate education from the universities [Preamble]. The Inter University Board and the High Court have given verdict in this regard. But under the prevailing circumstances it is neither feasible nor desirable. It needs to be reviewed further. So any reformatory process should first start from constituent colleges and they should be made a role model for other institutions. Both the Intermediate Council and the University Administration should join hands to fulfill this obligation. A high level joint committee for surveillance and inspection is the need of the hour.

Now a word of caution! The recent recommendation by administrative reform commission setup by the present Government of Bihar to amalgamate Bihar Secondary School Examination Board and Intermediate Education Council in one body does not carry any merit. It is against the common precept, the small is beautiful. This exercise will make the system more loathsome. It is in no way going to salvage the system from the present mess. Any change in the setup will be beneficial when the system is back on the rail. So, all attentions should be diverted to revamp the system than to make any fresh experiment. «»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»

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11.

Challenges before Higher Education in India

We are in an age of knowledge explosion. Every successive generation has outwitted the older ones. Advancement made in science and culture in recent past has no parallel in history. The very destiny of our society today is molded by the knowledge and expertise that we have gained in the annals of humanity. Only that nation and community is advance in the world that has attained excellence in higher education. H.G. Wells has rightly said, in his Outline of History that human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. We have no option but to go for better and quality education for our children in a world of globalised cut throat competition baptised with crony capitalism which is devoid of any sense of accommodation for the children of lesser gods. The uneducated, less uneducated and poorly educated have to suffer under the present regime.

We are a strong nation of over 100 crores of people, the second largest populace in the world, but in terms of human resource development we are among the most backward countries of the world. Our literacy percentage is far below the desired level. Despite our constitutional commitment and conferring right to education as a fundamental right and over sixty years of planned endeavours the total literacy is still a far off dream. Over 36% of our population is still illiterate. The dropout rate right from primary to secondary level is very high in India. According to Human resource development survey published on the eve of Xth plan by the Planning Commission of India in Bihar itself the dropout rate up to Class X level is almost 84%. The national average is a little better. On an average only 6% students opt for college education and go for technical and non-technical courses. Under the present situation we have two pertinent challenges.

1. Education for one and all.

2. The qualitative and competitive education as per the need and requirements of the changing world.

Now come to the challenges of Higher Education in India. We have five sets of centers of higher learning in our country.

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1.

IITs & Regional Institutes and some other specialized institutions of learning.

2. Central universities.

3. Private colleges and universities run by business houses, NRIs and others.

4. State Universities.

5. Unaided institutions working between hope and despair to be taken over by the government.

The standard of education in all the five categories of institutions is different, rather more uneven. While the IITs, Central universities, specialized institutions and private centers of learning are designed to produce high-class technical experts, business executives and bureaucrats etc., the state universities and other unaided institutions, are starved of resources, have poor infrastructure facilities, ill equipped manpower and full of low quality students and teachers. Most of these institutions are nothing more than clerk producing centers. With the job opportunity shrinking, the industrial reserved army in the Marxist terminology that is the unemployed work force has become a big threat for the social and political stability of the country. This is the biggest and the primary challenge before the higher education system, a challenge in the sense how we are able to utilize this mass of cheap human resources for creative purposes otherwise we cannot save the country from the impending chaos.

We live in a globalised world in a cyber age and driving fast on a highway of information technology. At one hand these have opened vast vistas of opportunities and on the other pose immense challenges to which we are quite ill equipped to cope with. Thus we have greater challenges to come up to international standard and to harness these opportunities to the best of our interests. Are we ready to respond to this situation positively and decisively? We are a strong nation and we have enough guts to respond to the challenges of time. I have deep faith in the youth of this country who have proved their worth time and again. India has enough resilience to meet this challenge if taken up properly. What I am afraid of is the political class. India has not failed. Our politicians have failed. I must not be so candid because Manusmriti reminds us, “speak the truth, speak the pleasant, do not speak the unpleasant truth�. But I would be failing in my duties if I do not point out where water has gone murky.

What to talk of big ones even the small time politicians have managed to educate their wards in costly institutions both at home and abroad. The two streams of education are flowing parallel to each other one for the elitists and other for the commoners. All policy support is given to the elitists’ 76

education while the education of commoners only gets the lip service. The gimmicks, the mimicry, the neglect, the apathy and the indifference that we see towards the education today speak volumes of this phenomenon. V. V. John. Fellow of Indian Institute of Advance Study Shimla who also served as Director Higher Education Govt. of Rajasthan and ViceChancellor of Jodhpur university - after spending two years studying educational policy in this country since independence and perusing hundreds of pages of parliamentary discussion some two decades ago came to this conclusion that there has not been “any subject on which more nonsense has been spoken per minute than on education.”

We are never tired of pronouncing lofty ideals of VASUDEV KUTUMBKAM or AL KHALQO AYAL ALLAH or the whole world is the family of God, but all these lofty ideals often get lost into the web of selfishness, communalism, casteism and corruption. These evil impulses sway over the whole affairs. Cosmopolitanism is be gone and by gone doctrine from our life. Our educated class is more selfish, more intolerant and less humane. Mahatma Gandhi was once asked, “What distressed him most” and he simply replied” The hardness of heart of the educated.”

We are a young nation. Gained our independence in 1947 and adopted democratic system of governance with a commitment to people participation on the basis of adult franchise irrespective of caste, creed and colour with a vow to build up an egalitarian society. Education is the only means to achieve this goal. But the narrow-minded approach of our policy makers played havoc with the destiny of our nation and we failed on both front of universal education and high quality education.

Milton Friedman writing on American education scene comments, “we have grown richer over the decades. We have expanded our knowledge of universe non the less” he quotes from National Commission on Excellence in Education in its report, A Nation at Risk (April 1983), “The average graduate of our schools and colleges today is not as well educated as the average graduate of 25 or 35 years ago.”

This is the American scene. I emphasize upon the word ‘average’ here. The situation in India is worse. As a result we in every respect despite our tremendous capabilities have become an average nation. This I think is a bigger challenge that we have to address immediately.

Who is responsible for this mess? There are four players in this arena the govt., the university administration, the teachers and the students as well as the guardians. The govt. holds universities and teachers responsible, teachers blame the govt. university administration and the students, Students and guardians blame the govt., the teachers and 77

university for the sordid state of affairs. As a matter of fact each one has a fair share of contribution in making the things bad to worse. But the Govt. must be held responsible for all these things. Unless a coordinated and concerted effort is made by all the concerned this situation cannot be improved.

I am not for blame game here. In my humble submission I have the following pertinent suggestions to get rid of this moribund situation in the domain of higher education, which has posed a challenge in India.

1. Education should be brought to priority sector. Nothing is possible without proper and adequate funding. At least 6% of GDP must be spent on education as suggested by the various committees and commissions time to time. We spend only 2.5% of the GDP, which is far less to our growing requirements.

2. I am of the strong view that three areas of national importance should be kept out of petty politics 1. National Defence, 2. National Economy and 3. National Education. There should be consensus on it. Change of Govt. or change of administration should not have any adverse effect on these things. At least universities should be kept out of petty politics.

3. Autonomy of universities should be restored. Dr. Amrik Singh the ExVice Chancellor of Patiala University once described, “It is the vice chancellor who runs the university. In the absence of autonomy, proper and adequate funding a vice–chancellor can not run a university.” Dr. A. R. Kidwai, the former governor of Bihar at FUSTAB conference held in B.R.A Bihar University Muzaffarpur some years ago commented sorrowfully that universities are now run by clerks. This situation must change. Rule of law, discipline and a sense of accountability must be infused in the whole system.

4. There should be a foolproof system of appointment and promotion of teachers and other officials of universities. A mechanism of internal assessment must be introduced. The practice of CCR should again be started in a proper way. I hold the view that teachers should be appointed on the basis of written and oral examinations on the state and central level hold under All India Education Service or State Education Service.

5. We live in a pluralistic society where multiplicity and diversity is the core of Indianness. We must carve an educational policy, which cater to the needs and aspirations of all the sections of our society.

6. One of the purposes of education is to create skilled manpower to meet the requirements of the country. Job is the immediate aim of 78

education. So vocational education, which can help to get job easily, must be encouraged. So that our young can easily be engaged in creative and productive ventures. Otherwise they would turn into a time bomb, which is dangerous for the whole society.

7. Last but not the least University education in India has come to an age. It is not less than two hundred years old. Through various trial and error methods we have gained much experience to run the system fruitfully. I am of the ardent view that we should be back to basics.

Classes should run regularly. Proper monitoring must be strengthened.

Sessional, tutorial, practical classes should be reintroduced. Teachers and students absenteeism must be curbed down. Education must be free from caste and community considerations and political interference in educational matters must be discouraged.

Mere suggestion will not help to change the educational landscape. It requires sincere and honest effort from all sides. The problem today is that we lack that honesty and sincerity of purpose. Still we must hold hope and keep our dream alive. “Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die Life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly Hold fast to dream, for when dreams go Life is barren field frozen from snow.�

(Langton Houghs)

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12.

Problems & Prospects of Privatisation of Education in India.

Background With the inception of British Raj in India in 1757 after the battle of Plassey a new system of education came in offing just to cater to the need of new rulers. Initially there was a fierce debate both on the mode and medium of education, but finally Lord McCauley succeeded in introducing, the British system of education with English medium in 1835 with twin objectives 1. To have English knowing subordinates for smooth control and administration over the country.

2. To create a constituency of loyal Indians to the British Raj who by their flesh and blood would be Indian and by spirit and emotion, knowledge and sentiments a British in the new garb.

The salient feature of this education policy was that it was selective and elitist in nature. It created a new bourgeoisie class which in due course divided into two distinct streams, one loyalist to the British Raj and other the freedom fighters. Our first ranking leaders of freedom movement belonged to this class. Gandhi called the British education system as a clerk-producing machine. This emphasize two things 1. The British had very limited objective.

2. They were never interested in mass education.

In Bihar the history of modern education started from 1817 with the establishment of Patna College. It was under Calcutta University.

When Bihar was separated from Bengal in 1912 a new era of development and social awakening began. Patna University came into being in 1917 with the sole objective of conducting examination from Matric onward. Till 1951 it was the only university in Bihar. Bihar University came into being in 1951 after independence with its headquarters at Muzaffarpur as a teaching university. Other universities in Bihar were established much after that and the process is continuing.

Constitutional Status Constitutionally education in India is a state subject and it is included in concurrent list also. Which means the central Govt. is not absolved of the responsibility of education of its citizens. It has the role

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and responsibility of formulating the policy and providing technical and financial assistance to the state governments in achieving their targets and objectives. Education for all is the national goal. Uniformity in standards and continuous development in education particularly in the field of scientific knowledge, technical know-how and producing high-class skilled manpower vis-Ă -vis developing more and more human resources are the other important objectives of our national educational policies.

Present Scene As a result of which India today has over 20 million educated and skilled manpower comprising middle class who in the real sense is the prime mover of our economy. This educated force is much larger than those of the afro-Asian countries. India is just short of few of the developed countries in this regard. Lauding to this remarkable expansion of higher education in India, Prof. Amartya Sen records with pride, “We send about six times as many people to universities and other higher educational establishments as China does, relative to its population.�

(Indian Development, selected regional perspectives, Radical needs and Moderate Reforms, Page 14, 1999). At the time of independence in 1947 we had only 19 universities and 636 colleges with a total number of enrolments of about 106,000 students only. But in 2002 there were 260 universities, over 9000 colleges having 4 lakh teachers and around 10 million students. Looking upon the size and pace of development it is indeed a huge network that fills our heart with pride and satisfaction.

But seen by another angle it is not the stature rather the shadow that has enlarged. Our system of higher education suffers from dichotomy and presents a picture of contradiction. We are a strong nation of over 1000 million people. Despite tremendous spread of institutions of higher learning in almost every state of the country, only 6% of our young people of the college going age are receiving higher education. As per the Human Resource Development survey published on the eve of Xth plan by the Planning Commission of India, in Bihar the dropout rate at class Xth level is almost 84%. It means only 16% opt for intermediate education. By no estimate roughly speaking more than 3% students go for higher and specialized education in Bihar. The enrolment of students in institutions of higher educations was 74.18 lakhs in 1998-99. The growth of enrolment increased 5% per annum up to 1985-86. And it declined from 1986-87 onwards to 4%. Thus demographically the total intake in the higher education both at the national and state level is far less than our size and requirements. So, there is enormous possibility in quantity increment, but 81

that requires basic structural change at socio-economic level as well as in the psyche and mindset of the people.

It is not the lesser enrollment of students that is the area of concern in the higher institution of learning rather it is the erosion in the quality of education at university level which is alarming and needs to be addressed immediately. We have now championed ourselves in producing qualified illiterates or degree holder ignorants. A general graduate produced by our colleges does not have the ability to read and write correctly even in his/her mother tongue or vernacular language. The general level of knowledge and understanding is far less than the desired ordinary standard. The students of state universities with a few exceptions are no match to students of central universities and other specialized institutions of home and abroad. While we claim to have a curriculum of international standard we have failed to compete with the standard of national universities. Thus we see a rush to certain institutions of learning while other institutions are forced to feed up by sub-standard students. The situation of Bihar is worse than any other state in the country. Every year a good number of students from primary to higher standard migrate from Bihar to outside states in search of quality and standard education. It is only the poor and less privileged that are left to study in such institutions and universities. There has been rolling a slide from top to the low; unabatedly that is the biggest challenge to our system. It has not emerged out suddenly and accidentally. It is the wreckage of over a period of time and there are several factors that have contributed to this state of affairs.

Reminded by the fact that one should not speak unpleasant truths, wrapped in enigma I underline the following facts for this sordid state of affairs.

1. Caste and communal character of our society.

2. Political interference that has messed up the whole system of education particularly in Bihar.

3. Bureaucratic control and indifference.

4. Appointment of unqualified and less qualified teachers.

5. Erosion of autonomy.

6. Lack of infrastructure.

7. Resource Crunch.

8. Rampant Corruption.

9. High mass poverty, ignorance and lack of educational movement in the country.

10. Deliberate neglect of weaker sections and minorities.

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11. Alienation of elitist class from state run institutions, colleges and universities.

12. Mushroom growth of sub-standard colleges and universities with no financial backing and infrastructural facilities etc.

This list is quite inconclusive and many other factors can be added to the list responsible for this phenomenon. Unless we are ready to change our mindset no change is perceptible in near future.

It is rare in history when a country or community is faced with a situation where it has either to act or perish with no other alternative. We are now in the same situation.

Globalisation riding over the back of liberalization, breaking and trampling all the doors and barriers has entered into our country and economy like a victorious army. While every segment of our society and country is affected from this phenomenon how can education remain unaffected? In one sense we are a rigid society ready to break but not to bend. We will not forgo tilak and dowry even if our daughters go overage or forced to satisfy their biological urge through immoral means. We curse the western society day in and day out but fail to understand and appreciate their virtues and positive aspects, which have led to their immense development in the comity of nations.

Education in western world by and large is free from political interference. It has uncompromising standard and adequate fund with a well-designed system of autonomy and accountability through a method of periodical assessment and appraisal both internally and externally.

The inbuilt flexibility in the system provides them enough incentive to change and improve them continuously and maintain their high standard. Not a single university of the third world most particularly of India can match their excellence. That’s why we see a continuous brain drain of gifted students and teachers to those countries, which to my mind is a national loss. But at the present juncture we have no answer to this challenge. What we are struggling to prove is our relevance and viability under the present circumstances.

Problems Education in India has never been in the priority sector. We feel no qualm why despite our constitutional commitment we could not achieve 100% (hundred percent) literacy within the stipulated period.

Even after more than six decades we are just over a half way mark to this goal. Almost 38% of people are still quite illiterate in this country. In

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Bihar the percentage is higher than the national level. About 48% of people are totally illiterate in this state.

Despite various commissions and committees appointed for this purpose, India for long has no education policy as such. The allocation of fund has been done in highly rudimentary and haphazard manner. The education commission (1964-66) had visualized an adequate educational system, which would require a certain level of investment. The first national policy on education adopted way back in 1968 had laid down that investment in education would amount to 6% of GNP. But in India it was never more than 2.5% of the GDP. If worked out on the basis of average price level since 1984 as per Alternative Economic Survey 1997-98 (page 127) if the GNP had continually grown at the rate of 6% per annum for those 24 years since the recommendation of education commission, the absolute sum required would be something of the order of 10-12% of GNP. But contrary to this recommendation the allocation of fund to this sector has declined considerably in recent years. The allocation to higher education was 20.89% in the sixth plan. 17.6% in seventh plan which came down to 11.2% in eighth plan. The planning Commission had approved an outlay of Rs 21,217 crore for education in eight plans. This was 4.9% of public sector outlay. The Ninth Plan however did not specify allocation to education. The public Expenditure in India on education has stagnated for three decades. Amongst one hundred sixteen countries for which relevant data are available India ranks as low as 82nd in terms of proportion of the public expenditure on education of GNP (UNDP Human Development Reports 1994, Tables 15,36 and 49).

Thus in nutshell we can conclude that our educational system particularly the higher education suffers due to lack of policy support and resource crunch.

What is the alternative and answer to the present malaise? a. the deteriorating standard b. the resource crunch and c. the need for expanding educational network to meet the requirements of ever increasing population.

Privatisation In the wake of globalisation and liberalization like other sectors of economy, for education and other social sectors Privatisation is advocated as modern mantra. Privatisation as I think is the game of major players who enjoy equal status. It entails competition and 84

competitiveness. It, in a society where there are major and minor players, the free and fair competition will always result in the deprivation of the minor groups or sections. None other than the crony capitalist will favour this market oriented elitist system of education. Does India have the guts to enjoy this luxury of injustice?

Before illustrating this point further let us enquire into the advantages and disadvantage of Privatisaion in education sector.

Advantages Following are considered the advantages of Privatisaion in the education sector:1. It will reduce dependency on govt. and unburden it from the responsibility of financing the education of young generation thus it would help to curtail fiscal deficit.

2. It will resolve the financial crisis, one by cutting wasteful expenditure and second by organizing education guided by profit motive.

3. It will improve efficiency and productivity ensured through the process of competition. Only those institutions and individuals will survive and prosper who would be efficient and productive enough to meet their present and growing future requirements.

4. Today we will live in a globalised village. This policy is in conformity with the global trend as per the policy document on higher education prepared by the world Bank, “The overall message is that state expenditure in higher education should decrease‌The development of higher education should follow the market principle and be privately financed.â€?

5. It will relieve the system from bureaucratic control and ensure much needed autonomy to mould the system as per the market needs and requirements. It would be need-oriented education. The contraction and expansion will take place according to the trends of the market.

Disadvantages Privatisation is not an unmixed blessing. It is a double-edged weapon. The disadvantage of Privatisation is enormous. Some glaring disadvantages are as follows:1. At first place this policy appears to be anti-poor. In a country like India where 30% of the population lives below the poverty line and 80% population comes under the category of weaker sections this policy is detrimental to the interest of schedule castes, schedule tribes, the weaker sections and the minorities. If this policy is actually 85

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

followed it will deprive a large section of society from the fruits of advanced learning.

It is an anti-thesis to the concept of welfare state -- the principle of equal opportunities and the broader concept of social justice.

One of the major fallouts of Privatisation is the widening of gap between rural and urban masses and between the elite and commons in terms of development level. Prof. Amartya Sen has observed that the existing inequality in the Indian educational policies and achievements “translates into inequalities in making use of new economic opportunities.” According to Kishore Gandhi, “It is bound to create cleavages and disparities between the affluent rich and the impoverished people, and between urban elite and deprived segment of rural population.”

Deprivation to the access of advanced learning will find expression in the rising incidence of violence in public life which may in turn affect both state and civil society.

Privatisation will fizzle out those courses and faculties which have greater social value but little market relevance. Thus the proposal that colleges and universities be self-financing would be harbinger of a grim future for social sciences, humanities and others.

Privatisation in education as yet has failed to bring quality improvement in education. There is mushroom growth of substandard private institutions with high fee. Mostly wards of wealthy parents who are incapable to compete in the national level tests get berth in those institutions producing sub standard technocrats and specialists. Will they serve any purpose?

Thus, the whole idea of Privatisation to me in accordance with the former World Bank Chief Economist and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz is “both bad economics and bad politics.” The globalisation, liberalisation and privatization in the domain of economics have yet to prove their credentials. These policies have failed to usher in an era of prosperity. The world at large is subjected to unprecedented economic crisis. The collapse of Asian tigers, the rampant scams and scandals in American economy, slow growth, Industrial excess capacity and high unemployment are glaring examples of the failure of this policy. In Western Europe, there is growing popular disillusionments with the privatisation of public services.

And people advocate the re-nationalisation of these services (The God that failed; Praful Bidwai, July 12, 2002, Hindustan Times). In India too this

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policy has shown no positive results. The ever shrinking job market and rising trend of unemployment pose the biggest challenge before the nation.

Thus, as per conclusion the very idea of the privatisation till date has failed in the field of economics, education by nature belongs to social sector. So this market oriented concept is bound to fail in due course.

Challenges Privatisation or no privatisation, one has to seek the answers of three pertinent problems.

1.

How to meet the resource crunch and to meet the growing need of education?

2.

How to make the system responsive and accountable? And 3.

How to improve efficiency and productivity?

I am not against the total private investment in education. But this will not be sufficient enough to meet our requirements as such.

I have very simple and straight solution to these problems.

1. Education should be brought to priority sector and 6% GNP must be spent on it.

2. Fee structure should be rationalized with an adequate provision to provide support to meritorious but poor students.

3. Unburden the colleges and universities with substandard unwilling and indifferent students through a selective process of entrance examination.

4. Educational institutions must be free from political interferences and politicking. Autonomy of the universities and colleges must be restored.

5. There must be respect for law. Universities and colleges should run within the matrix of the norms and statutes.

6. There should be a foolproof system of appointment of teachers, Principals and other officials in universities and colleges through an impartial permanent constitutional body.

7. The automatic system of promotion of teachers must go.

8. And last but not the least, the time tested basic norms must strictly be followed.

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13.

The Role and Responsibilities of Principals

Role of Principals Principal is the chief executive of the college. He is the arch, the arbiter, the administrator, the philosopher and the guide in the college affairs. He is supposed to be the pillar of the university system. All executive, financial and academic powers vest in him. If vice-chancellor is the Prime Minister at the university level, The Principal is the Chief Minister at the college level. He is the viceroy of the vice-chancellor and enjoys enough autonomy to run the college with best of his ability and discretion within the limit of acts and statutes passed by the competent authorities.

But the institution of Principal has suffered serious erosion over the years. He is now reduced to a rubber stamp or a delivery boy. The shabby treatment meted out by university authorities has made him a laughing stock, which has a telling effect on the discipline and work culture in the campus. He does not have the stick and the carrot. He is the owl who watches everything but can’t do anything. His executive powers have already been usurped and he has no financial rights.

The present system of financing reminds us back to the pre-reform era of British Raj prior to 1871 when both revenue and expenditure were completely centralized. There is much talk of devolution of powers and functions both executive and financial from centre to state and state to local bodies to meet regional and local aspirations and requirements vis-Ă vis to strengthen the federal character of the country but in university affairs we see an anti-clockwise tendency quite contrary to the spirit of the age when colleges are completely stripped of financial powers and for even a small work they have to look upon with hope and despair for years and years towards university authorities to perform. Frequent intervention of university authority in college affairs has curtailed his power and diminished his position and as a result of it the institution of Principal has been made redundant. If it is to remain in the same fashion there is no need to have the office of Principal in any college. A junior officer at the university level can easily do this work. Despite all constraints, if a 88

Principal is intelligent, imaginative, has the guts and articulation and understands his job status and responsibility, I see some light at the end of the tunnel. I strongly hold the view that it is not the post but the person that matters. One cannot ignore the job hazard. But proper understanding, forbearance, articulation, creation of one’s own team in due course and continuous endeavour will bring a qualitative and quantitative change in the whole structure.

Under the present challenge of resource crunch, structural bottlenecks and centralized system of decision making mechanism, Principals have to find ways and means to run the system smoothly and safely on the high path of development.

I suggest the following measures to make the office of Principal effective.

1. He must have the over riding power to suspend the third and fourth grade employees.

2. He must essentially be consulted while making transfer and posting of any teacher/employee in the college.

3. The practice of C.C.R. should be reinforced with all earnestness and it should strictly be confidential and maintained annually of all staff and teachers of the college.

4. Nothing should be done without prior and proper recommendation of the Principal in the College.

5. Bursar should essentially be appointed as per the recommendation of the Principal and he should have the authority to recommend his removal if he is not satisfied with his work or conduct.

6. The Income received in the college from all heads, saves and except examination and Registration fee or other related charges should be divided at a ratio of 25:75. 25% of college income should be deposited in the university account annually at the end of each financial year. The College authority should have the permission to spend 75% of the college income as per set norms for the development of college through internal decision-making mechanism set up by the university.

7. Principal should be duty bound to submit annual report of the college on the prescribed Performa along with income and expenditure.

8. A system of internal audit should also be introduced to check financial irregularities if any, promptly and immediately.

9. Any thing written by the office of Principal must be acknowledged immediately and an action taken report should be sent to him accordingly.

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10. A Principal meet under the chairmanship of vice chancellor should be organized annually to have the guidelines and set policy resolution for over-all development of the college.

11. An in house training for the Principal preferably before s/he assumes charge or within three months or at regular intervals be organized to equip him/her with the ever changing developments in the field of education.

Principal & Self Financing Courses Under the present resource crunch and top-heavy system, the selffinancing courses will provide the much needed respite. Apparently it will have five fold benefits.

1. It will help to harness extra resources.

2. Infuse autonomy and flexibility in the system.

3. Improve both efficiency and productivity of the institution.

4. Increase the skill and competitiveness.

5. Enhance the status and respectability of the institution and its administration.

Thus it is an area a principal can prove his worth in a convincing manner.

What he requires is the policy and technical support from the university, the U.G.C. and other specialized institutions in implementing and formulating those courses and to run them as per the set national standard.

Naturally, these courses should be designed to inculcate skill and expertise in the students to have better opportunities in the job market.

Thus it will further enhance the relevance of the institution and the courses offered by it. This is a challenging field where we must tread with caution and confidence. A workshop should be organized under the aegis of Academic Staff College for threadbare discussion and practical approach to this new emerging field.

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13.

Academic Staff College How to make it more meaningful

Government of India established the U.G.C. in 1956 to discharge the function of promotion, co-ordination and maintenance of standard in higher education. The U.G.C. made several efforts and launched numerous schemes to improve the standard of education and bring it in conformity with the international standard.

The establishment of Academic Staff College was one of the various schemes initiated by UGC in different universities to update teachers’ competence and enhance standard of learning in our colleges and universities.

The Academic Staff College organizes orientation and refresher courses to meet this end. But it suffers from certain lacunae: 1. It caters to the need of a small proportion of total teaching community mostly newly appointed teachers.

2. The senior teachers remain outside the scope of this scheme.

3. Administrative and managerial aspect of university and college remain outside the purview of this scheme.

4. For Principals and university officials it rarely organizes any programme for the upgradation of knowledge and exposure to new avenues and schemes.

The Academic Staff College, if re-organised in a rational fashion can be a good meeting ground for intellectuals of high repute for mutual benefit of all concerned.

In the area of self-financed schemes Academic Staff College can play a pioneering role in the dissemination of knowledge, formulation and implementation of schemes and in-house training facilities for successful implementation.

If Academic Staff College in co-ordination with Principals could succeed to evolve a practical formulae of co-operating with each other that would go a long way in solving the problems of higher education that would certainly open new vistas in the domain of higher learning. The challenge of Privatisation will turn into an opportunity and a new era of hope and happiness would dawn upon the younger generation.

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Academic Staff College and Career Advancement Programme While in an environment where the higher education is in a state of disarray, the endeavour of Academic Staff College towards achieving excellence in higher education through career advancement programme is a welcome step. It is further encouraging that the Principals who always remained at the receiving end in the present situation are thought to be involved to make the advancement programme effective.

Our present educational scenario from top to bottom presents a dismal look. We see at the one end the generalization of education and on the other the general deterioration of education, particularly the Government run institutions are no more effective and responsible. Polity has made the mess. We the teachers and the authorities in the colleges and universities in some way or the other are being afflicted of the present going of the society. It has adversely affected the whole system. We don’t have proper autonomy to perform our duties well.

We live in a world of knowledge explosion. The growing needs of society are myriad and multiple. The pace of antiquity is so fast that things become irrelevant overnight. We are in a space age. The gravitational barrier has been broken. Things move very fast. Still we are clinging to old syllabus and out modeled curriculum. A fresh view is needed to shoulder this responsibility? Can it be given to one single person or institution? To my mind it should be a wholesome exercise from all the concerned. A ruthless, thorough, threadbare review is the need of the hour.

Principals today lack the proper initiative. There is environment of discouragement all around. Universities are not supposed to be the temples of higher learning and research. They are as a matter of fact the burying ground of knowledge. Vice-Chancellors are not allowed to work freely.

They are not permitted to carry at least the academic activities. Most of their time is consumed in making arrangements for running the university.

No work culture, Hartaal, Dharna and indiscipline in the whole rank and file of the university have become the order of the day. Sometimes the higher functionaries appear to be more vulnerable in comparison to the officers of the lower ranks. Vice-Chancellors enjoy some sort of protection. They have the big houses, well protected, personal security staffs, and large number of ministerial staff, a good vehicle and large command over funds plus the discretionary power. On the other hand, 92

Principals who are part and parcel of university administration have been reduced to an embryo devoid of all support system and protective cover.

We live in a caste and community prone society, in which the personal merit of an individual seldom counts. Cacophony and sycophancy have become the order of the day. Politics everywhere rules the roost in the campus. Situation is so disturbing that sometimes one loses heart that it will ever be recovered. I am of the view that we need not bother much to devise new education policy and methodology. The old and time-tested devices are still valid in our situation. To begin with, a concerted effort can be made by the vice-chancellor in unisons with the Principals to set the things right. It is not an easy task. We have to face a rough weather from a host of teachers who always believe in politicizing every issue and many student groups who are least interested in teaching but just to get political mileage come forward to thwart any initiative. Society is quite indifferent.

To them the relevance of higher education is very little. The poorer section of the society has yet not reached that level. The high ups need not our services. It is the middle or lower middle class who aspire to get our services. To them education does not mean the cultivation of mind, the creation of talent, the harnessing of the inner attributes of a man, but a passport to the job market pertinently the Government services. The job market is shrinking day by day. So the traditional education as such does not produce those qualities and capabilities that may make the youths capable for the job market. Our falling standards have produced a big army of qualified ignorant who are either of no use to themselves or the society.

IITs and JNUs which were modeled to cater to the needs of growing society considering the fact that our universities are not coming up to the expectations and requirements of the fast changing world, which have been pumped large resources and given all policy support not only failed to provide good standard rather failed even in their very purpose.

Inefficiency and corruption are other areas of concern, which have made the things bad to worse. But mere the counting of problems and pitfalls do not make any improvement. What best we can do in the given situation is finding the root cause of the problem. I think as a solution to the present situation we should take following measures:1. Teaching should be improved. Orientation and refresher programmes should vigorously be followed not only for the new incumbents but also for the old ones periodically. Preferably in every two years, to acquaint the teachers with the new trends in the subjects and new areas of research and study.

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2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Promotion to higher ranks should always be on merit. No discrimination should be made on one pretext or the other. All timebound promotion should be repealed. A system of proper evaluation should be developed. I am aware of the dangers that lie within this suggestion still it should properly be followed.

Attraction towards the higher education has eroded in the recent years.

Most of the courses have lost their relevance. There is concentration of students in the big cities. Institution situated in rural and sub urban areas have comparatively fewer students. Mushroom growth of substandard institutions and use of unfair means in the examinations have further diminished the students’ interest in classroom teaching.

Degree colleges in the rural areas are no more in vogue. They are primarily the intermediate colleges. Thus any move to de-link intermediate education from the degree colleges at this juncture is opposed politically and legally.

The practice of 180 days teaching, periodical examinations, tutorial classes, sent-up examination practices and the observance of 75% attendance schedule should vigorously be followed. University administration should be strict enough to impose these norms vigorously.

Courses should be completed at any cost. If for any reason classes do not run properly or the working days and lectures fall short, there should be strict provision to compensate the loss by arranging extra classes even during holidays and vacations.

We are non-working people; we do not work much. We love to have leisure than to work more. There are plenty of holidays and vacations.

They should suitably be cut down to a reasonable limit.

Libraries and laboratories should be equipped properly. I think the fund provided by the UGC and the money received by the students in these accounts if properly utilized, the library and laboratories can be equipped and maintained in a better way. Both teachers and students do not read much. They are the least reading tribe today. To inculcate reading habits, symposium, seminars, debate, competition and departmental seminars up to graduation level should be organised in the colleges periodically. The participation of teachers and students should be made compulsory.

Proper infrastructure facilities and basic amenities should be provided to the colleges to maintain the general minimum standard. We have fallen far but no further. A determination is required to check the downward slide in education.

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9.

We see there is a vested interest group in every institution and university. This is the real menace. A close link between the university administration and the college administration will help a lot in curbing this menace and improving the situation.

10. Last but not the least; it is the money that matters. Certainly we have lack of funds. But if the finance is properly managed and efficiently utilized I think in 75% of the colleges the normal activities and daily business can be carried on in a normal way. I think Principal should be given more power and authority to run the institution in an effective manner.

What I have said and suggested so far is not new. My emphasis is only on to infuse these things afresh.

College teachers who have attended the refresher and orientation courses are better equipped in comparison to those who have not gone through this process. I have seen some marked difference in their attitude towards academic pursuits. Their horizon is certainly widened. Since the environment of the working place is not conducive, so in these circumstances their endeavours do not yield desired results. In my view nothing can be done in isolation in a piecemeal and fragmented fashion. So a close and continuous coordination is required to make it a perennial phenomenon. I like to suggest that Academic staff College should organise a programme of in-house orientation to the teachers by organizing symposium or seminars in colleges itself. A study of ground realities of the colleges should also be made to make the programme viable and effective.

Some sort of follow-up process should also be started to keep the teachers on track who have gone through the process.

There is an old maxim, you can drive a horse to the water, but can’t compel him to drink. Same is the case here too. We can make all arrangements but if, the will to learn or teach is lacking nothing would be fruitful. We should join our heads together to devise such ways and means to inculcate a desire in the teachers to improve themselves. The vice-chancellors, The Principals, Head of the Departments and other persons who are responsible to academic matters should work together in a concerted manner to improve the situation otherwise we would be condemned for writing the obituary of norms and excellence in the field of higher education.

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15.

Introduction of Research Methodology Some Basic Propositions

What is Research?

1.

Research is a highly technical and specified mode of study. It requires scientific mode of enquiry i.e. “accumulation of knowledge through systematic observation, classification and interpretation of data.” (Lundberg: Social Research, quoted from Methods of Social Survey and Research by Dr. S. R. Bajpai, pp 11).

Generally, research is carried out to bring out something new from the given situation, phenomenon, object and problems. Research, in fact, is an in-depth study or a close scrutiny of a subject matter in a pure systematic and scientific manner i.e. in a logical and coherent manner with objectivity.

According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, research means, “careful study or investigation specially in order to discover new facts or information.” The first thing in research process is a “Careful Study”, that certainly implies investigation. This investigation may be diversified and multi-dimensional. The area and scope of research is determined by the purpose and objective of research. Research if not imposed or tampered, final results may be affirmative, negative, supplementary, additional, disapproving, contradictory or causative.

Research does not necessarily mean formulation of new theory and emergence of a novel idea or discovery of a new phenomenon and creation of a new object. Research also means a new approach of study, a fresh look over the situation, an advanced means of investigation, an application of fresh, more sophisticated and modern tools of analysis.

In short, Research is a method, a technique, an approach of mind and a tool of analysis --- a specialized and sophisticated method of study.

Need and Importance of Research Research is the mother of all inventions, discoveries, innovations, ideas, philosophies and ideologies. It is the soul of knowledge. As a man without soul is a dead being, so a branch of knowledge without research is a dead science. Thus research is necessary for the evolution and advancement of any branch of knowledge. Research expands the subject of study both horizontally and vertically. Whatever progress we see in the domain of knowledge and in our society, all owe their progress to research 96

and careful investigations by innumerable scholars and researchers the world over. The modern civilization, the scientific achievements, the social and economic institutions and the progress of knowledge all have come through research and careful studies. Man’s quest to command over the forces of nature and his desire for a decent comfortable life is the guiding spirit behind all researches and discoveries. The solution to the complex and intricate problems of the present generation and the hope of the future lies in the proper research.

Research Methodology Research requires proper methodology, a scientific approach, an analytical framework, an objective attitude and solid substantial argument.

Methodology i.e. set of methods used in a study is essential for research study. No systematic observation can be made without evolving a proper methodology. It is methodology that determines the pace, the direction and the resultant output of any study.

Research is a sophisticated mode of study. As a prerequisite it demands careful deliberation, and thinking through the issues and problems involved in every step of research process. This thinking through branched out into several directions and assumed different forms.

2.

Frederic Le Play, a French Social scientist of 19th Century referred to the thinking through process as “vigorous reasoning and maintained that scientific procedure is established only upon facts systematically gathered upon inferences derived from them through vigorous reasoning.” (Pavline V. Yong: Scientific Social Surveys and Research, pp. 6-9).

Basic Requisites for Research Commenting on a general way, a researcher must be equipped with proper methodology and an inquisitive mind, a researcher must ensure the fact that he has a good and proper knowledge and understanding of the subject concerned. Unless he understands the basics with adequate details he can’t intrude on the path of research because it is a journey from known to unknown. So, for any intending researcher it should well be advised that he should first go through the fundamentals with requisite details for proper understanding of the subject concerned without which no research can be undertaken. The proper study of the subject concerned will itself reveal the area of enquiry and further research.

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Choice of Topic He can choose any of the topics according to his inclination and area of interest. There are certain other factors that should be kept in mind while choosing for the topic such as (1) ability to grasp and time to deal with its broad implications, (ii) resources to carry the study forward and (iii) applicability of the study techniques for the particular topic chosen.

To avoid confusion and superficiality and promote clarification, it is necessary to keep research within manageable limits that is within the ability of the mind to grasp the implications and to explain them.

3.

Thus while choosing the topic one must keep in mind the following facts: (i) aims and objectives of the research work, (ii) amount of relevant available materials, (iii) complexity of sound theoretical assumption formulated regarding the study, and (iv) previous valid research in the field. Keeping these factors in mind one should generally confine oneself to relatively small projects.

(Pavline V. Yong, Ibid, pp 129-130).

Synopsis Synopsis is the summary or outline of research. It indicates the basic introduction of the subject of study --- the thrust area, the scope of study and the division and classification of the work. It is like the grain that will burst into a tree in due course. It indicates the scheme of work and the purpose of study. It also contains a brief bibliography.

Hypothesis Every thesis has some hypotheses. A work without hypothesis is a journey without destination. Destination is fixed or certain, but a hypothesis is subject to enquiry so it is uncertain. When hypothesis is proved or disapproved it becomes thesis. Hypothesis provides direction to research. So hypothesis is essential for any scientific enquiry. Goode and Hatt have defined it as, “a proposition, which can be put to test to determine validity.� So hypothesis should carefully be designed because the entire research will move on the hypothetical path. It is only by imposition of firm standards that it is possible to window out the good ideas from the bad ones. (Goode & Hatt, Ibid) So a workable hypothesis must possess the following qualities: (i) Specific (ii) conceptually clear (iii) related to available technique, (iv) related to body of theory, (v) capable of empirical test and (vi) simple. It all demands the insight and knowledge of the researcher towards his study.

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Hypothesis also indicates the purpose of study vis-Ă -vis the field of enquiry.

Sources Research requires deep, exhaustive and inquisitive study. In the vast ocean of knowledge one has to pick out those materials, which are relevant to his subject, without proper cataloging of resource material no research is possible within a specified time frame.

Generally sources are divided into documentary and field sources. The latter include living persons who have fund of knowledge about or have been in intimate contact with social conditions and changes over a considerable period of time. These people are in a position to describe not only the existing state of affairs but also the observable trends and significant milestones in a social process. (M. Palmer, Field Studies in Sociology, p. 57, University of Chicago Press, 1 98 quoted from Ibid, p. 136).

The documentary sources of information are those which are contained in the published and unpublished documents, reports, statistics, manuscripts, letters, diaries and others. These sources are generally divided into primary source which provide data gathered at first hand, the responsibility for their compilation and promulgation remaining under the same authority that originally gathered them and secondary sources which provide data that have been transcribed or compiled from original sources and of which promulgating authority is different from that who controlled the collection of data at first hand. The documentary or secondary sources are generally called as library sources. The research material under primary sources is collected from personal interviews, sample surveys, tour and travels and through questionnaires and observation. These are also called field sources. When a research is in the nature of enquiry the field sources are thought to be suitable. When the research is analytical or related to some theoretical consideration the documentary sources are preferred.

Amongst the available resources the previous researches on the related subjects, and the set of references and bibliography incorporated therein serve as a readymade source material along with books, journals, periodicals, seminar papers, field studies, data, reports interviews, surveys, comparative studies, development charts, figurative expression graphs and published and unpublished records related to the subject near or remote.

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Guide The personality of the supervisor or the guide is an important source material. He is the captain of research. He determines the direction and pace of research and the path through which to tread on. The quality of work very much depends upon the quality and competence of the guide.

Thus the choice of a good guide is an essential requisite for a qualitative research work.

The Aptitude, Temperament & the Qualities of a Research Worker For a qualitative and useful research, the aptitude, temperament and the personal qualities of a research worker are very important. Everybody is not intending for research. Research requires certain qualities. These qualities may broadly be divided into two parts – (i) general qualities that are needed for any research, and (ii) specific qualities that are concerning the particular research. In general qualities, scientific attitude, imagination, insight, perseverance, quick grasping power and clarity of thinking are important.

In specific qualities, the knowledge of the subject, the knowledge of the technique of research, personal force in study, familiarly about the informants and unbiased attitude are important. The researcher should maintain the objectivity and impartiality. He should not behave like a debater or an advocate taking a side. He should be an impartial judge.

More particularly as Young has described, “A scientist avoids personal and emotional interpretation of data …. He looks for the facts which would substantiate and give theory a new meaning and vitality.” (Quoted from Dr. S. R. Bajpai, Ibid).

Language Proficiency For a good and qualitative work language proficiency is “one of the important requisite qualifications.” Without proper and correct use of language one cannot express oneself in an appropriate manner and thus the quality of work will also be hampered. Sometime wrong and improper use of language gives faulty deduction and impression. It is not necessary that research work should be carried in English or any foreign language.

Research can be done in any language and should be allowed to write in the language in which the researcher and the guide are proficient and conversant with. In foreign countries, such as France, Germany, Russia and Japan research work is done mostly in their own languages. Of course English is also used as a medium of writing but it is not always necessary.

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In India and in our universities there is no harm if it is allowed to write in Hindi, Urdu or any other language. The only difficulty is that in most of the cases particularly in science and social sciences research materials are not available in these languages. Indian languages should be promoted in a manner that high standard research work may be undertaken in these languages also. I think, contrary to the popular belief it will enhance the quality and standard of work in our universities. It is not the language due to which the sub-standard works are pouring in our universities. It is the easygoing tendency, the commercialism, the unethical process, lack of research facilities and non-commitment towards the intellectual honesty that are responsible for low quality work. It can be checked with the infusion of objectivity and strict adherence to the research guideline.

Conclusion Thus research requires, a good knowledge of the subject, proper comprehension of the subject of study, an industrious person, an inquisitive mind, a scientific approach, an analytical framework, an objective attitude, availability of resource material, peace of mind, proper guidance and last but not the least a good language proficiency, honesty of purpose and strict adherence to research norms.

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16.

Student Unrests – Causes & Cures

Student unrests are on the rise once again. The geneses of student unrest causing large-scale destruction of public properties and loss of lives have no single reason. It is a multi-faced problem. The socio-economic, educational and political situation prevailing in the country has largely been responsible for this state of affairs. The younger generation resorts to violence on slight provocations due to dwindling future prospects and other reasons. Over politicization of the society is perhaps the main reason.

There is a mix of crime and politics in the society. Our campuses replicate this phenomenon. The crime activities in the campuses are on the rise. The politicians and the criminals along with some students are destroying peace on the campus.

Political parties have made deep inroads in the educational institutions.

They for sheer selfish ends most often exploit the sentiments of the immature young minds and cause disturbances for petty political gains.

Surcharged with high social dissatisfaction and inner contradictions, the people particularly the young ones are psychologically intolerant. They demonstrate their displeasure of and on through violent means to attract the attention of the people at the helm of affairs. Thus, the question of student unrest should not be seen in isolation. It has no easy and short cut solution as well. Notwithstanding, some measures may be adopted to minimize the possibilities of such occurrences in and outside the campus.

It requires will as well as suitable measures to resolve this problem.

We love to violate rules and most often demonstrate our authority in negation of norms than in positive observance. Corruption has become a way of life. Even a genuine work cannot be done without greasing of palms. People work under the pervasive threat of violence and Pairvi from the high ups. In this atmosphere the basic faith in the system has been eroded. The violence and outbursts that are prevalent in our society are the manifestations of these hard realities. Young and unemployed people having no secured future and strong conviction of life are prone to intolerance and violence in comparison to the employed and the matured persons.

The high cost of living, rising tide of demonstration effects, consumerism, advertisement culture, pornographic movies associated with violent scenes, weak social bonds, loss of respect to elders and dismemberment of family life are the other contributory factors towards the social tension and violent outburst in younger generation in and outside the campus.

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Our society is changing fast. The old social and moral values are in a state of total shambles. New morality has yet not emerged to ensure peaceful transformation of our society from one phase to another. There is a state of disarray that is giving effect to high mass social tension and a tendency of violence in young people.

To create peaceful environment particularly in the centers of learning, a basic faith in the system will have to be instilled. Our socioeconomic affairs have to be managed in a way that young generation must have a sense of security towards their future. A confidence building process has to be started at earlier in the right earnest.

To develop the faith and the confidence in the system we will have to devise certain basic norms and that should be followed honestly and diligently.

As a first step a pragmatic value oriented, need-based educational system should be evolved both to meet the present and the future demands of our society.

Education up to Matric level should be universal and compulsory.

Gujaral Govt. has taken a right step in the right direction by including the right to education in fundamental rights. But a mere amendment in constitution and passing a bill are not enough. It requires a basic change in our outlook. It needs concrete planning on the ground level. A well-knit sustenance system should be evolved to meet the educational requirements of the people. Government in general is more prone to populist measures to enrich its vote bank. Education needs solid planning and strong operational network. Subsidy and support for the promotion of education will be a right step to achieve the target of total literacy in the near future.

But higher education needs a different set of policy. It must be selective.

Only a nation with quality education can cope with the challenges of the emerging world of open market system and globalisation in a better way.

To ensure better quality in education and peace in campus and for developing a healthy academic environment following measures are utmost necessary, at least, on selective basis for some institutions. If it succeeds it may be extended to other institutions in phase-wise manner.

1. Curb down the non-serious and low profile students for which a. No student securing below 45% in matriculation standard should be eligible for +2 classes. They may be diverted to some vocational courses to earn their livelihood by acquiring some skill through vocational stream of education and training. They may opt for distance education of their choice without any boundary and barrier if they so wish.

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b. An entrance examination should be conducted for admission.

Only that candidate will be eligible for admission who has secured at least 45% in entrance examination. c. Those who have been selected for admission on the basis of written entrance test will be admitted after a comprehensive interview of both the students and the guardians to assess their aptitude and their cultural and moral background. d. The students should be informed with the norms, curricular set of rules, academic calendar and all other important matters at the time of admission. The university and college administration should have proper vigilance to ensure the observance of these rules. e. Both guardians and students should submit an undertaking ensuring their behavior as per the code of conduct given by the institution. f. A periodical guardian’s meet should be organised to assess the progress and performance of the student and for seeking their co-operation for better result. g. Guardians must be regularly informed about the academic condition and moral behavior of their wards by the college authorities. h. A citizen’s council comprising of local administration, intellectuals, public men and persons belonging to press and judiciary should be constituted to serve as a watch dog to the whole academic affairs. i. The tutorial and practical classes should be conducted regularly. There should be a well-equipped laboratory and library. 75% of attendance should be made mandatory. No student should be allowed to be sent up without passing the two successive internal examinations in a year with a minimum of 45% marks. j. The completion of courses should be mandatory before commencing university examinations. The number of holidays should be curtailed. In no case there should not be less than 180 days teaching in the colleges. Any damage done by Hartal, lockouts or by any other reasons, should be adequately compensated by organizing extra classes. k. All political outfits of students belonging to different political parties should be banned in the campus. Only students union

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of a non-party basis duly elected by students should be considered the legitimate representative of the students. l. A proper mechanism should be evolved to keep the students engaged in curriculum, co-curriculum and extra curriculum activities to help them emerge as responsible civilized citizens and as a disciplined qualified workforce.

A strong willed administration with sagacity to accommodate genuine grievances of the students will go a long way in establishing a peaceful healthy environment in the campus. That will surely improve the educational standard in the state and the country.

But a mere wishful thinking will not solve the problem. It requires the resources, the desire, the know-how and the support of all concerned.

Colleges run short of staff and libraries and laboratories are in shambles.

There is lack of space. Management is poor and there is acute shortage of qualified sincere teachers. Teachers are not paid their full salary in time.

University administration has virtually collapsed. University clerks are more powerful than the officials. There is no respect for teachers. They are harassed and victimized on petty grounds. There is no responsibility and accountability on any side. There is no protocol. Even principals and head of the departments are not given due respect and weightage in university offices. Norms and rules are so frequently flawed that a scene of total chaos is perceptible everywhere. The whole system is in a state of disintegration. Nobody lends ear to the genuine grievances put in a humble tone. Sometimes violent outbursts become necessary to keep the daredevils within their limits. The bureaucratic style of functioning and the red tapism mar the very purpose of efficient governance.

Teachers, less said the better, are too responsible for this degradation.

There are very few teachers who are teachers worth the name. Most of them are employed pensioners. Certain harsh measures have to be devised to make them work. Promotion and increment should be tagged with efficiency and productivity.

These measures can further be chiseled to make a cogent formula to improve the academic scene in the country and ensure peace in and outside the campus.

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Chapter IV Examination Reforms Examination is a part and parcel of education. We can not think of any education system without examination. All attempts to do away with examination in the past have fallen flat. But the big question is whether the present system of examination is the real test of merit. Is the evaluation process foolproof? The answer is big NO. What is the alternative?

Educationists and education administrators have evolved various methods and suggested various reforms. But at the end of the day all such suggestions either failed to hold ground or became unacceptable due to some basic flaws in the approach. It is a continuous exercise. The trial and error method is more pronounced in examination and evaluation process than in any other field of education.

In this chapter there are two articles one deals with the problems relating to fair and peaceful conduct of examination. Examination reflects many an ills in the system. So it should not be seen in isolation. The other article discusses the much talked about Grading system as a viable solution to many of ills in the evaluation process as well as socio-psychological problems. It contains certain suggestions to improve the proposed scheme.

It is a vast area of research and challenging too. We should not reach to any conclusion in haste. Boards are suggested to tread with caution.

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17.

Examination Reform ---Meaning and Method

Examination today is a major law and order problem. A fair and peaceful examination has become a distant dream. Examination time is a trying time for the administration. It keeps the whole administration at its toes. Can we ensure fair examination only by administrative means?

Perhaps No! What is an examination? In simple terms it is the periodical test of the student. At each level of study there is a prescribed syllabus. A student is supposed to cover the whole syllabus in the prescribed period. Then he is put to answer several questions, long and short, subjective and objective, written and oral, theory and practical.

Examination is the test of his/her level of understanding, grip on the subject matter, his/her conception, ability to transmute his/her knowledge in the appropriate form or language as far as practicable. All is done in a specified time.

Examination is as old as the system of organised education. It has always been a tough time for the students. As the number of competitors is increasing the examination is becoming tougher day by day. Unfair means of different hues have always remained in the system; some sort of favour and disfavour was always present in it. Evaluation does lack objectivity.

The scope of subjective variation is always present there. But in the beginning it was so less in number that it remained by and large unnoticed.

Only a few high ups were in a position to manipulate the system in their favour. The large mass of students was unknown and unmindful to such maneuverings. Corruption begins from the top and percolation helps to bring it to downtrodden.

This is the mass age, the age of commons. So now there is nothing which exclusively remains for the few except the money and power, which are still under the monopoly of a few people. Now the embankment has been breached and the whole examination process has been deluged in unfair means, at all levels, which has jammed the system and education has come to a grinding halt. It seems now near impossible to revive the system and make it work.

The different education functionaries have lost hope and have stopped there endeavour to revive the system. It is like a carcass in the coffin ready to be disposed.

People perhaps don’t understand the situation. It is the poor who are the worst sufferers. Those who are rich and have means they have developed the alternatives and have some better options to safeguard the 107

future of their wards. It is some sort of high-level conspiracy to keep away the masses from competition in this age of commons through some dubious means. Wealth is more intelligent and tactful to deal with the situation. The rich always find a safe haven and reserve space for them to operate with ease in any system.

We see people shedding crocodile tears on the present going but there is none to rescue the system from imminent disaster.

Every system either good or bad has some vested interests and they thrive on that. So it is their utmost endeavour to maintain the status quo.

And they are the forces that oppose any change. It will be no service if we put the accusing finger and indulge in a blame game. This problem cannot be solved in isolation. It needs a system improvement.

Problem starts from here. Society in general particularly the lower middle class has lost any enthusiasm towards education. So society by and large looks on education and its management with contempt, apathy and indifference. This reflects in the fact that students do not come to classroom and guardians in general do not show any concern.

Why are students least interested in classroom teaching? It has three pertinent reasons: 1.

Due to rising unemployment the utility of education has largely been eroded, so much so that society has lost any enthusiasm towards it.

2.

Teachers are either incompetent or reckless. The classroom teaching is quite unproductive and substandard. It has lost charm and attraction.

3.

No norm and rules are maintained. It is a free for all game. It suits all the teachers, the students, the college or university administration as well as the govt. That’s the reason we see no serious and sincere endeavour from any side to ameliorate this system which has reached its nadir.

Can we leave it as it is or make some serious effort to bring back the system on rail? I think we have no alternative except to strike and strive. How and where to begin with?

1. Every system needs some basics to be adopted and follow. Here is the problem that the basics have been totally eroded and collapsed. It needs restructuring of the system afresh. Any development and refurbishing of the over structure will only burden the system and that is useless. So basics of the system must be followed. It is no less important than the restructuring of the whole system.

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2.

3.

4.

5.

We should have an unambiguous and clear-cut policy to be followed.

Education is both the need and the right of our society. Education from primary to secondary level of 6-14 age group should be universal and compulsory without exception. Dropouts should be checked so that students may reach upto secondary level. But after secondary level we should have more rational policy than the prevailing one. There are students who are not fit for higher education in any discipline. They should be diverted and encouraged to join vocational courses than to go for general studies. It will at one place lessen the burden on higher education. And on the other free the system from substandard, non-meritorious, non-serious and undesirable students. It will save time and money both of the guardian and the Government and will help to ensure skilful employment to the young and youth in semi-skilled jobs under private and personal management.

At each level of higher education in any discipline or professional course, there should be an entrance examination. This is necessary for elimination and selection of students. The syllabus and courses of studies should be so designed that the short internal periodical examinations become the rule of the day. A student should find no scope to escape.

If a machine is not working you can repair it. If it is beyond repair you will replace it. The big question is how will you deal with the person who handles the machine? If he is not honest, efficient, knowledgeable, hard working and result oriented, how will you inculcate such qualities in him? Is there any workshop where we can mend the human machine? The law has its own limitations?

Preventive measures do have some role but things cannot change if a man at the helm of affairs is not suitable enough both intellectually and morally to guide the destiny of future generation. This is the biggest of all challenges that we face today.

At present juncture, due to sheer neglect and faulty system of administration, most of the prestigious institutions have lost their shine and grandeur. There is acute shortage of infrastructural facilities.

They lack even bench, desks, blackboards and proper office materials.

Their laboratories are not in good shape. Their buildings are in a dilapidated condition. There is no boundary wall and if it is there it has collapsed at many places providing thoroughfare for everyone. In that condition the number of examinees should be limited to their

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manageable level both in terms of infrastructural facilities and control over the situation.

As examination has become a major law and order problem so in my humble opinion in no case the total number of examinees in one centre should go beyond one thousand. In a recent direction by Honourable Patna High Court, examination will only be held in district headquarters. In many of the districts the schools and colleges are not in adequate number so they cannot fully accommodate all the students appearing in that district. In many of the new districts basic civil amenities are still lacking. Lack of accommodation vis-Ă -vis safety and security of girl students are some major areas of concern. Keeping in view the overall situation, a fresh look is earnestly required to ensure fair and peaceful examination.

6. There has been lot of research on examination and evaluation process.

Many a models have been presented. To make the system responsible and responsive the increasing use of modern technology is a better option. The process of internal and continuous assessment may be given a serious thought. Objective questions are good for accurate and precise knowledge and understanding. The evaluation is also easy. We should design courses in such a way that objective questions can be asked easily. It is better to introduce semester system than to go for examination after one year or two years. There has been greater burden on the students in many options of examination. We should also work out the possibility of open book system of examination. Evaluation should only be done by experienced persons.

7. An orientation programme should extensively be launched at each level of education to prepare teachers for setting of question papers and for accurate evaluation.

These and many other measures can be adopted for fair and peaceful examination and evaluation. But one thing is necessary, without improving the standard of classroom teaching through curriculum improvement, improvement in the quality of teachers and system improvement, we cannot think of any reform and betterment in the present situation.

Education has two aspects. It enriches our inner self and it provides an opportunity for material welfare too. Most of the people today get education to have better opportunity of employment. People in general do not bother for ideology, which of the ideology or system provides them better living and better opportunities are suitable, desirable and preferable. The shrinking job market has disastrous effect on the present education system particularly in the backward states like Bihar and others. With increase in job opportunity, the system will move upward and will begin to take care by it self. Politics in education should be discouraged and economics should be given the center stage.

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18.

Examination Reforms and The Grading System

History of Examination Examination has been an integral part of education since time immemorial. Its first traces were found in the history of China where individuals were selected for high office of public responsibility as far back as AD 900, through a well-designed examination system. All ancient civilizations and Holy Scriptures are replete with instances of examination of intellectual and physical prowess. Interestingly, the system in those good old days was open, fair and transparent because the feats were witnessed by large mass of people. It was the public acceptance and recognition that served as a degree of one’s ability. The Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Bible and the Qur’ān have several instances where one’s ability and acumen were put to test and that got public acclaim and rejection. Examinations therefore have always been considered as viable and justifiable instruments for measuring various facets of human potential and capability.

It is such an essential part of education that one cannot think to abandon it in any situation. At sometimes and some places, such foolish exercise was made but that had to make a hasty retreat. For example, like many other things examination system was done away under the wake of communist revolution in China and Russia in initial years. China during Cultural Revolution broke away from the traditional system of examination, but it switched back to the original system in 1976. Similarly in Russia the examination system was abolished in the early period of revolution. But Stalin had to re-introduce it after sometime. It is something inevitable. This signifies the essentiality and centrality of examination system in any scheme of education.

Need to reform Despite the essentiality of examination one has no escape to accept that there are many a lacunae in the evaluation process. Ability is not a physical object, so any objective method to measure the ability through some objective formulation suffers from subjective infirmities and imperfections. If the measuring rod is not perfect the measurement will not be free from error. It is a gray area. To evolve a correct evaluating methodology is an essential part of examination reform. The justification arises not merely from academic considerations but also from socioeconomic and political viewpoint.

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The relationship between examination and standard of teaching and learning are intimate. Examinations play a pivotal role. Any improvement in examination system will automatically result in the improvement of the others. Therefore the objective of reforms should be to make examination an instrument of quality education.

Commissions & Committees For over five decades examination has been recognized as one of the debatable features of Indian education. Various commission and committees have given far-reaching recommendation. The first of its kind was University Education Commission (1948-49). It was of the view that examinations were not organically related to the process of education. To ensure validity and reliability of examinations it advocated the development of standardized tests, the use of periodical tests for the overall assessment of students and emphasized the need for orientation of teachers. The Mudaliar commission (1952-54) emphasized internal assessment and advocated the use of continuous and comprehensive evaluation for the purpose of bringing all round development of the students.

The Education commission (1964-66) made a very comprehensive review of the examination system and suggested that testing should be diagnostic. Continuous and comprehensive evaluation should gradually be introduced in schools.

Grading System The system of awarding ‘grades’ in place of ‘marks’ to evaluate the student’s performance is one of the major dimensions of the examination reforms. It is advocated that the system of awarding grades would provide a more realistic picture of student’s ability than the prevalent marking system. Under the grading system the students are placed in ability bands that represent ranges of scores. These ability bands may vary according to the number of categories one wished to employ for the classification of students. Each ability band may be designated with a letter, which is called a grade. The word ‘grade’ is derived from the Latin word ‘gradus’ where it means step. Grading is a process where in subjects may be classified on the basis of pre-defined standards. In education context grading is essentially a method of communicating measurements of students’ achievement. It involves the use of a set of symbols that ought to be clearly defined and understood by the teachers, students, parents and all others concerned. The absence of either of these will defeat the very 112

purpose of awarding grades. While developing the grading system, the meaning of each grading symbol is clearly spelt out. It should be obligatory on the part of each examiner to stick to the specified system of grading. A properly introduced grading system may not only provide for the comparison of student’s performance but also indicate the quality of performance with respect to amount of efforts put in and the amount of knowledge acquired at the end of the course.

Grading may be classified on the basis of reference point. When the reference point is the ‘approach’ grading may be classified as direct and indirect grading. When the reference point is the standard of judgment it may be classified as absolute and relative grading.

1. Direct Grading:- In direct grading the examinees are assessed in qualitative terms and the impression so obtained is directly expressed in terms of letter grade. Though it may be used for the assessment of both cognitive and non-cognitive learning outcomes, it is more preferable for the non-cognitive learning outcomes. Its main advantage is that it minimizes the inter examiner variability. Further it is easier to use in comparison of other methods. It has certain limitations also. It is devoid of transparency and diagnostic value. It does not encourage competition to the extent as expected.

2. Indirect Grading:- Under this method the performance of examinees are firsts assessed in terms of marks and subsequently transformed into letter grades by using different modes.

3. Absolute Grading:- Under this method the grading is based on a pre-determined standard that becomes a reference point for assessment of student’s performance. It involves direct conversion of marks into grades irrespective of distribution of marks in a subject. It is just like categorizing the students into five groups namely, distinction, first division, second division, third division and unsatisfactory.

4. Relative Grading:- It is popularly known as grading on the curve.

The curve refers to the normal distribution curve or some symmetric variant of it. This method amounts to determining in advance approximately what percentage of students can be expected to receive different grades, namely As, Bs, and Cs and so on with reference to a specific group. It is for this reason that relative grading is also known as norm-referenced grading.

Why Grading?

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It is argued that marks awarded by the Boards do not reflect the true ability of individual learners. They suffer from a number of imperfections. So, it is hoped that grading in public examination will directly benefit the students in a number of ways such as, 1. It will minimize misclassification of students on the basis of unreliable marks. Nearly similar students will get same grade rather than different percentages on the basis of unreliable marks.

2. It will eliminate unhealthy cut-throat competition among high achievers.

3. It will be a greater relief to low achievers when the system of pass/fail is abolished. One of the primary objectives of grading system is to do away the pass/fail system on the basis of marks.

4. It will provide a chance to improve upon his/her grade in any subject over a period of time without carrying a stigma of fail.

5. It will reduce societal pressure on the mind of a child, which will make him more comfortable and useful to the society.

6. The nation will be benefited by sharing human and natural resources by not failing students that may be to the extent of 50% or more in some Boards.

7. Last but not least, when the result is declared in terms of grades, parent’s focus will shift from marks to grades and they will not pressurize their wards. Flexibility in reviewing the borderline cases will further ease the tension.

Issue of Pass and Fail Planners across the Boards, the government and the educationists are well alive to the problem of stress and strain that a student goes through during examinations. Sometimes it takes a serious turn and cause many a mental illness and suicide. The fear of non-good performance or the fear of failure erodes the confidence of the students that perpetuates negative impulses causing psychological breakdown and other formidable impact on the psyche of students. Thus how to reduce this stress and strain has been an important area of examination research and reform? One of the suggestions mooted out for this purpose it to do away with the present system of pass and fail. Grading is suggested as an alternative to overcome this problem. Under this system students may be classified in terms of ability ranges denoted by letter grades with no specific connotation of fail. The provision, may however, be made for the improvement of grades in case the students do not seem to be satisfied with their performance. This policy change at one place will 114

relieve the tension of the students to a considerable degree and on the other the stigma of fail will finally be removed from the horizon that can provide a better and safer world for the students on the psychological level.

The present marking system was introduced by the British in 1847.

Somewhere in the British files of 1823-1884 it was suggested, viewing the inferiority of Indian students, 33% marks was good enough to declare them pass in any public examination. Students securing less than this cutoff mark were declared fail. Since then the practice is going on. Viewing closely and critically, it is difficult to really differentiate between two students, one getting 32 marks and another getting 33 marks when all know that the marks awarded by examiners are not free from error of measurement. It has been ascertained on the basis of various researches that the possibility of error lies between 5% to 50% depending on the capability of examiners. Thus it makes the whole exercise both callous and ridiculous. In fact, failure of students should not be judged in isolation, it should also be considered as the failure of the institution and teachers. Evaluation backed by academic auditing of institutions and teachers must go hand in hand for all round quality improvement.

In the wake of high mass poverty and illiteracy only 10 to 20% students reach up to Xth and XIIth standard. On an average more than 50% students across the Boards are declared fail every year. Most of them did never get the chance to appear again due to adverse social circumstances. This in a way is a colossal loss to the meager national resources. Examination System is not devised to fail the students. It is there to judge the quality, capability and creativity attained by the students through cognitive and non-cognitive process of learning. The lopsided method of evaluation is quite incapable to judge the students in wholesome. If the measuring rod is itself erroneous, the measurement arrived on that basis cannot be sound and perfect. So, considering the multi-dimensional aspects of the problem and to make the examination system humane and student friendly the introduction of grading system is a viable alternative. It is easy to do away with the pass/fail practice but there are many related problems that need to be answered. The proposers of grading system have taken into considerations all those things in their schemes of work, but the matter is still debatable. The present writer needs not to delve on those issues at this juncture. Let us turn to the implementation aspect of the grading system.

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One Step Ahead Two Steps Behind Grading System in India has a chequered history. In 1981, a special committee on scaling and grading was set up by the council of Boards of secondary Education (COBSE) under the chairmanship of Mr. A.E.T. Barrow. The committee recommended that a five-point grade system be introduced by all Boards from a fixed date and that there should be no declaration of pass and fail. The national policy on Education 1986 and the Programme of Action 1992 also reiterated the need of using grades in place of marks while declaring results. The central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has twice made the efforts of introducing grading first at the +2 level and then at the class X level. Both the times they had to beat a retreat because of unfavourable public opinion and non-cooperation from the university sector. The Indian council of school certificate examination (ICSE) has been using grading for a number of years at the School level.

Now the CBSE and ICSE indicate both grades and marks in their mark sheets and the system of declaring pass and fail continues in all the Boards. The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in recent years, has made vigorous campaign to introduce the grading system in the country once again. It has been organizing various seminars in different states on scaling and grading to bring a consensus across the Boards in the country. Theoretically, this proposition appears to be sound, but practically it has many a lacunae for which it has not gained ground in the academic circle and people at large.

Flaws of the System At present, in large part of the country examinations have become a farce. It is less an academic exercise and more a law and order problem. The rampant use of unfair means, ‘pairvi’ during evaluation, erratic marking and subjectivity of the examiners have made the whole exercise a mere mockery. Unless the general atmosphere is improved any attempt to revamp the system will end in a fiasco. It is nothing but a futile exercise. It requires some serious thinking and more responsible behaviour from the teachers, guardians, students, teaching administration and above all the political class of the country. Grading or no grading, if the general climate is not improved it will make no qualitative change in the system.

Let us first try hard to be back to basics. Once the system gets on rail it is easy to give desired pace and direction.

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Shortcomings Evaluation done by teachers can never be completely devoid of subjectivity be it carried out in terms of marks or grades. All methods of human assessment are fraught with errors but efforts should be made to minimize the errors of assessment as far as possible and practicable.

Grading is proposed as a less erroneous device. But there are people who criticize it on several accounts.

1) It is complicated and value-laden.

2) It has little research basis.

3) It provides extrinsic but not intrinsic motivation.

4) Grades are often awarded without employing both multiple criteria and multiple source of information.

5) A faulty grading can do more harm than good to both the students and the teachers.

There are many more problems at the psychological level so people are not ready to welcome the switch over from the marking system to the grading system at the present juncture.

Conclusion This article introduces the broad contours of grading system as is proposed by the NCERT with some critical notes. The writer has the privilege to attend two national level seminars on this subject. Frankly speaking both had failed to convince the audience towards it necessity and superiority. There are three main arguments against the prevailing marking system. One, the evaluation process under the marking system is erroneous and inaccurate particularly at the borderline. Two, it causes the undue stress and strain sometimes to disastrous consequences and three, the issue of pass and fail has robbed the system. We cannot enjoy this luxury for long. The issues raised are genuine and the arguments are sound. But when we go on to carve out an alternative, it opens the floodgate of controversies. Theoretically, the grading system appears superior to the marking system, but on practical ground it has to answer many more questions. Under the present mindset people are not ready to accept this change, that’s why efforts made so far bore no fruit.

The present writer is no expert in the field of education. He knows his limitations. So he is not in a position to pronounce any judgement.

But something can be summarized safely.

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a) There is no escape from competition. As the number of competitors is increasing day by day, the competition is bound to be acute and intense. So we cannot escape from the strain and stress; which undoubtedly proves sometimes injurious to the tender minds of the young ones. The system improvement as well as the ancillary assistance is the need of the hour. It requires better psychological treatment and environment from the early stages of schooling. We have to prepare our wards to meet this challenge with positive mindset. The changeover to grading system is no answer to this phenomenon. b) We live in an age of science. Precision and accuracy is the hallmark of this era. We can build a system of marking through proper training of evaluators with system advancement and with the use of some scientific devices so that we can assess the performance of the student in more accurate fashion in the field of cognitive learning. The grading system seems to be a blunt method of assessment with no accuracy. Subjectivity is as prevalent here as in marking system. That’s the reason it has failed to convince the people despite the best of efforts. c) So far the question of pass and fail is concerned that is a major issue. That needs to be discussed not as a reference but in wholesome separately and independently to the present discussion. The small matrix of this discussion is not sufficient enough to throw full light on the multiple aspects of this problem.

In the simple form the present writer is of the opinion that the pass/fail and present system of Division need a minor change to do away with this problem. Students attaining 45 to 59% marks should be declared pass with second division, 60 plus with first division and 75 plus with distinction and 85 plus with excellence.

Students attaining above zero to 44% marks should be declared pass and be conferred a certificate on that basis. They should get an opportunity to improve their result, if they so wish in the next examination. A new certificate without any reference to previous one may be issued to get away with any stigma.

This simple suggestion, in one stroke will do away with the problem of fail and other related problems without any theoretical hassle. This will ensure 100% result and stigma attached to the failure students will finally be erased forever. This will lessen the burden of the Boards and much of the time, energy and resource of the nation will be saved and utilized for some 118

other productive purposes. This issue needs bold initiative with positive mind. It should be started by some Boards on experimental basis and if it succeeds the other Boards will follow the suit. A positive mind and collective endeavour is the need of the hour. Grade or no grade, this problem should be taken in right earnest. Will the Bihar Secondary School Examination Board or the Bihar Intermediate Educational Council take the lead?

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Chapter V Vocational and Non-conventional System of Education In a country like ours, education to all is a big problem. It is neither possible nor desirable to provide same sort of education to every individual. The mental faculties, the occupational and professional backgrounds, the socio-economic conditions, the local situation, accessibilities as well as the regional needs and aspirations are impelling factors that necessitate an alternative system of education to ensure skilled workforce and guaranteed employment. Vocational education is a means to that end. It is an emerging field of education which has a vast scope. So it may rightly be called a future model of mass education.

The introduction of systemic, well-planned and rigorously implemented programme of vocational education is crucial in many ways, such as it provides diversification of educational opportunities and enhances employability, reduces mismatch between demand and supply of skilled manpower and further provides an alternative to higher education.

It is cost effective and poor friendly and checks the dropouts at early stages.

In this section there are three articles. This first one deals with the prospects of vocational education under national perspective. The second article focuses the state of vocational education in Bihar and contains various suggestions to make it more beneficial and more viable. All rural colleges imparting general education in traditional disciplines must transform to vocational centres of education to maintain their social utility under the new techno-economic phenomenon. The third article introduces the open school system in India. It is illuminating and informative. The conventional school system has failed to check the dropouts. This scheme of education is an answer to this problem. It is highly promising and successful. It heralds a bright future, a future where hundred percent literacy and education is possible. It needs further strengthening and expansion to meet the demand and aspiration of all sections of Indian society.

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19.

Vocational Education in India A Perspective Analysis

Introduction Life learning skill has been an integral part of education in India since time immemorial. People used to take training in some vocations and professions alongwith cognitive learning. In the British era there was a paradigm shift and education was aimed to serve a limited purpose. That was not designed to suit Indian circumstances but to produce Babus for the British offices to manage the state of affairs as per their directives.

Gandhiji tried his level best through his WARDHA SCHEME of education and BUNYADI TALEEM scheme to remove this imbalance. In both the swadeshi schemes of education the prevailing rural situation of India was well represented. That scheme was formulated taking into the consideration rural resources as well as the rural needs and requirements.

Vocational education was part and parcel of that scheme. Both cognitive and non-cognitive aspects of learning were equally emphasized. But due to some weaknesses at the implementation level this scheme could not succeed. But it highlighted the importance of vocational education, which became the mainstay in the future discourse of education.

India is a highly populous country where large mass of people approximately 80% live in the villages in which a great majority live either on or below the poverty line. Education in India is free and compulsory upto the age of 14 and it has been included in the fundamental rights of people. Yet, despite vast network of primary and secondary schools in the country and other informal schemes of education almost 38% of the people are totally illiterate. It is another face of our poverty ridden society which compels us to think afresh on the question of poverty and education in India. The story of urban slums and urban poor tells the same thing in a different way. The policies and programmes adopted so far for the elimination of poverty and illiteracy in the society are both inadequate and full of pitfalls.

With best endeavour and ten successful five year plans in the six decades of independence, we have achieved remarkable successes in the different fields of our public life yet the high mass poverty, illiteracy and unemployment are major problems that has kept us weak and backward.

The high population growth is seen as a villain in this episode. The crime, corruption, communalism and casteism are other manifestations of these socio-economic and political realities. Education is necessary for a civilized living. It adds value and quality in the workforce. It helps to 121

attain gainful employment as well as the quality of life. But today unemployment of the young educated workforce is a major problem. Jobs in the organised sectors, due to various changes in policy, are shrinking day by day. The automation and mechanization vis-Ă -vis the liberalization and globalisation have put forth new challenges. The traditional system of education has by and large become dysfunctional and has little utility in our practical life. It is an age of science and technology. Skill and expertise through a process of learning is the crux of vocational education which has emerged as a new hope in the modern privatized competitive world to get gainful employment in some private houses or under self-employment stream.

Vocational Education in India Secondary and +2 level are important terminal stages in the system of general education because at this stage options are exercised by the young ones to enter the world of employment or to move for technical training or pursue higher education. It has been consistently recommended by commissions and committees that a vocational bias should be given at these stages of education to link it with the world of work. As per their recommendations vocationalisation should be the main feature of the future system of education at the +2 or higher secondary stage.

The Kothari commission (1964-66) first of all threw sufficient light on vocationalisation of education. It was of the view that for majority of occupation, university degree was not necessary and these jobs could be competently performed by trained higher secondary students. This commission emphasized that at least 50% of students completing 10 year of education should be diverted to the vocational stream. It would at the one hand reduce the pressure on universities and on the other prepares the students for gainful employment. Besides the priority accorded to this programme in the report of Kothari commission, the national policy of Education 1968 and in successive five year plans, the implementation of the programme has remained weak.

The programme of vocationalisation of education has been accorded high priority in the National policy on Education 1986. The policy, interalia states; “The introduction of systemic, well-planned and rigorously implemented programme of vocational education is crucial in the proposed educational re-organization. It states that the vocational education will be a distinct stream intended to

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prepare students for identified vocations spanning several areas of activity.�

This programme was launched as centrally sponsored scheme in 1988 after due consultation with experts and the state Education Ministers with substantial financial assistance as well as appropriate margin for flexibility to suit the requirements of different states.

The main objectives of the scheme of vocationalisation of secondary education as spelt out in NPE (1986) are as follows; i) To provide diversification of educational opportunities so as to enhance individual employability. ii) Reduce the mismatch between demand and supply of skilled manpower. And iii) To provide an alternative for those pursuing higher education.

The NPE 1986 advocated a systematic, well-planned programme of vocational education. It envisaged that vocational courses would ordinarily be provided at the higher secondary (+2) stage but flexibility was provided to start vocational education after class VIII. The NPE 1986 set a target to cover 10% of higher secondary students under vocational courses by 1990 and 25% by 1995. This scheme was taken for implementation in all states and Union Territories except Tripura, Daman and Diu, Dadar & Nagar Haveli and Lakshdweep. It was further emphasized in the NPE of 1986 that non-formal, flexible and need based vocational programmes would also be made available to neo-literate youth who have completed primary education, school dropouts, persons engaged in work and employed or partially employed persons. Special attention in this regard will be given to women.

This programme has further been chiseled by various study groups and committees. They have given far reaching recommendations for the effective implementation of this scheme to tackle some of the trickling problems of Indian economy such as the rural-urban divide, the migration of unskilled labour from countryside to urban center, employment of school dropouts, artisans, unskilled and semi-skilled workers, unemployed youths from formal system of education etc. The vocational education is designed and devised in particular to address the problem of these target groups. The importance of this scheme of education lies in this fact, because the organised sector is quite incapable to provide employment and sustenance to the large mass of society. The whole concept of democracy 123

and welfare state would fail if the majority of young force belonging to this group of people remains outside the pale of development. Thus it has been emphasized time and again for obvious reasons. The programme of action (POA) 1992 re-affirming the basic recommendation of the NPE 1986 and accepting the revised target of enrolling 10% of the higher secondary students by 1995 and 25% by 2000 made extensive recommendations on various dimensions related to the implementation of VEP. The parliamentary standing committees on vocational education in 1998 thoroughly examined this scheme and recommended some measures for the effective implementation of this scheme. One of the important suggestions of this report was that separate funds should be earmarked for vocational education by the planning commission. It should be impressed upon state governments that non-utilization of funds for vocational education would be treated as misappropriation for which the concerned state government would be held responsible. So the progress of implementation, follow-up action should be taken and accountability fixed.

The National Curriculum Framework for School Education 2000 has emphasized linking of education and work by recommending work education at all stages of education as an integral part of school education on the request of planning commission. The NCERT set up an expert group in 2001 to develop a policy framework for vocationalisation of education at the school level. The expert group recommended that financial assistance be provided for a longer period than the five years of plan and there was a need to upscale the norms of expenditure in the centrally sponsored scheme with respect to both operational and capital expenditure. It further recommended that for effective planning and implementation focus should be on the block and the district. It recommended a comprehensive district/block level action plan for vocational education.

In view of the growing problem of unemployment, vocationalisation of curriculum is necessary so that disjunction does not take place between the educational system and the workplace. The Tenth Plan (2002-07) will focus on detailed vocational surveys proper identification of marketable trades, the strengthening of vocational institutes of various Ministries and Departments and better institute-industry linkages.

In a recent National meeting on Performance Evaluation and competency certification for vocational courses (Jan 2003) a unanimous declaration was made by the Heads and representatives of the Boards of Secondary or Higher Secondary Education that the promotion and further 124

strengthening of vocational education at the school level as well as for out of school and non-formal programmes in India would continue with full vigour. They regarded vocational education basically as an education of adolescents and youth and proposed that vocational development should be treated as an integral part of the Education for all or SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN right from class one onward to all stages of school education.

U.G.C. has now come out with an extensive programme of vocational education at the undergraduate level. Conceptually, there is a wide spectrum of vocationalisation of education from primary level to undergraduate level. But practically there are many a hiccups in its implementation. That’s why it could not gain so much success as it was presumed.

Present Status The programme of vocationalisation of higher secondary education (10+2 stage) was initiated in 1977-78 on the basis of guidelines prepared

by NCERT. At present about 6700 higher secondary school have introduced vocational courses under the scheme. About 19000 sections in these schools have been created for vocational courses with a capacity of enrolling about 10 lakh students. The number of vocational curricula developed by NCERT (PSSCIVE) and that by different states is around 150, covering a wide spectrum of vocations in agriculture, home science, business and commerce, engineering and technology, health and paramedical, humanities and science streams. In spite of the capacity created to admit 10 lakh students, the present enrolment is about 4 lakhs.

The status of implementation of the programme varies from state to state.

In some states it is being implemented quite successfully, while in others the position is not so satisfactory. Under the centrally sponsored scheme financial assistance of Rs. 657 crores has been provided to states for implementation. There is a need to popularize this scheme on a large scale with some attractive packages to divert a good number of students towards these courses.

Problems There is no doubt that vocational education is a well-thought scheme and all possible factors that may provide impetus to it have been taken care of, still there are many a problems at the implementation level which mar its desired result. The factors that have adversely affected vocational education programme are the lack of implementation of the various actions suggested in the POA 1992, for instance 125

i)

Modification of recruitment rules for jobs to accommodate +2 vocational pass outs has not taken place. ii) Support system such as financial assistance required for selfemployment has been conspicuous by its absence. iii) The provision for upgradation of skills and career growth has not been made. iv) Vocational courses introduced at tertiary level have not fully taken into account this development and no linkages have been provided with vocational courses at the +2 level. v) The avenues for vertical mobility in the form of entry to general and vocational courses offered at undergraduate stage have not been taken care of.

Dr. G. Bala Subramaniam, Director (Academic) CBSE has enumerated the following issues in vocational education; 1. The courses have not been marketed properly by schools and educational administrators.

2. The content has been outdated, irrelevant and obsolete.

3. The skills incorporated are not the same as required by the industry and the users.

4. Vocational stream has been considered another alternate stream of academic learning- improper mindset.

5. Absence of professional teachers, resources and lab/workshop facilities.

6. There is no credibility to evaluation of the skills.

7. The industry looks for the people whom they can put right on the job rather than train them during a short time.

8. There has been no confidence building exercise from the education to the industry and there has been no commitment from the industry to the educational institutions that supply of the work force.

9. Need based curriculum has not been designed.

10. Localized efforts have never been done as the vocational education policies are planned at the national level and not at the ground level.

One of the major mental blocks due to which very few of the students are attracted towards vocational education is the impression that it is basically meant for the academically poor and economically weaker sections of the society.

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Some of the identified problems of this scheme are as follows; a) Ad-hoc selection of institutions and vocational courses without assessing local needs by conducting vocational surveys. b) Non-availability of teaching and learning materials. c) Lack of full time and adequately qualified teachers and instructors. d) Lack of adequate management structures at different levels of administration. e) Insufficient collaboration with industries and other employing organizations. f) Inability to modify recruitment rules which could have facilitated employment of graduates of vocational courses. g) Absence of counseling and guidance services for helping students to make meaningful educational and career choices and also for their replacement in gainful employment. h) Due to deficiencies of equipments and workplace in schools and inadequate opportunities for on-the-job training in actual work situations, the quality of skill training received by the +2 vocational students leave much to be desired. i) There is lack of apprenticeship training in the real working environment.

There are many problems at the conceptual and implementation level which mar the progress of vocational scheme of education. Thus endeavours made so far have not yet yielded desired results.

Performance In spite of these shortcomings, evaluation report of the ORG group (1986) has indicated that 28% pass outs of vocational stream are employed/self employed. This implies that in many states/UTs like Chandigarh, Maharashtra, Haryana etc. where implementation is more effective, the percentage of employment of vocational education pass outs is higher. The ORG report does not provide statewise analysis. The success stories collected by PSSCIVE show that many pass outs from +2 vocational streams have gone for self-employment, and are earning anything between Rs. 2000 to 6000 per month.

Another 38% have been reported to enter tertiary education by taking undergraduate courses like B.A. / B.Com. Even in their case the vocational skills that they have acquired at the +2 stage will not be a waste, they may use these skills during employment or for employment.

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Although enrolment in vocational courses is small in proportion to the total enrolment at the +2 stage, over the years it has shown some upward trend. According to ORG Report, enrolment in vocational courses in sampled schools in different states increased from 19,237 in 1989 to 88,418 in 1995; an increase of 360 percent.

Prospects These are some stark realities of Indian economy and education that mark the prospect and scope of vocational education. The need and imperative to popularize vocational education emanates from these facts.

1. About 70% of students enrolled in class I leave schools by the time they reach class X. This is a vast chunk of young workforce that needs proper vocational education as a dropout intervention programme. Opportunities have to be provided to young to take vocational courses as per the aptitude and interests and the need of the labour market.

2. As per the data available informal sector contributes 49% to GDP and provide employment to about 93% of the workforce while organised sector contributes 51% to GDP and provides employment to 40% of the workforce. Tenth plan aims at 8% of GDP growth for the period of 2002-07. 80% growth can be realized through efficiency improvement both in public and private sector and especially in informal sector.

3. The growth rate of employment declined sharply from 2.04% per annum during the 10-year period 1983 to 1993-94 to barely 0.98% per annum during 1993-94 to 1999-2000. Growth rate of employment is less than the growth rate in labour force. In tenth plan it is envisaged to generate 1 crore jobs every year which is a stupendous task and would require a shift in the focus from formal to informal sector of economy.

4. 75.4 million children in the age group of 6-14 year are out of schools. They can be trained for any skill outside the school.

Apart from that school dropouts, unemployed youths, underemployed persons, physically challenged persons, marginalized workers, semi-artisans and craftsmen, partially employed persons and other target groups need some sort of training and re-training for which a system of vocational courses at all levels is to be developed.

5. Since the need for manpower in primary and secondary sectors of production is still immense with nearly 70% of the population 128

directly dependant on agriculture and related activities. A largescale absorption of manpower therefore is still expected in the rural production and service sectors. The application of TVE programme at the secondary and +2 level would be a wise policy to encourage both private and govt. institutes as per the demand and signals of the market. An appropriate intervention through TVE is at one hand necessary to create a knowledge driven society and on the other to expand job opportunities in new areas of agriculture and rural development.

6. There is a global trend of expansion of service sector. In India with low literacy rates the large mass of manpower is absorbed at the lower level of services. As the service sector is expecting to grow, the emerging middle class would demand more and more sophisticated services. That will surely provide greater development thrust both in the rural and urban sectors. The better demand for health care services, transportation, schooling and other welfare measures plus services generated by large-scale industrialization would wide open the door for the larger demand of skilled manpower. This necessitates the policy option for large number of highly diversified TVE courses containing both cognitive and skill components.

7. Self-employment option is always there to boost this scheme of education. It will surely help in high income generation and a good living standard.

Thus it is important to design TVE & T system that imparts skills attuned to the needs of the labour market and unorganized sector in consonance with the latest technology. Hence a strong system of training and re-training of workers for informal sector is urgently required. This opens vast opportunities for vocational education and training in a big way. It speaks of the bright prospect of vocational education at the given state of polity, economy, society and education.

Proposals Various committees, commissions and expert groups have mooted out platitude of proposals for the effective implementation of this scheme from time to time. Following are the important proposals that need to be taken care of for the success of vocational education in India.

1) Each course structure should be developed keeping in view two requirements of the vocation. a. Knowledge.

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b. Competencies.

2) The course offering should be modular.

3) The curriculum should be designed on multi-entry and multi-exit pattern. The student should have opportunity for vertical mobility to advanced levels of competencies in the same vocation.

Opportunities for multi skills should be available to the students to improve employability. The student should also have opportunity for lateral mobility to switch over from vocational stream to academic stream and vice-versa.

4) The scheme should be open to all existing schools/ITI/Polytechnics etc.

5) The curriculum should be such that there is a synergy of practical training and theoretical training in the ratio of 1:2. The industrial training should be an extension of classroom training in the presence of a supervisor. There should be a continuous evaluation of competencies.

6) The selection of courses should be based on manpower needbased survey. Service sector TVE &T courses should be given high priority due to high employment opportunities.

7) District vocational surveys should be made compulsory and community participation in them should be encouraged so that assessment of manpower requirements of the area, range of available occupations and trend of emerging vocations etc. are properly recognized.

8) Vocational programme should include courses which are useful in the tertiary sector.

9) Steps should be taken to encourage a large number of girls to be enrolled in the vocational education programme.

10) There should be a placement cell in each vocational school.

11) Industrial sector should be involved in the preparation and renewal of curriculum.

12) The placement of students under apprenticeship training need to be vigorously implemented.

13) Accreditation of vocational courses should be done by the concerned Boards in collaboration with PSSICIVE Bhopal chamber of commerce, Industry, Agriculture and other similar professional bodies and stakeholders.

14) More vocational courses should be designed to include cultural and traditional arts and crafts as well as for occupations based on modern technologies such as Biotechnology, Information 130

Technology and Multimedia Technology etc. to meet the challenges of globalisation and global employment opportunities.

15) In the curricula of vocational education, knowledge, skills and qualities of Entrepreneurship have to be made an essential component for all vocational courses.

16) In the new century a number of new trends, which are common to both general and vocational education should be recognized and strengthened. Some of the examples of this context are: a. Computer literacy and internet surfing. b. Entrepreneurship. c. Liberalization and Privatisation of trades, industries etc. d. Communication skills pertaining to new technologies. e. Knowledge about new developments in global organizations such as WTO and other world bodies, recent trends in globalisation and related matters.

Conclusion Viewing the plethora of exercise made both on conceptual and practical level one can safely conclude that the vocational education has emerged into a new trend in our education policy. It is considered as a new hope of employment and economic empowerment for the surging masses.

Despite gigantic endeavours made during more than two decades of planning and implementation according to G. Balasubramanian is, “still a dream drawn castles inked by certain policies, which have not paid dividends.�

It requires hard decisions and a change in mindset of the people, the policy makers and the implementers at different levels. In nutshell, vocational education is basically an education of adolescents and youths. It is an instrument of poverty alleviation, employment, wealth generation and rapid progress towards the state of a developed country. This should be a collective and collaborative effort for the socio-economic development of India. It is an effective answer to high mass poverty and unemployment in the country. The key to future development of the country lies in vocational education. So, it should rightly be emphasized and popularized in a big way and more stress should be given on practical aspects than on theoretical formulations.

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20.

Vocational Education in Bihar

Introduction Under the wake of New Education Policy (1986) vocational education in Bihar, like in all other states, started in 1987-88. Initially, it was introduced in 40, +2 schools in 1988. In 1991-92, 108 more +2 schools were brought under this scheme totaling the figure of 148. After the partition of Bihar in Nov. 2000, 57 such schools went to Jharkhand and only 91 remained in Bihar. At present vocational education is imparted in 26 approved trades. Each school has been awarded three trades with an enrolment capacity of 25 students in each trade. It means 75 students can be admitted in vocational stream of education every year in a school. The total enrolment capacity in 91, +2 schools in Bihar is of the order of 6825 under 78 sections created so far.

No. of Trades Following are the 26 approved trades in agriculture, home science, business and commerce, engineering and technology, health and paramedical, humanities and science streams.

Table- I 1. Medical Lab Technician 3. Nursing and Mid-wifery 5. Mining and geology 7. Health care and Beauty Culture 9. Inland Fishery 11. Radio & TV 13. Food Refrigeration 15. Office Management 17. Computer Science 19. Library Science 21. Electric Domestic Appliances 23. Textile Designing 25. Mechanical Survey

2. Automobile Engineering 4.Commercial Garments Manufacturing 6. Accounting and Auditing 8. Agriculture farm mechanics 10. Poultry Farming 12. Dairy Production 14. Electronics 16. Stenography 18. Multipurpose Health Worker 20. Fruit Preservation 22. Silk Industry 24. Banking 26. X-Ray Technician

Geographical Spread over The following table shows the district-wise number of schools providing vocational education at the +2 level in Bihar.

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Table-II Name of the District 1. Aurangabad 2. Begusarai 3. Bhagalpur 4. Bhojpur 5. Buxur 6. Darbhanga 7. East Champaran 8. West Champaran 9. Gaya 10. Gopalganj 11. Jehanabad 12. Jamui 13. Nawada 14. Katihar 15. Khagaria 16. Kishanganj 17. Madhepura 18. Madhubani 19. Munghyr 20. Muzaffarpur 21. Sitamarhi 22. Siwan 23. Nalanda 24. Patna 25. Purnea 26. Rohtas 27. Saharsa 28. Samastipur 29. Saran 30. Vaishali Total

No. of Schools 2 2 7 2 1 5 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 2 2 5 6 1 2 3 14 4 3 4 2 6 1 91

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Landscape Bihar is still languishing in the backyard of backwardness. It presents the paradox of poverty in plenty. At one hand it is endowed with fertile land, plenty of surface and ground water, a people-friendly environment and a hard working farming community, on the other hand, there is lack of proper planning, dishonesty and inefficiency that have robbed the whole system and dwindled the prospects of development.

Large mass of people live in abject poverty. The goal to create a knowledge-based society is still a distant dream. Due to chronic unemployment both in the rural and urban sector a large number of young people are forced to migrate to different parts of the country in search of work. There too they are treated shabbily and exploited by all dubious means due to low level of knowledge and expertise. Most of them are either totally illiterate or have no work skill. Naturally their wage is poor and they are forced to do all types of hazardous and odd jobs at a meager price at the risk of their health and life.

Importance Under these circumstances the enrolment in schools is less, the dropout rate is high and the quality of education is poor. Vocational education in some respect is more important than the general education. A graduate without any vocational training is as vulnerable as a semi-literate person, while a graduate with some vocational knowledge and skill is relatively at an advantageous position and there is every likelihood that he/she can get some suitable job earlier and his/her income earning capability would be much larger in comparison to a non-skilled worker. So under the peculiar circumstances of Bihar, vocational education may prove to be a boon. But it is the irony of situation that this policy is a victim of official apathy and it is being implemented in a haphazard manner on a very limited scale. Out of 3500 secondary schools in Bihar this scheme of education is available in only 91 schools. The most shocking fact is that the total enrolment over the years is far less than the created capacity.

Seldom has the number of enrolment gone beyond 2000 while the created capacity is of the order of over 6000. Table II gives the number of enrolment and the number of pass out students under vocational stream year-wise.

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Table- III Enrolment & Pass out Year 1988-90 89-91 90-92 91-93 92-94 93-95 94-96 95-97 96-98 97-99 98-2000 99-2001 2000-02 2001-03 2002-04 2003-05

Enrolment 922 650 650 2767 3312 5717 4305 2307 1549 1760 1986 1956 1600 1645 1605 2056

Pass outs 816 650 650 1994 2190 4371 2656 1991 1121 1718 1935 1876 1388 1520 1495 N. A.

This table shows the number of enrolment over the years. From 1991 to 1996 the figure is more than two thousand. Only in 1993 it touched a little less than six thousand mark otherwise most of the time it remained around two thousand. That depicts the dismal performance of vocational education in Bihar. We are not talking in qualitative terms. When overall intake is so poor, it simply demonstrates how poorly whole things are being managed.

Problems Despite huge administrative network this scheme has been orphaned and there is none to look after it in the real sense of the word. It is being treated as an unwelcome child, a loath for the system. I wonder if the things remain the same how can we develop our society?

Initially vocational education was launched as a centrally sponsored scheme. Since 1997-98 it has been brought under the state government.

The state govt. had earmarked Rs. 3 crores 94 lakhs in the budget of 20022003 for this scheme of education.

Vocational education in Bihar comes within the administrative control of state secondary education department. There is a provision of 135

Director vocational education also. But at present Director, Secondary education is in-charge of vocational education in the state. The Minister of Primary and Secondary Education is the chairman of the vocational education and the Director secondary education is the member secretary.

All the secretaries cum commissioners are the ex-officio members of the state vocational education council. This is the highest policy making body of the state. But they find little time to look after this education. At District level the DEO is in-charge of vocational education. The senior instructor is in-charge of vocational education at school level. They work under the administrative guidance of school Head Master. There is a provision to establish training cum production center in every school. But this scheme of education is in shambles which is evident from following facts; 1) Number of schools is very few and number of enrolment is far below the created capacity.

2) Distribution of trade has been done in a rudimentary fashion without taking into account the local need and resources.

3) There is no lab/workshop in the schools; virtually there is no arrangement for practical training.

4) Most of the teachers appointed as vocational instructors are either unqualified or they have fake degrees.

5) Books are not available according to prescribed syllabus.

6) There is lack of monitoring and inspection and there is no endeavour whatsoever to provide this system of education a real viability.

7) It is considered another means of employment with no job and responsibility.

8) There is simply admission and examination and nothing more.

9) The system is divided into two parts. Its administration, appointment, salary and other related matters are governed by State Secondary Education department. Examination and Certification vis-Ă -vis syllabus making is the responsibility of Intermediate Council but there is complete lack of coordination between the two agencies due to which this scheme is lurking between the two poles.

10) Govt. has declared many a lofty policies regarding various incentives to vocational pass outs such as 10% reservation of seats in polytechnics, soft loan for self employment, weightage in employment to vocational trained students in different govt. departments and provision for apprenticeship training and stipend

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etc. But all these programmes are largely on paper. It is nowhere found at the ground level.

11) There is complete neglect and apathy at every level of administration and there are no takers of this scheme. Despite tremendous scope it is not properly popularized and marketed, that’s why most of the students who are in search of such training are oblivious and unknown to such a scheme of education.

Thus, under these circumstances it requires a well-concerted gigantic effort by every level of functionary to revitalize this scheme of education in a big way.

Suggestions No suggestion will work unless there is a will to improve the situation. I do hope that viewing the importance of this education some realization will dawn on the state functionaries and they will wake up to give a boost to this scheme of education someday.

1. The total administration should be overhauled and persons who are interested in this scheme of education should be made incharge of vocational education.

2. There should be separate Directorate of vocational education independent of secondary education department to look into this scheme of education.

3. This scheme should be backed by adequate finance, adequate manpower, proper administrative authority and technical support to give it a major boost.

4. Vocational education is a training based education. That training cannot be imparted without lab/workshop. Priority should be given to construct lab/workshop with all adequate facilities to provide good training to the interns.

5. Instructors in vocational education are either unqualified or unskilled. They have been appointed on the basis of little work experience and on fake certificates. They too are unwilling to organize it at their initiative because that will expose their weakness. Corruption, casteism, nepotism like all other sectors have erupted in this system too. No scheme can be successful without good teachers and instructors. For which we have to take some harsh measures. All such teachers should be given stern notice to acquire proper capability in their respective trades or face marching orders.

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6. Vocational education in Bihar is imparted without books and syllabus. One should know that vocational education is also a stream of education with vertical and lateral mobility. If it is not imparted in a proper way it would be self-defeating which would erode all possibilities of future development.

7. This scheme is certainly a pro-poor and biased in favour of those who are not good at studies. So it has a special appeal for such students, which provide them an opportunity to learn and work together to get easy employment in some businesses, industries and service establishments. They can be gainfully employed under self-employment schemes with some assistance from the govt. and public undertaking banks under various govt. schemes devised for this purpose. If that section of society is properly targeted and brought under this stream it will give a major boost to this system of education both physically and in terms of quality.

8. It is an irony of the situation that despite all strong indicators the number of enrolment is far less than the created capacity. It is reported that in many of the institutions there is no student while there are teachers and there is an allotment of trades. This tells two things; either the trade allotted has no scope in the job market or no attempt has been made by the local authorities to aware the students about this scheme of education. A fresh look at the whole scheme of education is urgently needed. Teachers should be put to task to enrol students or face termination. If there is no student, there is no need of teachers/instructors in that school.

Some responsibility has to be fixed otherwise nothing will take place.

9. At present vocational education is imparted only in 91, +2 schools. It is too small a number. There are 3500 secondary schools in the state. If we want to introduce this education in a big way at least 10% of the secondary schools should be upgraded into +2 vocational schools. This physical expansion will give a new life to this system and it is hoped that a good number of students would be attracted towards it.

10. There should be a scientific method for the choice of schools and allotment of trades. It should be based on area-wise survey.

All important aspects should be taken care of in the choice or allotment of vocational education in that area pertaining to the

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local need, resources and emerging trends. Employability should be the topmost consideration in this regard.

11. There is a provision of apprenticeship training after the completion of the course at the vocational training Board at Kolkata (Eastern Region) to enhance vocational capability. The Board looks after the placement also. But due to lack of coordination between the state vocational department and the Board the number of students is declining over the years. At one hand this system should be revitalized and on the other endeavour should be made here in Bihar also that each such school should be attached to some business and industrial establishment for apprenticeship and placement.

12. This scheme needs to be popularized through all possible means to attract large number of students. If people will be convinced of the employment potential of this scheme there would be a natural attraction towards this scheme of education.

13. Lastly the monitoring and academic auditing can work wonder if it is carried on effectively and honestly. How and when we would have the wherewithal that is a big question?

Conclusion Under the prevailing situation of the state, vocational education is the only answer to high mass poverty and unemployment. The scheme is good but its implementation is bad. If it is effectively managed and properly popularized it may prove to be a panacea in the 21st century. Hopefully the education planner of the state will react positively to these proposals, because it holds the key to our future prosperity.

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21.

Open School System An Introduction

Today it is a globally accepted and recognized fact that education is one of the basic human rights of every individual rich or poor, male or female, young or old. A child belonging to any caste, community, language, region, colour and creed has equal right to education. Any discrimination on any account is distasteful.

Democracy implies two things, one respect to individual and second to ensure his participation in the process of decision making and development. It further requires genuine accountability towards the genuine needs and aspirations of a society. In a democracy even neglect to a pigmy or a small section of society warrants scathing criticism and condemnation. So, any country practicing democracy and believing in the welfare concept and striving to empower each and every individual belonging to any group or segment of society cannot ignore education— which is the harbinger of enlightenment and prosperity on the basis of knowledge based empowerment.

We are in the 21st century. In common parlays, it is believed to be a century of common man. The downtrodden, the destitute, the weaker sections, the faceless and the voiceless people who were hitherto neglected and marginalised throughout the centuries are now striving hard to come to the center stage. And it is satisfying to note that their voices are being heard and their needs have definite reflection in national planning and budgeting and in various Governments measures and policies.

The need for education should be looked into in a larger and broader perspective. According to a rough estimate, at present, India has a population of over 1005 million people. Roughly speaking all the 1005 million men and women, old and young need education either through formal or non-formal method. But India is not only a democratic but a free-economic country as well where both private and public sectors like other fields of business and industry, co-exist in education too. The private initiatives have played a better and greater part in imparting education to a large segment of society.

This private initiative, individually and collectively can be divided into two parts. One, that caters to the need of high ups and upper middle class people of the country that taken together comprise 20% of the total population. The another group which is benefited by the private initiatives is the poor and downtrodden sections of the society who are getting 140

education in religious seminaries organised by different religious groups.

Our education percentage reflects a sizeable contribution of these initiatives. Not less than 16 to 20% of the total educated people belong to this group. Graduates from religious seminary are more prominent in Muslim society than any other section of the people. So their contribution must not be undermined in bringing a large section of people in the realm of knowledge.

Since independence we have marched a long and achieved remarkable successes in different fields such as food sufficiency and IT revolution etc. We have success stories in many other fields, but sad to say that we could not come over the high mass poverty and illiteracy in our country. There is some basic policy flaw as well as imperfection in our methodology and tool of implementation. We as a planner and administrator suffer from myopia. Corruption, casteism and communalism are major roadblocks. As a result of which we men the largest illiterate population in the world During the planned development over the five decades, the literacy rate has increased manifold. It has risen from 16% in 1947 to 62% in 2002.

It is not a small achievement but in view of the large populace and percentage of people adding up to this population every year the speed is not satisfactory. We need some special measures to achieve the 100% literacy target in a specified period which requires large sum of money as well as a gigantic machinery plus voluntary action charged with empathy and unity of purpose to wipe out the black spot of illiteracy from the forehead of the nation. The high mass illiteracy requires some special measures. The policies and programmes adopted so far are neither adequate nor satisfactory. We have to go for some unconventional system of education to meet this challenge. Under this backdrop the open school system is a revolutionary concept, which will go a long way towards universalisation of education. It aims to reach unreach, the dropouts and to those who are out of school for various reasons. As mentioned in its draft framework about 3.5 crores children in the age group of 6-14 and about 6.5 crores children (i.e. adolescents) in the age group 14-18 are out of school. That taken together are about 10 crores of children i.e. one tenth of our population is out of school despite huge expansion in the field of education over the years. Under the above scene, the open schooling has evolved as an alternative schooling system. Its imperative and validity is well reflected by this fact that NIOS has emerged as the largest open schooling system in the world with current enrolment of about 13 lakh students at secondary and senior secondary stage. To the best of my 141

knowledge and information no state or central level board can match this figure. So, in my opinion as a single institution it is the biggest and the largest in the country which has huge scope of expansion.

Its draft framework is a well-documented and well-thought brochure written in lucidity with style and perfection.

Open school is a wall-less institution. The inbuilt flexibility and elasticity gives it enough scope to mould and melt as there need be. This aspect is well attended in its brochure.

The structure proposed to build for this purpose is huge and cumbersome. It should be smart and simple which can work easily and quickly. Pragmatism should be the guiding spirit. The over weight will loath its progress.

It is a non-conventional way of schooling. So it is tedious and simple both. It is tedious because it has to manage a variety of students and simple because it can adopt a course as per individual need and requirement without hitch. The functionary and the administrative board have enough autonomy and liberty to accommodate each and every as per his/her need.

The open school system aims to reach unreach, the dropouts and to those who for various socio-economic reasons are out of school. It is an abstract statement, which does not personify the caste, the community, the group of people and the region. The sections of society who are deprived of sight and tongue are the scheduled castes, the schedule tribes, the minorities, the OBCs and the poor. Women as a class in general are most deprived and neglected one.

Any serious and sincere effort that addresses their problems must correspond to their social need, the cultural environment and their economic realities. A genuine sympathy with proper working model will help ameliorate the present going in the field of education. Education in a multiple society has its own complexities. We cannot guide them all with one stick towards one direction. While devising ways and means for open schooling, it is more important than the conventional system.

The above-mentioned groups as a matter of convenience can be divided in two groups. i.

Those who have left the school but want to continue their education. ii.

Those who are unknown, unwilling and have no time, means and space to pursue further education.

Open School System is boon for the first group of people. They need proper access and well designed courses to cater to the needs of different types of students falling in this category. The overwhelming response that 142

is indicative of the year-wise increasing number of students is selfexplanatory. We need to focus more so that all the willing people should get a chance to enhance his/her educational scale through open school system.

The real problem lies with the second group of people who are unknown, unwilling or love to enjoy the luxury of no education.

The class of people who are unknown and living in some adverse situation are mainly the womenfolk, the destitute and people living in the inaccessible and remote areas. They are the real unreach. How to reach this category of people and benefit them with the world of knowledge is a big challenge. The open school system will be helpful only when they have at least primary level of education. Those who are denied of even primary education cannot avail this benefit. So at least primary education has to be provided through conventional school system for which a wide network of Primary Schools especially in remote areas and in the neglected communities is required. These people are very poor and they lack social consciousness. They don’t understand any importance of education. So they need special incentive to get admitted in school. The monetary incentive to schedule caste and schedule tribe students and midday meal scheme are right policies in right direction. But it is both inadequate and faulty. It is being implemented on selective basis. A large chunk of population remains outside this scheme due to faulty definition of that group of people. Further the corruption in the system does not permit its benefits to percolate to the targeted group in entirety. Thus the open school system needs a policy support as well as the support from the conventional system of education. This is a new area of education, which opens a vast vista of experiments. An apt handling can go a long way in eradication of illiteracy from the society in near future. So this system of education can rightly be said the future model of education which holds the key for total literacy with a degree of proficiency and quality in education.

India is a vast country full of diversities. There are numerous castes, communities and languages each demanding special attention. So in any scheme of mass education we will have to accommodate all languages so that large number of people can get an easy access to education. If any scheme is launched on all India basis it must cater to the regional needs and aspirations of the people. If we will try to impose a single model in such a vast and diverse society it will suffer an inner-immobility, which will jeopardise the very scheme itself. The failure we have got on education front is due to some imperfection in our policies owing to 143

communal and lingual bias in the mind of policy makers. If you want to introduce open school system in Tamil Nadu and you are not going to allow the children to have the course material in Tamil how can you hope to attract Tamil children in this scheme of education. Likewise if people are genuinely interested to increase education percentage in the Muslim community of north India particularly Bihar, U.P., MP, Rajasthan and Delhi and if there is no provision for Urdu in this scheme of education how can Muslim boys and girls and women in general be attracted towards this scheme of education. In my humble suggestion this scheme should be need based as well as based on the community aspirations in their own language so that each and every community may get its benefit readily.

To my mind for success of any such scheme of education the support of community leadership is one of the essential requisites. Till today we have little social mobilization for education. The community in general understands the importance of education but they feel no need of its participation because it is all managed through government agencies.

There is usually a tendency of indifference and rejection on the part of people towards all such schemes. Thus to make this scheme a success mass mobilization with the support of community leaders is utmost necessary.

Through proper planning and participation of all concerned with a broad based scheme as suggested above, open school system can get a high jump and help to achieve total literacy in near future. I wish this scheme success.

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MY VOYAGE I thought that my voyage had come to its end at the last limit of my power, that the path before me was closed, that provisions were exhausted and the time come to take shelter in a silent obscurity.

But I find that thy will knows no end in me.

And when old words die out on the tongue, new melodies break forth from the heart; and where the old tracks are lost, new country is revealed with its wonders.

(Gitanjali : Rabindranath Tagore)

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INDEX Absolute grading Academic auditing Academic growth Academic Staff College Adult franchise Adult literacy Advantages of Privatisation Agriculture and rural develoment All India education service Amartya Sen Anglo-Indian tradition A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Apprenticeship training Aristotle Ashok Ganguly Assessment Autonomy Better governance Bihar Bihar Intermediate Education Council Bihar University Birth right Bertrand Russel Bourgeois class British system of education Brookover Buisiness school Bunyadi Taleem

Child Chronic unemployment Citizens council Civilization Classical language Classroom teaching COBSE Commerce Common people Communalism Composite culture Composite society Comprehensive evaluation Constitution Constitution of India Corporate world Corruption Cultivation of mind Culture Cultural ethos Cultural transmission Curriculum Curricular reform

Delors commission Democracy Democratic society Deprivation Developing economy Development Developmental psychologists Dewey Dignity of labour Dignity of man Direct grading

Campus Career advancement programme Casteism CBSE Census 2001 Challenges of higher education Charles Darwin 147

Directive principles of state policy Disadvantages of Privatistion Discrimination Distance education District vocational service Documentary sources Dr. Karan Singh Dropouts D. S. Kothari

Future generation Gainful employment Gandhi Gitanjali George Bernad Shaw Germany Globalisation Government Government of India Government of Bihar Government sector Grading system Gujrat government

Economic development Education Education for all Education in Bihar Education system Educational model Egalitarian society Elementary education Elites Emil Durkheim Empirical literature Employment Employment opportunities Empowerment English English medium schools Entrance examination Evaluation process Examination Examination reforms Excellence

H.G. Wells High mass poverty Hindi History Holy Scriptures Human index Human resources Human resource development Human rights Human society Humanities ICSE Illiteracy Indirect grading In-house orientation programme Inkles Informal sector Information technology Infrastructural development Infrastructural facilities Institutional framework Intellectual enrichment Intermediate education Investment in research

Field sources Foreign private institution Frederico Maer Freedom struggle Froebels Frontline curriculum Fundamental right 148

Issue of pass and fail

Modern education Modern India Modern Indian languages Modern technology Monitoring Moral character Mother tongue

Japan Jean Pinget Job market Joseph stiglitz Justice J. S. Verma Kishore Gandhi Knowledge Knowledge-based society Knowledge explosion

National cohesion National curriculum framework National education policy 1986 National integration National language National policy of 1968 National unity NCERT New education policy

Laboratory Labour market Language curriculum Language education Language proficiency Liberalization Library Life learning skill Life long education Linguistic chauvinism Link language Linguistic minorities Literacy campaign Literature Lord McCauley

OBCs Open school system ORG report Orientation programme Panchayats Parliamentary standing committees on vocational education Pastalozzi Patna University Patriotism People’s participation Philosophy of education Physical capital Placement Plan allocation Planning commission Pluralistic society Poverty Poor Practical classes

Majority Man Manpower Manusmriti Market economy Mass education Medium of education Mental evolution Migration Milton Friedman Minorities 149

Praful Bidwai Primary education Private sectors Promotion PSSCIVE Public institutions Punjab Principal Principle of accomodation Principle of grading Principle of objectivity Privatisation Productivity of workers Prof. R.H. Dave Professional courses Programme of action 1992 Pt. Nehru Public exchequer Public authorities

Scheduled castes Scheduled tribes School curriculum Science and technology Scientific discoveries Scientific temper Second official language Secondary education Self-employment schemes Self financing courses Self reliance Sevice sector Skilled manpower Social equality Social heritage Social justice Social sciences Social sectors Social surrounding Society Spiritual development Standard of education Student unrests Students absenteeism Students union Subsidy Sustainable human development Syllabus

Quality education Queen’s language Rabindranath Tagore Regional studies Regionalism Relative grading Religion Research Research centre Research methodology Reservation policy Resource crunch Right to education Rousseau Rural resources Rural-urban divide

Tanzania Technical education The Education commission 196466 The Mudaliar commission 195254 The World Bank education sector policy paper Three language formula Text books Total literacy

Sarva shiksha abhiyan Secularism 150

Tutorial 20th century 21st century Twenty first century

University system Unorganized sector Urdu V.V. John Venezuela Vernacular languages Vertical mobility Vice-chancellor VIIIth schedule of constitution Vocational education Vocational stream Voluntary action Voluntary organizations

UGC Unaided education policy UNDP Human Development reports Unemployment Unequal society UNESCO’s international commission on education Unfair means Unity in diversity Universal education Universalisation of education University education University education commission 1948-49

Welfare state White paper Women Younger generation

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About the Book Education is a means to self assertion, dignity, prosperity, empowerment and development.

This book is an incisive exercise to understand the various aspects of education, its problems, challenges and opportunities under the context of 21st century. It discusses wide spectrum of issues under the backdrop of Bihar analytically and critically and suggests measures to overcome the present malaise and to take a gigantic leap in future.

This book throws light on a wide range of subjects from primary education to higher education, the issues in syllabus, language education, examination reform, grading system, globalisation and privatisation, vocational education, research methodology, student unrest, role of principal, academic staff college, and open school system etc.. in a lucid style with clarity of approach along with a roadmap of reforms. It would be an interesting and informative reading- a positive contribution towards building a knowledge based society and economy i.e. knowledge economy in modern term.

About the Author Dr. Syed Abuzar Kamaluddin, former Vice Chairman Bihar Intermediate Education Council, a teacher of Economics and a senior Principal in B.R.A. Bihar University (Muzaffarpur), is a multi-faceted personality. He is a scholar, a well-known public figure, a prolific writer, an orator, a debater, a poet, an educationist, a humanist, a social activist, a secular democrat and a firm believer in the rule of law. He has been associated with many institutions, organizations and movements and has wide field experience.

He did his Ph.D. on Interest free banking and visited England and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in course of research, and participated in scores of national and international symposia, seminars and conferences both at home and abroad.

He has several books to his credit in Urdu, Hindi and English and wrote hundreds of articles in all the three languages on almost every aspect of social relevance. He is a crusader to a just society with a life of equality and dignity to all, particularly, the weak, the women, the downtrodden, the minorities and other neglected sections.

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