CMDR Monograph Series No. - 22 · CMDR Monograph Series No. - 22 ... Jawaharlal Nehru and The...

Compulsory Primary Education Challenges and Opportunities 1

CMDR Monograph Series No. - 22

COMPULSORY PRIMARY EDUCATIONCHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

JAYAKUMAR ANAGOL

Centre for Multi-Disciplinary Development ResearchJubilee Circle, DHARWAD-580001, Karnataka, India

Ph : 091-0836-447639, Fax : 447627E-mail : [email protected]

2 CMDR Monograph Series No. - 22

CONTENTS

1. PRIMARY EDUCATION BEFORE INDEPENDENCE :

Historical Background 1Beginning of Modern Education In India 1Pleas For Mass Education 2Joti Rao Phule’s Revolutionary Proposals 2Compulsory Education In Princely States 3Gokhale’s Campaign for Compulsory Education 3Mahatma Gandhi And Basic Education 4Sargent Report 5Literary Levels At The End of Colonial Rule 5

2. AFTER INDEPENDENCE

Directive Principles of State Policy 6Jawaharlal Nehru and The Mahalanobis Model 7Neglect of Primary Education by Nehru 8Education Commission (1964-66) 8Education in the Concurrent List 8National Policy on Education 1986 9District Primary Education Programme 10Progress During the First Fifty Years of Independence 10Funding of Education 14Unequal Progresss 14Mahbub ul Haq On The Education Scene in S.Asia. 15

3. CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF UNIVERSALISATION OF EDUCATION

Multifarious Uses of Education 16Kerala’s Example 17Literacy and Development in Indian States 18Caste System and Its adverst Effects 19


Women’s Education Lags Far Behind 20Child Labour 22Rural Areas, Backward Castes, S.C’s & S.T’s 23Is Primary Education Fully Free ? 24Students, Parents and Teachers 25NFE’S, NGO’S, PRI’S And The Local Community 26The credit for being the pioneer for giving the call for making educationuniversal goes

4. FURTHER READING(To be written - One page)

TABLES

1. Literacy Rates Of Major States, 1951 62. Literacy Rates Of Developing Countries 113. Literacy Rates of Major States 124. Development Indicators 175.Literacy Rates and Some Basic Indicators of Major States. 18


COMPULSORY PRIMARY EDUCATIONCHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

JAYAKUMAR ANAGOL

PRIMARY EDUCATION BEFOREINDEPENDENCE :

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND*The credit for being the pioneer for givingthe call for making education universal goesto Martin Luther. He believed that everyhuman being should be able to read the Biblefor herself/himself. In 1524 he pleaded withthe Germanic States that it was their duty toprovide schools; at the same time he calledupon the parents to educate their childrenas a matter of duty. The colony ofMassachusetts in the United States passeda law compelling local authorities tointroduce Compulsory ElementaryEducation in 1647. Sweden passed alegislation in 1723 that parents and guardianswho do not send their children to school willbe liable to fines. Most developed countriesintroduced legislation to make elementaryeducation compulsory well before the endof the 19th Century.

The inspiration for the introductionof Compulsory Primary Education hasdiffered from country to country, though allof them are united on its importance. ThePrussian State wanted its children to improvetheir health and education for achievingeffective military service. In France, it was

the ideology of secularism of the FrenchRevolution which provided the basis for theintroduction of mass education so that theeducational system would be with the Stateand not with the Church. In Meiji Japan,the motivation for universalisation ofeducation was two-fold- the ambition of theruling class to compete with the west and atthe same time, to inculcate loyalty to theState. The Communist countries whowanted to build a new civilisation with anentirely altered class structure insisted on theuniversalisation of education as a means toachieve this goal. (Myron Weiner ; ChildLabour in India, Putting CompulsoryEducation on the Political Agenda,Economic and Political Weekly, November9-16, 1996). India is a multi-ethnic, Multi-religious secular socialist state and hence inour case the ideology for the introduction ofCompulsory Primary Education is thebuilding up of a plural democratic policy onan equitable basis along with the objectivesof human and economic development of itscitizens.

BEGINNING OF MODERNEDUCATION IN INDIA.

By the early part of the 19th Century,the East India Company had established itshegemony over a large part of the Indian sub-


continent. There were two views in theCompany regarding the development ofeducation. One view was that the indigenousHindu and Muslim systems of educationshould be continued and encouraged, as itwas in consonance with the Company’sapproach of non-interference in the religiousand social systems of India. The other viewpleaded for the introduction of the westernsystem of education. Macaulay had a deepprejudice against oriental learning. Heproclaimed that “a single shelf of a goodEuropean Library was worth the whole nativeliterature of India and Arabia”. He had fullfaith in the whiteman’s burden. He thoughtthat his proposal contained in his Minute onEducation would create “the class ofpersons-Indian in blood and colour butEnglish in opinions, in morals and in intellect”.Raja Ram Mohan Roy supported vigorouslyintroduction of western system of educationon the ground that it would open doors ofmodern knowledge of science andtechnology. One of the practical aspects ofintroducing modern education, to be giventhrough the English medium, was to providepersonnel like clerks and middle level officialsin helping to run the Raj. In the end thechampions of the western system of educationprevailed. It is worth nothing that right fromthe beginning the emphasis has been on highereducation at the cost of mass education. Thefamous Wood’s Despatch of 1854streamlined and consolidated the westernsystem of education.

PLEASE FOR MASS EDUCATIONRaja Ram Mohan Roy believed as

much in the education of women as of men.Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar championedthe cause of female education. SwamiDayananda Saraswati was probably the firstIndian champion, of Compulsory PrimaryEducation for all, including women andscheduled castes. He has stated in hismagnum opus, Satyarth Prakash publishedin 1875, “Both state and society shouldmake it compulsory to send their children(both boys and girls) to school after the 5thor at the most 8th year of age and to keepthem there for the period prescribed, i.e uptothe age of 23 for boys and 16 for girls. Itshould be made a penal offence to keep achild at home after that age. In order toproduce the highest type of socialised andcivilised individual, all artificial distinctionsof the rich and the poor, the prince and thepeasant, the Brahman and the Shudra areto be levelled up”. The Muslims who lostto the British a large part of India did nottake kindly to modern education. It wasonly through the efforts of Sir Syed AhmedKhan that a section of them started takinginterest in modern education.

JOTI RAO PHULE’S REVOLUT-IONARY PROPOSALS

Mahatma Joti Rao Phule was a manway ahead of his time. His proposals oncompulsory primary education submitted tothe First Indian Commission (HunterCommission) are as relevant to-day as they


were in 1882. He pleaded for (1) Spreadof female education on a large scale, (2)Spread of education among Mahars, Mangsand other lower classes, that is, scheduledcastes and backward castes, (3) Spread ofeducation among minorities like Muslims and(4) Spread of education in rural areas.

He criticised the greater emphasisgiven by the British on higher education atthe cost of basic education and argued that50% of the budget should be earmarked forprimary education. He wanted thateducation should be reoriented to emphasisetraining of manual skills along with trainingof congnative skills. He pleaded forinstruction on technical education, morality,sanitation, agriculture and some useful arts.All the deficiencies pointed out and theprogrammes advocated by him are asrelevant to-day as they were 115 years agowhen he made the submission to the HunterCommission. (Jotirao Phule-CollectedWorks-Vol.II, Education Department,Government of Maharashtra.)

Dadabhai Naoroji, the grand oldman of India pleaded forcefully before thesame Commission for the introduction ofmass education.

COMPULSORY EDUCATION INPRINCELY STATES

The credit for being the pioneer inintroducing Compulsory Primary Education

in India goes the Princely State of Barodawhich implemented the programme in 1905.Following Baroda, the enlightened rulers ofthe State of Mysore introduced CompulsoryPrimary Education on selective basis in theyear 1913. Visveswaraya took keen interestin its implementation during his Dewanship.It was however, discontinued in the year1920, on ground of financial stringency andon the ground that it reduced the fundingavailable for expansion of primary educationin the rural areas since compulsory primaryeducation was confined to cities and towns.Thereafter also some halting efforts to introducecompulsion were made and given up.

GOKHALE’S CAMPAIGN FORCOMPULSORY EDUCATION

A cause very dear to the heart ofGopal Krishna Gokhale was theuniversalisation of elementary educationthrought the length and breadth of thecountry. Even while he was barely 30 yearsage he made a fervant plea for theintroduction of elementary education on amass scale which addressing the BombayUniversity Graduates Association in 1896.He said “To us it (the primary education)means the future salvation of the country.Universal education alone could help thefarmer to resist exploitation by the moneylender, to improve sanitation, to shake offsuperstitition to increase his earning capacity,to take an intelligent interest in public affairsand remove the reproach that Indian publiclife was the monopoly of a tiny minority”.


* CMDR has developed such a micro-level data bank - MLDB - from its micro level studies.

In 1910, at the first meeting of theImperial Council, Gokhale proposed that “abeginning should be made in the directionof making elementary education free andcompulsory throughout the country”. Sincethe Government assured that it will carefullyconsider his proposal, Gokhale withdrewthe resolution. By introduction of thisresolution, Gokhale succeeded in putting thecase for compulsory education on theNational Agenda. It was discussed widelyin the new papers. It was taken note of byboth the National Congress and the All IndiaMuslim League. Next year Gokhaleintroduced a private member’s bill onElementary Education. The Bill wascirculated for eliciting public opinion.Gokhale visited important cities to mobilisepublic opinion in favour of the Bill. Eventhe Viceroy Hardinge was deply impressed.He expressed the hope that free elementaryeducation would be introduced in Indiabefore he left the country. However mostof the Governors of states stoutly opposedthe Bill. The Governor of Bombay told theViceroy that the agitation for primaryeducation is of recent origin and comes frompeople who are anxious to make British ruleimpossible. The Bill, as expected byGokhale, was defeated with 13 votes in itsfavour and 38 against. However, Gokhaleexpressed his conviction by stating “This Billthrown out to-day will come back again andagain till on its stepping stones of its deadshelves, a measure ultimately arises whichwill spread the light of knowledge throughout

the land”. (B.R.Nanda ; Gokhale; TheIndian Moderates and British Raj, PrincetonUniversity Press) With the introduction ofdiarchy in 1917, Bombay Presidency wasthe first to pass the Compulsory PrimaryAct. Some other provinces also followedsuit. However these Acts were only enablinglegislations, empowering the local bodies tointroduce compulsion if they chose. Mostof the local bodies did not bother tointroduce compulsion and where introduced,the implementation was perfunctory.

MAHATMA GANDHI AND BASICEDUCATION

The next landmark in the history ofIndian education was the system of BasicEducation proposed by Mahatma Gandhiin 1937. Gandhiji described the essentialsof his new system of education as follows :

(1) English having been made the mediumof instruction in all the higher branches oflearning has created a permanent gapbetween the highly educated few and theuneducated many. Absence of vocationaltraining has made the educated class almostunfit for productive work and has harmedthem physically.

(2) The Course of primary educationshould be extended at least to 7 years andshould include the general knowledgeaimed at the Matriculation standard lessEnglish and in addition substantialvocation.


(3) For the all-round development of boysand girls all training should, as far as possible,be given through a profit yielding vocation.In other words, vocations should serve adouble purpose to enable the pupil to payfor his tuition through the products of hislabour and at the same time to develop thewhole man or woman through the vocationlearnt at school.

He further stated “I am a firmbeliever in the principle of free andcompulsory primary education for India. Ialso hold that we shall realise this by teachingthe children a useful vocation and utilising itas a means for cultivating their mental,physical and spiritual faculty.” Basiceducation therefore, laid emphasis on 3 Hs-the development of Head, Heart and Hand.It aimed intellectual, moral and skilldevelopments.

SARGENT REPORT :The Central Advisory Board of

Education set up by the British Governmentprepared in 1944 a Post-War Plan foreducational development. The Post-WarPlan visualised achieving over a period of40 years a standard of educationalattainment as had already been achieved inEngland. With this end in view, itrecommended pre-primary education forchildren between 3 and 6 years of age andfree primary or basic education for allchildren between the ages of 6 and 14,

divided into the junior basic (6-11) andsenior basic (11-14) stages. The reportemphasised the importance ofuniversalisation of education and humanresources development by quoting withapproval the Chinese saying “If you areplanning for one year, plant grain ; if youare planning for 10 years plant trees; if youare planning for 100 years, plant men.” Thereport strongly pleaded for the introductionof free and compulsory primary educationbut expressed its opinion that the task canbe completed only over a period of 40years.

LITERACY LEVELS AT THE END OFCOLONIAL RULE

After more than 100 years ofintroduction of modern education bycolonial administration, the progress ofprimary education as measured by theliteracy rate was abysmally low. The rateof literacy in 1881 was 6.3%. R.V.Parulekarhas pointed out that even during 1931 theliteracy rate was less than 10% among adultsand no more than 2% among women. Thisshows that little growth in literacy hadoccurred since 1881. At the time ofindependence in 1947 it is estimated thatless than 15% of the adult population wasliterate. The rate of literacy increased to16.6% for the year 1951. Literacy rate forwomen in 1951 was 7.9% and for men24.9%. The total percentage of literacyvaried among the then major States from alow figure of 8.93% in Rajasthan to a high


31.48% in Kerala (Table 1). Let it be notedthat the literacy rates do not indicate thenumber of persons who have completed theprimary cycle of education. They are usedas rough and ready indicators of personswho have had at least a modicum of primaryeducation. More details about this will beexplained in a subsequent chapter.

AFTER INDEPENDENCE

DIRECTIVE PRINCIPLES OFSTATE POLICY

Indian leaders like DadabhaiNavroji and Joti Rao Phule had pleaded for

compulsory education in the 1880s. Duringthe first part of the 20th Century,Gopalakrishna Gokhale and MahatmaGandhi had championed it most forcefully.Naturally, the founding fathers of ourConstitution had to take a stand on thisimportant issue. The proceedings of theConstituent Assembly throw light on thissubject. The Sub-Committee of theConstituent Assembly on FundamentalRights had, after due consideration, placedthe right to education among justifiablefundamental rights. The proposed Articlestated “Every citizen is entitled as of right tofree primary education and it shall be theduty of the State to provide within a periodof 10 years from the commencement of thisConstitution for free and compulsory primaryeducation for all children until they completethe age of 14 years”. However, it was laterdecided not to include the right to educationas a fundamental right on the ground that theGovernment may not be able to provide therequired funds and hence the right toeducation was included in the DirectivePrinciples of State Policy as Article 45 ofthe Constitution. It reads: “The State shallendeavour to provide, within a period of 10years from the commencement of thisConstitution, for free and compulsoryeducation for all children until they completethe age of 14 years”

Professor K.T.Shah, a member ofthe Fundamental Rights Sub-Committeewrote a note of dissent and expressed hisapprehension that, “The non-justiciable rights

TABLE .1

LITERACY RATES OF MAJOR STATES, 1951.

Percentage of Literacy

States Persons Rank Males Females

INDIA 16.60 24.90 7.9

Andhra Pradesh 13.1 10 19.7 6.5

Assam 18.3 7 27.4 7.9

Bihar 12.2 11 20.5 3.8

Gujarat 23.1 3 32.3 13.5

Himachal Pradesh 7.7 15 12.6 2.4

Jammu & Kashmir -- -- -- --

Karnataka 19.3 6 29.1 9.2

Kerala 40.7 1 50 31.5

Madhya Pradesh 9.8 13 16.2 3.2

Maharastra 20.9 4 31.4 9.7

Orissa 15.8 8 27.3 4.5

Punjab 15.2 9 21 8.5

(including Haryana)

Rajasthan 8.9 14 14.4 3

Tamil Nadu 20.8 5 31.7 10

Uttar Pradesh 10.8 12 17.4 3.6

West Bengal 24 2 34.2 12.2

Source: Census of India 1951.

Note:Literacy Rate is for age group 5 and above.


to which education was now relegatedwould remain as no more than so many piouswishes. Given this differentiation, the Unionand State Governments will be encouragedto stress or invent excuses why any of thesenon-justiciable rights should not be giveneffect to. By keeping them on the StatuteBook without making them imperativeobligations of the State towards the citizen,we would be perpetrating a needless fraud,since it would provide an excellent windowdressing without any stock behind thatdressing.” (Nalini Juneja : ConstitutionalCommitments - Seminar April 1998).

The Directive Principles of StatePolicy nevertheless cast the moralresponsibility on the States of making primaryeducation compulsory. Compulsoryeducation Acts have been enacted in severalStates and Union Territories of India bothbefore and after independence. However, ithas been a lackadaisical attempt, as most ofthese legislations are merely enablinglegislations which authorise local bodies likeMunicipal Councils and Zilla Panchayats tointroduce compulsion in their jurisdiction.Some local authorities in these States didmake efforts to introduce compulsion in theirjurisdiction. But with the passage of years,the implementation of compulsory primaryeducation acts has fallen into disuse even inStates which initiated the legislation. As theconstitutional right to free and compulsoryprimary education was only a DirectivePrinciple of State Policy, the states could getaway without implementing the programme.

JAWAHARLAL NEHRU AND THEMAHALANOBIS MODEL

The first national plan was in essencea patch work of various schemes of post-war reconstruction drawn up by the colonialgovernment. The new strategy for nationaldevelopment took shape only with thelaunching of the second Plan based on theMahalanobis model. But this plan gave littleimportance to education in general and inparticular to primary education. In fact, itconsidered education and health services associal services, with the result that wheneverthere was a cut in plan expenditure, it affectedthese sectors the most. Hence, the aptcomment of Prof.J.K.Galbraith “Once itwas understood an educated populace is thefirst requirement for economic progress.That essential fact was forgotten : impressivesteel mills, great hydro-electric dams weretoo often cited amid ignorant people. I havepreviously made the point that in this worldthere is no literate population that is poor,no illiterate population that is other thanpoor.” The only amendment one mightsuggest to Prof.Galbraith’s conclusion is that“There is no literate population that is notdeveloped, no illiterate population that isother than developed.”

NEGLECT OF PRIMARY EDU-CATION BY NEHRU

It is indeed surprising that JawaharlalNehru who was influenced by the leftistideology did not heed the exhortation ofLenin who had said immediately after theOctober Revolution that “Revolution is


Literacy plus Electricity”. All communistcountries have mounted successfullyvigorous programmes of universalisation ofelementary education and adult literacy.Vietnam fought two wars, first against Franceand then against the United States, theforemost super power in the world. In spiteof its war torn economy and poverty it hasattained a literacy rate exceeding 90%.

Neglect of primary education byNehru is also evidenced by the fact that underhis Prime Ministership the first Commissionin independent India to be set up related toUniversity Education and the secondCommission related to SecondaryEducation. No Commission on PrimaryEducation per se was set up, though it hadbeen championed by such eminent Indianslike Swamy Dayanand Saraswati, Joti RaoPhule, Dadabhai Navroji, GopalakrishnaGhokhale and Mahatma Gandhi. Hence,the lament of Gill “No area of reform wasmore important for a resergent India thanmass education and in none was Nehru’sfailure more pronounced. And if Nehru didnot perceive the Deminal value of masseducation, none of his successors could.”(S.S.Gill - The Dynasty - A PoliticalBiography of the Premier Ruling Family ofModern India)

EDUCATION COMMISSION (1964-66)The third Commission (Kothari

Commission) to be set up was the EducationCommission (1964-66), which had to take

a comprehensive view of the entire gamutof education beginning from pre-primary touniversity education. It recommended 5years of good education for all children tobe achieved within ten years and 7 years ofeducation within 20 years. Yet anotherimportant recommendation of the KothariCommission was the concept ofneighbourhood school which required all thechildren living in the catchment area to attendit. It favoured work experience as an integralpart of general education and pleaded forvocationalisation of education at thesecondary level. Based on therecommendations of the KothariCommission the National policy of Educationwas formulated in 1968.

EDUCATION IN THE CONCURRENTLIST

In 1976, education was placed inthe concurrent list. With this change primaryeducation could lay claim to funding not onlyfrom the states whose financial resources arelimited but also from the Centre. This iscrucial as states which are both financiallyand educationally backward need to providemuch higher outlays for financing theuniversalisation of elementary education.

NATIONAL POLICY ONEDUCATION 1986 (AS MODIFIEDIN 1992)

The National policy on Education1986 identified the sectors which neededspecial support as they were lagging far


behind the general level of educationalattainment. Thery were :

I. Education for Women’s equality : Theremoval of Women’s illiteracy and obstaclesfor their access to education and preventionof detention in elementary education shouldbe given over-riding priority by providingspecial support services.

II. Education for Scheduled Castes : Theimportant measures contemplated to raisethe educational level of scheduled castesincluded

(i) Incentives to poorer sections of S.C.families to send their children to school.

(ii) Recruitment of teachers from scheduledcastes.

(iii)Suitable location of school building,balawadi and adult educational centres tofacilitate full utilisation by the ScheduledCastes.

III.Education of Scheduled Tribes : Themeasures recommended were :

(i) High priority to be accorded to openingprimary schools in tribal areas

(ii) Developing curricula and instructionalmaterials in tribal languages.

(iii)Training and appointing scheduled tribeteachers.

(iv) Provision on liberal scale fo anganwadi/non-formal and adult educational centresin areas inhabited by scheduled tribes.

IV. Emphasis was also proposed to be givento the education ofbackward sections andareas, minorities and the handicapped.

V. The new thrust in elementary educationwas to be on

(i) Universal access and enrolment.

(ii) Universal retention of children up tofourteen years of age

(iii)Improvement in the quality of educationand

(iv) School facilities to be improved byproviding all schools with at least threerooms and three teachers, as against tworooms and two teachers proposed under theprogremme of “Operation Black Board”.

The new education policy sought toensure that free and compulsory educationof a satisfactory quality is provided to allchildren up to the age of fourteen yearsbefore entering the 21st century DistrictInstitutes of Education and Training (DIET)would be established for improving teachereducation both in its pre-service and inservice stages. They were also to providetraining for personnel working in non-formaland adult education areas.


DISTRICT PRIMARY EDUCATIONPROGRAMME

District Primary EducationProgramme was started in 1993 withfinancing from External Agencies. This wasthe first time foreign funds were utilised on amassive scale for educational developmentat the primary stage. The programme ismeant to encourage decentralised planningwith major participation of local bodies,NGOs and the community. Districts selectedunder the programme were the backwarddistrict where female literacy was below thenational average. The programmeemphasised education for girls and for sociallybackward groups. It laid special emphasison improving the quality of education.

PROGRESS DURING THE FIRSTFIFTY YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

The total enrolment in the primaryand upper primary schools has increasedfrom 22.3 millions in 1950-51 to 147.3millions in 1994-95, about six and a halftimes. The enrolment of girls during thesame period has increased from 5.9 millionsto 61.6 millions, is ten and a half times. Thenumber of primary and upper primaryschools has increased from 2,23,000schools in 1950-51 to 7,45,000 in 94-95.The total enrolment of boys and girls at theprimary stage which was 42.6 per cent in1950-51 has risen to 104.3 per cent in 95-96 and enrolment in upper primary schoolshas risen from 12.7 per cent in 1951 to 67.6per cent in 95-96. The enrolment in theelementary stage, that is, from class I to

class VIII has improved from 32.1 per centin 1951 to 90.9 per cent in 95-96 (MHRD1996 Selected Educational Statistics 1995-96). The literacy rate at 16.60 per cent,that is, below 20% in 1951 has gone up to52.2 per cent, thereby crossing the 50 percent mark in 1991. The Indian educationalenterprise is one of the largest in the world.Taking into consideration the increases in thetotal enrolment of boys and girls, the grossenrolment ratio, the number of schools andthe literacy rate, it is claimed that India hasmade substantial progress sinceindependence.

The Directive Principles of StatePolicy laid down that the State shouldprovide free and compulsory education toall children up to the age of fourteen yearsby 1960. The Kothari Commission oneducation proposed that compulsoryeducation of five years duration be achievedby 75-76 and of eight years duration by1985-86. National Policy on Education asmodified in 1992 had indicated that free andcompulsory education of satisfactory qualityshould be provided to all children up tofourteen years before entering the 21stcentury. The Loksabha, on the occasion ofthe Golden jubilee of independence, adoptedinter alia, the resolution that universal primaryeducation may be achieved by 2005, that isfive years after the dawn of the newmillenium. The National Agenda of the BJPand its allies, who are in power states, “Wewill implement the constitutional provisionof making primary education free andcompulsory up to 5th standard”. The


Constitutional provision envisaged free andcompulsory primary education up to 14years of age that is of 8 years duration to beachievd by 1960, but now we have the

promise of the party in power to provide 5years of education but without fixing a targetdate ! Other features of our dismal performancein universalisation of primary education are :-(1) Literacy rate of 51% in India in 1994 islower not only in comparison to East Asian,South East Asian and West Asian Islamic

countries but also it is lower than the literacyrate of 56% of Sub-Saharan African countries.India now has slipped into the group of the leastdeveloped countries of the world (Table 3)

(2) What is more distressing is that there arewide disparities among Indian States. Literacyrate varies from Kerala’s 89.1% to Bihar’s38.48%. The major States in India havingliteracy rates lower than the literacy rates of leastdeveloped countries are Bihar (38.48%), (2)Rajasthan (38.5%), (3) Uttar Pradesh

LITERACY RATES OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, 1994.

S.KOREA 98% THAILAND 93%

N.KOREA 95% VIETNAM 93%

CHINA 81% MALAYSIA 83%

INDONESIA 83%

MYANMAR 82%

ISLAMIC WEST ASIA SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

JORDAN 85% ZIMBABWE 85%

SYRIA 70% SOUTH AFRICA 81%

IRAN 69% KENYA 77%

SAUDI ARABIA 62% ZAMBIA 77%

IRAQ 58% ZAIRE 76%

SOUTH ASIA

SRILANKA 90%

INDIA 51%

BANGLA DESH 37%

PAKISTAN 37%

ALL DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 70%

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN COUNTRIES 56%

INDIA 51%

LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES 48%

Source: Human Development Report 1997 (UNDP OXFORD)

Note: Literacy rates are for the age group 15 and above.

Table-2

SOUTH EAST ASIAEAST ASIA


(48.60%), (4) Andhra Pradesh (44.0%) and(5) Madhya Pradesh (44.20%). The totalpopulation of these States is 25.56 crores(3) There are large inequalities in educationalachievements between males and females,between urban and rural areas and betweendifferent social groups like Scheduled Castes

and Scheduled Tribes. Female literacy is39.29 against male literacy of 64.23, ruralliteracy is 44.54 against urban literacy of

73.01. SC & ST literacy rates are 37.4and 29.60 respectively against the overallrate of 52.21. What is even worse is thatthe rural female literacy rate is only 19%among scheduled Castes and 16% amongScheduled Tribes and below 10% in thebackward districts of Bihar, Madhya

Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan and UttarPradesh. In 1981 literacy rates of all ruralScheduled Caste women were even below

STATES

Persons Rank Male Female S.C S.T. Rural Urban

INDIA 52.21 64.23 39.29 37.41 29.6 44.69 73.08

Andhra Pradesh 44.09 13 55.13 32.72 31.59 17.16 35.74 66.35

Asam 52.89 10 61.87 43.03 53.94 49.16 49.32 79.39

Bihar 38.48 16 52.49 22.18 19.49 26.78 33.83 67.89

Gujarat 61.29 5 73.13 48.64 61.07 36.45 53.09 76.54

Haryana 55.85 9 69.01 40.47 39.22 -- 49.85 73.66

Himachal Pradesh 63.86 3 75.36 52.13 53.2 47.09 61.86 84.17

Jammu & Kashmir -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Karnataka 56.04 8 67.26 44.34 38.06 36.01 47.69 74.2

Kerala 89.81 1 91.62 86.17 79.66 57.22 88.92 92.25

Madhya Pradesh 44.2 12 58.42 28.85 35.08 21.54 35.87 70.81

Maharastra 64.87 2 76.56 52.32 56.46 36.79 55.52 79.2

Orissa 49.09 11 63.09 34.68 36.78 22.31 45.46 71.99

Punjab 58.51 6 65.66 50.41 41.09 -- 52.77 72.08

Rajasthan 38.55 15 54.99 20.44 26.29 19.44 30.37 65.33

Tamil Nadu 62.66 4 73.75 51.35 46.74 27.89 54.59 77.99

Uttar Pradesh 41.6 14 55.73 25.31 26.85 35.7 36.66 61

West Bengal 57.7 7 67.81 46.56 42.21 27.78 50.5 75.27

Source: Census of India 1991

Note : Literacy is for age group 7 and above in 1991 Census

No Census was held in Jammu and Kashmir.

TABLE :3

LITERACY RATES OF MAJOR STATES, 1991

ALL


1% in several districts of Uttar Pradesh andRajasthan.

(4) Even among young boys and girlsparticularly in rural areas illiteracy iswidespread. For example, 1/2 of all ruralfemales in 10-14 age group in India andalmost 2/3rds in Uttar Pradesh are illiterate.

(5) The proporation of rural females aged12-14 who have never been enrolled in anyschool is above one half in India as a wholeand above 2/3rds in Uttar Pradesh, MadhyaPradesh and Bihar and 82% in Rajasthan.

(6) Only half of all children enrolled in classI are still at school 4 years later which showsthe enormity of drop out rate.

(7) Low enrolment and retention rates implythat the proportion of persons who completethe primary cycle of 5 classes is extremelylow. In 1981 the proportion of Indianadults who had completed primaryeducation was below 1/3rd. In the sameyear only one out of nine adult women inUttar Pradesh had completed theprimary cycle. In 1992-93 the proportionof females aged 6 and above who hadcompleted primary education was 28.1%and males 48.6%. The average number ofyears of schooling for persons aged 25 andabove is only 2.4 in India (1.2 for femalesand 3.5 for males), compared with 5.0 yearsin China, 7.2 years in Sri Lanka and 9.3years in South Korea. (Jean Dreze &

Amartya Sen : India EconomicDevelopment and Social Opportunity).

(8) On top of the above deficiencies, thequality of education is abysmally poor. Astudy of student achievement in MadhyaPradesh found that about 70% of GradeIV students and 60% of Grade Vstudents from schools in good urban areashad not mastered competency in Hindiand Mathematics that was to be expectedfor Grade II students and in a highlyunder-developed rural area of the StateNOT ONE Grade IV or Grade V studenthad mastered the Grade II competencyin regional language and mathematics.Even in a highly educationally advancedState like Kerala the learning achievementis poor.

(9) Yet another distressing feature of theeducational scenario is the increase ofabsolute number of illiterates in India. Thenumber which was 29.39 crores in 1951has climbed up to 49.18 crores in 1991.At 49 crores, the number of illiterates ismuch larger than the total population ofIndia of 36 crores in 1951! (ClassStruggle : India To-day, October 13,1997).

President Dr.K.R.Narayanan hasobserved that India has the “disgracefuldistinction” of having the largest numberof illiterates of any country in the world.(Mainstream, September 13, 1997).


FOUNDING OF EDUCATIONOne important reason for the dismal

performance is the inadequate funding of theelementary educational programme.Expenditure on elementary education whichconstituted 56% in the first Plan dipped to24% during the Plan holiday period of 1966-69 and has slowly risen to 47% in the EighthPlan. Nevertheless it is still less than whatits share was in the First Plan. In 1992 thetotal public expenditure on the educationsector as a whole was 3.8% of GNP. Weare nowhere near reaching 6% of the GNPfor the educational sector and providing notless than 50% for elementary education. Inthe last decade, however, there is a slowrising trend on expenditure earmarked forthis sector. But what is most disconcertingis that some thing like 95% of expenditureon elementary education is spent on salary,leaving practically nothing for spending onother important dimensions of education likeschool buildings, play-grounds, furniture,library, laboratory, etc., Jean Dreze andAmarthya Sen have drawn attention to thedistressing fact that with the rising salariesof teachers, there is even a decline in theabsolute number of teachers in primaryand upper-primary schools between1991-92 and 1992-93. This underscoresthe necessity of increasing the totalprovision for education at 6% of GNPand enhancing the share earmarked forelementary education to not less than50% of the total provision.

UNEQUAL PROGRESS :(1) Since independence some states havemade remarkably good progress in theuniversalisation of education. The mostspectacular progress made is that ofHimachal Pradesh. Its percentage ofliteracy in 1951 was only 7.71%, thelowest in the whole country, lower thanthat of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh,Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh (Table 1).By 1991 it had achieved the third rankwith a literacy rate of 63.86%, next onlyto Kerala and Maharashtra. It evenexceeded though marginally the muchappreciated literacy rate of 62.66% ofTamil Nadu. Jean Dreze has identifiedthe following features of progress ofeducation in Himachal Pradesh.

(i) The transition from mass illiteracyto near universalisation of primaryeducation has taken place within ashort period of 40 years compared tomore than a century taken by Kerala.

(ii) Educational progress in HimachalPradesh has been based almost entirelyon government schools, with relativelylittle contributions from private schools,missionary organisations, etc.,

(iii)Himachal Pradesh has anunfavourable topography (This hasbeen considerably mitigated by the


construction of border roadsconsequent on Chinese war). The studyconducted by the Centre forDevelopment Economics has identifiedhigh level of parental motivation andactive state involvement and relativelylow level of poverty as being responsiblefor the progress achieved. (Jean Dreze,Primary Priorities, Times of India, July23, 1997).

(2) A little noticed fact is the progressmade by Maharashtra which washaving the fourth rank with 20.9%literacy in 1951. It now occupiessecond rank with 64.87% among majorstates. This is all the more remarkableas Maharashtra got some veryeducationally backward districts fromthe former princely State of Hyderabadand as it is a very populous state. WhileTamil Nadu’s progress with 62.66%literacy in 1991 is much appreciated,the higher achievement of Mahaashtrain spite of the odds noted is nothighlighted.

(3) West Bengal in 1951 had the secondrank in literacy, next only to Keralabut has now slipped to seventh rankbelow the States of Maharashtra,Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu,Gujarat and Punjab. (Table 3). It is assurprising as it is unfortunate since theState under Leftist rule in the last fewdecades has made good progress in land

reforms, a laudable social objective,trigerring equitable development. WestBengal is probably the only communiststate in the world which has not givendue attention to universalisation ofeducation.

(4) Andhra Pradesh has now joined theranks of the so called BIMARU statesof Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthanand Uttar Pradesh with its literacy rateof 44.09 which is lower than the literacyrate of Madhya Pradesh of 44.20 ! Thisis all the more pathetic as it is the fifthlargest state with almost 8 per cent ofIndia’s population.

(5) The abysmal state of illiteracy inUttar Pradesh is all the more deplorableconsidering that Jawaharlal Nehru,Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi,Rajiv Gandhi, V.P.Singh andChandrasekhar, who were PrimeMinisters of India for a total period ofmore than 40 years have hailed from thisState ! No better proof of the lack ofpolitical will and commitment to masseducation on the part of the topleadership can be found.

MAHBUB UL HAQ ON EDUCA-TIONAL SCENE IN SOUTH ASIA

Mahbub ul Haq has characterised theeducational scene in South Asia as thevast desert of illiteracy. He has pointed


out that the South Asian literacy rateincreased by 1.8% a year during 1960-1993 compared to 3.1% of the Sub-Saharan Africa. Stating from anaverage adult literacy rate of 32% in1970, South Asia reached a level of 48%by 1993. During the same period Sub-Saharan Africa had more than doubledits adult literacy level from 27% to 55%.This is all the more remarkable as manycountries in Sub-Saharan Africaexperienced ethnic strife and negativeGDP growth for the last two decades.Unlike Sub-Saharan Africa, economicgrowth in South Asia has beenreasonable and national resources havecontinued to expand. (Mahbub ul Haq,Human Development in South Asia1997).

3.CHALLENGES AND OPPORTU-NITIES OF UNIVERSALISATIONOF EDUCATION

MULTIFARIOUS USES OFEDUCATION :

At the close of twentieth century,there is a much better understanding of themultifarious uses of universalisation ofeducation. They are :

1. Education is an end in itself. It enablespeople to enrich their lives by providingaccess to literature, philosophy, science,technology, religion etc.,

2. Empowerment of weaker sections likethe poor/backward castes/rural folks/women/scheduled castes/scheduled tribesetc., is unthinkable without mass education.Greater literacy and educational attainmentsof disadvantaged groups can increase theirability to resist oppression to organisethemselves politically and to get a fair deal.

3. The benefits of educating women are :(i) It enhances the age of marriage of girlsthereby eliminating child marriages. (ii)Marriage at the appropriate age contributesto the health of the mother and child. (iii) Itreduces maternal as well as infant mortalityrates. (iv) It improves the health of womenand thereby their life expectancy. (v)Demographers have identified femaleliteracy combined with high labourparticipation rate as the most effective meansof controlling the growth of population. Itnot only motivates women to limit theirfamilies but also equips them with theknowledge of using the methods of familyplanning efficiently. (vi) It can help to correctthe imbalances in the proportion of men andwomen. It is a matter of great concern thatthere are only 40.34 crores of women inIndia as against 43.52 crores of malesaccording to the 1991 Census. In otherwords, there are 3.38 crores fewer womenthan men. The empowerment of womenthrough education is the most potentweapon for correcting this imbalance.

(4) Education will help in preparing citizensto take part sensibly in the multi-lingual,


multi-religious and multi-ethnicdemocratic and secular policy of India.

(5) Compulsory Primary Education uptothe age of 14 is a very effective means ofgetting rid the scourge of child labour.

(6) The benefits of education are notconfined only to the person who receiveseducation. For example, one person’seducational ability can be of use to another(e.g., to get a pamphlet read, to get apetition written). It is found that anilliterate farmer having his farm adjacentto a literate farmer can absorbtechnological developments better.

(7) All levels of education give high ratesof return both to the individual (privatereturns) and society (social retrns.)However the rates of return to individualsare much higher in case PrimaryEducation than the rates of return in thecases of Secondary and UniversityEducation.

(8) The two most important policyinstruments available to induceproductivity growth agriculture are

irrigation and primary education.Unfortunately even to-day there is lackappreciation in India of the importance ofeducation for reping the benefits of technologyadvance in agriculture.

(9) For a participatory and wide spread economicdevelopment basic education for a very substantialpart of the labour force is a must. As Jean /dreze andAmartya Sen have pointed out “it may be much lessglamorous to make simple pocket knives and reliablealarm clocks than to design state-of-the-art computerprogrammes but the former gives the Chinese poor asource of income that the latter does not provide atleast not directly to the Indian poor.”

KERALA’S EXAMPLE :Kerala stands out as a beacon in the

midst of the encircling gloom of India’s illiteracy.Its total literacy rate is 89.81% as against India’s52.21%. Its Female Literacy rate of 86.2%is higher than the male literacy rate of everyother-State of India. No region even in Chinahas a literacy rate comparable to Kerala’s. Asa result, Kerala enjoys high human developmentin life Expectancy, Family Planning, Reductionof Infant mortality, as shown below. (Table-4)

TABLE :4

DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS

Region Adult Literacy Rate Life Expectancy Total Fertility Infant Mortality

Male Female Male Female Rate Rate

India 64 39 59 59 3.7 80

Kerala 94 86 69 74 1.8 16

China 87 68 68 71 2 31

Srilanka 94 85 70 74 2.5 18

S.Korea 99 95 67 75 1.8 13

Source : Economic Development & Social Opportunity by Jean Dreze & Amartya Sen


It is remarkable that Kerala’svoluntary family planning programme is moresuccessful than China’s One ChildCompulsory Programme. This is so inspiteof the fact that about 40% of the populationof Kerala is Muslim and Catholic who aretraditionally considered to be against familyplanning. The life expectancy of both menand women is higher in Kerala than in Chinaand infant mortality rate is lower. Its humandevelopment is comparable to that of

S.Korea, a country with several times theper capita income of Kerala. Sri Lanka,the only country with high literacy rate inSouth Asia, also enjoy a lead over Chinain human development in most areas, in spiteof its long drawn out civil war.

LITERACY AND DEVELOPMENTIN INDIAN STATES

Literacy and a few important basicindicators of development of major Statesare presented (Table-5). By and large,

4 5 6 7 8

Sl. Name of Females/1000 Married Women Total Infant Net

No. the state males 1991 as % of all Fertility Mortility Domestic

Women in15-19 Rate Rate Product

age group

F M F M F M 1991 1991 1990-92 1991-92

INDIA 39.30 64.10 28.10 48.60 59.40 59.00 927.00 46.00 3.60 80.00 5583.00

1 Kerala 86.20 93.60 60.50 65.80 74.40 68.80 1036.00 14.00 1.80 17.00 4618.00

2 Maharashtra 52.30 76.60 35.90 55.10 64.70 63.10 934.00 38.00 3.00 59.00 8180.00

3 Hi. Pradesh 52.10 75.40 39.20 56.80 NA NA 976.00 32.00 3.10 70.00 5355.00

4 T. Nadu 51.30 73.80 40.10 58.70 63.20 61.00 974.00 23.00 2.20 58.00 5078.00

5 Gujarat 48.60 73.10 33.50 53.60 61.30 59.10 934.00 27.00 3.10 69.00 6425.00

6 Punjab 50.40 65.70 41.00 51.60 67.50 65.40 882.00 13.00 3.10 57.00 9643.00

7 W.Bengal 46.60 67.80 29.20 47.40 62.00 60.50 917.00 38.00 3.20 66.00 5386.00

8 Karnataka 44.30 67.30 30.40 46.80 63.60 60.00 960.00 36.00 3.10 73.00 5555.00

9 Haryana 40.50 69.10 30.90 53.50 63.60 62.20 865.00 48.00 4.00 71.00 8690.00

10 Assam 43.00 61.90 28.50 41.20 NA NA 923.00 NA 3.50 76.00 4230.00

11 Orissa 34.70 63.10 23.00 42.80 54.80 55.90 971.00 31.00 3.30 120.00 4068.00

12 M. Pradesh 28.90 58.40 21.00 44.60 53.50 54.10 931.00 62.00 4.60 111.00 4077.00

13 A. Pradesh 32.70 55.10 26.40 45.30 61.50 59.00 972.00 56.00 3.00 71.00 5570.00

14 U. Pradesh 25.30 55.70 21.40 47.30 54.60 56.80 879.00 61.00 5.10 98.00 4012.00

15 Rajasthan 20.40 55.00 15.60 41.80 57.80 57.60 910.00 64.00 4.60 84.00 4361.00

16 Bihar 22.90 52.50 17.40 42.90 58.30 NA 911.00 64.00 4.40 72.00 2904.00

Source : Jean Dreze & Amatya Sen : Economic Development & Soci F - Females M - Males

TABLE :5

INDIA - LITERACY RATE AND SOME BASIC INDICATORS

MAJOR STATES

Literacy Rate Life

Expectancy

1990-92

31 2

1991

Persons 6 & above

Completing Primary

Education 1992-93.


higher literacy rates are correlated withhigher life expectancy. Less skewed rate offemales to males, higher age at marriage, lowinfant mortality rate and low fertiliser rate.States with high literacy rates like Kerala,Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, TamilNadu, Gujarat, Punjab, West Bengal,Karnataka and Haryana bear testimony tothis. Likewise, by and large, states with lowliteracy rates like Orissa, Madhya Pradesh,Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Bihar havelower life expectancy, lower age at marriage,higher infant mortality and higher fertility ratesand are also having lower net domesticproduct per capita.

CASTE SYSTEM AND ITSADVERSE EFFECTS

The caste system which is uniqueto India has been and continues to be thebiggest hurdle for the spread of education.The scheduled castes were prohibited fromparticipating in the educational process rightfrom the time of Manu. The credit foradmitting scheduled astes to educationalinstitutions goes to the Christianmissionaries. They were the first to takethis step by the late 18th and early 19thCentury. It was no doubt motivated by theirdesire for proselytization. East IndiaCompany also began admitting theScheduled Castes into schools during thelater period of its rule. There is the historicalcase of the teachers and students belongingto the higher castes threatening to boycott aschool in Dharwad in Karnataka State in

1856 if Scheduled Castes students wereadmitted to the school. Ultimately, theCompany decided to call the bluff of uppercastes by admitting the scheduled castesstudents. Mention has already been madeof the poineering effort of Mahatma Phulein starting schools for them.

In spite of the support of eminentIndians like Swamy Dayananda Saraswati,Mahatma Phule, Narayan Guru, MahatmaGandhi, Ramaswamy Naicker, ChhatrapatiSahu Maharaj, Karmaveer Bhau Rao Patiland B.R.Ambedkar for the education ofscheduled castes; there are hurdles facedby them even to this day in several states ingaining admission to schools and in gettingequal facility to sit along with caste studentsas their equals. Primary schools are notusually set up in the Scheduled Castevillages and hamlets and obstacles are putin the way of Scheduled Castes childrenattending schools in rural areas.

People belonging to otherbackward castes, that is, shudras, were notexpected to get education, though they weretouchables. Because of their tradition oflearning, Brahmins (of course males only tobegin with) took to modern education withgreat alacrity. As a result they came tooccupy most positions in government andin the professions. The backward castesparticularly in the South and in WesternMaharashtra agitated for reservations inhigher education and in government service


and secured them before independence. Itis pertinent to observe that it was only asmall section of the backward casteswhich got educated and entered intogovernment jobs and professions. Oncethis small section of the backward castesimproved its position, it stoppedbothering about spread of elementaryeducation among other members of itscastes, who were numerous, poor andbackward. It internalised the outlook foBrahmins of pursuing only intellectualdevelopment and looking down ondevelopment of manual skills. This maybe considered as a species ofSanskritisation cum Westernisationrestricted to miniscular sections of theBackward castes (now called the creamylayer) to ensure that the benefits aremonopolised by the creamy layer. It foughtand continues to fight for reservations onlyin courses like Engineering, Medicine,Business Management etc., and is supremelyindifferent to the promotion of elementaryeducation for the large sections of scheduledcastes, scheduled tribes, backward castesand women. Naturally, the impact ofBackward castes movement inuniversalisation elementary education hasbeen very marginal.

Amartya Sen makes the pertinentobservation that the British in India took littleinterest in elementary education, but on theother hand were quite keen on creatinginstitutions of higher learning in the good old

Brahminical mode; but the same British inBuddhist Burma gave much moreencouragement to the expansion ofelementary teaching, even though theytended to do rather little for highereducation. (Amartya Sen; Radical Needsand Moderate Reforms, IndianDevelopment OUP). This is corroboratedby the excellent record of the British inspreading mass education in Sri Lanka,another Buddhist country.

WOMEN’S EDUCATION LAGS FARBEHIND :

The other Achillees’ heel of Indiansociety is the very low status accorded toall women irrespective of their caste/religion.In the early part of the 19th century someHindus believed that a woman who getseducation will soon become a widow. It istherefore no wonder that the education ofwomen lags far behind. At the end of the19th century female literacy rate was below1% in every province of British India. TheIndian tradition of not giving education togirls continues to have its sway even to-day.Three reasons may be noted for thecontinuing slow progress of womens’education. (1) The gender division of labourtends to reduce perceived benefits of femaleeducation. It is felt that education for girls isnot of much use, as they have to spend mostof their adult life in domestic work and childrearing. This perception is however onlypartly true as education of women evenwithin the family is highly beneficial for


human development. (2) Leaving herpaternal home and settling with the in-lawsafter marriage further undermines theimportance of female education. Educationof a girl is compared to watering a plant inanother person’s garden. (3) Practice ofdowry which has these days spread to thelower castes turns female education into aliability, as an educated girl is expected tomarry a more educated boy thereby forcingthe parents to pay a higher dowry. Howeverthis argument will apply to a much greaterextent in the case of girls with highereducation than in the case of girls with onlyelementary education. (4) Paucity ofwomen teachers in many rural schools is yetanother hurdle in the education of girls asparents do not like their girls to be educatedby men teachers. (5) Absence of separatetoilets and the distance involved in reachingschools in a different village add to theproblems of girl students. (6) Theexpectation that elder girls in the familyshould look after their siblings also comesin the way of expansion of female education.

The credit for being pioneers in theeducation of girls as in the case of scheduledcastes goes to the Christian missionaries whoset up schools for girls in late 18th centuryand early 19th century. Others who tookspecial interest in education of girls andwomen were Raja Ram Mohan Roy andIshwar Chandra Vidyasagar in Bengal, JyothiRao Phule, Pandita Rama Rai andD.K.Karve and Maharashtra.

It is clear that the caste-system hasbeen one of the two major hurdles to theuniversalisation of education, the other beingthe inferior status of women in the Indiansocial system. Buddhist societies which arenot built on caste basis and which also usepeople’s language for religious purposesunlike Hindus and Muslims who believe intransacting religious rituals in God’slanguages of Sanskrit & Arabic respectivelyhave shown great progress in masseducation. Myanmar (Burma) with a percapita income lower than that of India has aliteracy rate of 82.60%. Sri Lanka hasachieved a literacy rate of 89%.

The Sub-Saharan African countriesincreased their literacy rate at 3.1% perannum during 1960-93 compared to 1.8%in South Asian countries. In the 50s and60s these African countries were getting highschool and college teachers from India.Many of the Sub-Saharan African countriessuffered from ethnic conflicts and famines.The per capita income of many of thesecountries declined during this period unlikein the case of India.

In spite of these hurdles, the sub-Saharan African countries have shown amuch higher increase in literacy ! Thisacclerated progress of elementary educationcould take place in Sub-Saharan Africancountries probably because of the absenceof caste system and on account of betterposition of women as denibstrated by a


higher female-male ratio in sub-SaharanAfrica compared to India/South Asia.

CHILD LABOUR :It is argued that in a country where

a large portion of population lives below thepoverty line, the earning of children is verymuch needed since it can contribute to thefamily income and thereby mitigate thefamily’s hardship. On this ground on whicheven well intentioned persons, includingsome social workers, oppose theintroduction of compulsory education. It isnecessary to examine this matter, thoughbriefly.

It is true that a large number ofchildren are working in not only agriculture,domestic sector but also in hazardousindustries like glass-blowing, pottery making,match and cracker manufacturing.According to one estimate the number ofworking children in India is estimated to be17 million. Employers prefer appointmentof child labour and particularly female childlabour as it is cheap and also as childrencannot unionise and resist malpractices ofemployers. Middle class families are happyto employ children as cheap domestic help.

Trade Union movement has nottaken up cudgels against child labour as it isdifficult to organise them and the return fromtheir organisations are not consideredworthwhile. However, it is heartening to seethat NGOs are now championing the cause

of child labour and are trying to create publicopinion for the total banning of children fromall occupations and for making educationcompulsory upto the age of 14. TheSupreme Court has also ruled against theemployment of child labour in hazardousindustries.

Fortunately public opinion is nowbuilding up in favour of banning childlabour and making elementary educationcompulsory till the age of 14. There wasa national public hearing on child labourin March 1997 by jury consisting ofeminent persons like Shri.MuchkundDubey, Former Foreign Secretary,Government of India, Shri.N.Ram, Editor,Frontline, Shri.T.S.Shankaran, FormerSecretary, Ministry of Labour,Government of India, Justice Leila Seth,Retired Chief Justice, Himachal PradeshHigh Court, Smt.Indira Jaising, SeniorAdvocate, Supreme Court, et al. Thejury has recommended that no child shouldbe made to work in any capacity as alabourer till the completion of 14 years ofage and that free, compulsory, relevantand quality elementary education shouldbe provided to all children and that free,compulsory, relevant and qualityelementary education should be providedto all children and that State Laws beenacted for this purpose. Similarly,Citizens Initiative on Elementary Educationin India in its publication “ELEMENTARYEDUCATION IN INDIA - A


CITIZENS’ CHARATER”, which wasdeveloped through a process of rigorousconsultation among the citizens from allwalks of life across the country, has stated“That child labour is as much an effect asa cause of the low participation of thepoor children in the educational process,and must not be justified or rationalised.That free, compulsory education till 14years of age, will positively reduce childlabour”. Likewise PRATHAM, Mumbai,an education initiative has alsochampioned the cause of compulsoryprimary education. In a state like Keralawhich certainly can not be counted amongthe economically advanced States,practically all children, boys as well as girlsattend schools. Hence, there is no reasonwhy child labour upto the age of 14 cannot be totally prohibited in other states ofIndia by the introduction of CompulsoryPrimary Education. This will, in fact,create employment for adults, as the jobsvacated by children have to be attendedto by adults.

Countries even poorer than Indiahave introduced Compulsory PrimaryEducation which in effect implies a banon employement of children. In case ofneedy parents, jobs can be providedunder schemes like Jawahar RozgarYojana, DWACRA (Development ofWomen and Children in Rurla Areas) etc.,In case of handicapped parents andwidowed mothers with no assets, special

provision of family pension should bemade so that children can go to school.Providing mid day meals to children andgiving long holidays for rural schoolsduring agricultural seasons can also be ofhelp in promoting elementary educationamong rural children.

RURAL AREAS, BACKWARDCASTES, SCHEDULED CASTESAND TRIBES :

Another area of concern is the lowpercentage of literacy in rural areas. Thecaste system has got attenuated to someextent in urban areas and as a result itsadverse effects have become less seriousthan in villages. In villages the caste systemis still deeply entrenched. Consequently, themotivation to send children belonging tobackward castes continues to be weak.Added to this is the continuing prejudice,disdain and discrimination against scheduledcastes which adverstly affects theirchildren’s enrolment and continuation inschool. Other reasons for poorperformance in rural areas are lack ofschools particularly in small villages andhamlets and the prevalance of single-teacherschools. In the case of single-teacherschools, invariably one teacher has to teach4 classes; there is no supervision on hisattendance and on his work at school. It isnot unusual to find many such teachersremaining absent for days on end and evenwhen they are present they come late and


leave early. In addition, school buildings arein a dilapidated condition and there is lackof infrastructure including furniture, black-boards, libraries, toilets, play-grounds, etc.,In such a situation, parents find that there isno point in sending their children to schools.

It has already been noticed thatliteracy among scheduled tribes is the lowestamong all sections in the country (Table -3). One reason for this backwardness isthe remoteness of their habitations. Again,the cultural milieu of scheduled tribes is quitedifferent and distinct. A study by KondaReddy and Khammam Tribes in AndhraPradesh has shown that many children ofschool age did not attend school, preferinginstead spending their time moving freelyaround, swimming in ponds and streams,catching fish and climbing trees, hunting birds,collecting berries, riding on buffaloes, etc.,Compared to this free and joyous life, sittingin school room would be like imprisonmentto these children, because of their differentsocialisation. In addition, as is well known,most of the scheduled tribes have their owndialects. Hence, very special attentionneeds to be given to the education ofscheduled tribes children (i) by establishingschools in their habitations, in spite of theirtiny size, (ii) by using their mother-tongueand not the language of the state as themedium of instruction in the primary stageand (iii) by invariably appointing teachersbelonging to the tribe. All this wouldconstitute a special package for the

scheduled tribe children. For this the Stateought to make a special provision ineducational planning. Also facilitiesprovided to scheduled castes children havenecessarily to be extended to the scheduledtribes.

IS PRIMARY EDUCATION FULLYFREE ?

It is generally believed that primaryeducation through out the country is free inschools run by government and local bodieslike municipalities and zilla panchayats. Thisis not so in the true sense of the term in manyparts of the country. In some states, tuitionfee is exempted but fees are charged forlibrary, sports, laboratory, etc., The truemeaning of free education is that not onlythe student is not required to pay any typeof fees to the school but also she is providedfree of cost learning materials like slates,note-books, text-books and transport if theschool is not within walking distance. Aliberal meaning of free education will includethe provision of school uniforms and mid-day meals. In some states free uniforms areprovided to girl students. In a few stateslike Tamil Nadu cooked food is served toall children as mid-day meal. In some otherstates food-grains are given to the parentsof children attending schools. Freeeducation should not only be totally free ofpayment of all sorts of fees but should alsomake provision for free slates, note-books,text-books, transport where necessary andprovide cooked food for lunch.


Uniforms should be given free to allstudents and to begin with at least to all girlstudents and to all scheduled castes andscheduled tribes boys and girls. It is alsonecessary to attach creches to primaryschools so that children between the agesof 3 and 5 are provided with requiredfacilities thereby freeing the elder girl childfrom the task of taking care of her youngersiblings and thus enabling her to attend theschool.

STUDENTS, PARENTS &TEACHERS

Students, parents and teachers arethe key players on the educational stage.The performance of all the three of themcontributes to the ultimate educationaloutcome. The various problems faced bydifferent categories of students like girls,children in rural areas and children belongingto backward castes, scheduled castes andscheduled tribes have already been noted.However, in spite of these problems, thereis a widespread and keen desire amongthese children for full time elementaryeducation. Myron Weiner relates hisobservation about a class of 25 girlsbelonging to scheduled caste and backwardcaste families in a non-formal educationalprogramme conducted by the Institute ofEducation near Pune. None of the girlshad a schooling of more than 2 or 3 yearsbefore joining the non-formal classes. A fewof the children worked for wages but mostwere at home and looked after their siblings,

they fetched water and tended cattle andmany of them prepared meals for the entirefamily, as their mothers were wage-earners.When asked whether they would have likedto complete their education in a regularschool, all except two said yes. They haddiscontinued their schools at the instance oftheir mothers. When asked if they wouldeducate their own daughters in regularschool, they again said yes. When askedwhat they would do if they have to workand needed their elder daughters to takecare of their younger children, one said shewould send her baby to her mother-in-lawand another added that she would send herbaby to a creche. When asked who wouldtake care of the cattle, a girl replied that theywould bring the cattle together and engagesomebody to look after them. All this showstheir keenness regarding the full timeeducation for their children. (Myron Weiner: Economic & Political Weekly, November9-16, 1996).

It is generally believed among theupper and middle classes that illiterateparents do not value education. Contraryto this belief, a survey conducted byPROBE (planned by a group of researchersat the Delhi School of Economics and theIndian Social Institute) revealed that aresounding 98% stressed that it wasimportant for sons to go to schools and89.9% felt the same about daughters.

Another interesting outcome of thesurvey was that it is not always work that


keeps children away from school. Thesurvey found that the majority of out ofschool children in rural India have plenty oftime on their hands (Primary Education ClassStruggle ; INDIA TODAY, October 11,1997). However it can not be denied thatsome parents believed that education doesnot succeed in getting jobs for a largenumber of educated persons. They take avery short sighted view of education andignore its multifarious uses, including a valueof education for better self-employment.This is particularly true of illiterate parents.They have to be convinced about thebenefits of education.

The performance of teachers is themost worrying problem. The poorperformance of teachers in primary schoolsis the main cause for high drop out and lowretention rates. The causes for the poorperformance of teachers are :(1)Deficiencies in pre-training and in-servicetraining, (2) Poor working conditions -schools which lack class-rooms, chairs,benches, black-boards, toilet facilities, safedrinking water, electricity, etc., The PROBEsurvey, already referred to, found that only37% of the school buildings had non-leakingroofs, only 48% had play-grounds, 42% hadsafe drinking water facilities, 73% had black-boards and only 11% had functioning toilets.(3) Another serious problem faced byprimary schools is the multigrade teachingwhere a single teacher is required to teachseveral grades. (4) Most teachers perceive

their status in society as low. They feel thattheir salary scales are low and prospects forcareer advancement and promotion are verylimited. (5) There is difficulty in housing,particularly for women teachers. Whilemost of the grievances of teachers arelegiticate and action needs to be taken onthem, it may not be possible to enhancesubstantially their pay-scales, as they belongto the top decile of the income scale in ruralIndia, except for mitigating hardship causedby continuing inflation.

NFEs, NGOs, PRIs AND THELOCAL COMMUNITY:

Non-formal (NFE) education isproposed as an alternative to the formalsystem of education and is generallytargetted at working children. Learning atthe non-formal education centres, in theoryis expected to be comparable to that informal education and classes are held attimes convenient for the working children.A major objective of the non-formaleducation system is to enable the drop-outsto join the mainstream of education. NFEdepends heavily on the NGOs and the localcommunity in achieving its objectives.Evaluation studies on non-formal educationprogrammes show that they have severalweaknesses. The PROBE survey ofschooling facilities in the Hindi speakingstates found fewer than 10 functional NFEcentres in 188 survey villages. However,there are exceptions to this rule.


EKALAVYA, an NGO in Madhya Pradeshhas done outstanding work in developing anintegrated primary school package —Krushi-Khushi. PRATHAM MUMBAIEDUCATION INITIATIVE, a publiccharitable trust is doing admirable work inthe Corporation area of Mumbai byundertaking the promotion of elementaryeducation. It is running 2500 Balwadis with60000 children and runs special communityprogrammes for the benefit of four lakhchildren in municipal schools. It is alsochampioning vigorously the amendment tothe Constitution to make the right toeducation fundamental. Barring suchcompetent and dedicated NGOs, the roleto be performed by other NGOs should belimited to (i) creating awareness of theimportance of elementary education amongparents and among members of panchayats,(ii) in seeing that all children enrol in primaryschools, (iii) in ensuring that the enrolledchildren attend classes regularly and (iv) intaking care to see that there are no dropouts till they complete 8years of schooling.The NGOs will ensure the fulfilment of theseobjectives by net-working with parents andteachers. NFE centres will have to beorganised only by competent NGOs or bythe education department itself. The role ofnon-formal education is to be limited strictlyto the transitional period of about a decadeafter the introduction of free and compulsoryprimary education.

In a country as vast as India, therehas to be a decentralised system of

education suited to the needs of differentregions and sub-regions. Hence, the localcommunity and the Panchayat RajInstitutions (PRIs) should be fully involvedin the educational process.

(1) Local communities and PRIs must befree to decide the location, type and scaleof building to be constructed with fundsprovided by the State Government andsupplemented by PRIs along with additionalresources to be mobilised by the community.

(2) Local communities and PRIs should haveauthority to decide on fixing school hoursand vacations in the light of the localconditions. In most rural areas the harvestseason should coincide with the longvacation.

(3) Local communities and NGOs shouldbe given role in monitoring the attendanceand scholastic performance of the teachersas the local communities are the stakeholders in the education of their children.

(4) If there are vacancies of teachers in aschool and the state is unable to fill them inreasonable time, the community and the PRIsshould have the freedom to appoint teacherslocally. In the long run, the PRIs like ZillaPanchayats and Taluk Panchayats should beempowered to run the schools, appointteachers and ensure that they perform theirduties satisfactorily.

(5) The community in turn must look afterthe maintenance of the school buildings,


augment-teaching and learning aids,supplement school feeding programme andalso honour the good work done by theteachers so that harmonious relations arebuilt up between the local community andthe teachers.

(6) Every school should have a bettermentcommittee with representation for teachers,parents and members of PRIs to ensure theoptimal-functioning of the school.

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT:

It has already been noted that theright to education is only a Directive Principleof State Policy and not a Fundamental Right.As it is not a fundamental right, it remainsvirtually a dead letter. Prof.K.T.Shah had,as noted already, anticipated thisdevelopment and had called the DirectivePrinciple of State Policy on free andcompulsory education a fraud on theConstitution.

Now the situation seems to havechanged a little for the better with the rulingof the Supreme Court in the case ofUnnikrishanan J.P. Vs Andhra Pradesh thatthe right to elementary education upto theage of 14 years is a fundamental right.However, the probability that this ruling mayin furture be reviewed and reversed by theSupreme Court can not be ruled out.Hence, there is a need to pass aconstitutional amendment making the rightto education a fundamental right and a dutyof parents to send their children to school.

This will enable the aggrieved citizens toapproach the court, if the State fails toprovide schooling facilities of reasonablequality at suitable locations. With this endin view, the previous United FrontGovernment had introduced the Constitution(Eighty-third Amendment) Bill 1997. Themain provision in the proposed amendmentis that the State shall provide free andcompulsory education to all children of theage 6 to 14 years.

Now that there is a change ofGovernment, one has to refer to BJPsNational Agenda for governance to find outits stand on the subject. The agenda states: “We are committed to a total eradicationof illiteracy. We will formulate and implementplans to gradually increase the governmentaland non-governmental spending oneducation upto 6% of the GDP; this toprovide education for all. We will implementthe constitutional provision of making primaryeducation free and compulsory upto 5thstandard. Our aim is to move towards equalaccess to and opportunity of educationalstandards upto the school leaving stage. Weshall strive to improve the quality ofeducation at all levels - from primary schoolsto our universities.................. We will alsoinstitute Plans for providing free educationfor girls upto college level, includingprofessional courses, so as to betterempower women ............... We will presenta National Charter for children. Our aim isto ensure that no child remains illiterate. Wewill take measures to eliminate child labour”


It will be seen from the NationalAgenda that there is no specific mention ofamending the Constitution for providingschooling upto the age of 14 years, that is,of 8 years duration. On the other hand, theNational Agenda talks of making primaryeducation free and compulsory upto 5thstandard only which is lower than what iscontemplated in Directive Principles of StatePolicy. Of course, there is a vague statementthat the aim is to move towards equal accessand opportunity of educational standardsupto the school leaving stage. This is neitherhere nor there, as no time frame ismentioned even for providing free andcompulsory primary education upto 5thstandard !

INDIA CAN FINANCE COMPUL-SORY PRIMARY EDUCATION

The reason for down-scaling ofschooling from 8 years to 5 years seemsto be on account of difficulty of mobilisingthe required finances for launching theprogramme. The financial memorandumattached to the constitutional amendmenthad estimated the additional cost ofimplementing the programme atRs.40,000 crores in a period of 5 yearsat the rate of Rs.8,000 crores per year.Opinions were expressed in the media thatthis was an under-estimate. It is notpossible to explain in detail the means ofmobilising the finances required forprogramme. Suffice it to note that theGovernment spends something likeRs.15,000 crores on subsidies to the

middle classes. If a portion of thesesubsidies are diverted to elementaryeducation, the additional costs ofuniversalisation of education are met.Eminent economists are also in agreementwith the view that, if there is a will, it iswithin India’s financial means to launchcompulsory primary education. JeanDreze and Amartya Sen have opined :“There is no question that, even in acountry as poor as India, means can befound to ensure universal attainment ofliteracy and other basic educationalachievements, at least in the younger agegroup.” (Jean Dreze & Amartya Sen;India-Economic Development and SocialOpportunity - Page 139).

This view is corroborated byMahbub ul Haq, the Pakistani economist,who is internationally acclaimed for hiscrusade for Human Development. Haqhas observed : “Overall, South Asia isspending 3.5% of its GNP on education,compared to 4.3% in East Asia, 5.5% inSub-Saharan Africa and 5% in the ArabStates. The bias in South Asian region infavour of colleges and universities greatlysqueezes the financial budgets for basiceducation. In 1994, primary educationreceived only 47% of the total budgetaryallocation in South Asia, compared to70% in East Asia during their initial phaseof development”. (Mahbub ul Haq-Human Development in South Asia 1998-Seminar April 1998).


In our own country states likeKerala and Himachal Pradesh havedemonstrated that universalisation ofelementary education is within the financialcapability of India. The experience ofSub-Saharan African countries which arespending a greater share of the GDP onelementary education and have overtakenIndia in terms of literacy also supports theconclusion that India can also finance theuniversalisation of elementary education,if only there is a political will. Aninteresting suggestion is made by Mahbubul Haq. He proposes “a constitutionalprovision that funds for attaining the goalof universalisation of primary education willbe treated as the ̀ first claim’ on budgetaryresources. Ideally, the Parliament shouldpass a Bill that at least 5% of the GNP willbe earmarked for education and then itshould ensure each year that such a provisionis protected from erosion, despite theinvitable budget crisis from time to time”.

WHAT IS COMPULSION ?While championing the

constitutional amendment on the subject,some Indians are arguing that there shouldonly be a compulsion on the state to providefree and quality education on all adequatescale to create conditions for universalschooling but that there should not beconpulsion on the parents to send theirchildren to school as it will lead to theirharassment. However, there is a case forintroducing compulsion on parents to send

their children to school, as they may not doso under the following circumstances : Firstof all parents are likely to ignore theeducation of their daughters as the benefitsof educating daughters go to another family.Secondly, an irresponsible father may liketo spend money on liquor by using theearnings of his children. Thirdly, inhumansocial arrangements like bonded labour arelikely to be eliminated only on theintroduction of compulsory education.Fourthly, one parent’s decision to send achild particularly a female child to school maypersuade another parent to follow suit. (JeanDreze. Primary Priorities, Times of India,October 15,1997). To reduce the likelyharassment to the poor parents, NGOs andpanchayats should try all persuasivemethods to induce recalicitrant parents tosend their children to school. When allpersuasive methods fail, recourse to punitivemethods has to be taken. Even that apostleof individual liberty, John Stuart Mill wrotethat the state shall compel the education of“every human being who is born its citizen”and that it “ought not leave the choice toaccept or not to accept education in thehands of parents.”

India had a head start in thechampioning of mass education by leaderslike Jyotirao Phule. Dadabhai Navroji,Gopal Krishna Gokhale and MahatmaGandhi. It has paid dearly for its failure toachieve universalisation of elementaryeducation in lost opportunities of human


development. population control,empowerment of women and in achievingwidespread and equitable economicdevelopment. At least let us now pass theConstitutional Amendment so as to fulfil thedream of Gopal Krishna Gokhale who said

on the defeat of his Bill on CompulsoryPrimary Education: “This Bill thrown out to-day will come back again and again till onthe stepping stones of its dead selves, ameasure ultimately rises which will spreadthe light of knowledge throughout the land.”

CMDR Monograph Series No. - 22 · CMDR Monograph Series No. - 22 ... Jawaharlal Nehru and The...

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