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EDUCATION IN EiSHTEEN YEARS OF FREEDOM ^MINISTRY OF EDUCATION. GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 196S EDUCATION IN EIGHTEEN YEARS OF FREEDOM m inistry of e d u c a t i o n GOVIRVMENT of INDIA 1 9 6 5 Ed. 40C- 2.400 j x > b - CENTRAL SECRET a RUT LIBRAH^ No. 755 Division Education Acc. No. 3 2 Date of/-V aii. O ■) ; CaiJNo. Processed Checked Date of Transfer PRINTED IN INDIA BY THE MANAGER, GOVERKMENT OF INDIA PRES&r FARIDABAD AND PUBLISHED BY THE MANAGER OF PUBLICAnONS, DELHI, 1965 PREFACE f On the 15th August 1947 with the unfurling of free India’s new tricolour flag displaying the Ashoka Chakra, the symbol of Buddhist tolerance, Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister and chief architect of Indian independence ushered in an era of freedom. Free India, carved out by the partitioning of the sub-continent, was born with many stres­ ses and strains unprecedented in the history of mankind. After the restoration of some normalcy, India launched upon planned develop­ ment through successive Five-Year Plans, the first beginning in 1950-51. This development in the varied sectors of the nation’s life attempts to compress centuries of development into decades, ever trying to realise the people’s aspirations that are the natural by-product of freedom. In the scheme of this over-all progress, educational development lies at the very base, because education is essentially concerned with the training and development of human resources. In the pages of this small brochure, an attempt has been made to unfold the history of this educational development. The year 1965-66 being the final year of the Third Five-Year Plan, lends itself admirably for this brief stock­ taking. This review of the educational development in the eighteen years of freedom, including the 15-year Plan period, will not only mirror the past but also indicate the signposts for the future. Happily not much difference existed in the timings of this review which we were already planning, and the ensuing meeting of the Sixth Plenary Session of International Commission of Irrigation and Drain­ age being held in New Delhi in January 1966 under the auspices of the Central Board of Irrigation and Power. The suggestion of the Director of the Board made to this Ministry to publish a brochure dealing with the development of education in the country was, therefore, readily accepted, although this meant advancing slightly the appearance of this review. Too many statistics and other details have been avoided to make the reading easier. Varied aspects of education are given separate treatment, chapterwise, against a background—geographical, historical, cultural and educational—introducing the text. Through this brochure if we are able to familiarise our readers with what India has achieved and has yet to achieve in the field of education, science and culture, we would feel amply rewarded. (iii) IV EDUCATION IN EIGHTEEN YEARS OF FREEDOM In India, under the Federal Constitution education for most part* is managed by the State Governments. The Union Government have the sole executive responsibility for the maintenance of four Central Universities, national institutions of importance and others for pro­ fessional, technical and vocational training and for promotion of research and coordination and determination of standards in higher education or research. The Directive Principles of the Constitution enjoin on the Union Government to provide free and compulsory education to children up to 14 years of age, to develop, enrich and spread the federal language, Hindi, as also to develop other modern Indian languages. The Union Government in the Ministry of Educa­ tion discharge these obligations in the fields of education, science and culture and help the State Governments through a broad-based system of grants-in-aid. The Union and State Governments work together in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of the various programmes. Educational efforts, both in terms of finance and manpower, in a country of the size and population of India have to be colossal and these naturally pose great challenges to the educational planners; but through the joint endeavour of the Union and State Governments the multifarious programmes have been planned and implemented with appreciable degree of success. This is borne out by the comparative pictures obtaining in 1950-51 and 1965-66, the beginning and the end of this fifteen-year planned development, encompassing the three Five- Year Plans. While we are proud of these substantial achievements we are not complacent inasmuch as we are alive to the existing disparities in regard to the education of boys and girls as also in regard to educational pro­ gress in rural and urban areas and among the weaker sections of our community. Desperate efforts are already afoot to even out these disparities so as to give content to democracy, secularism, national solidarity and socialism, the four corner stones on which we plan to reconstruct our existing educational system. It is primarily due to the foresight and vision of the present Educa­ tion Minister, Shri M. C. Chagla, that the Ministry of Education is now engaged on a momentous and historic task. The Education Commission which he has appointed is having a survey of the entire field of educational development with a view to evolving a national pattern of education and laying down the principles and policies for PREFACE V developing education at all stages and in all aspects except legal, medical and adult education. The nation is looking forward eagerly to the final report that the Commission has been directed to present not later than 31st March 1966. A venture of the type of the present brochure can only be possible through the cooperative endeavours of all concerned. I am happy to record the wilUng and prompt cooperation lent by Dr. Atmanand Misra, Director of Pubhc Instruction, Madhya Pradesh, the Planning Commission, the Directorate General of Health Services, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the Council of Industrial and Scientific Research and the Departments of Atomic Energy and of Social Security in enabUng this Ministry to have the write-ups covering their respective fields. Dr. P. D. Stxukla, Joint Educational Adviser in the Ministry, also deserves appreciation for the personal interest taken by him in this publication ri^ t from its planning to final printing. (f<- K-4 -i (PREM KIRPAL) New Delhi Educational Adviser to the 20th December, 1965 Government of India CONTENTS Chapter Page P r e f a c e iii One Introduction 1 Two Administration of Education 10 Three School Education .. 17 Four Higher Education .. 28 Five Physical Education and Youth W elfare 39 Six Education and W elfare of the Handicapped 46 Seven Social Education 51 Eight R e s e a r c h 55 Nine Democratisation of Educational Opportunities 62 Ten Languages and Literature 67 Eleven Fine Arts and Other Ctultural AcnvmES .. 74 Twelve International Cooperatiion .. 82 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Background—Geographical, Historical and Cultural India is the Biggest democracy and the second most populous country in the world. Bounded By the Himalayas in the north, the country stretches southwards and, at the Tropic of Cancer, tapers off into the Indian Ocean Between the Bay of Bengal on the east and the AraBian Sea on the west. Lying entirely in the northern hemisphere, the main land extends between latitudes 8® 4' and 37° 6' north and longitudes 68° 7' and 97° 25' east, measures aBout 3,200 kilometres from north to south and aBout 2,960 kilometres from east to west, and covers an area of 326,728,391 hectares. It has a land frontier 15,080 kilometres long and a coastline of 5,656 kilometres. This is the geographical picture of India after 1947. The older India included the territories now constituting the State of Pakistan. This spatial vastness of India is matched only By the diversity of its physical, cul­ tural and racial components. The Himalayas and their associated groups are young fold mountains while the peninsular region is a plateau Bounded By ancient mountains known as the Western and Eastern Ghats. The mighty Himalayan range with peaks aBove 25,000 feet can Be well contrasted with the rice fields of Kerala—some of the lowest lands in the world. In Between, are the rich alluvial plains formed By the Ganges and its triButary, Jamuna. The plains including those of Indus Basin cover an area of 77,625,000 hectares. The Indo-Gangetic plain is the greatest stretch of alluvial land in the world and one of the most densely populated. Topographically, the northern plains are remarkaBly homogeneous with little relief for hundreds of miles. South of the great plains is a highland zone rising to the chain of the Vindhya mountains. These are By no means as impressive as the Himalayas, But have tended to form a Barrier Between the north formely called Hindustan and the peninsula often known as the Deccan. The Deccan, which is largely hilly, has many small and scattered plains form­ ed By its rivers Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri. The Basins of Narmada and Tapti rivers south of the Vindhyas also provide rich agricultural lands. Climatically, the Himalayan region has cold winters with occasional snow and frost. In the northern plains the winter is cool, dropping the temperature to aBout 50° F as the sun sets, with wide variation of day and night temperature while the hot season is almost severe shooting up the temperature to aBout 118° F in shade. The tem­ perature of the Deccan varies less with season. The southern plain is hot But its temper­ ature never rises to that of the northern plains. The most important feature of the Indian climate is the monsoons or the ‘rains*.

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