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CHAPTER’S.

t GENERAL INFORMATION OF SCHOOLS. CHAPTER III

GBNBRAL INPOHMATION 0^ SCHOOLS

N the last two chapters the nature and importance

of the problem in hand and the methods used for collecting

the data were discussed in detail. The later chapter was

concluded with the description of the methods of tabulation

and classification. This leads us to study -|jhe various suspects

of science teaching. Before going direct to the variovis aspects

of science teaching in detail, it is proposed to discuss the

nature of the schools under study in general in this chapter.

Growth of Secondary Bducation ^

3.2. The growth and development of the secondary education « is, in one way, an important factor in the status study of

science teaching because the older the school the greater are

the facilities it can provide. A newly established school is

many times financially handicapped and is not able Iro provide

^ the various facilities required for effective science teaching.

But, the ssuae school can build a good collection of laboratory

equipment, teaching aids and many other things when its financial Page 6 0 .i position is sound after a few years of its inception.

3.3 The history of the development and growth of secondary

education in State begins at the advent of th# last

century. Many indigenous schools were existing then, hut no particular efforts were made by the*Government to promote educa­ tion. The European inhabitants of the City of Bombay established the Bombay Education Society in January 1815,^ which opened the first school in Bombay. This set in motion the opening of new schools in the then Bombay Province. The number of the schools went on increasing during subsequent years.

3.4. . Prior to independence the growth of secondary education was very slow. Out of the 314 schools under study 75 schools did not give their year of establishment. The remaining 239 schools had men'dioned it. Out of these, 30 schools were estab­ lished before 1947. The largest number (l5) of these schools » * was in , had 11‘schools and had only four schools by this time. The information may seem misleading but, it was due to the fact that many of the schools (221 out of 460) had not sent any information as to when the school was established. In some of these schools it weis told that the schools were old and the records regarding the etact

I 1. 'A Review of Education in 1855—1953. (Poona : Govt .Bombay, 1958), p. 153. page 61 . year of establishment were not available,

3.5. After independence the growth of schools gained speed, which was evident from the increasing number of schools opened during this period. During 1959, 1960 and 1961,. the growth was marked, and a iarge number of schools were established during these years. Particularly in Ahmednagar and Bhandara the growth was markedly high. This may be due to the new concession awarded by 1;he Government to the wards of economically backward classes,

A similar notable growth of secondary schools was seen again in the years 1966 and 1967 in Ahmednagar, Information on the growth of schools in the three districts is given in Table III below.

The statistics are based on the information supplied by the above schools about their standing.

TABLE I I I

CLASSIPICATION OP SCHOOLS ACCORDING TO THEIR TEARS OP STANDING

Tears of stgunding D is tr ic t » Total Above 11 to 6 to 1 to Not 1 5 yxs 15 yrs 1 0 yrs 5 yrs a v a i l ,

Ahmednagar 23 14 40 47 24 148 Bhandara 13 11 27 6 13 70 Nanded 28 10 11 9 38 96 Total 64 35 78 62 75 314

2, Concession to the wards of economically backward classes was announced*in 1959 vide circular of Labour and Social Welfare Department no, OBC/1759-E dated 26 May 1959, The limit of income was set to Rs, 900,00 per annum. This limit was increased upto Rs, 1200,00 per annum in 1960 vide circular no. 0BC/1760-M dated 7 June 1960, The limit of income was further increased upto Rs, 2400.00 per annum from 1-6-70 vide G,R.No. E.B.C. 1770/S dated 26-10-70. Page 62.

3.6. The growth of schools In the three districts is also compared with each other in Pignre no. 1 ,(Page 63). It was obvious that 'Ahmednagar had quite a large number of schoojLs.

Considering all thejschools which were supplied with the questionnaires (460), It was seen that Ahmednagar district today had a very large number of schools i . e . 197. Bhandaa*a d is tr ic t had 135 schools and had 128 schools. The, popula­ tion of these three districts as given in the G-overnment biary 3 i for the year 1969 vas as follows : i

1. Ahmednagar District 17#75»969 2. 12,68,286 3. Nanded District 10,79,674

3.7. Prom this it was easily calculated that each school covered an average population of 9,016 in Ahmednagar, 9,395 in

Bhandara amd 8,435 in Nanded. In the year 1968-69 there were

4,260 secondary schools in the state of Maharashtra and they 4 covered the total population of 3,95,54,000. The average population covered by each dtS school came to 9 ,2 8 5 . This clearly showed that the population covered by the schools in the sample was nearly equal to the State average. The position was better in Handed so to say, because each school covered less population as compared to the other two districts. The deviation from State average was markedly significant in case of Nanded and is -850,

3. Desk Diary. (O-ovt. Of Maharashtra, 1969), p.4.

4 . Ib i d .

Page 64.

Deviation in Ahmednagar and Bhandara came to -269 and +110 i/ respectively,

I Hanagement Pattern of Secondary Schools

3.8, It was remarkable to note that though a large n^unber of W- schools was established during the post' independence period, i the' initiative was with private managements in a'majority of

■ cases. Local bodies came n ex t,

3.9, Some kinds of managements provide the required financial stability to schools. Schools managed by G-oveinament and by the

Zilla Parishads are financially more sound than those managed by private managements. Municipal committes are not encouraged by

Govennment to open secondary schools but wherever *hey take pso*t in running secondary schools, they see that sufficient fionds

Eq?e made available to them. On the other hand, private raan-

agemertts are handicapped in many ways and have no sound financial

pos'ition with a few excisptions. In this light the work done by

private managements to promote secondary education is highly

appreciable. Numbe-*" of schools belonging to different man­

agements is shown in Table IV, (Page 65),

3.10, There ware no schools managed by the State Government

in this sample. This was because of the fact that after the

formation of the Zilla Parishads on 1st May. 1962 all the 0o- 5 vemment schools were transferred to Zilla Parishads,

5, Educational Development in Maharashtra St^te 1950-51 to 1965-66). (Bombay s Education and Social Welfare Department, G-ovemment of Maharashtra, 1968), p, 33, I- Page 65.

TABLE IV

CLASSIPICATION OF SCHOOLS ACCORDING TO MANAGEMBNTS

Govt. Z.P. M unici­ P r i­ Not Total D is tric t pal vate a v a il.

Ahmednagar -- 2 * 144 2 148 Bhandara -- 23 7 40 — 70 Nanded — 58 — 38 — 96

Total — 83 7 222 2 314

3.14. The percentage of schools managed by the Zilla Parishad

Nanded comes to 60,42, the largest in three districts. This is because Nanded was a part of the Old Hjrdrabad State for a long time, private managements were not encouraged to open schools.

Government was aJ.so slow in opening secondary schools for quite

some time. Only primary and middle schools upto class VII were

opened by the Government. After the reorganization of the

States, the State Government, sund after 1962 the Zilla Parishad had to undertake the challenge of promoting secondary education

in . This increased the percentage of Zilla Pai*lshad

schools in this region. In Ahmednagar district, on the other hand, many private managaments were working and both the State

Government sjid the Zilla Parishad were not required to open

schools. Hence Ahmednagar district had only two i,e. 1.36

per cent schools managed by the Zilla Parishad,

3,12, Schools managed by Municipal School Boards were a unique

feature of Bhandara district where 7 i.e. 10 per cent of the Page 66.

secondary schools were managed by different Municipal School

Boards. Municipal School Boards in the other two distrifctis did not run any secondary school.

3.13. As was said eralier, a large number of schools were man*

aged by private managements. Managements such as the Rayat

Shikshan Sanstha* Ahmednaarar Education Society, etc., had a

large .share in promoting secondary education in Western Maha­ rashtra region. Quite a large nTmber* of schools were established

and run by these managements. The Rayat Shikshan Seunstha alone had 60 schools in Ahmednagar, Nearly all the ot*her private >iian-

agements in the State run only a small number of schools*

3.14. The position of the managements of the school in the

State as a whole is clearly seen from the information collected.

In Western Maharashtra most of the schools were managed by priv­

ate managements and only a small number of schools was mamaged by

others. In Vidaxbha nearly an equal number of schools W4iB run

t>y private managements and Zilla Parishads together wit>>'a small number of schools managed by Mtuvcipal School Boards, which was

a unique feature in this part of the State. Major TJortl<>n of

the schools in Marathwada were under the management of Zilla

Parishads. Private managements were running the remaining

Schools. Except , Municipal School Boards in th4 State had a very little share in the managements of secondaxy schools. Page 6 7 .

Number of Classes Taught in Each School

3 . 15. In Handed the numher of private schools was le4s than that of the Zilla Parishad schools. This might be due to the fact that during the development of secondary education y upper primary schools (schools teaching upto class V I I ) a|anaged by the Zilla Parishad were upgraded as high schools, It was

clearly seen that most of the Zilla Parishad schools in that dis­ trict had primary sections too. (Table v). Out of the 58 Zilla

TABLE V

STANDARD-WISE CLASSIFICATION OP SCHOOLS

Standards onwards • • Total D is tric t I V VI VIII IX n . a . .

Ahmednagar __ 21 1 125 — 1 148 Bhandara — 50 — 2 1 6 2 70 Nanded 52 30 6 — 6 2 96

Total 52 101 7 127 22 5 314

Parishad Schools in Nanded, 51 had lower primary classes attached to them amd only 7 schools conduAt the classes from V and VI standard onwards. As primary education was entrusted to the local bodies, very few private schools were conducting primary sectiop.s. There was only one private school in Nanded which had

classes from the first standard. While no school in Ahmednagar and Bhaxidara had lower primary sections attached to it.

3.16. The general nomenclature used in the State for various

stages of school education is as follows: Page 68.

Primary Stds. I to VII Lower Primary Stds, I to IV Upper Primary Stds. or Lower secondary when attached to a secondsory school V to V II Secondary stds. VIII to XI,

Standards V to VII are attached to majority of secondary schools in Vidaxbha and Marathwada. Out of the 70 schools from Bhandara

50 schools taught from standard fifth onwards, and 30 schools out of 96 in Nanded had similar arrangements, while there were only 21 schools out of 146 in Ahmednagar which had standa)?ds from

V onwards•

3.17. Schools in the MgJiarashtra State have three different patterns. In all the three regions of Maharashtra the High

School Stage begins at the VIII class, but, it -ends with a stan­ dard XI in Western Maharashtra and Marathwada a n d with class X in

Vidarbha region. There also exists a higher secondary pattem in

Vidarbha and Marathwada. Stsuadard XI in Vidarbaha and standard

XII in Marathwada constitute a higher secondary stage. As the schools consist of standards VIII to X, XI or XII, as the case may be most of the schools begin from standard VIII,

3.18, Thus it was seen that the schools under the study had a varied type of organizational pattern. On the one hand there were schools teaching a s many as eleven standards including the primary sections and on the other there was a school which taught a single standard that is standard IX in Bhandara. Page 69.

Siae of the School

3.19. The size of a school can be determined in two ways,

■Pirstly, by the total number of divisions of different staJadards and secondly, by the number of students enrolled in it. As the present survey was limited to secondary schools, standards VIII

onwards were taken into consideration in determining their siae.

A. Number of Divisions in the Schools

3.20. Considering first the number of divisions, it was observed that ma.jority of the schoois had only one division of each standard. Schools having two and three divisions of a stan­ dard were also a common feature. Very few schools had four or

five divisions of a standard. There were only three or four '• schools which had more than six divisions of each standard.

3.21, It was stated earlier that a school with a long standing can have better financial position than the one opened recently

The financial position of a school stlso depends on the strength of the pupils. More the strength better is the economic status of the school. A school with better economic status can provide better teaching facilities, q.ualified teachers and a large number of useful teaching aids,

3.22, The strength could be guessed from the number of divi­ sions. The study of the total number of all the divisions of all the standards was also interesting. It was seen that ma,io- rity of schools consisted of two to eight divisions. Thatre were

247 schools coming under this category and average number of , Page 7 0 . divisions in this category came to 4»52 divisions per school.

Out of the'remaining 67 school, 11 had not supplied any informa­

tion regarding the number of divisions. The other 56 schools had

divisions which vary from 9 to 31 including 9 schools which had

only one division, in the high school stage.

3.23. It is clearly seen from Figure No. 2 (Page 71) that

Ahmednagar. and Nanded had a large number of schools with four

divisions. In both of these districts the secondary school

consisted of standards VIII to XI. Naturally four standards with a division each, was a common feature of a secondary school.

In case of Bhandaa*a« some schools had only two standards, ninth

and tenth. The total number of divisions in a school was also v a r ie d . The situ a tio n here is heterogencpias. It may be tjiought that some of these schools might be incomplete having no S.S.C.

class. But it was seen that pnly 17.52 per cent or 55 schools were incomplete. Out of these 55 schools, 38 belonged to Ahmed­ nagar, 9 to Bhandara and 8 to Nanded.

3.24. If schools having 9 or more divisions were supposed to

be big schools there were 56 such schools (32 in Ahmednagar,

16 in Bhandara and 8 in Nanded) covered by this study. The i distribution of the schools according to the number of difvisions

is shown in Table VI.

Page 7 2 .

TABLE VI

NUMBER OF SCHOOLS ACCORDING TO THE klMBBR OP DtVlSIONS

Number of Divisions D is tr ic t 1-4 5-8 9- 13- 17- More N .A . Total 12 16 20 than 20

Ahmednagar 43 19 7 3 3 1 148 Bhandara 30 17 9 6 1 7 70

Nanded 54 31 3 5 - - • 3 96

Total 156 91 31 18 4 3 11 314

B . Bnrtalment of Students

3»25. Considerinsr the number of students enrolled in a

school, it was seen that schools in Ahmednagar had greater number of pupils enrolled than those in Bhandara and Nanded.

Average number of students per division came to 39.1, 37*4 and

31.7 in. Ahmednagar, Bhandara stnd Nanded respectively.

3.26. Table VII shows the total number of divisions and the

students in them. As 41 schools had not provided any information regarding the number of students enrolled, divisions of v^ious

standards, etc., they axe ommitted in this table. The table

also shows the average number of students per division.

3.27. It was seen from the table that in Ahmednagar and

Nanded, the average number of students decreased with the higher

standards. This might be due to the phenomena of wastage and

stagnation. In case of Bhandara district this seemed incorrect

as the average number of students went on increasing with Page 7 3 .

TABLE V I I

NUMBER OP STUDENTS BWROLLED AND THEIR AVERAGE PER DIVISION

Ahmednagar Bhandara Nanded o-can— dards div student avf. div student av^, 1j div student av§. 8 th 267 1 1 ,0 6 6 4 1 .4 72 2 ,6 0 4 3 6 .2 113 4 ,0 5 5 3 5 .9 9 th . 234 9 ,1 7 8 3 9 .2 111 3,961 3 5 .7 116 3 ,8 9 5 3 3 .6 10 th 209 8 ,0 0 2 3 8 .3 97 3i54-5 3 6 .6 105 3 ,3 1 8 31 .6 11 th 153 5 ,7 5 0 3 7 .6 17 699 4 1 .1 1 93 2 ,3 7 6 2 5 .5 ______,. higher standard. This might be due to the combination of' two or more d iv isio n s of lower stazideirds into one d iv isio n of higher standard, after the annual promotion. This decreased the number of divisions while increased the number of students and there by affected the average,

3.28, In Ahmednagar, General Science was a compulsory sub­ ject and all the students were required to offer this subject upto class X, In class XI the students could offer General

S<»ience a n d /o r Physics-Chemistry, Physiolo^ry-Hygiene, Botany-

Zoology, etc,, for tihe S, S.C.Examianation, On the other hand in Nanded General Science was a compulsory subject upto S,S.C« standard. The students are examined externally by the State

Board at the end of standard XI in both these districts.

3.29. In case of Bhandara the conditions were quite different.

General Science was compulsory subject upto standard VIII, Stu­ dents could offer science as an optional subject from standard

IX. Hence the total number of students enrolled in steutidards

IX, X and XI and students offering science was different in I*age 74 .

thlR d i s t r i c t . Sim ilarly most of the students left secondary

schools after completing the secondary school course because

they were able to enter the university a year eai-lior ancj

moreover they got sufficient time to pick up the change in the # medium of instaruction in that year. This automatically

decreased the number of students opting for the higher secondary

course,

3•^>^■Pt System

3.30.' The rapid growth of secondary education gave rise to

many problems, one of which was the problem of accommodation.

As i"^as difficult to build new buildings or to make more space

available, the maximum use of the existing space was mad© by resorting to the shift system. It was worth noting that although

secondary education was growing and the number of student* was

increasing day by day, very small number of schools under the I present study had shift system. There were only 71 i.e. 22.61

per cent of the schools working in double shifts. Most of the

schools had sufficient accommodation to house all the sections

in a single shift. Out of 314 schools 239 i.e. 76,12 per cent

were working in a single shift. The district-wise number of

schools working in double and single shifts is shown in Table

VIII (Page 75).

3.31. In Nanded, half the number of the schools met in double shifts. On the other hand, the number of schools meeting

in double shifts is neffligible in Ahmednagar.

3.32. It was obsei*ved that most of the schools in Nanded Page 75'

51.BLB V I I I

SCHOOLSWORKING IN SHIFTS

Schools working Not in s h if t s D is t r ic t available Total double Single

Ahmednagar ^ 5 140 3 148 Bhandara 18 51 1 7P Nanded 48 48 - 96

T o ta l 71 239 4 314 (Percentage) (22,61) (76.12) (l . 27) (100) were housed in rented buildings which were originally constructed for residential, purposes and were so old that it was difficult to believe them to be school buildings. In many of these schools classes met in open verandahs with no proper flooring, Ajgain, bamboo matting served as a partition between the two classes min adjacently,

3.33. Out of the 48 schools working in double shifts in

Nanded only 7 schools belonged to private managements and the rest were managed by the Zilla Parishad, As most nf the Zilla

Parishad schools in the district had standards from first onwards, obviously they lacked In space to accommodate all the standards in a single shift. These schools were upgraded from upper primaary to high schools, ^ence the schools which hjad their own buildings lacked in sufficient space to accommodate all the new classes opened, as the buildings were primarily built for primary schools,

3.34, Very small number --- eighteen --- of schools Page 7 6 . worked In double shifts in Bhandara. Out of these, 11 sohools belonged to private managements a n d out of t>>e remaining seven, three were Zilla Paris had schools and foiJir were Municipal schools,

Many of these schools had their own buildings but due to the

I increase in the number of students, the space was insufficient to work in single shift. In Ahmednagar, only five school^i run by private miinagements, were working in double shifts,

3.35. In all the schools, working in shifts, the classes were held in the morning from about 7-30 a.m. to 11 a.m. or

12 noon and the afternoon from 11-30 a.m. or 1,2 noon to 5r30 p.m. in most of these schools primary standards used to meet in the morning shift stnd high school standards in the afternoon.

3.36. It was thus neen that in Mar«.thwada region, quite a large percentage of schools lacked in sufficient accommodation.

They had to work in double shifts in ordeK* to accommodate the rapidly increasing number of students. The percentage of schools working in double shifts was comparatively much less, in Vidarbha and Western Maharashtra.

Classification of Schools

3.37. Vaxious factors related to the general nature of the secondary schools were studied upto this time. As for th^ courses taught, all the schools were preparing students for secondary school certificate examination held by the Maharashtra

State Board of Secondary Education through the divisional boards.

The State Board had prepared courses in various subjects which Page. 7 7 . could be offered by a sttident appearing for the examinatioiji.

As the number of subjects preecribeed was very large, most of the schools selected some common subjects offered by students and imparted instructions in them. In Vidarbha and Marathirada there were two separate courses —— one at a lower level known as secondary and the other at a higher level called higher secondary. In Western Maharashtra there was only one course which was at the secondary level only. The schools offeriiig instruction in the courses were termed as secondary schoole or higher secondary as the case may be. There were some schools which had no final class. These schools might be teaching upto standard VIII or they might be so new that they had yet t« open the final class. Considering these points the schools could be divided into three broad classes (i) incomplete schools having no final class, (ii) secondary schools (iii) higher secondary schools. Table IX shows the number of schools under the different classes.

TABLE IX

CLASSIFICATION OP THE SCHOOLS BASED ON THE COURSES TAUGHT

Incomplete Secondary Higher sec. D is tric t n . a . Total schools schools schools

Ahmednagar 39 108 — 1 148 Bhandara 9 49 11 1 70 Nsinded 8 84 2 2 96

Total 56 241 13 4 314 •I Page 7 8 .

3.38. From ^able IX it is seen that generally the number of secondary schools preponderates over any other class and in the present sample 76.76 per cent of the schools were imparting instzniction at the secondary level only. Higher secondary schools on the other hand had quite a low percentage i.e. 4,14,

In this case it is observed that many head masters in Nanded district had stated that their schools were higher secondary schools, Howerer, this statement was wrong in many cases as the schools' information regarding the classes and the sylilabus taught in them given by the same head masters did not corroborate with it. The examination in higher secondary school was held at the end of standard XII while there were only two schools

(Table IX ) imparting instruction upto standard XII in this district. Hence all the schools excluding the two mentioned above were classified as secondary school in table IX,

Sex-gise Classification of Schools

3 .3 9 . The c la s s ific a t io n of the schools can also be mad^ byjfeonsidering the sex of the students enrolled. This gives three distinct categories of the schools. (i) Schools for bo3TS only, ( i i ) School::: for g irls only and ( i i i ) Schools for both boys sjid girls or coeducational schools. Number of schools under different classes is shown in Table X,

3.40. It is seen that 91,09 per cent of the schools included in the study were coeducational schools. There were only nine

( 2,87 per cent) schools which enrolled only bojrs and 16 (5»09 Page 79*

TABLE X

CLASSIFICATION OP THE SCHOOLS BASED ON SEX

Number of school for Dis-trict N .A . Total Boys Girls Coeducational

Ahmednagar 3 6 136 148 Bhandara - 6 63 70 Nanded 4 4 87 96

Total 16 286 314

per cent) schools were for girls only,

3 .4 1 . Summary

1 , It is seen from the above discussion that secondary education took impetus in the post-independence period and private managements have played a dominant role intheir growth,

2 . Generally the schools in the d istr ic t s unde|* discussion taught standards V to XI or stajadaxds VIII to

1 3. When the accommodation was not sufficient t^ house all the sections the schools met in double shifts, l|lostly the lowei/sections met in the moraing shift and the highe T “ the afternoon, ‘

4, The number of students per division varied from

25,5 to 41,4. The upper classes had gradually decreasing average strength of students, ! • i 5, Similarly co-educational schools were greater in number than the separate ones for boys or girls.

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