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A SOURCE BOOK ON ADULT EDUCATION A SOURCE BOOK ON ADULT EDUCATION Edited by S.Y. SHAH NIEPA DC D07457 DIRECTORATE OF ADULT EDUCATION Government of India Block 10, Jamnagar House Hutment, Shahjahan Raod NEW DELHI SEPTEMBER 1989 S6U / > .IBii;................. CCJinji iJatio f ' ^ i(>aa{ J * .’ad ^ <7-B, A u uc. 00 Maig. ^ D' Date •• ........o it s A FOREWORD The operation of the National Literacy Mission since May 1988 has not only infused a new vitality into the adult education prog- raimme in India but also has enhanced it’s scope and sigrHficance bo)th as a field of study and practice. However, the systematic and sciholarly study of any discipline deperids to a great extent on the availability of source materials which in the case of adult education rermaiin scattered all over India and abroad. Although, Indian adult ediucation has generated a variety of materials during the last fifty yeiars, practically no effort has been made so far to survey the soiurces. The present voltume is a commendable attempt made by Dr. S.'Y.Shah of Jawaharlal Nehru University in this directbn. By identify- iing, classifying an»d editing some of the important documents on llndiain adult education during the last fifty years and surveying the (puibli.'shed and unpublished studies on Indian adult education and (preeparing a chronology of events, Dr. Shah has met a long felt need (of adult educators. II consider this Sou rce Book to be a landmark publication and fhofpe! that it will b>e of immense use to the scholars, administrators canid profe.'ssiionals as a basic reference material. II am cgraiteful to Dr. S.Y.Shah for the preparation of this volume. I cann ithankcful to Shri G. Sivaswamy, Deputy Director, Shri H.K. EBairthiwal, Asst. Director and Shri L.C. Vohra, Senoir Artist, Shri K.B. TThaapia, Ariisit and other members of the Publication Unit of DAE for ttak<in«g ke^n interest in the publication of this work in an excellent rmeanmer. II ami delighted to bring out this book on tne occasion of lilntierrnatiornati Literacy Day^. W e iw DelH^i Anil K.Sinha JJurnei 22, 1989 Director ACKNOWLEDGEMENT In the preparation and publication of this work I have been helped and emcouraged by a number of Individuals and institutions. However, I would like to rrventioo the names of the following : Professor Tapas Majumdar for introducing me to the field of adult education aind inspiring me to conduct research studies. Shri Anil Bordia for granting me permission to consult the documents at the record room, Department of Education, Ministry of Human Resource Develop- nf)ent Shri Anil K. Sinha for taking special interest in the study. Dr. Anita Dighe for encouraging me to complete the study at an early date. Professor James Draper for providing certain insights into the study. Shri Venkatasheshayya and B.C. Rokadiya for their cooperation. Shri G. Sivaswamy for seeing it through the press and Shri L.C.Vohra for cover design. University Grants Commission for providing financial assistance. Directorate of Adult Education for the publication. The librarians and staff of the fol)owing libraries for giving me access to materials : Central Secretariat, UGC, ICSSR, Planning Commission, Record room. Ministry of Human Resource Development, Directorate of Adult Education, Indian Adult Education Association, George Arents Research Library tor spiels! collections at Syracuse University, Mugar Library at Boston University and London University Institute of Education. Ms. Regi Varghese for typing the manuscript with patience and eare. S.Y. Shah ABOUT THE STUDY “Men alter words and think they have changed things." Howard Mumford Jones, Education and World Tragedy Cambridge; Harward Press. -\9 4 4 , p.7 7. Each field of educational study carries with it a historical perspective without which it becomes difficult to have a thorough understanding of certain developments. Sometimes it becomes extremely difficult to grasp the back ground of a particular policy or programme mainly due to the ignorance of sources or inability to locate them. In fact there is no dearth of sources for the study of history of education in India. Although considerable efforts have been made by a number of scholars to compile a variety of source materials on different aspects of Indian education, the majority of the publications have either excluded adult education altogether or given only marginal importance to it notwithstanding the innumerable documents.’ Hence there is enough scope for a comprehensive source book on Indian adult education. It is more so, because in recent times adult education has emerged as an important prog­ ramme in India. Its expansion has enhanced the demand for publications which provide a comprehensive idea of the past policies, and programmes. To a certain extent, this volume aims at meeting the demand of the policy planners, administrators and scholars in the field of adult education. Since the publication of the first major official report on Indian adult education in 1939, a number of documents, policy statements and programme guidelines have been brought out by the official as well as non official agencies in India. If certain documents were primarily confined to adult education there were a number of reports on education, agriculture, emotional integration etc., which though not directly concerned with adult education have also covered it in a limited manner. The Five Year Plans and Census Reports have invariably covered adult education and literacy. Moreover, the non official bodies like the Indian Adult Education Association, All India Women’s Conference, Indian University Associ­ ation for Continuing Education have been actively involved with the development of Indian adult education and have brought out a nbmber of reports and proceedings of conferences. It would be a stupendous task to include the entire source material on Indian adult education brought out during the last fifty years in a single volume. A (iii) survey of the sources on adult education indicates the possibility of covering the entire source materials in three volumes. In the first volume it is proposed to include only the official documents of the Government of India. While the second volume may be confined to Government publications of the different States and Union Territories of India, the third volume may cover the non­ official documents. This book is in three parts. In part I only those documents which deal exclusively with adult education are included. Part II contains selections from the general reports on education, agriculture, emotional integration etc., which have inter alia examined adult education. The chronicle of events and a brief survey of sources on adult education are given in Part III. The chronlogical arrangement of the bibliography and the chronology of events project the gradual growth of literature and academic activities in the area at different points of time. The documents are selected and presented in such a manner that they throw light on the changing concept, policy and programme of adult education in India during the last fifty years. The concept of adult education in India has undergone several and significant changes over the period. In 1930’s the adult education programme emphasised literacy and mass approach. With the advent of independence, the focuss was shifted to civic literacy and the late 60’s saw the emergence of functional literacy. The next two decades with nessed a variety of adult education programmes which stressed non formal approaches and gave equal weightage to literacy, functionality and social awareness. Today adult education is projected as the National Literacy Mission. Thus the development of Indian adult education may be viewed as the gradual transition from a movement to a mission-the emphasis shifting from mere literacy to total development. In a way, the documents in this volume reveal the official policy towards adult education in India. There is slight variation in the style of editing the selected reports/ documents. In the case of specialised reports on adult education, the terms of reference as well as the names of the members of the committees .are given. But in^the case of general reports, a brief introduction provides a background to the study of documents. All the recommendations of the different Committees and Commissions are given into. Since many of the documents published prior to 1978 are not easily available, important excerpts from them are included in this volume. The significant appendices of certain reports, especially the syllabi of adult education are also reproduced for they may enable us to study the changing character of Indian adult education. The documents included in this volume are located at the following repositories and libraries in New Delhi: Record room, Department of Educa­ tion, Ministry of Human Resource Development; Central Secretariat Library; Directorate of Adult Education; Planning Commission and University Grants Commission. NOTES 1. For example, the following book which has covered 69 documents includes only one document on adult education. See J.C. Agganval, Landmarks in the History of Modern Indian Education. New Delhi : Vikas Publishing, 1984. pp. 308-11. Another recent publication also covers adult education marginally. See A. Biswas and S.P.Agrawal (Eds.), Development of Education in India : A Histrocial Survey of Educational Documents Before and After Independ­ ence. New Delhi : Concept Publishing, 1986 (1985). pp, 513- 28; 674-76. CONTENTS Foreword i Acknowledgement ii About the Study iii PART I. SPECIALISED DOCUMENTS ON ADULT EDUCATION 1. ADULT EDUCATION IN BRITISH INDIA 1 Report of the Adult Education Committee of the Central Advisory Board of Education, 1939. {Syed Mahmud Committee Report) 2. A SCHEME OF SOCIAL EDUCATION IN INDIA 18 Report of Adult (Social) Education Committee of the Central Advisory Board of Education, 1948. {Mohan Lai Saksena Committee Report) 3. SOCIAL EDUCATION LITERATURE 24 Report of the Committee on Social Education Literature, 1952.

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