Unfinished business

IT WAS that great academician J. P. Naik who called primary education in India, ``unfinished business''. He was the member secretary of the Kothari Commission with which I was associated and JPN invited me to Delhi to help him draft the report. He honestly believed that without total success in this sphere, further education may be a farce or tragedy or both. He often used to cite the example of Rajasthan noted for its valour and especially the courage of women as portrayed by the life of Rani Padmini.

Today the picture of Rajasthan is dismal on the women's education front. Not even 12 per cent of the girls go to school and the situation is similiar in many other States. Although Kerala and Tamil Nadu are looking up, all the States put together cannot touch even 40 per cent. Prof. Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate, has gone on record that primary education alone can save a country in the long run.

But a beginning has been made. For the first time in the history of education in India, a Department for Primary Education has been opened in the Ministry of HRD at New Delhi. The Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, has appointed a secretary for elementary education in the HRD Ministry. The Prime Minister told this writer that a new primary education policy for the Government of India should be launched and as envisaged by the Union Minister for HRD, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, a ``Sarva Shiksha Abhyan'' (SSA) at the district level throughout the country with an additional funding of Rs. 9,000 crores a year should be implemented. The Government also intended to amend the Constitution to make primary education a fundamental right of all children up to 14 years, he said. An India Education Fund had to be started so that the public might lend their helping hand to the Government.

Universalisation of education cannot be a government programme. The Government may provide the leadership and perhaps the money but the initiative should come from the public and unless this becomes a mass movement like the freedom struggle, we cannot win the battle against illiteracy.

In the developing countries, access to primary education is made difficult by handicaps of the following nature: (a) climatic and geographical constraints (b) lack of teachers where they are most needed (c) lack of communication facilities (d) lack of facilities such as teaching-learning equipment and materials (e) inability of parents in the backward socio-economic groups to send children to full-time schools (f) cultural constraints which keep girls out of school (g) lack of understanding among the primary teachers about methods of working with disadvantaged children and (h) neglect of planning, administration and teacher- recruitment at the micro-level. Apart from the question of universal access, three other factors which come in the way of universalisation are (a) irregular attendance and consequent failure or dropout (b) dropout because of boredom in school or socio-economic reasons (c) poor achievement even in the basic literacy - numerical skills despite fairly regular attendance and promotion from class to class and (d) a relapse into illiteracy for want of opportunities to use literacy.

Most of these factors have been discussed since the Report of the Hartog Committee which found that of the 100 pupils which entered class I in the beginning of last century, only 18 reached Class V. Of these, several relapsed into illiteracy, making the money, time and effort spent on their schooling totally infructuous.

Several measures taken in the past 50 years have helped to expand the primary education system. They have got bogged down. For instance, non-formal, part-time education scheme was launched. Yet, many problems remain and demand attention. Perhaps, a look at the programmes of China, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Thailand will help.

A general trend noticeable in the countries mentioned is micro- planning for universal access and greater devolution of responsibility and powers to the local levels of administration and supervision. Alongside, the participation of the community in educational action is increasingly emphasised.

The basic features of China's primary education programmes since 1950 appear to have been (a) responsiveness to the circumstances of the learners (b) economies in the cost of provision of facilities (c) increasing the local pool of trained workers and peasants for improved local production (d) moral education in the sense of political orientation and inculcation of nationalism. While policies were framed at the national level, implementation was decentralised. Primary education was made neither `free' nor `compulsory' but `essential' for better production and for propagating the Government's political ideology.

In the countrywide, MINBAN (people-run) schools gave access to all the children in a six-year primary-school structure, appointed local teachers and were financed mostly by co- operatives. In very poor areas only, state-subsidies were given. The MINBAN teachers were `functionally' trained but did not receive formal teacher-training. More than 50 per cent MINBAN teachers were not formally qualified and were paid not by the State but by the communes. Agriculture, technical trades and similar skills required in the rural situation were arranged to be given to the pupils by the local practitioners. This became a kind of apprenticeship for the older pupils. Also, work-study schools were encouraged.

In China, the theory of ``standing on one's own feet'' has been deeply etched on the minds of the people. Hence the practice of ``Working while learning''. This is reflected in the way political workers and bureaucrats work together. Such aphorisms as ``women hold up half the sky'' have helped remove discrimination against women and cultural impediments in the path of girls' education.

Vietnam, Bangladesh and Thailand have developed some interesting practices which are worthy of notice. Vietnam has a network of night schools for everybody, at all levels. In some, the students at higher levels teach those at the lower levels. Despite an extreme shortage of paper and books, Vietnam is doing a creditable job by adjusting the curricula, learning-time, and the use of students as teaching resources. In the Mekong Delta where roads and bridges get washed away and communications break down during floods, fair-weather schools of short duration operate on a simplified curriculum and ensure that access to education is guaranteed. The night-school alternative for all levels is a workable proposition which most developing countries can emulate, if local teaching resources are found and utilised.

Some of Bangladesh's alternatives and innovations merit atention. For instance, decentralised implementation of primary education for a unit of about 10,000 people. Administration has been brought closer to the area of operation and a Thana Education Officer is placed in charge of about 100 primary schools. An assistant supervises only 20 primary schools and non-formal primary classes.

But the alternative which seems most significant is the decentralisation of teacher-training, particularly for non-formal education. Mobile vans fitted with audio-visual equipment, particularly video-cassettes, move from area to area to conduct on-the-spot teacher-training. Production of primary level audio- visual aids and other materials by secondary teachers and students is another innovation which can fit into our concept of socially useful productive work.

From Thailand, two interesting programmes can be adopted. This is of special interest to those who do not wish to continue formal schooling: (1) Interest-groups and (2) Reading centres. In the first scheme, at least 15 learners from a village must come together to decide what they wish to learn, find a teacher who can frame the curriculum and teach them within a specified period - say, five days to three months - and submit the scheme for sanction to the district education authorities with whom a flexible budget is available. The teacher's salary is sanctioned if the curriculum is approved. When the learners certify that the teacher has satisfactorily completed the set curriculum, his salary is paid by the authorities.

The reading centres are mostly newspaper reading centres for neo- literate adults. But an adapted version tried out by the Institute in connection with its universal primary education and adult education project has yielded good results. In this version, the Centre is both a `reading and listening centre' with additional club-type activities such as dramatics, elocution competitions, etc.

Suggestions

Some urgent steps to achieve quick results:

(1) Whatever may be the political ideology of a country, the importance of universal primary education is recognised and new ventures are organised for goal fulfilment since the existing system is found inadequate for the purpose.

(2) Adult literacy, broader adult education and universal primary education are mutually complementary programmes especially when they have to be implemented in non-formal arrangements.

(3) Traditional concepts of full-time primary education, using the school as a community centre, etc. are inapplicable in many situations where education needs to be provided to children and adults in their spare time and close to their residence.

(4) Non-professional teachers, whether workers, villagers or students need to be used in large numbers for teaching the educationally unreached.

(5) New concepts are emerging for training rural teachers on-the- job.

(6) To be successful, innovative measures in education must constitute a package.

(7) Action-research has to be part and parcel of any endeavour for ensuring the functionality of education. The elements of replicability must, however, be carefully built into the planning, implementation and evaluation of action-research projects right from the start.

The Prime Minister has given the green signal. Let us march on steadily till we reach the goal.

K. VENKATASUBRAMANIAN

Member, Central Planning Commission

PRIMARY EDUCATION

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