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Eternal India
encyclopedia
EDUCATION
TICKING TOWARDS TOTAL LITERACY
Education, one of India's major assets, is now being restructured
completely, so that it becomes "an effective instrument for taking the
country into the 21st century". An asset, because of the large pool
of well-educated and highly trained manpower in virtually all
disciplines. But, on the other side of the book , there are millions of
illiterates .
The National Policy on Education (NPE) adopted in 1986 seeks
to establish a National System of Education which lays down an
overall curricular framework and a curriculum to establish
comparability of competence at the end of various stages of education
all over the country.
Creating jobs for the educated unemployed is a problem that can
be solved only by rapid economic development. The government's
goal of virtually eliminating illiteracy by the year 2000, is equally
daunting. The scope of the existing level of school education is being
expanded with vocational training, covering various trades,
introduced at the secondary school level.
"Notwithstanding the commitment to universal literacy and
learning enunciated in the Constitution, it has not been easy to ensure
universal access to and equity in education. Widespread educational
disparities of various kinds such as between the rural and urban
areas, men and women, persist and tend to get accentuated.
Negative parental attitudes reinforced by poverty and gender
discrimination, apathy towards education and universal literacy as
agents of social and economic change, an unhelpful environment
lacking adequate understanding of the value of literacy have all
contributed to increase in illiteracy and deterioration of educational
standards". (Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma)
The indispensable component of Human Resource Development
is literacy. The aim of imparting functional literacy to 80 million
adult illiterates in the 15-35 age group by 1995 has been attempted
by the National Literacy Mission. Over 32,000 Jana Shikshana
Nilayams (JSNs) have been sanctioned since May 1988 by the
National Literacy Mission. 32 Post-Literacy and Continuing
Education (P L C E) centres have been approved covering 56 districts
with neo-literate coverage totaling to 132.43 lakh persons.
During the 8th Five Year Plan an allocation of Rs. 1400 crores has
been made. It is expected that at the end of the Plan period 345
districts or roughly 75% of the districts in the country would be
covered by the total literacy campaigns.
Among the States and Union Territories the first position
continues to be held by Kerala with a literacy rate of 90.59%. Mizoram
comes second with 81.23% and Lakshadweep third with 79.23%. The
bottom position is occupied by Bihar with 38.54%, preceded by
Rajastan with 38.81%, Dadra & Nagar Haveli (39.45%), Arunachal
Pradesh (41.22%), Uttar Pradesh (41.71%) and Andhra Pradesh
(45.11%).
In 1981 almost half (48.76%) of the population of India lived in
seven States and Union Territories where the literacy rate was less
than 40.00% and 4.95 % literacy in four States-UTs where the literacy
rate was more than 70%. By 1991 the percentage of population living
in states with literacy rate of less than 40% had changed to 15.97 and
those with literacy rate of 70% or more to 5.18 %. The number of
States and UTs in these ranges is two and nine respectively reflect-
ing increases in literacy rates in all the States and UTs.
In the 1991 census India attained a literacy rate of 52.2 %. In this
census the question on literacy was canvassed only for the popula-
tion aged seven years of age and above unlike the practice till 1981
of canvassing the question for the population aged five years and
above. In the 1991 census, as in earlier censuses, among other
characteristics the literacy status of each individual was ascertained
by applying the yard stick of whether one could read and write with
understanding in any of the languages. Recognising the fact that
ability to read and write with understanding is not ordinarily achieved
until one has some schooling or atleast time to develop these skills,
it was felt that only the population aged seven years and above should
be classified as literate or illiterate. Of the 838.58 million people
counted during the 1991 census, excluding Jammu & Kashmir where
the census was not held, there were 688.16 million aged seven years
and above. Of these 359.28 million were literates and 328.88 million
were illiterate. Thus for the first time the number of literates has
exceeded the number of illiterates (The 1981 literacy rate was 43.56
for the population aged seven years and above and 41.42 for the popu-
lation aged five years and above). The literacy rate for males in 1991
was 64.13 % and for females 39.29%. This shows that in the case of
females the trend of more illiterates than literates continues.
The urban-rural divide in literacy rates was marked with the urban
literacy rate in 1991 at 73.01 % compared to the rural literacy rate of
44.54 %. Although literacy rates were higher in urban than in rural
areas a majority of literates live in rural areas because a vast majority
of the country’s population still lives in rural area. In 1991 only 26.13%
of the country’s population lived in urban areas.
It must be recognised, however, that India already has achieved
much in the field of education. The number of recognised institutions
has increased.
The national stock of educated manpower is estimated to have
increased from less than four million to about 48 million . It is
significant to note that facilities have not only increased, but also
diversified at all levels and in different subjects. The enrolment for
post-graduate studies and science subjects has increased.
Extensive facilities available for education in a variety of branches
of engineering and technology have contributed significantly to our
achievements in areas like atomic energy and satellite
communications. The country's sizable educated labour force - one
of the world's largest - is clearly a boon. Although quality varies the best
among the educated are on a par with the best anywhere.
India provides a remarkably good education in engineering,
particularly at the undergraduate level. The leading schools are the
five Indian Institutes of Technology, set up with assistance from the
US, the UK, the USSR, and West Germany; they graduate about 1,200
engineers each year. The regional colleges of engineering at various
locations have facilities for post-graduate studies. In addition the
government has set up a number of institutes that offer three-year
courses of study, leading to diplomas (rather than five-year courses
that lead to a bachelor's degree).
Business administration is a relatively new discipline in India. The
four Indian Institutes of Management (located at Ahmedabad,
Calcutta, Bangalore and Lucknow) together with Xavier's Labour
Relations Institute, Kharagpur are considered the best. They offer
two-year residential courses leading to a diploma, equivalent to a
master's degree. In addition 52 universities in India offer a master's
degree course in business administration.