After surveying the state of education in different parts of India, the Radhakrishnan Commission made highly significant recommendations for its progress and development on the right lines.
Rapid changes have taken place in the sphere of education during the recent years. The number of universities has gone up from 23 (including the Visva-Bharati at Santiniketan and the Shrimati Nathubai Damodar Thackersay Women’s University) in the pre-Independence period to 102, including the Bundelkhand University, Jhansi (1975), Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology (1974-19″3), Acharya Narendra Dev University of Agriculture and Technology, Faizabad (1974-1975). Further nine institutions have been deemed to be universities under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission Act. According to a Report of the University Grants Commission student enrolment in the field of higher education rose from 11.55 lakhs in 1961-1962 to 39.01 lakhs in 1970-1971. There were 3.5 million students in 4,153 colleges in India in 1972-1973.
University education has received much impetus through the efforts and activities of the University Grants Commission, which was constituted in 1953 and was given an autonomous statutory status by an Act of Parliament in 1956. By a Resolution, dated 14th July, 1964, the Government of India appointed an Education Commission under the Chairmanship of Dr. D.S. Kothari, then Chairman of the University Grants Commission, “to advise Government on the national pattern of education and on the general principles and policies for the development of education at all stages and in all aspects”, except legal and medical education.
The Commission justly observed in its Report that “education has to be used as a powerful instrument of social, economic and political change and will, therefore, have to be related to the long-term national aspirations the programmes of national development on which the country is engaged and the difficult short-term problems it is called upon to face”. It emphasised the need for “a revolution in education, the education which in turn will set in motion the much-desired social, economic and cultural revolution”. While indicating the need for modernisation of education through the “adoption of a science-based technology” the Report lays due stress on the development of essential, moral and spiritual values by suggesting the steps which the Central and State Governments and private agencies, should take in this respect. “India should”, the Commission observes, “strive to bring science and the value of the spirit together and in harmony, and thereby pave the way for the eventual emergence of a society which would cater to the needs of the whole man and not only to a particular fragment of his personality.” After pointing out the various defects, which are responsible for the prevailing turmoil in the educational world, the Commission significantly holds that these should be removed to help the growth of a spirit of confidence and fellowship among all who are associated with educational institutions. Besides suggesting several measures for the eradication of this evil, it lays emphasis on two, that is, improvement of standards in institutions at all stages of education including colleges and universities and the provision for “a better standard of student services”. It has made various other helpful recommendations regarding the position of teachers, numerical strength of students, condition of finances, selective admissions, well-equipped libraries, the medium of instruction, sports, games, and other corporate activities.
In December 1974, the University Grants Commission reported on the ills in the educational system of India, including restiveness among the students, and has recommended various measures of reform. In certain other quarters too there have been demands for reform in the educational system. But nothing effective has been done as yet. It is indeed a highly delicate task.
In the secondary and primary stages there has been enough of quantitative expansion and we notice some changes, one of these being the introduction of the Higher Secondary Schools. But recently decisions have been taken by some State Governments for a ten years’ course in schools, a two years’ Intermediate course and four or three years’ B.A. degree course in colleges. There has also been expansion of facilities for higher technical education and medical education.
There has been remarkable progress in scientific research, which is being carried out mainly through the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and the different national laboratories or research institutes established under its control and in universities and research institutes aided by the Council. The Atomic Energy Commission was entrusted with the task of developing atomic energy for peaceful purposes and the principal centre for research and development of atomic energy is the Atomic Energy Establishment at Trombay near Bombay. On 18th May, 1974, India carried out an underground nuclear experiment.
Suitable steps have been taken for Rural Higher Education, for Social Education, and for education of the handicapped. Efforts are being made for promotion of art and culture and development of art consciousness among the people through the agency of the Lalit Kala Akademi (set up in 1954), the Sangeet Natak Akademi (established in 1953), the Sahitya Akademi (set up in 1954), and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (established in 1959).
It is interesting to note that since the beginning of the twentieth century there has been a phenomenal development in female education. The Radhakrishnan Commission made some important recommendations as regards this. At the lower primary stage the number of girls enrolled per 100 boys grew from 12 in 1901 to 39 in 1950 and to 55 in 1965. At the secondary stage such figures were 4 in 1901, 15 in 1950, and 26 in 1965. In the field of higher education enrolment of girls increased from 264 in 1901 to 40,000 in 1950 and 240,000 in 1965. There has been further progress in this respect during the last few years. There were 2.8 crore girls in schools on 30th September, 1971; 2.2 crore in classes I-V, 3.9 lakhs in classes VI-VIII and 18.9 lakhs in classes IX-XII.
During the recent years the problems of women’s education in our country has been examined by several committees. These are the National Committee on the Education of Women under the Chairmanship of Mrs. Durgabai Deshmukh; the Committee- on Differentiation of Curricula between Boys and Girls under the Chairmanship of Mrs. Hans Mehta; and the Committee under the Chairmanship of Mr. M. Bhaktavatsalam which considered the problem in the six States which experienced far less development in women’s education. The Kothari Commission fully agreed with their recommendations. It expressed the view that “the strategy for the development of the education of girls and women will have to take two forms”. The first is to emphasise the “special” programmes recommended by the National Committee of Women’s Education, and the second is to give attention to the education of girls at all stages and in all sections as an integral part of the general programme for the expansion and improvement of education. Attempts are being made in different parts of India to implement these recommendations.
Significant changes have taken place in Indian social life to make it more progressive. The uplift of women is one such change. Women have increasingly come forward and discarded their veils to participate in varied national activities and accelerate national progress. Early marriage is now an infrequent phenomenon. The progress of education and changing conditions of life have raised the marriageable age of girls considerably and in some States it has risen beyond the expectations of legislators and reformers. The Hindu Marriage Validating Act of 1949 removed the inter-caste marriage barriers. The Special Marriage Act of October, 1954, revised and replaced the Special Marriage Act of 1872, permitting a special form of marriage to a person in India and to Indian nationals in foreign countries irrespective of the faith which either party to the marriage might profess. The Hindu Marriage Act of March, 1955, provided for increasing marriages, divorces and payments of maintenance allowance by both husband and wife, and made bigamy punishable. The Hindu Succession Act of June, 1956, has declared property of a Hindu female to be her absolute property and has laid down general rules of succession in the case of Hindu females.
The Central Advisory Board in 1944 was emphatic as to the necessity for increasing educational facilities for women, even to the extent of making the same provision for girls as for boys. Recognising the special role of women in children’s education, the Board recommended that “apart from the Preprimary schools, where all the teachers must be women at least three-fifths of the teachers in junior Basic Schools and one-half of those in senior Basic Schools, ought to be women.” Indian women felt entitled to greater opportunities for working on a basis of equality with men, and many of them were already prominent in various spheres of life. Mrs. Radhabai Subbarayan became the first woman member of the Council of State in 1938, and in 1943 Mrs. Renuka Ray was the first woman to sit in the Central Legislative Assembly. It is a matter of pride for India that women leaders like Mrs. Vijayalakshmi Pandit and Rajkumari Amrit Kaur came to be actively associated as representatives of their country with international bodies like the United Nations and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The All India Women’s Conference forwarded to the Constituent Assembly the Charter of Women’s Rights, its most import features being the demand for the introduction of universal suffrage in India’s new constitution and for the formation of a social service Ministry both at the Centre and in the Provinces.
Independent India honoured its womanhood by appointing Mrs. Sarojini Naidu as Governor of the United Provinces, Mrs.Vijayalakshmi Pandit as Ambassador in Moscow and Washington, and Rajkumari Amrit Kaur as a Minister in the Central Government, and lately Mrs. Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister of India.
