Relevant for Civil Services Examination<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nPaper-2, Unit-13 [Visions of Social Change in India<\/span><\/em><\/strong>]<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/span>Education and Social Change in India<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n- Education influences different domains of social life. It not only influences social change, but also acts as an agent of social change. Education is the process of facilitating learning or the acquisition of knowledge, skill, values, beliefs and habits. Education engages itself in a much more positive action and can perform the function of an initiator of change. It inculcates in the younger generation whatever changes are desirable for rebuilding a society. Moreover, it cultivates necessary intellectual and emotional readiness to deal with challenges of change.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Education is an important instrument of modernization.<\/strong>\u00a0Modern values in social economic and political spheres have to be instilled in the minds of people to achieve the goal of modernization. Values such as equality, liberty, scientific temper, humanism and ideas against blind faith pave the way for modernization. This task can be effectively performed by education.<\/span><\/li>\n
- In ancient India education was provided by the family, kin group and society as a whole through participation in daily life.<\/strong>\u00a0But, as the needs and activities increased in course of times, a more systematic means of instruction was introduced and a specialized occupational group of teachers was formed The Brahmans acted as formal teachers and were repositories of knowledge and learning. Teaching centers functioned around individual scholars and the learning process also emphasized the role of each individual student This system of education emphasized more on life than on instruction. Thus curricula varied from center to center. The transmission of religious ideas and the interpretation of Gurukula and Vidyalayas. However, this educational system was available only to small section of the population that constituted the upper layers of the Varna hierarchy under the pressure of social and economic change.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Historically speaking modern education appeared in India with the establishment of British rule.<\/strong>\u00a0Initially, the British rulers supported traditional schools and encouraged their expansion and growth. But by the middle of the nineteen century, the colonial policy changed and a decision was taken to introduce European literature and science in India. English was made the medium of instruction in the higher branches of learning. This policy concentrated on the education of the upper and middle classes. Little progress was made in establishing a suitable system of primary education.According to one estimate in 1881-82,1in 10 boys and 1in 250 girls between the ages of 5 and 12 years attended schools. About 90 per cent of the populations were illiterate even in the early part of the twentieth century.The educational system thus not only maintained the gulf between the upper classes and the mass of the population but also increased it further.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
There was significant limitation of the educational policy of the colonial period<\/span><\/h3>\n\n- Priority given to higher education over primary education. The enrolment in colleges and universities increased at a higher rate than in schools.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Modernization through education remained confined to the educated and elite groups that ordinarily belonged to the upper castes. It hardly affected the mass of the population.<\/span><\/li>\n
- However, the system of education introduced during the colonial rule had several good points.<\/span><\/li>\n
- It gave a fundamentally different orientation to the educational system and laid foundation of modern education in India.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Its content was liberal and modern. The teaching of several new branches of learning such as science, technology and medicine created an environment congenial for modernization.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The structure of educational institution was developed on professional lines. This structure, which classified institutions under categories like primary schools, high schools, college and university, continued even after the Independence.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Education in Indian Society has achieved amazing success during the last fifty-five years<\/mark>.<\/strong>\u00a0Its achievements, both in absolute and relative terms, have been remarkable. The fact becomes more visible when we compare the present situation with the one existing at the time of independence.We inherited an educational system which was largely unrelated to national needs and aspiration. It was quantitatively small and qualitatively poor. Only about 14 per cant of the country\u2019s population were literate. Only one child out of three had been enrolled in primary schools. In addition to low levels of enrolment and literacy, regional and gender disparities were also very apparent The education system faced problems of expansion, stagnation and wastage. It lacked vocationalisation and had no relationship with the social and cultural needs of the Indian society.<\/span><\/p>\nAfter the independence,<\/mark><\/strong>\u00a0it was recognized that education formed a vital aspect of the modernization processes. Therefore, educational reform was accepted as an important agenda of national development. A comprehensive constitutional and policy framework was developed The successive Five-Year Plans augmented the goal by launching several programmers of educational development.<\/span><\/p>\nWe may assess the educational profile of India by first touching upon the literacy scene.<\/mark><\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n\n- In 1951, we had a literacy rate of 18.3 per cent which went up to 52.2 per cent in the 1991 census. The rate of literacy, according to the 2001 census, was 65.38 per cant.<\/span><\/li>\n
- While the literacy rate in the case of the male was 75.85 per cant, it was 54.16 per cent in the case of the female. It is apparent from these figures that there has been unprecedented growth in the field of literacy in India.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The female literacy rate has increased by14.87 per cant as against 11.72 per cant in the case of males. Such a remarkable progress in the rate of literacy has primarily been due to two major factors. First, the government-sponsored national campaign for literacy which has made tremendous impact As the scene has been decentralized, its accountability has increased Second the considerable involvement of Nongovernmental Organization (NGOs) which have made the literacy campaign more flexible.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The expansion and the consolidation of elementary education have been equally remarkable. Universalisation of Elementary Education (U.E.E.) has been accepted as a national goal This programme envisages universal access, universal retention and universal achievement.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Now, almost 94 per cant of country\u2019s rural population have primary schools within 1 km. At the upper primary stage 84 per cent of the rural population have schools within a distance of 3 kins.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The enrolment at the primary stage has gone up from 42.60 per cant in 1950-51to 94.90 percent in 1999- 2000.Similarly, the number of primary and upper primary schools has gone up from 2.23 lakh in 1950-51 to 8.39 lakh in 1999-2000 and the number of teachers in these schools from 6.24 lakh in 1999-2000.<\/span><\/li>\n
- A new scheme called Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has been launched to pursue universal elementary education in mission mode. The goals of SSA are to send all children in the age groups of 6-14 to school by 2003 so that they complete five year of primary education by 2007 and complete eight year of schooling by 2010.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Secondary education acts as a bridge between elementary and higher education. It prepares young persons of the age groups of 14-18 for entry into higher education. There were 1.10 lakh secondary and senior secondary institutions in 1999 in the country. 272 lakh students were enrolled in these institutions, of which 101 lakh were girls. In 1999, there were 15.42 lakh teachers in these schools. The vocationlisation of secondary education has been implemented since1998.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The expansion of institutions of higher education has also been exceptional. On the eve of the independence the country had only18 universities. Now there are 259. There are 11,089 colleges and 119 autonomous colleges. The growth of technical and professional institutions has been equally phenomenal. At present, these are 7000 teacher education colleges,110 polytechnics, 600 management institutes, 550 engineering and technology colleges and 170 medical colleges.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Apart from expansion and spread of education opportunities at different levels, special emphasis has been put to improve the status of women through education. It is believed that empowerment of women is a critical precondition for their participation in the development processes. Girl child has now become a target group. Similarly, educational development of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes has received added attention.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
The educational scenario presented above quite evidently looks impressive, but actual efforts have fallen far short of the goaL The National Policy on Education envisages that free and compulsory education should be provided to all children up to the age of 14 years. This target of universalizing elementary education is yet to be achieved.<\/span><\/p>\n |
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