Education and five year plan

Unit VII Educational planning and financing

Five year plans: Educational policy making and budgeting

Educational Planning

Planning is the process of preparing a set of decisions for action during a specific period of time to achieve a set of goals. Educational planning can be defined as ‘the process of setting out in advance, strategies, policies, procedures, programmes and standards through which an educational objective can be achieved’

Educational Financing

All allocation of funds to education should be determined by the educational budget and Improvement of education should be made within the financial and human. Education should be duly financed to provide equality of opportunity for the development of the individuals. It can develop their capacities and talents and leaders can spring up from all ranks and conditions of life.

The allocation of funds to education purely from the economic point of view- should be decided by the future needs of skilled man power in various sectors of national life. Attempts should be made to reduce the cost of equipment by improvisation etc. Teachers should be given incentives to do so.

As Kothari Commission desires that utmost economy should be used in the construction of the school building. It should be constructed at war-footing. That will enhance the prestige of education.

Need for Educational Planning

•      Adequate plans help to direct and co-ordinate the actions of employees in order to achieve maximum effectiveness, efficiency and productivity.

•      Planning is necessary for administrative decisions in education

•      Educational plans are designed to avoid in balances and enormous wastes

Five Year Plans: Educational Policy making and Budgeting:

From the commencement of economic planning in 1951-52, the education sector has remained the priority sector of the central as well as the state governments. In the first and subsequent five year plans, the government provided development finance to the States through the Planning Commission, to help meet the capital needs of their education systems. A brief description of plan priorities with respect to education is as follows:

The First Five Year Plan (1951-56)

The First Five Year Plan emphasized the universalisation of primary education and strengthening of the secondary education. It aimed to achieve 60% enrollment of those aged up to 11 years - up from 40% in 1950. Total planned budget was Rs.2069 crore. It was allotted 16.74% for Social activities including Education

Five Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) were started as major technical institutions. The University Grants Commission (UGC) was set up to take care of funding and take measures to strengthen the higher education in the country.

Second Five Year Plan (1956-1961)

The Second Five Year Plan laid stress on basic education, expansion of elementary education, and diversification of secondary education. The following were the highlights for the

•      Launched Indian Statistical Institute, Atomic Energy Commission and Tata institute of fundamental Research

•      Allotment of money for education is 307 crore

•      Primary education :89 crore

•      Secondary education : 51  crore

•      Higher education: 57 crore

•      Educational  technology and vocational education: 48 crore

•      Social education:  5 crore

•      Administration: 57 crore

•      The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and Atomic Energy Commission of India were established as research institutes.

•      In 1957, a talent search and scholarship program was begun to find talented young students to train for work in nuclear power

•      The number of Students Enrolment in Primary education increased  in 264.6 to 406.3 lakhs

•      No.of schools for Primary Education increased  in 278.13 to 342 thousands

Third Five year Plan: (1961-1966)

•      Allotment of money for education is 400 crore

•      Allotment of money for Elimentary and Middle school 178 crore

•      Primary School  45000

•      Secondary School 153,000

•      Students from Primary& Secondary School  increased upto 539..5 lakhs

•      State Secondary Education Boards were formed.

•      Education Commission (1964-66) was appointed to advise ‘on the national pattern of education and on the general principles for development of education at all stages and in all respects’. 

             

Plan Holidays (from 1966–69)

 The main reason behind the plan holiday was the Indo-Pakistan war & failure of third plan.

Fourth Five Year Plan:  (1969-1974)

At this time Mrs. Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister. Incorporating the recommendations of the Education Commission, the Fourth Five year plan aimed at providing free and compulsory education up to the age of 14. It was stated that “Facilities for universal elementary education are pre-requisite for equality of opportunity.”  The fourth plan also focused on for higher education: The highlights of the Fourth Five Year Plan are as follows:

·         Nationalization of 14 banks

·         Pokran I Nuclear test

·         Allotment of money for education from Central 271 state 499.89 and union territories 51.77crore

·         Importance to Science and technology

·         Focused on In-service training, Curriculum reform and  preparation of books

The Fifth Five Year Plan (1974 to 1979)

The Fifth Five Year Plan laid emphasis on ensuring equality of opportunities as part of the overall plan of ensuring social justice.

•      Allotment of money for education was 1284.29 crore

•      Allotment of money for Elimentary and Middle school was 742.8 crore

•      Focused on increasing the employment opportunity, eradicating poverty and social justice

The Sixth Five Year Plan (1978-83)

The basic objective of this plan was poverty eradication and technological self reliance. The Sixth Five-Year Plan marked the beginning of economic liberalization. Following are its highlights:

·         Allotted  more money for higher education

·         It was proposed that universalisation of primary education (for the age group 6-11) would be achieved by the end of the plan (1985) and universalisation of upper primary level (11-14) by 1990.

The Seventh Five Year Plan (1985-90)

Rajiv Gandhi as the prime minister and the plan laid stress on improving the productivity level of industries by upgrading of technology.

The main objectives of the Seventh Five-Year Plan were to establish growth in areas of increasing economic productivity, production of food grains, and generating employment through "Social Justice". For the first time the private sector got the priority over public sector. Its highlights are

·         Universalaization of elementary education will continue to be part of the Minimum Needs Programme.

·         The objective is sought to be achieved through a combination of formal and non-formal methods, focusing sharply on the needs of girls and of children belonging to the economically and socially weaker sections.

Annual Plan (1990 – 1992)

The Eighth Five Year Plan (1992-97):

In this plan the top priority was given to development of the human resources i.e. employment, education, and public health. Duing this plan Narasimha Rao Govt. launched New Economic Policy of India. It was the beginning of liberalization, Privatization and Globalization (LPG) in India.

·         Universalaization of elementary education,

·         Eradication of illiteracy in the age group of 15 to 35

·         Strengthening of vocational education

·         Focused on girl’s education and women's literacy which has a beneficial impact on children's literacy as well as other national objectives like population control and family welfare.

·         Special attention was paid to increase retention, improvement of quality, specification of minimum levels of learning (MLL) and their attainment by the learners.

The Ninth Five Year Plan (1997-2002):

The Ninth Five-Year Plan came after 50 years of Indian Independence. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister of India during the Ninth Plan.

Special Action Plans (SAPs) were evolved during the Ninth Plan to fulfill targets within the stipulated time with adequate resources. The SAPs covered the areas of social infrastructure, agriculture, information technology and Water policy. Following are its highlights:

·         Primary education was a major thrust area during the 9th Plan. It was estimated that there would be an additional enrollment of 2.5 crore children at the lower primary stage and 1.6 crore children at the upper primary level.

·         It was targeted that 75000 additional rooms /buildings will be constructed at the elementary stage.

·         2, 36,000 teachers will be appointed additionally at the lower primary level and 1, 75,000 teachers at the upper primary level.

·         There were equity concerns like low enrollment of girls, educational requirements of special need groups, like SCs/STs, OBCs, minorities, disabled children, working children, children from disadvantaged locations like deserts, hilly, coastal and deep forest areas, children from migratory families etc.

The Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-2007):

·         The Tenth Plan targets in respect to elementary education were: All children in the 6-14 age groups should have access to primary schools, upper primary schools or their alternatives within a walking distance of one Km and three Kms. respectively.

·         There should be one upper primary school for every two primary schools. 

·         All schools should have buildings, toilets, drinking water, electricity, playgrounds, blackboards and other basic facilities.

·         There must be provision of one classroom for every teacher at the elementary stage.

·         Enrollment of all children in schools or alternative arrangements by 2003

·         All children to complete five years of primary schooling by 2007, Universal retention in the primary stage by 2007

·         Dropout rate to be reduced to less than 10 percent for grades VI-VIII by 2007.

·         Improve the quality of education in all respects to ensure reasonable learning outcomes at the elementary level, especially in literacy, numeracy and in life skills.

·         Bridge all gender and social gaps in enrollment, retention and learning achievement in the primary stage by 2007 and reduce the gap to 5 percent in the upper primary stage by 2007.

·         The plan document states: “The Central Government has introduced the 93rd Constitution Amendment Bill, 2001 for enacting the Fundamental Right to Free and Compulsory Education for children in the age group of 6-14 years. The enactment of a Central legislation would result in adequate provisioning of public resources for improving the accessibility of children to schools, quality up-gradation, and mitigating the costs of school attendance.” 

·         Although the Tenth Five Year Plan recommended that the outlay by the central government on Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) during 2002-03 to 2006-07 should amount to Rs 17000 crore, it remained short of funds till 2004-05. The situation eased only when it received combined external support from the World Bank, DFID and European Commission  committing Rs 4700 crore and a further Rs. 5000 crores arising from the imposition of two percent Education Cess on all central taxes.

The Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2007–11):

It was in the period of Manmohan Singh as a prime minister. Plan focuses on education with objectives of  Reduce dropout rates of children from elementary school from 52.2% in 2003-04 to 20% by 2011-12, Develop minimum standards of educational attainment in elementary school, and by regular testing monitor effectiveness of education to ensure quality, increase literacy rate for persons of age 7 years or above to 85%, lower gender gap in literacy to 10 percentage point, increase the percentage of each cohort going to higher education from the present 10% to 15% by the end of the plan. Highlights of this plan are as follows:

·         It aimed to increase the enrolment in higher education of 18–23 years of age group by 2011–12.

·         It focused on distant education, convergence of formal, non-formal, distant and IT education institutions.

·         Rapid and inclusive growth (poverty reduction).

·         Emphasis on social sector and delivery of service therein.

·         Empowerment through education and skill development.

·         Reduction of gender inequality.

·         Environmental sustainability.

Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-17):

Twelfth five year plan focuses on universalisation of elementary educations.

            The twelfth five year plan has total gross budgetary support of Rs 3,43,028 crores to school education and literacy, out of this, share for SSA is Rs. 1,92,726 crores, for MDM,  Rs. 90,155 crores, for RMSA Rs. 27,466 crores and for other components is Rs. 32,681 crores.

The objectives of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan were:

·         To create 50 million new work opportunities in the non farm sector.

·         To remove gender and social gap in school enrolment.

·         To enhance access to higher education.

·         To reduce malnutrition among children aged 0–3 years.

·         Integration of pre-school education into schooling especially in the government   schools. Funding for pre-school children under  ECCE,

·         Stepping up provision of infrastructure through convergence with schemes Strengthening of monitoring and evaluation mechanism including social audit for SSA and MDM scheme with web-based monitoring for transparency and periodic and sustained third party evaluation.