UNIT 2 INDIAN ADULT EDUCATION - A

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Structure
2.0 Introduction
2.1 Objectives
2.2 Origin of Adult Education: As a Socialisation and Cultural Process
2.2.1 Adult Education in Ancient India
2.2.2 Adult Education in Medieval India
2.3 Emergence and Growth of Adult Education in India before 1947:
Beginning of Institutionalisation
2.3.1 Adult Education in Colonial India
2.4. Growth of Adult Education in India after 1947: Growth of Institutions
2.5.1 Social Education Programme (1 948- 1967)
2.4.2 Functional Literacy Programme ( 1968- 1977)
2.4.3 National Adult Education Programme (1978-1987)
2.4.4 Programmec of National Literacy Mission (1988- 2007)
2.5 Institutionalisation of Adult Education: An Overview
2.6 Let Us Sum Up
2.7 Answers to Check Your Progress
2.8 References

2.0 INTRODUCTION
Your understanding of current Adult Education programmes in India would not
be coinplete without knowing how the concept of Adult Education evolved over
the years and was operationalised. A brief overview of different programmes
implemented during the past would help you appreciate the continuous efforts
made in the field of Adult Education. Historical records show that the concept of
Adult Education has undergone several but significant changes in the past. It has
been observed that the organised and systematic instruction of adults long
preceded the formal organization of schools for children. However, such practices
rarely led to institutionalization or gave rise to any specific term during ancient
times. Transmission of knowledge was an integral part of sbcialisation and cultural
process. Although the term- "Adult Education" was first coined in the English
language in 1851, the proc isions for the education of adults were available since
time immemorial (Hudson. 1 85 1).

Being renowned for it's learning and educational institutions from ancient days,
a vide variety of educational opportunities were available to the people of India.
The sacred literature especially the Vedas, Upanishads, D h a m a Sutras and the
Aranyakas bear testimony to the importance accorded to the acquisition of
knowledge. The word Veda is derived from the word, Vid which signifies
'knowledge par excellence'. Notwithstanding the importance accorded to the
acquisition of knowledge in ancient India, the prevalence of caste system among
Hindus greatly restricted its access to the priestly class (Dube, 1990). The colonial
policy of encouraging the education of upper classes was also not conducive for 1ndianAdultEducation:A
Historical Perspective
spread of education among the masses (Shah, 1999).

The history of Adult Education in lndia may be broadly studied in two parts:
pre- independence and post-independence. The growth of Adult Education before
independence may be divided into the pre-colonial and colonial periods. Over
the years a number of initiatives were taken by the state, civil society and religious
organizations and individuals to promote Adult Education. Several programmes,
viz: Night Schools, Social Education Programme, Farmers' Functional Literacy
Programme, National Adult Education Programme, Total Literacy Campaigns,
and Continuing Education Programmes have been implemented in India at various
points of time.

2.1 OBJECTIVES
The main purpose of this unit is to provide you an overview of the emergence
and growth of Adult Education Programmes in India during the last sixty years
(1947-2007). However, an attempt is also made to familiarize you with the origins
of Adult Education and its growth prior to1947 as a backdrop.
After studying the unit, you are expected to be able to:
Understand the conceptual changes in the policy and programmes during
the last sixty years;
Examine the differences among various programmes;
Identify the reasons for changes in the programmes; and
Study the impact of different programmes.

2.2 ORIGIN OF ADULT EDUCATION: AS A

SOCIALISATION AND CULTURAL PROCESS
Adult Education formed an integral part of socialization and cultural process
during ancient and medieval period. Although, there were no formal or specialized
institutions imparting literacy or education to adults, the social and religious
centers specially the temples, market places, community halls, etc served as centers
of non formal education for adults. In this section below, you will get a brief
overview of Adult Education programmes during ancient and medieval periods.

2.2.1 Adult Education in Ancient India

The origins of Adult Education in India may be traced to the oral tradition
prevalent in ancient society. The ancient world being an 'oral world', the mode
of transmission of knowledge was through discourses and discussions. Compared
to secular knowledge the acquisition of sacred knowledge was held in high esteem
as it widened the individuals' horizon of understanding to achieve "dharma"
(moral), "artha" (wealth), "kama" (pleasure) and "moksha" (salvation) (Graff,
1987).

Written texts, although not many, were kept secret and access to sacred knowledge
was not the right of everyone. "The craft of reading and writing remained the
sacred monopoly of small circle of elites" (Cipolla, 1969).The tradition of Vedic
learning was to impart it in the ear as a secret doctrine to be contemplated and
43
Development of A ~ U I ~ realized and not intended for the profane (Mookherji, 1951). According to the
Education
ancient Indian theory of education, knowledge was technically called Sruti or
what was heard by the ear and not what was seen in writing (Smriti). It was the
system of oral tradition by which learning was transmitted from teacher to pupil
in an unbroken chain called Guruparampara. Learning was also promoted through
discussions at public meetings which were regular feature of rural life. Masses
were addressed by wandering scholars known as Carakas. There was also equality
between the sexes in the field of knowledge (Altekar, 1944).
Unlike the Christians and Muslims whose desire to read the holy scriptures like
the Bible and the Quran served as a strong motivational factor for the acquisition
of basic literacy, there were no such urges among the Hindus. Hinduism being
not a religion of Book, reading from the holy books like the Gita and the
Ramayana was not an essential religious requirement for the Hindus. Thus if
religion became an enabling factor in the spread of literacy among Christians
and Muslims, it was an inhibiting force in the Hindu society. Besides there was
a fear that failure to recite the Vedic hymns properly would lead to disaster; and
this prevented many from venturing into it. Even writing appeared to be a "sacred
act of worship carrying with it the supernatural powers and fraught with mystical
dangers". "Tendencies to secrecy, proprietorial exclusiveness and the greater
valuation of what is learned orally from a Guru over what is read in books- all
these have served to limit the resort to writing" (Goody, 1975). Thus, in a society
where access to knowledge was ascriptive and the privilege of a few, it was quite
natural that large sections of people remained illiterate not by choice but due to
circumstances. Education in ancient India was dominated by religion and the
concept of universal basic literacy was alien to the ancient Indians. This inbuilt
resistance of the Hindu religion was a great stumbling block to the wider spread
of literacy. Hence, one of the root causes of illiteracy in India may be traced to
the prevalence of rigid caste system in the country.
The pattern of 'restricted literacy' fitted in with the segmentation of ancient Indian
society. In the absence of scriptal literacy. visual graphic aids and art forms were
resorted to, but literacy practices were not institutionalized. This early stage was
termed as 'craft literacy'. A number of temples served as effective channels of
adult education, though the terminology of adult education was not in vogue.
Temple architecture, sculpture, and paintings preserved the knowledge of the
pre-literate world. In many of the South Indian temples and mathas reading of
the epics, the Puranas and other religious texts took place even from the days of
the Pallavas and continued to be practiced on a large scale in the subsequent
periods. The puraniks with good pronunciation and oratory recited the stories of
the Puranas in temples or in the mansions of rich persons. The Haridasas and
Kathakaras gave sermons accompanied by music and singing and were popular
among masses. Every important temple had a kuthakara attached to it who acted
as teacher-musician to the adults. They organized keertans, bhajans, jagrun and
satsung which were a powerful source of education for the adults from ancient
days and these continue even today (Gurumurthy, 1979).
Notwithstanding the importance accorded to education in ancient India, the
demand for education was restricted. It was due to the varna system which
empowers Brahmanical class to inherit and transmit learning. Most of the
occupations practiced by the masses did not require any formal learning except
on the job training which they acquired at home through observation and imitation.
AA The elite character of education began to change with the advent of Buddhism,
 since Buddhist monks and viharas did not differentiate people on the basis of 1ndianAdultEducation:A
Historical Perspective
caste and were open to all irrespective of caste taboos. "Buddhism envisaged the
democratization of education." The sermons of Buddhist monks were the main
source of education to the masses who flocked to their assembly. The Buddhist
philosophy recognizes the potential of all human beings to develop their resources
to their ultimate till one reaches the final state of perfection. The teachings of
Buddha which were inscribed on iron pillars, stones and rocks which served as
non-formal channels of education for the common people, especially during the
reign of Asoka. The dynasty of Gupta (A.D.320-647) witnessed the flourishing
of Hindu culture when books came into common use. While in the north books
were written on birch-bark, in the south palm-leaves were made use of. In this
I
period, libraries were also established. Drama, lyric poetry and prose were .
assiduously cultivated and they served as channels of adult education (Keay,
and Karvey, 1973).

2.2.2 Adult Education in Medieval India

The tradition of oral transmission of knowledge, values and culture of society
continued even during the medieval period when the rulers of India provided
considerable political patronage and financial support to scholars, saints, teachers,
artists and artisans who were actively involved in the spread of the messages of
peace and harmony through various art forms, music, preaching, and writings.
Temples became dearer to people as social centres. They were the meeting places
I
and centres of village ceremonies and religious and social discourses, besides
I imparting 3R's to children. "As the temples spread, literacy spreads." (Patwardan,
1939). The spread of education in medieval India was mainly dependent on the
interest of the rulers. The growth of popular education was hindered for want of
a popular medium of instruction. Mughal rulers considered education to be a
,
handmaiden of religion and hence State encouragement to education was sporadic.
I However, due to the egalitarian philosophy of Islam, access to education was
open to all during the Mughal regime. The sayings of Prophet Mohammed and
/ the teachings of the Quran placed great emphasis on the acquisition of knowledge
from the cradle to the grave. During Akbar's time, there were no printed books
and important handwritten books were read aloud in the Court and discussions
were held which benefited the aristocracy. Aurangazeb was the first Mughal
[ Emperor who championed the cause of free and compulsory education for the
masses. Though he could not enforce it throughout his kingdom, on an
experimental basis he enforced it in Gujarat among the Bohra community, which
seems to have paved the way for the high rate of literacy in this community
(Ahmed, 1987).

2.3 EMERGENCE AND GROWTH OF ADULT

EDUCATION IN INDIA BEFORE 1947:
BEGINNING OF INSTITUTIONALISATION
Prior to the independence of India in 1947, the process of institutionalization in
I Adult Education had already begun in the form of Night schools. These schools
! emerged in different provinces of British India. While the colonial rulers
encouraged them, several Christian Missionaries, social reform organizations
and the Nationalist leaders also set up Night schools. This section will provide
you a brief overview of the colonial policy towards adult education, various
provisions and efforts made by eminent leaders. 45
Development of Adult
Education
2.3.1 Adult Education in Colonial India
The colonial period witnessed several interesting developments in the field of
Adult Education. While the economic policies of the colonial rulers impoverished
the landed aristocracy which was providing financial support to a large number
of vernacular and adult schools, the limitations of financial resources and the
Anglo-oriental controversy gave a new twist to the British policy towards
education in India. According to the downward filtration theory adopted by the
British in 1830's "education was to permeate the masses from above. Drop by
drop from the Himalayas of Indian life, useful information was to trickle
downwards, forming in time a broad and stately stream to irrigate the thirsty
plains" (Mathew, 1926).The policy was to concentrate on the education of upper
classes who have "leisure for study and whose culture would then filter down to
masses". In practice, it was observed that most of the educated who usually
came from the higher castes got comfortable jobs and became absorbed in
bettering their own prospects than sharing their learning with the masses. In fact
some of the middle classes who were the beneficiary of English education opposed
the attempts made by the social reformers to spread mass education, since it
would lead to an increase in the ranks of those demanding a "share of the cake."
(Majumdar, 1972). On the other hand, due to downward filtration theory, the
British administrators did not consider it necessary to develop any programme
of Adult Education or of universal primary education in British India during the
first half of the nineteenth century.

The practice of downward filtration theory was soon criticised by the Education
Despatch (1854) which suggested several measures for spreading mass education
and also for preserving and encouraging indigenous education. The Despatch
stated that the masses were "utterly incapable of obtaining any education worthy
of the name by their own efforts", and recommended a system of grant-in-aid
which materialized at a much latter date. Although illiteracy among Indians had
attracted the attention of British statesmen in 1860's when Lord Lawrence noted
that "among all the sources of difficulty in our administration and of possible
danger to the stability of our government, there were few so serious as the
ignorance of the people", the colonial rulers did not develop any specific
programmes to liquidate adult illiteracy as there were neither the resources nor
the trained personnel to take up Adult Education programmes (Shah, 1999, Op.
Cit).

The main thrust of Adult Education in India during the 19"' Century
revolved around basic literacy. Night schools were the key adult
education institutions in British India. They were few and modeled after
British Adult Schools and were mainly set up by the Christian missionaries,
nationalist leaders, socio-religious organiziltions and intellectuals. The
ofJicial policy was to encourage them wherever practical and permit as
muchjlexibility as possible in school hours. The core curriculum included
rudiments o f reading, writing and numeracy, covered within a minimum
of 100 days. Average iristruction per day was of 2-3 hours duration. The
Indian Education Commission (1882) observed that every province in
British India had provisions for setting up night schools and Bombay
and Madras had 134 and 312 night schools with an enrolment qf 4000
and 7000 adults respectively (Report of the Indian Education Commission
1882, 1883).
46
The challenging task of educating illiterate adults was taken up by the 1ndianAdultEducation:A
Historical Perspective
missionaries, enlightened Indians and socially committed British officials. In
the absence of adequate professional literature, replicable models and limited
number of dedicated adult educators in British India, the growth of Indian adult
education was extremely slow. British models like the Mechanics Institute.
Working Men's College were not of much relevance to the socio-economic
requirements of Indian society since the 19th century India and Britain were at
different stages of growth. In England adult education institutions like the
Mechanics Institutes and Working Men's Colleges had emerged partly as a
response to the particular needs essentially created by industrial capitalism. In
the case of India, such developments came at a much later period. Arguably
then, the educational needs of adults in colonial India were quite different, which
made it difficult to transfer any of the British models and philosophies to the
Indian situation. The adoption of the policy of expansion of primary education
as a strategy for curbing the growth of illiteracy in India also seems to have led to
the negligence of adult education. It was argued that "adults cannot be given the
cake when the child remains without bread and hence the government preferred
the policy of encouraging primary education to adult education since 1880's."
(Siqueira, 1960).

Although the concept of basic literacy remained unchanged all through the British
period, a variety of attempts were made to educate illiterate adults by Indian
intellectuals, nationalist leaders, social. religious and political organizations during
the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Some eminent Indians like Dadabhai
Naoroji, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Ranade, Keshub Chandra Sen, Vidyasagar,
Rabindra Nath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, Veerasalingam, Sayyid Ahmad Khan
not only opposed the idea of restricting the access to knowledge to the upper and
middle strata of society, but also pleaded for the promotion of ma\.; ~ducatjon
through vernacular languages. While Keshub Chandra Sen wrote a ceries of open
letters to Lord Northbrook depicting the "painfully ignorant and pj tiable condition
of the dumb millions in India", Vidyasagar stressed that the extension of education
to the masses was the immediate need of the country. Being a great champion of
mass education Keshub Chandra Sen set up a society "Sangat Sabha" in 1859,
with the co-operation of Devendra Nath Tagore to disc& spiritual and social
problems of the day. He pleaded for the establishment of evening schools for the
benefit of agricultural and working classes to free themselves from popular
prejudices and blind beliefs and suggested that Government should award special
honours to those landlords who establish cuch schools. Systematic attempts were
also made by Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, Mary Carpenter, and leaders of Brahm
Samaj, viz., Sashipada Banerjee to educate illiterate women in Bengal during
the nineteenth century. Keshub Chandra Sen also established Barna Hitaishini
Sablza (Society for the Welfare of Women) where learned women read newspapers
and held discussions to arouse social and intellectual consciousness among the
Indian women so that they could respond readily to the schemes of social and
educational reforms introduced for their upliftment (Shah, 1999. op.cit.).

Of all the nineteenth century intellectuctls, Swai71i Vivcknrzanda1s ideas

on adult educatiorz are notewortlzy. Observing that the clziqf' cause of
India's ruin has been the nzonopolising of all tlze education b j ~a lzundful
c?f'men,he stressed the nee(l.fi?r spreading educcltiort ar~longthe masses.
He believed tlzat "(1 nation is advanced irz proportiorz as education (2nd
intelligence spread ainong the masses; and the orzlj. wi-~.ic.cto bbc done
47
Development of ~ d u l t for the lower classes is to give them education to develop their lost
Education
individuality.... They are to be given ideas; their eyes are to be opened to
what is going on in the world around them; and then they will work out
their own salvation". According to him the greater part of education to
the poor should be given orally and in vernacular languages. To quote
Swami Vivekananda, "education is not the amount of information that is
put into brain and runs riot there, undigested all your life. We must have
life-building, man-making, character-making assimilation of ideas. If you
have assimilatedfine ide,as and made them your life and characte~;you
have more information than a man who has got by heart a whole library.'"
(Advaita Ashram, 1990).

The social reform societies, viz., the Brahmo Samaj, Prarthana Sarnaj, Arya Smaj
and Indian Social Conference did pioneering work by educating the masses
through publications and public lectures. The organisation of literacy classes
and setting up of libraries was also recognised by Indian social reformers as
crucial for the progress of their movements. Some of the Indian universities like
Madras and Mysore organised extension lectures for the benefit of masses
following the extra mural tradition of British Universities.

A number of the enlightened rulers of Princely States of Mysore, Baroda, Cochin

and Travancore had taken special interest in the promotion of literacy among
masses. In 1912 Sir M. Visvesvaraya, the Dewan of Mysore, organised 7000
literacy classes throughout the State with a network of circulating l i b r ~ e s A.
magazine- Wgyana- was also published to popularise scientific knowledge. Several
non-Governmental organisations, social reform societies and political parties
played a significant part in the promotion of adult education during the first
quarter of the twentieth century. In 1915, Dr. D. N. Maitra founded the Bengal
Social Service League in Calcutta for the amelioration of the condition of illiterate
poor through a variety of community development programmes. With the
establishment of a rural centre at Sriniketan by Rabindranath Tagore in 1922 and
initiation of rural reconstruction activities by the Y.M.C.A. at Marthandam, social
reconstruction programmes by Subba Rao at Rajamundry and by EL. Brayne at
Gurgaon and launching of the constructive programme by Mahatma Gandhi
during 1920s, there was tremendous expansion and diversification adult education
activities in India (Mohisini, 1993).

The growing nationalist movement in India, the prospects of Swaraj and the
introduction of constitutional reforms in 1919 further brought home the danger
of entrusting power to an ignorant electorate and highlighted the importance of
literacy for political and economic reasons. Nationalist leaders like Lala Laipat
Rai and B.G. Tilak organized night schools for illiterate masses and summer
schools for literate adults. The Congress Socialist Party of Andhra established
peasant schools in Guntur and West Godavari to train workers for the peasant
movement. Most of the political parties organised schools to train young men
for local leadership so as to enable them to carry on the struggle for freedom of
India. The overwhelming concern of Indian nationalist leaders being the freedom
movement, they had initiated a process of mass mobilization and conscientization
through public lectures and discussions with a view to making the masses aware
of their rights and motivate them to fight for the freedom of India. Hence, the
freedom struggle of India may be viewed as the biggest and the most successful
adult education movement in modern times. While some of the nationalist leaders
48
like Dadabhai Naoroji, Surendra Nath Bannerjee and Gopal Krishna Gokhale Indian Adult Education: A
had pleaded for universal literacy; B.G. Tilak and Lala Lajpat Rai set-up night Historical Perspective
schools and summer camps for the political education of freedom fighters.
AIthough Rabindra Nath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi tried to tackle the problem
of illiteracy by integrating literacy with rural development and constructive
programmes, their efforts were rather limited. The interest and involvement of
eminent Indian leaders in literacy, however, drew the attention of masses towards
the gravity of the problem.

The active interest of non-officials and non-Governmental organisations in the

promotion of adult education received a boost when the Royal Commission on
Agriculture (1928) and the Auxjlliary Committee of Indian Statutory Commission
(1929) reiterated the importance of adult education as a tool for the socio-
economic development of the nation. Observing that "illiteracy presents the most
formidable single obstacle to rural development in the widest sense" and the
movement for adult education in India had hardly begun, (with the exception of
the efforts made by the Indian Army School of Education at Belgaum), the Royal
Commission recommended that adult education should be promoted mainly
through non-official channels. During 1920s there werefour important channels
of adult education in India: (i)night schools, (ii)awarenessprogrammes through
films, public lectures and discussions organized by social, cultural andpolitical
organisations, (iii)libraries and (iv)community development projects including
constructiveprogmmmes. It was estimated that in thefourprovinces of Bombay,
Burma, the Central provinces and the Punjab, there were 3450 registered night
schools with an enrolment of 1,17,000 learners. Bengal, Bihar and Madras had
7768 night schools with an enrolment of 1,87,000 learners. Of all the places in
India, Punjab was in theforefront of literacy efforts. As early as 1921, a literacy
campaign was launched in the province of Punjab which catapulted it into the
forefront of adult education movement. Starting with 630 night schools with an
enrolment ($17,776 adult learners in 1922-23, the number of night schools
increased to 3784 with an enrolment of 98414 by 1926-27. Apart from official
initiatives, the non-Governmental organisations like the Y.M.C.A. in Calcutta,
Madras and Bombay, Servants of India Society of Pune, Seva Sadan Society of
Bombay, Devadhar Reconstruction Trust in Madras, Bengal Society for the
Improvement of Backward classes, Bengal Social Service League and co-
operative schools of the United Provinces had also shown considerable interest
in the promotion of adult education. Some of the professional societies, viz.,
Economic Association of Kanpur, Rural Reconstruction Association of Benaras,
Bombay Sanitary Association, Saksharta Prasarak Mandal, Bombay Literacy
Association, were engaged in educating the masses through public lectures, films
and slides on various aspects of health, society, economy and polity (Shah, 1999.
op.cit. .).

The policy of creating rural libraries was first inaugurated in Baroda State in
1894, where 661 out of a total of 706 libraries were rural in 1927. In small
provinces of Ajmer, the Punjab and the United Provinces there were vernacular
libraries attached to rural schools and a school teacher functioned as librarian. In
1928, there were 1,769 village libraries in the Punjab. Besides these there were
circulating libraries in certain districts of the United Provinces. Madras Library
Ass~ciationand the Christian Literature Society brought out a number of books
for neoliterates and supplied them in tin boxes to several villages during 1930s.
of 49
In fact, the Adult Education Committee of the National Christian
Develnpment of Adult India and 11s I4 PIC>\i~lcidlC'(IUI~L.:I\ I I IAs\am, A1idht.a. 8engitl. 13111,~l.Gujardt,
Educatio~~
S o ~ ~India.
t h Mid I:ld!a arid Gnltcd tlrobinc.es\vcre very ac~icein [he preparation
and publication 01' lircraLg anct pi~\t-ii~eracj rr~,iterial\in a nurnbcr of Indian
language\ 7'hc; W C I C t'inanciall> cuppor!cd by the Churche\ of America, Canada,
Australia, Rrjt:!in, Ireland. etc.

Some ~f the enlighiencii H~.irisi?ofticiala like F.I.. Brayne (Punjab) introduced

;:.I innovati\e rur;rl rrconstl-uction carnpaigr.~.A large rnolur van fitted with a
1r.u~ c.1ii11glib1.31.yi! Iadi:,-act. :I cincn-121pr(~-iecti~r,
a dispensary and public address
s? t c m W:IS wnr to ~ . ~ i i ; i larcas with u view to educating and entertaining the
iuasses :lnd also ~x.o\iidingthem medicrzl help. An adult educator, a doctor, a
~ i j ~ e t ntechnician,
a a driver. a cleaner and a peon travelled as a team. Not only
did they exhibit the books and lent them for reading to villagers but the selected
books were also read out to the illiterate masses. Rural reconstruction activities
were also initiated by some of the British professors with the active co-operation
of' college students. An experiment on rural reconstruction was undertaken by
-IF. Fernandes of King Ed\var-dCollege at Amraoti in Central Provinces on the
line.; of the Young Fariners Club ill England in which the college students were
;~c:i\cly involved in a variety of rural development activities (including literacy)
in co-operatioil with governmental and non-governmental agencies (Fernandes,
1939).

Dc~ring1930s s ~ t c ~ -.~tte~nprs
iil were made by individual adult educators to evolve
ctft'cctivc:literacy nlilter-ials;lnd met!locls in various Indian languages. While S.R.
tiJla::\s'at was aclively involved in the dcvrlopn~entof' literacy primers in Marathi,
1)s. .l.J, Lucax. Dr. J . H . L.i!wrence and Dr. S.G. Daniel - Gijubhai Phadke, Mrs R.
Dongre cxperi~ncntedin Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi and Tamil languages. Howevcr,
ir was Dr. Fi-a11k C. Lanbach, an American Missionary who developed the
technique of Each One Teach One in the Philippines during 1930, provided the
psofessic~nallcadership to Indian adult educators to develop innovative literacy
p!inlers (based on keywords and pictures) in a number of languages, v i ~Hindi, .
hlal-athi, Telugu, Kannada. Ta~riil.Gujarati. Bengali? Assaniese, etc. through a
.cries oflitcr;~cyworkshoj~s.Addressing a number of adult education conlkrcnct.:,
in Irrdia during 1935-39 hc 1t.it.tl to promote the cause of adult education, in
which he received the support of Mahatma Ciandhi, Tagore, Sayed Mahmud,
Jilwaharlal Nehru, R:!jagopalacZlari, ant1 others. His work on /rz~-liaShall Be
Liternre which throws light on Indian adult education during 1930s. is an
important publication on adult education in India (Laubach, 1940).

Apart from programmes, attempts were also made to set-up adult education
institutions in India. Two eminent adult educators of India, Shafiq-ur-Rahman
Kidwai and N. G. Ranga set up adult education institutions, viz., Idara-o-Talim-
o-Taraqqi (Institute of Adult Education) in Jamia Millia Islamiya (1938) and
Rama Needu Adult Education Institute in Andhra (1933). While Ranga was
influenced by the Bayer Summer School, Workers' Education Association and
Wood-broke's Settlement of Birkenhead in England, Kidwai drew inspiration
from the Indian National Movement. These institutions not only brought out a
number of publications but also organised a number of adult education activities
during 1930s (Indian Journal of Adult Education, 1964).

During the early decades of twentieth century the colonial rulers adopted the
policy of promoting adult education as a non-Governmental activity and focusing
 on elementary education as an effective mean5 of achieving literacy. Such a policy Indian Adult Education: A
Historical Perspective
wa, not very conducive for the emergence of adult education as a distinct field
of activity. However. certain international developments during 1920s and 1930s
aided the growth of adult education in India. The formation of the World
Association For Adult Education (1 91 9) and the organisation of the first World
Conference on Adult Education in Cambridge (1929) which drew together 300
representatives from 24 nations including nine from India, the publication of the
Rcyotpt c!fA~txiliurjCornnzittce oflndian Statutory Conznzission (1929). the visit
and ground work of Dr. Frank Laubach in different parts of India during 1930s,
the political support to literacy given by the Congress government in power
during 1937-38 and the publication of the Report of Adult Education committee
and the formation of Indian Adult Education Association in 1939 - all have been
instrumental in promoting adult education as a distinct field of activity by late
1930s. hl fact. in pre-independent India, apart from certain Indian intellectuals a
number of British adult educators and adult education organizations have played
a key role in shaping the character and growth of adult education.

There was tremendous expansion of adult education programme since mid- 1930s.
With the transfer of power to the elected representatives of Indians as a result of
the 1935Act and the assumption of power by the Congress in several provinces,
a series of Provincial Mass Literacy Campaigns were organised in different parts
IC of India during 1938-39 viz. Bihar, United Provinces, Bengal, Bombay, Madras,
I Punjab and Assam. The duration of these campaigns varied from 4 to 6 months
i
and the age-group of target was 10-50 years. There was consistent expansion of
t adult education during 1938-42. It was estimated that during 1938-42 nearly
2.77 crores adults attended literacy classes of whom 1.38 crores became literate.
Though these campaigns were launched by different provincial governments,
there was active participation of students, teachers and all sections of society. Of
the different provinces In India, the literacy campaign of Bihar was the most
successful in terms of coverage as well as setting up of libraries (Shah, 1987).

Post-literacy programmes followed the literacy campaign and a large number of

village libraries were set up. During the period 1940-44, nearly 8,000 libraries
were established and about one million people were made literate. It was observed
that 60 percent of the literacy centres were set up by the Education Department
and more than 60 percent of the instructors were either student volunteers or
non-professional teachers. The success rate was also high. The Government policy
of implementing the literacy programme mainly through the involvement of
volunteers was extremely successful in pre-independent India (Shah, 1987. op
cit ).

In enhancing the scope and status of adult education in India, the non-
governmental agencies, nationalist leaders and social reformers played a key
role since 1920s. The launching of literacy campaigns all over India and the
active association of eminent Indians created a conducive atmosphere for the
development of adult education movement in India and also led to the formation
of professional societies. Though a few adult education agencies like the Bombay
Presidency Adult Education Association, South Indian Adult Education
Association and Bengal Adult Education Association had already been formed
to co-ordinate and extend adult education work in their respective areas, the
need for a central organization was increasingly felt by some of the adult educators
who founded the Indian Adult Education Society in Delhi in 1937. The initiative
51
Development OK Adult taken by this society in organizing the first All India Adult Education Conference
Education
in Delhi in March, 1938 to confer and explore the possibilities of bringing into
being a central organization yielded result in December 1939, when the Second
All India Adult Education Conference held in Bhagalpur adopted the Constitution
of Indian Adult Education Association, setting it up with the objective of
promoting the development of adult education movement in India (Indian Adult
Education Association, 1952).

In view of the urgency of the problem of illiteracy and lack of resources, the
Report of the Post- War Educational Development in India, 1944 (Sergeant
Committee), suggested a 25-year plan for the development of Indian education
mainly through a campaign approach and highlighted the importance of devoting
the first five years to necessary preparations. The committee observed that the
responsibility of adult education must rest with the State but every effort should
be made to enlist the aid of suitable voluntary organizations wherever available.
While there was a basic shift in the official policy towards adult education, the
concept remained the same during the pre-independence era. If adult education
was recognized as a non-official activity in 1920s, it became an official programme
by 1940s. It seems that the success of the Provincial Mass Literacy Campaigns
and the initiatives of non-officials and social-reformersand the increasing intensity
of freedom struggle and the awakening of the masses were the crucial factors
that moulded the British policy towards Indian adult education. With the
intensification of freedom struggle, the recommendations of Sergeant Committee
could not be operationalised. Throughout the colonial period, adult education
programmes continued with varying intensity in different parts of India.
Check Your Progress
Notes: a) Space is given below is the question for writing your answer.
b) Check your answer with the one given at the end of this unit under
"Answers to Check Your Progress".
1) What was the main thrust of Adult Education in 19thcentury India (100
words).
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52
 lndian Adult Education: A
2.4 GROWTH OF ADULT EDUCATION IN INDIA Historical Perspective

AFTER 1947: GROWTH OF INSTITUTIONS

The emergence of India as an independent and democratic nation brought about
certain basic changes in the policy and programmes of adult education. Not only
the prevalent colonial policy towards adult education was reviewed by the
Government of India but also new programmes were developed to cater to the
changing needs of a democratic nation. The Constitution of Intlia which defined
the role of the Government of India (centre) vis-a-vis the State Governments
made the latter responsible for the adult education programme\. Since the Centre
designed the adult education policy and programmes for thc entire country, and
provided the major share of funds to States for its implemental~onand coordinated
the overall activities, it assumed a dominant and decisive role in shaping the
character of adult education in independent India.

The development of a new policy towards adult education in independent India

was necessitated due to a variety of socio-economic and political factors. The
adoption of the welfare approach to development necessitated extensive and
intensive involvement of Government and bureaucracy in carrying out structural
reforms in various fields and also the creation of infrastructure. However, it
could be argued that more than these factors, it was the leadership in adult
education, especially of the then Education Minister of the Government of India
that was responsible for moulding the new adult education policy. The successful
operation of the Mass Literacy Campaign during the period 1938-47, had
awakened the masses, their organisations and leaders - both within and outside
the Government - to the role of adult education in development and made them
conscious of the need to strengthen the programme. Since India at the time of
independence was economically backward and extremely underdeveloped and
had a low literacy rate of 12.2 per cent, the leadership realized that freedom had
no meaning for the ignorant and poor masses unless it was made tangible through
activities which helped them improve their social and economic conditions.
Although Adult Education formed a part of several development programmes of
the Government of India and recognised as one of the two top priority programmes
in education, it was felt that the prevalent colonial pattern of adult education was
too inadequate to meet the growing needs and aspirations of a democratic nation
where every adult would have certain rights and responsibilities which they would
find difficult to discharge without basic education. How to design a dynamic
adult education programme was one of the challenges before the professional
adult educators as well as the Government of India.

The issue of adult education remained sidetracked during 1947- 48 mainly due
to the partition of the country which paved the way for the displacement of
millions of people, disruption of social life and depletion of resources. Although
the rnain attention of the Government and leaders was focused on the problem of
rehabilitation of refugees, the idea of developing an appropriate adult education
programme for the refugees as well as non-refugees continued to be the concern
of officials and non-officials in the early years of freedom. The Indian Adult
Education Association, a non-official organization of professional adult educators,
took up the task of "reviewing the role of adult education and reinterpreting its
functions in a democratic set up in their annual conference held in Rewa during
29-3 1 December, 1947. It was observed that "adult education must aim at enabling
53
Development of Adult the common man to live a richer life in all its aspects - social, economic, cultural
Education
and moral" and for the first time, the social aspect of adult education was
emphasised by the professional adult educators.

2.4.1 Social Education Programme (1948-1967)

The recommendations of the non-official body - Indian Adult Education
Association - were taken seriously by the official body, the Central Advisory
Board on Education (CABE), which appointed a sub-committee under the
chairmanship of Mohan La1 Saxena, the then Minister for Relief and
Rehabilitation, Government of India, on 15 January 1948 to work out a detailed
"scheme for adult education and literacy". The Committee comprising of seven
eminent educationists of India, viz. Humayun Kabir, Mata Prasad, K.G. Saiyadain,
V. S. Jha, M. Ananthasayanam Ayyangar and M.K. Sidhanta, felt the need for
giving a new orientation to the scheme of adult education and suggested the
importance of laying "greater emphasis on the social aspect" and coined the
term social education. Defining the objectives and operational details of the
programme of social educadon, the committee aimed at achieving the target of
50 per cent literacy among 12-45 age group within a period of five years. These
recommendations, which were accepted by the CABE with minor modifications
at its meeting held at Allahabad during 6-9 January 1949 and reiterated by the
Conference of Provincial Ministers of Education held in New Delhi during 19-
20 February 1949, formed the basis of the social education programme in India
during 1950s. However, the credit for popularising the idea and translating it
into a programme goes to the then Minister for Education, Maulana Azad, who
evinced special interest in the programme and was keen to make "an immediate
start with the new scheme" notwithstanding the financial stringency. The fact
that a decision was taken to earmark a sum of one crore of rupees for social
education (out of the total education budget of Rs.20 crores) shows the official
concern for and commitmept to adult education. It was stated that 90 per cent of
the proposed budget for social education should be distributed among States in
proportion to the number of illiterates while the remaining 10 per cent should be
reserved for central activities. The deteriorating finances caused by the failure of
crops in 1950-51 and rehabilitation of refugees restrained the Government of
India from honouring the commitment, and instead, the actual expenditure
incurred by the Provinces was reimbursed (Shah, 1995).

Thefollowing were the objectives of Social Education as recommended by

the Mohan Lnl Saxena Committee: a ) To instill a consciousness of the
rights and duties ofcitizenship and foster a spirit of service to the
community; b ) To develop lovefor democracy and impart an understanding
of the way in which democracy functions; c ) To disseminate knowledge of
the outstanding problems and dificultiesfacing the country and the world;
d ) To develop love for the pride in our cultural heritage through the
knowledge qf our history, geography and culture; e ) To teach the simple
laws ofpersonal and communit4, health and develop habits of hygiene and
cleanliness; f ) To jbster the growth ofthe co-operati~~espirit as a way qf
life; g ) To provide training in cra@.s both as a hobby and as a means to
economic bettermevt; h) To provide cultural and recreational facilities by
way of folk dances, drama, music*,poetry, recitation and other ways of
spontaneous self-expression; i ) To provide through these various activities
as well as through reading and discussion groups, an understanding of
54
 Tlze c-onzmittee alsc>ideniified .fi~*r :,
rrspoc 01 \ i ) c 1i11 rduc cit~r)nIO hc. rht~
core-curriculum via., ( I ) Health and Hygie~ic,( 2 ) fi~tnilyclnd Coilz~lz~lnitj)
lirsing, ( 3 ) vocation,^, ( 4 ) Literacy and Culturcrl uctil,ities, and ( 5 )
Recrerrtior~crlactivities. Irz short, tlze social cducc~tioncZe/ined (1s a "coz~vsc~
c!f ,stud.y directed towcrrds tht. productiotl of c~ot~,sciozi ~ I I C J Sof' citi:en~l~ip
among the people utrd pmnzotion of soc.ial solidurit\ llrnorlg tlzetn" tzad
three as1)ect.s: ( i ) Tlze .\pmad oj' litemcy anmiry grown-up illiterates, (ii)
rtze ~'rod~~ction ofrzn edilcated mind in the masses in the nh.ren~.eqf'litcracv
education, and (iii) the inculcatiorl of li\*el~,setl.w (frights (lnd di~tiesof
citizenship - both as indi~ridualsand inernhers of a po~'erfi~f"1 natiotz.

The implementatioil strategies were worked out by the diffzrer?t State

govcrnment4. The duration of the programme wa\ 180 ho~rssto he sprcad o\er
90 day4 - on an average of 2 hour\ per day. The tcachcr \tudt.nt ratio wa\ 1 :30.
The programme was to be undertaken especially hut not exclusively by the pri111ary
school teachers who were paid an honorarium of Rs.10 per month and a rzcurring
allowance of Rs.25. and Rs. 1 1 per year for contingencie4. Thc t,lrfet group was
1 2-40 years. A detailed syllabus for the training of in\tructors wa\ also prepared.
The scheme was flexible enough to enable each Statc to develop a variety of
operational strategies. Delhi introduced the education caravan, conskting of four
vans, one to serve as a mobile stage, another as a moving cinema and the remaining
two as exhibition vans for the promotion of social education in ruial area\. The
caravail toured 300 villages holding three-day educational melas at one centre
during 1949-50.West Bengal and Bihar also emphasised recreational and cultural
aspects of social education, while Madras and Bombay concenlraled on setting
up libraries. U.P. and M.P. organised social education camps dur~ngsummer
vacations. Almost every State had its own progr:unme of 4ocial education during
1949-50 (Government of Tndia, I 963 ).

The progranrme picked up with the launching of the First F I LYear ~ Plan which
made a provision of Rs.5 crorc4 for social education. With the creation of a full
fledged Ministry of Community Development and Co-operation in 1952 and thc
integration of social education with the communitj developnlent programme,
more syste~~latic attempts were madc to tackle the problem of illit2racy. 'The
integration of social education with the cotnmu~litydevelopnlent programlne
was based on the premise rhat any large scale and effective programme for adult
litcracy must be based on the closest possible co-operation at every level of
personnel engaged in education and in community development and for that,
social education and adult literacy have to be developed as extension activit1t.4
undertaken by educational institutions, especially village schools in collaboration
with Panchayats, co-operatives and voluntary organisations. The comtnlxnity
development programme aimed at "con~munityuplift through cornrnunity action",
covering agriculture, irrigation. communication, education, health. hocial welfare,
etc. The First Five Ycar Plan empha~isedthat social educat~onapproach must
permeate all the programmes of State aid to the people (Government of India,
1952).
 Development of ~ d u l t The Community Development Programme was conceived as a centre-based
Education
programme at block level. A number of blocks constituted a project. Each
block on an average covered a population of 66,000. While the Block
Development OfJicer was responsible for the overall implementation o f
the project in the area, a chief social education oficer supervised the
social education programme which was carried out at grassroots level by
a male and female social education oficel: Programme of social education
in the blocks included formation of community centres, youth clubs, Mahila.
Mandals, adult literacy centres, farmers' groups, recreation centres and
training of gram sahayaks. While the course content of social education
programme under community development did not difler from the earlier
one, the duration of the programme was increased from 6 to 10 months
and divided into two stages offive months each. Although the main course
was completed in the first stage, follow up activities were taken up in the
second stage. The basic approach towards social education and budget
allocation remaining the same during the First and Second Five Year
Plans, there was strengthening of the administrative infrastructure,
expansion of training facilities, library system and increased production
of audio-visual programmes.

There were several significantachievementsin the field of Social education during

1950s. Beginning with 55 selected blocks in 1952, the community development
movement extended to 4 lakh villages by the end of the Second Plan. It was
estimated that during the First Five Year Plan, nearly 35 lakh illiterates became
literate (out of 67 lakhs enrolled in adult literacy centres) whereas during the
Second Plan nearly 40 lakh attained literacy. Besides, 63,000 community centres,
Lf 454 school-cum-community centres, 55,000 youth clubs, nearly 100 libraries
and five Social Education Organisers Training Centres were also established
during the First Five Year Plan. Some of the key national level institutions also
came up during the 1950s, viz., Literacy House, (1953), National Fundamental
Education Centre (1956) and National Book Trust, Central Board of Workers
Education (1957).

The Government of India accorded due importance to the production and

distribution of suitable literature to neoliterates through a centrally sponsored
scheme which provided assistance to several agencies, viz. Mysore State Adult
Education Council, Jamia Millia, Indian Adult Education Association,etc. Besides
this, the Ministry of Education instituted prizes for authors of best books for
neo-literates in different languages and organised workshops in literacy
journalism. Central assistance was also provided to voluntary organisations, for
production of audio-visual aids, promotion of workers' education, development
of rural radio forums and setting up of permanent adult schools on experimental
basis (Mohisini, 1993).

Notwithstanding the well defined concept of social education, well conceived

programme package and effective leadership of Maulana Azad, the first Education
Minister of Government of India, active participation of NGOs and eminent
adult educators, viz., Mohan Sinha Mehta, Sohan Singh, T.A. Koshy, B. N. Jha,
M. C. Nanavathy, A. R. Deshpande, and the support of UNESCO, and America
(Ford Foundation) the programme did not make a dent in rural areas. "Except
for certain isolated examples here and there, a large percentage of the rural
community has by and large been impervious to the influence of adult literacy
 programme." It was calculated that the benefits of social education programme 1ndianAdultEducation:A
Historical Perspective
was actually derived by 0.3% of the population. It was noted that since the key
grassroots level workers - Social Education Officers, were overburdened with
diverse but immense responsibilities, they failed to cope with the demands
specially in the absence of suitable literature, expert guidance and adequate
research support (Shah, 1987).

b During 1950s, India received international support towards the development of

adult education. While a number of Indian adult educators were trained by the
American team led by Dr. Frank C. Laubach and Dr. Wealthy Fisher, the Ford
I
Foundation provided grants for setting up Social Education Training Centres.
The Indo-American cooperation in adult education did not last long due to political
reasons. The only exception being the World Literacy Inc. which continued to
provide financial support to Literacy House at Lucknow. Subsequently India
izceived funds from UNESCO for setting up a National Fundamental Education
Centre and organisation of a regional seminar on reading materials for neo-
literates. While all these international inputs strengthened Indian adult education,
it remained basically a centre-based programme and did not develop into a popular
movement. Although Dr. Frank Laubach submitted a proposal to the Government
of India for launching an All India Literacy Campaign in 1950, it was shelved
due to paucity of funds. The official policy revolved around the expansion of
elementary education. It was argued by the policy planners that by providing
free and compulsory education to all the children by 1960, the problem of illiteracy
could be tackled more effectively. The failure to achieve universalisation of
elementary education by 1960, the successful emergence of Gram Shikshan
Mohim and the paucity of resources, limitations of social education programme
and the proclamation of Education Policy (1967), all paved the way for change
in the adult education concept and policy by mid-1960s (Shah, 1991).

The Gram Shikshan Mohim (Village Education Campaign) was the first successful
literacy campaign undertaken in independent India during the late 1950s.
Masterminded by an enterprising official of the Education Department of
Maharashtra-Shri B. R. Patil - the campaign was a resounding success, and
gradually spread over the entire state of Maharashtra during 1960s and
significantly contributed towards increase of literacy in the state. During 1961-
71, the literacy in the state increased by about 10% i.e. from 29.82% to 39.18%
as against the 5% increase (from 24.02% to 29.45%) at the national level. It is
estimated that about 10 million adults became literate through the campaign.
The campaign not only won international recognition in the form of UNESCO
Pahalavi Prize for literacy in 1963, but was also considered worth replication in
other states by the Planning,Cornrnission (Dutta, 1986).

2.4.2 Functional Literacy Programme (1968-1977)

The concept of functional literacy emerged during 1960s. While, the Second
World Conference on Adult Education held in Canada in 1960 reaffirmed the
importance of closely linking adult education to productive activity, work and
development, the World Conference of Education Ministers on "Eradication of
illiteracy', held in Tehran in 1965, defined functional literacy with greater
precision and the close Link of literacy and social and economic progress was
discussed in detail. The conference observed that:
adult literacy, an essential element in general development, must be linked
C7 I
 13el elopn~cntof',idult to ecBonornrc(in(/ \ot'inl prioritie\ utzd to present trncl future need for.
I:cl~~cation
k ~ b o ~ ~Rctther
t : . . tlian an end in it.sel#~fiozctioncrll i t e m c ~\hould he regrrrded
as a bt.aj. ($preparing nlarz ,for a social, ciiric. arrcl ec.onomic role tlzat
qoes jbr be\'ond I ~ liniits C cf ruclinzcntc~rylitclrtlc.j.trailling co~zsi~stirzg
n~rrelxirr thr' ir'clc hill,!:of're~dirip orrd writirly. Thc vPq7j)rocessoj learning
r ~ ( r d(//id ~ivritc,sIro~~ld he ~r~tltie(111 o p p o r . t i i ~ if01.
~ t ~ clcquiring
tizfili-l~r(li~~iz flurr C . ~ ( I Z inl~r~oclintely
hc rl.sed to inq,ro~,eli,sing .staizdtrrds;
rcntling aryti ~vrit~ng sholllrl l~crclrrot ot?fjto elcnzentclrygeneral krzott'led,qe
hrrl to tr(1irzirzg for work, iiit,~utr.rerl l)ro~liic'ti\~it?;
( 1 gwtlter-l~tlrti~ipcition
ii7 c i ~ i cIjfk ancl a better ~~ndrr\tt~ntlin,q c!/'~lze.\~~r-rr)~inc/rny tt-orhl,trnd
.slior~l~l~11tinl~;tel~ open the MYLV to htrsic 111,imur~culrrlrc~([IN ESCO. 1465).
The international thinking on adult education had its impact o n India11policy
planner\. Dr. V. K. R.V. Rao. an econonlist and a memher uf the Planning
Co~n~niasion in 1965. ardently \upported the idea of functional literacy. The
Conference of State Education Ministers organized by the Planning Commission
in June 1965, noted that "one of the reasons for the failure of many development
schemes like agricultural production, family planning, cooperatives, panchayat
raj institutions was the lack of functional literacy among the majority of the
population in rural areas". This new emphasis on the functional approach to
adult education was fully endorsed by the Fourth Five Year Plan and the Education
Cominissiorl ( 1964-66). To quote the report of the Education Commission:
We do not ecjuate literacy tt~iththe rnere ahilit~to retrcl and write. Litemcy
i f it is to he ~t~ortlz~vhile,
nnwt he~fimctionrrl.It .rhould enable the literate
riot only to acquire src#irierzt ma.stery over the tools cf literacy hut also to
acquire relevant knowledge which w~illenable hirn to pursue his own
interests and ends (Naik, 1968).
I Defined as "literacy integrated with the occ.upation of the learner and
1 directly related to development", the concept of functional literacy rvas
fransluted into action when UNESCO desigried the Experimental World
I
Literacy Progri~rnme(EWLP)wlzich provided an opportunity for India to
F develop the Furnzers Training and Functional Literacy Project (FTFLP).
This project, which was in operation during (1968-1977) aimed at
I improving the eficiency of thefarmers in the implemerztation of the special
programme of High Yielding Varieties of whec~tthcrt was selected by the
Government qf India for ertharzcing agricultural production and
development in the context ofthe Green Revolution. The project had
three conzponents viz., ( I ) farrners tmirzing (2).fiuzctionai literacy and
(-7) ,farm hrouclcasting. Under each, n rz~inlberof actil'ities were
~rndertcrken.Under farmers training, .five-d~~y frniiling courses wcre
orgarzi,-,et*forselectedjirrmers hy sperialists, hesides orypzi:ing Cl~tzrchn
Maizdnls ( D i ~ c u s s i o nGroups) Mnhilu Mar.rd~il\(wonzen'.~groups).
c~ondiictedtours and periodic fie/d demon,strations. Under firrrn
broadcasting, half an hour programme on tec.hnicc11i~zji)rrnationwas
hroadcast daily by the All India Radio. Thefi~nctionalliteracy progrnrnrne
was wovetf around thc selected themes rel~ztedto high yieldirzg varieties
q f ~ e r dand f(/rm pructices. Tl~esetlzwe crctivities were planned in an
integrated rntmrzer u~itha view to educatin~and ir?forming the illiterate
farrne~sabout the high yielding varieties of seeds and the (letail.\ o f
improved agricultural practices (Government of India, Ministry of
Education and Social Welfare, 1972).
58
 It wa\ ohcerved that neither the farmers training nor the increased or improved lndiarlAdultE:dumtioll:ri
Historical Perspecti,e
physical inputs could by the~nselvesachieve much if the farmer remained illiterate
and hence finctional literacy was in-built into the project as a key component
with the following objectives. To enable the farmers to (i) read and understand
1~1belson fertilizer bags: (ii) fill up loan application forms, input cards (iii) keep
ciniple account of operations, and (iv) read and make use of simple extension
bulletins, rural newspapers, etc. The FTFL project was jointly undertaken by
I three Ministries - Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Information and Broadcasting.
and Education and Culture, and it aimed at training about 5 million farm families
I)
in 100 Selected H.Y.P-districts and imparting functional literacy to one million
adults at the cost of ninety million rupees. Apart from Government of India
funds. tht: project also received the UNDP and UNESCO assistance. During the
Fourth Plan, Rs.60 million by the Ministry ofAgriculture for the farmers training,
Rs.20 million by the Ministry of Education for functional literacy and Rs.10
million by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for fann broadcasting
were provided for this project (Shah, 1 99 1, Op. Cit.).

T11eor,gculi;~~tional .striti.tz~reand progranzrlze conlponents of FTFLproject

M9ererrorked oiit 1i7 riettril by t l ~ cGo~.er/lnrerlt of'liidiu. The FTFL project
H 1 a r c.o~~cc.i~~cdus ( I (*eiltre-bnseti pi-ogrrz117nzc~t.ithart irlstrzrc.tor lrwr~ler
ratio oj-1.30. 1'1.1~ 111-eject wus corzfzrzrd to 3 H. Y P. di~trict.5h (1 Strite ant1
tlze nzu.ximrrn7 11111710~1.of (.er1tr-t/~ per tiistrirt \ ~ ~ lirrlited
n$ to 60 rr~ldt11q-
were urlder tlze chnrge oj'u project t!ffic.cr ~ . h ow.as u.s.sistcd hy six port-
tir17e supenxisors(each cviti? 10 cclrtrec ) or r ) t v ofill1 tirue .sziprr~~i.sor.s (rrrcI1
witlz 30 celztres 1. The durcztion o f tlie fiinctior la1 lirertzcy llrognintuzc c,'rr,s
one year m ~ dit was organized in trrqophasc>,sqf' six nlonth.\ ~crc.1~ Each
phase lznd 150 I ~ o u r sq f ejfertilje tcnching. Tile prograllzme w t r ~
irnplc~~lielzted on all cvorking d q s crl~ri017 c1r1 tr\lc.r.crgc.of orlr nriri i ~ u l f h o z ~ r : ~
daily. Tlze leumirig inuteriul.\ were rcgioll .vl)ec-ific.trnd yroblen~orientcd
und the Directomte ofAdult Ed~tc.ation,New Delhi, prepart.d tlle.first hook
entitled Kisan Stzkshcrrutrz-PehliPustak, Teacher 5 gilide (a2d suppler11erztary
reaclers. These in ate rial.^ were prepared as yrototypes,for easy adoptution
to dijferer7t situutio~zs.More than 70 titles were hrouglzt out itz Irzdia. A
combinatiorz of nzethods was used ill c.urric.ulurn transactiori, \xi:.,
den1or7stration, practical training, or.al i n ~ t r u c ~ t i ao ~~z~d,i o - ~ i s i i a l
c o m ~ n u n i c a t i o iunci
~ discussiorzs. Tlze detrriled guidelilies for the
inzplernentatiori of the project were yr~paredhy the Gosernrrlent of India
urld the stater were i-equcsted to jbllow the directil~esof the Centre
(Government of India, Ministry of Education and Social Welfare. 1972,
o p . cit.,.

Commenced as a pilot project in three districts in 1968, the programme expanded

during the next ten years and by 1977 covered 144 districts out of 397. It was
estin~r!tedthat on an average 50,000 farm families attended the functional literacy
classes each year. During the Fourth Plan nearly 30 lakh farmers joined the
functional literacy classes as against the target of 100 lakh, and an expenditure
of Rs.80 lakh was incurred as against the proposed outlay of Rs.200 lakh. 'The
project was evaluated at different points of time by national and international
agencies. The Pilot evaluation study conducted by the Directorate of Adult
Education in 1970 revealed the utility of the functional literacy programme in
contributing to agricultural production. The drop-out rate was only 17.5%.The
subsequent evaluation conducted by a committee in 1977 noted that funds
59
Development of ~ d u l t provided for the scheme at district level were inadequate and the inter-
Education
departmental coordination was far from satisfactory. Besides, the supervisory
system was almost non-existent. It was observed that a substantial proportion of
the grassroots level workers had no training and in many districts, the follow-up
programmes for the neo-literates were found to be weak (Directorate of Adult
Education, 1973).

The programme was implemented exclusively through official channels. Although

it succeeded in developing skills and disseminating knowledge of improved
agricultural practices, among farmers, it had certain limitations since the
beneficiaries were mainly from relatively well-off and enterprising farmers who
were desirous of introducing new agricultural practices. The programme touched
only the fringe of the problem, leaving the mass of the illiterates - exploited
marginal farmers and landless agricultural workers - outside its scope.
Notwithstanding these limitations, the operationalisation of the project over a
decade, did enable a section of Indian adult educators to enhance their professional
skills in the integration of the components of literacy and functionality. It also
revealed the problems likely to be encountered in any inter-departmental
development programme besides upholding the importance of decentralisation
of powers and strengthening of the monitoring system.

The concept of functionality found a place in several programmes during 1970s.

Functional Literacy for Adult Women was an important project introduced during
1975-76. By 1977, it covered 23 States/Union Temtories. Its aim was to impart
non-formal education using functional literacy as the means, besides accelerating
the participation of adult women in the developmental efforts of the community
so as to bring about attitudinal changes among them which would enable women
to play their role as citizens. The scheme was conceived as a package of services
to adult women in the 15-45 age group and was implemented jointly by the
Department of Education and Social Welfare in the experimental Integrated Child
Development Services (ICDS) project areas. The functional literacy classes were
organized by the Anganwadi workers of ICDS who were given an additional
honorarium of Rs.50 per month. The programme contents included the elements
of health and hygiene, food and nutrition, home management and child care,
civic and vocational education (Naik, 1968, Op. Cit.).

The phase of functional literacy also witnessed the establishment of National

Board of Adult Education (1969), Directorate of Adult Education (1971) and
emergence of non-formal education programmes. The Central Advisory Board
of Education at its meeting held in November 1974 recommended that the
exclusive emphasis on formal system of education should be given up and a
large element of non-formal education should be introduced within the system.
Multiple entry and programmes of part-time and correspondence education should
be developed. Besides, the CABE recommended that functional literacy
programme should be planned in relation to various developmental schemes
appropriate to rural and urban situations. Hence during the Fifth and Sixth Five
Year Plans, efforts were made to integrate adult education with a number of
developmental programmes. Directorate of Adult Education identified 65
Schemes/Prograrnmes in different departments of the Government of India which
had a substantial component of non-formal education. Some of the significant
schemes were Krishi Vigyan Kendras, Workers Education programme, Nehru
Yuvak Kendra, Satellite Instructional Television Experiment, Shrarnik Vidyapeeth,
I
Rural Welfare Extension, and Family and Child Welfare project, etc. While the Indian Adult Education: A
i
t
Krishi Vigyan Kendras were concerned with technical literacy and aimed at
imparting education through work experience to rural youth in agriculture and
Historical Perspective

allied subjects, the Shrumik Vidyapeeth, were intended to provide integrated

education and training courses for different categories of urban workers with a
view to improving their professional competency and also enriching their lives.
Check Your Progress
Notes: a) Space is given below is the question for writing your answer.
b) Check your answer with the one given at the end of this unit under
"Answers to Check Your Progress".
2) Briefly describe the salient features of Farmers Functional Literacy and
Training Programme.
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L

2.4.3 National Adult Education Programme (1978-1987)

By early 1970s two significant events, Paulo Freire's writings on conscientiation
approach and the deliberations of International Symposium on literacy held in
Persepolis in 1975 seem to have influenced the concept of adult education.
Viewing education as an element in the process of human liberation, Freire
considered that the main task of adult education is to bring about a process of
critical reflection that leads to action and change. According to him dialogue and
participation are key elements of liberating education and the role of adult educator
is to enter into dialogue with illiterates about concrete situations and offer them
the instruments with which they can teach themselves to read and write. Freire's
ideology was reaffirmed in the Declaration of Persepolis, which considered
literacy to be "not just the process of learning the skills of reading, writing and
arithmetic but a contribution to the liberation of man and to his full development."
Further, the Declaration clarified that:
"the concept offunctiona1it;vmust he extended to include all its dimensions
politictrl, economic, social and cultural. Just as developme~~t is not only
economic growth, so literacy must uim ahnve all to urouse in the individual
a critical awareness of social reality ai~clto enclhlc liitil ai- her to
understatltl, trzaster and transform his or 1zt.r clc,~tin?:''(Ratnille, 1976).
61
 I)c\ clopment of ~ d u l t These overseas ideas had their impact on Indian Adult Education. The scope and 1
1
Elducation
significance of combining the twin components of functionality and liberation
was realised in 1978 when the then Government in power (Janata Government),
Ii
einphasised "re-distributive justice" to alleviate poverty and liquidate illiteracy. 1
'The Government of India gave top priority to adult education and issued a Policy
Statement on Adult Education and formulated the National Adult Education
Programme (NAEP) in 1978. 'I'hr: conceptual framework of NAEP laid equal
emphasis on literacy, functionality and social awareness and visualised adult
education as a means to bring about a fundamelltal change in the process of
"
1
socio-economic development, from a situation in which the poor remain passive
spectators at the fringe of the development activity to being enabled to be at its
centre and as active participants". Emphasising that "literacy ought to be
recognised as an integral part of individual's personality, it was assumed that the
illiterate and the poor can rise to their own liberation through literacy, dialogue
and action". In tact, considering education as a means of man's liberation and
tool for human development, was in conformity with ancient Indian adage (Sa
Vi4.n Yu l i i ~ ~ z ~ i k tand
u ! ~the
~ ~ educational
) philosophies of Mahatma Gandhi and
Rabindra Nar h Tagore.

'The NAEP was mainly conceived on a project pattern with adult education centres
functioning as grassroots level units and each of them catering to 25-30 illiterate
adults. Initially (1978-80). the duration of the programme was for 10 months
(300-500 hours). However, it was extended to three years after the review in
1980 and renamed as Adult Education Programme, according to which the
programme was to be operationlised in three stages to be spread over three years.
While the first stage of basic literacy was of 300-350 hours' duration, the second
and third stages were of 150 and 100 hours respectively. 'The contents of the first
year programme included basic literacy, numeracy, knowledge about health,
family life, vocations related to the learners' background and laws relevant for
family life. Since the focus of the second and third year programme was on
reinforcement of literacy and improvement of vocational studies, no specific
content was laid down and freedom was given to the organizing agencies to
introduce locally relevant reading materials for the neo-literates. Subsequently
the duration of the programme was reduced to two years (Government of India.
1978).
Though equal emphasis was laid on literacy, hnctionality and social awareness,
in the course of operationalisation, functionality was relegated into background.
The Review Committee on NAEP observed that:
"the progrumme so far has largelv remairze~lc.onfined to literacy, the
development orientation of the programme h~1.5 been ~uperficialand the
functional components in the course crlmo~r~ron-existerzt ... while the
importance of functionali~and awareness (I.\ integral parts of the adult
education programme is being irzcreasing1.v rc(,ognised,much eflorts would
be needed to achieve this integration into prr~c,tice"(Government of India,
1980).
The subsequent operationalisation of adult education programmes revealed
several drawbacks. The study conducted by the Programme Evaluation
Organisation of the Planning Commission found that in as many as 45 per cent
of centres, the functionality part of curriculum was not being followed though

I 62
over 90 per cent of the learners reported increase in social awareness. A number
Ol'~~'ailliili011 studies \;~c?rl.;orectby tlic Dcpar1111ento1'Education (MHRD,)during Indian.4dult Education: ,\
1980s r~cvealect1.1.1at"i'unctionaljry :tnd awnrenesh component generally got Historical Pers~~ecti\
c.

ncglectcd or poorly reflcctcd" and :ichic\!enwnt level 01' learners varied from 40
to 60 per cent (Mathur and JamI?hu!kar 1985,. S i ~ ~ large c e sections of the poor
and i l litcn!tc inasses idcntificcl ?Y',~EP ;IS tklcir pl-ogramme,"tl1e drop-out rate has
becn much lower than was l'earer. ?'he higil level of panicipatic\n of women,
ScheduledCas~esand Scheduled Tribes, involvelnent ojvoluntary agencies have
been a significant achievement of the NAEI! Besides. the resource base of adult
education W ~ also S strengthened by setting up the State Reso~ll.ceCelltres. ThC
invol\len~entof the selected Social Science Research Orgar~isa~ions in t h e
evaluation of adult cducatio~~ progrsnlrlies g ; ~ ac tr.t.nlt.nctous br)ost to the
expanhion of a d u l ~educ-ation rese;!r-ci~.D~lring1980s ;IS nxiny as 56 cv:~lu;i~ion

Thc Ic)X0s also wi~nesszdthe expansion of University Adult Education in India

when the University Grants Commission (under the Icadcl-ship ilf Dr. Madhuri
Shah) pr-ovided hundred percent grants to universities to take up adi~lt,cor!:inuing
education and extensiol! ncti\:itics with the active participatio11 of university
comruunitj. Of' the 226 universit.ies, deemed universitiec and institutions of
nationai importance in India (during 1995-96). 93 set up separate Depar~ments
of Adult Continuin$ Education. The expansion of University Adult Education
since 1978 hacl its impact on the progress of research. Compa~.edto 41 Ph.D.
theses on adult education bsc)i~ghtout during 1946-79, as many as 139 theses
came out during 1980-98. With the launching of the Mass Programme of
Functio~lalLiteracy in 1986, the scope for participation of students. both college
and schools. increased tremendously. The expansion of Nehru Yuvak Kendras
provided an opporti~nityto non-student youth to participate in literacy programme
and other developmental activities (Shah. 1990).
Check Your Progress
Notes: a) Space is given below the ci\\estion Ihr W T I ~ I I YoLir
I~ answer.
b j Chccli your answer with thC o;le gi\:en :I: the end ot'this unit undcr
"Answers to Check Your Progress".
3 ) What were the salient features of National Adult Education Programmec?
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 Development of A ~ U I ~ 2.4.4 Programmes of National Literacy Mission (1988-2007)
Education
Upholding literacy as an important component of human resource development,
the Seventh Five Year Plan (1985-90) stated the need for strengthening the
programme for training in functional skills relevant to economic activities and
adopting the strategy of mass movement to cover the huge target of illiterates.
The importance of literacy was reiterated by the National Policy on Education
(1986) which envisaged that adult education would be a means for reducing
economic, social and gender disparities, and nation as a whole would assume
the responsibility for providing resource support. Working out the implementation
strategies, the Programme of Action recommended that "emphasis in adult
education programme should be on skill development and creation of awarenew
among the learners of the national goals, of development programmes, and for
liberation from oppression." Subsequently, when promotion of literacy became
an important national mission, the document on National Literacy Mission (NLM)
specified that the objective of NLM would be to impart functional literacy to 80
million illiterates in 15-35 age group by 1995 through a variety of means and
with the active involvement of all sections of society. The concept of functional
literacy envisaged under NLM was much broader than the earlier concept and
included the following four aspects: (i) achieving self-reliancein basic numeracy,
(ii) becoming aware of the cause of one's deprivation and moving towards
amelioration of conditions through organisation and participation in the process
of development, (iii) acquiring skills to improve the economic status and general
wellbeing and (iv) imbibing the values of national integration, conservation of
the environment, women's equality, observance of small family norm, etc. This
expanded concept of functional literacy may be termed as developmental literacy
in view of its coverage of all aspects of human life and emphasis on the promotion
of national concerns. Thus, developmental literacy may be defined as literacy
for all round development of human beings and nations. By enabling individuals
to lead an enlightened, productive and socially conscious lives, the developmental
literacy aims at the development of nation as a whole (Government of India,
1988).

With the change in the concept, the operational strategies were also modified to
make it a mass movement through total literacy campaigns. However, the
breakthrough came with an experiment in mass literacy campaign spearheaded
by an NGO, Kerala Shastra Sahitya Parishad, in Emakulam District in 1989
with the objective of making the entire district fully literate within a period of
one year. The campaign was implemented with the active cooperation of the
district administration and all sections of society in a time bound, volunteer-
based and cost-effective manner. The campaign approach was characterised by
large scale mobilisation through a multifaceted communication strategy which
fully exploited the traditional folk culture. The instant success of the campaign
approach had a snowballing effect and similar campaigns were launched in quick
succession all over the country. Of the 525 districts in India, more than 80%
(447 districts) launched Total Literacy Campaigns (TLC) by March 1998. During
the decade 1988-98,68.5 million learners were made literate as against the target
of 100 million by 1999, which is a remarkable achievement given the size of the
i country and its diversities in terms of region, religion and culture. Although a
perusal of the 130 evaluation reports of TLC districts, shows that only 25% of
districts have succeeded in achieving a literacy rate of above 80%. The Census
Report of 2001, reveals that the literacy percentage increased from 52 to 65.38
64
during 1991-2001. Besides, the cumulative number of literacy volunteers 1ndianAdultEducation:A
mobilised since the launching of the literacy campaigns has exceeded ten million. Historical Perspective
Thus, the literacy campaign represents the largest ever civil mobilisation in the
history of the country (Report of Expert Group, 1994).

Consequent upon the successful implementation of literacy campaign in the

Ernakulam District in Kerala state and it's emergence as the first fully literate
District in India, the Total Literary Campaign has been adopted by the NLM as
the principal strategy for eradication of illiteracy in the country. As on March
2000, the TLC had been launched in 526 districts (out of 588 districts) in the
country. Besides, the NLM supported the Rural Functional Literacy programme
(RFLP) in 30 districts (located in six states, viz. Arunachal Pradesh, Assam,
Jammu and Kashrnir, Manipur, Nagaland and Sikkim), which are sparsely
populated and hilly areas where campaign mode could not be adopted. The RFLP
is a centre-based programme where an instructor imparts literacy to 20-30
illiterates for two hundred hours spread over a year. Apart from these two major
programmes several state Governments, voluntary agencies and educational
institutions have been implementing various types of small scale projects and
innovative programmes. During the period 1988-2000, NLM succeeded in
imparting literacy to 849.39 lakh persons through various programmes (National
Literacy Mission, 1998).

With a view to consolidating the gains of literacy campaigns and programmes

and providing the neo-literates further opportunities for learning, the NLM
launched a scheme of Continuing Education in 1995 (which was revised in 1999),
which envisaged the setting up of a Continuing Education (CE ) Centre for a
population of 2000-2500. The CE Centre is conceived as an institutional
mechanism which would provide a range of basic literacy, post literacy and target
specific programmes covering equivalency, income generation, special interest
and skill oriented programmes. Each Centre is managed by two part time
functionaries, viz. Prerak (Facilitator) and an Assistant Prerak. For every 8-10
CE centres, one Centre is designated as a nodal CE centre whose functionaries
are entrusted with the overall responsibility of monitoring and supervision of
the centres. As on December 200fj, there were 2,18,000 CE Centres in 32 1districts
in India. Further details of the C@programmes are given in the unit on Current
Policy and Programmes (Planning Commission, 2007).
Check Your Progress
Notes: a) Space is given below the question for writing your answer.
b) Check your answer with the one given at the end of this unit under
"Answers to Check Your Progress".
4) What were the objectives of the concept of functionality en\ : wed under
National Literacy Mission?
 -
Development of Adult
Education 2.5 INSTITUTIONALISATION OF ADULT
EDUCATION: AN OVERVIEW
The history of adult education bears testimony to the development and demolition
of infrastructures at different periods. During 1950s, a national level institution,
National Fundamental Education Centre and several regional Training Centres
for Social Education officers and a number of Janata Colleges were set up only
to be folded up within a decade due to the change in the policy of Goverllment of
India. Since institutions take a long gestation period to develop professional
excellence and ethos, the continuation of the National Fundamental Education
Centre and its development into a full-fledged national institution would have
strengthened the professional base of Indian adult education. One of the reasons
for the slow pace of the growth of adult education as a distinct profession may be
traced to the absence of special institutions during 1960-80. This trend changed
in 1980s when several State Resource Centres and University Departments of
Adult Education were set up. Although several State Governments had developed
adequate administrative infrastructure for the Social Education Programme during
19505, they were dismantled during 1960s when the programme was terminated.
The process of redeveloping the infrastructure at State level began only in 1980s.
At the national level, though a National Institute of Adult Education was
established in 1991 to undertake research, training and publications, it was closed
by mid-1990s. In fact, there has been no long-term vision of institutional
development in the field of Indian adult education. This is mainly due to the
policy of conceiving and implementing adult education as short-term activities
or plan projects. Unless adult education is planned as a regular.ongoing activity
consisting of basic literacy, post literacy and continuing education with a provision
for permanent professional institutions for the training of manpower at national
and state levels, Indian adult education will remain as a marginal activity with
an uncertain future.

2.6 LET US SUM UP

The growth and development of adult education in lndia during the last hundred
. yearsreveal certain trends and raises a number of issues. During the past, the
concept, policy and programmes of adult education in lndia have undergone
several but significant changes. Of the various national and international forces
and factors that have influenced the character and development of Indian adult
education, the changing policies of Government of India, role of International
Organisations like UNESCO, the ideas of Paulo Freire were crucial. Besides
several key individuals viz; Humayun Kabir, A.R. Deshpande, Sohan Singh, V.
K. R. V. Rao, P. C. Chunder, Madhuri Shah, Anil Bordia, Lakshrnidar Mishra,
Mohan Sinha Mehta, S. C. Dutta, Malcolm S. Adisheshaiah, Chitra Naik, Ramlal
Parikh, Bhaskar Chattejee have also played signicant role in the promotion of
Adult Education programmes at different points of time.

Four main concepts can be discerned in the history of Indian adult education,
viz; basic literacy (1882-1947), civic literacy ( I 948-67), functional literacy (1968-
77) and developmental literacy (1978-till date). Evolved at different points of
time, these concepts were operationalised into a variety of programmes, projects
and schemes, viz; Night schools, Social Education, Farmers' Education and
Functional Literacy, Rural Functional lireracy, Mass P r o p m e of Functional
Literacy, National Adult Education Programme, Total Literacy Campaigns and 1ndianAdultEducation:A
Historical Perspective
Continuing Education. Besides these, a number of innovative projects were also
implemented by official and non-governmental organizations, the most
noteworthy being Mahila Salnakhya Project.

Of all the events, the launching of the National Literacy Mission in 1988 and the
emergence of Ernakulam as the first fully literate district in India in 1989 stand
out. While the former enhanced the status of adult education programme and
assured political and policy support, the latter sparked off a series of literacy
campaigns which led to the eradication of illiteracy from a number of districts.
Of the several literacy campaigns four (Emakulam, Burdwan, Pondichery, Bhav
Nagar) have received UNESCO Literacy awards and recognition during 1990-
1994. As observed by the Arun Ghosh Committee, these campaigns had a positive
impact on the enrolment of children in primary schools, improving caste and
communal relations, empowerment of women, besides sensitising the bureaucracy
to the concerns of common man and above all placing literacy on the national
agenda. The positive impact of literacy on development becomes clear when we
examine the census data of 198I - 199 1 which brings out the correlation between
literacy and a number of developmental indicators. The National Family Health
Survey of 1999, bears testimony to the positive impact of literacy on several
social and economic factors such as health and nutrition in relation to women.

Two clear trends are evident in the history of adult education in India. While
Indian literacy campaigns are characterised by short periods (1 -2 years) of intense
activity followed by an uncertain interlude and final tapering off, the centre-
based programmes have followed a slow but steady path for about a decade. Of
the different major centre-based programmes, projects and schemes viz., Social
education, Farmers Education and Functional Literacy, Rural Functional Literacy;
the first one had the longest run spreading over the first three Five Year Plans.
All the three programmes were characterized by ambitious plans, targets and
outlays. Their achievements were, however, modest. Though during the decade
1979-89, the Rural Functional Literacy Project enrolled 249.14 lakhs adult
learners, the number of those made literate was only 99.38 lakh. There was a
wide variation in coverage of different programmes during 1980s. Against the
target of covering 1 10 niillion adults during 198 1-82 to 1985-86, only 16 million
were reported to have been made literate. The average number of persons rendered I
literate per year declined from 49 Lakhs in 1985-88 to 44 Lakhs in 1988-90. Of
3
the 38 million adults estimated to have been covered during the Seventh Five
Year Plan, only 23 million (61 per cent) were made literate. In short, there was
considerable variation in the achievements of adult education programmes. It
seems that there was an official obsession with targets since most of the
evaluations and reviews hardly provided any details of qualitative achievement.
It may be argued that one of the causes for the failure of adult education
programme may be due to its poor quality and hence the collection of qualitative
data becomes all the more important.

2.7 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

1) The mail1 thrust of Adult Education in India during the 19'hCentury revolved
around basic literacy. Night schools were the key adult education institutions
in British India. They were few and modelled after British Adult Schools
and were mainly setup by the Christian missionaries, nationalist leaders,
 Development of Adult socio-religious organisations and intellectuals. The official policy was to
Education
encourage them wherever practical and permit as much flexibility as possible
in school hours. The core curriculum included rudiments of reading, writing
and numeracy and was covered within a minimum of 100 days. Average
instruction per day was 2-3 hours duration. The Indian Education
Commission (1882) observed that every province in British India had
provisions for setting up night schools and Bombay and Madras had 134
and 312 night schools with an enrolment of 4000 and 7000 adults
respectively.
2) Defined as "literacy integrated with the occupation of the learner and directly
related to development", the concept of functional literacy was translated
into action when the UNESCO designed the Experimental World Literacy
Programme which provided an opportunity for India to develop Farmers'
Training and Functional Literacy Project (FTFLP). This project, which was
in operation during (1968-1977) aimed at improving the efficiency of the
farmers in the implementation of the special programme of High Yielding
Varieties of wheat that was selected by the Government of India for enhancing
agricultural production and development in the context of the Green
Revolution. The project had three components, viz., (I) farmers' training
(2) functional literacy and (3) farm broadcasting. Under each, a number of
activities were undertaken. Under farmers' training, five-day training courses
were organized for selected farmers by specialists, besides organizing
Charcha Mandals (Discussion Groups) Mahila Mandals (women's groups),
conducted tours and periodic field demonstrations.Under farm broadcasting,
half an hour programme on technical information was broadcast daily by
the All India Radio. The functional literacy programme was woven around
the selected themes related to high yielding varieties of seed and farm
practices. These three activities were planned in an integrated manner with
I
b
a view to educating and informing the illiterate farmers about the high
gi
yielding varieties of seeds and the details of improved agricultural practices.
3) The NAEP was mainly conceived on a project pattern with adult education
centres functioning as grassroots level units and each of them catering to
25-30 illiterate adults. Initially (1978-80), the duration of the programme
was for 10 months (300-500 hours). o ow ever, it was extended to three
years after the review in 1980 and renamed as Adult Education Programme
according to which the programme was to be operationlised in three stages
to be spread over three years. While the first stage of basic literacy was of
300-350 hours' duration, the second and third stages were of 150 and 100
hours respectively. The contents of the first year programme included basic
literacy, numeracy, knowledge about health, family life, vocations related
to the learners' background and laws relevant for family life. Since the focus
of the second and third year programme was on reinforcement of literacy
and improvement of vocational studies, no specific content was laid down
and freedom was given to the organizing agencies to introduce locally
relevant reading materials for the neo-literates. Subsequently the duration
of the programme was reduced to two years. Though equal emphasis was
laid on literacy, functionality and social awareness, in the course of
operationalisation, functionality was relegated to the background.
4) The objective of NLM was to impart functional literacy to 80 million
illiterates in 15-35 age group by 1995 through a variety of means and with
 the active involvement of all sections of society. The concept of functional IndianAdultEducation:A
Historical Perspective
literacy envisaged under NLM was much broader than the earlier concept
and included the following four aspects: (i) achieving self-reliance in basic
numeracy, (ii) becoming aware of the cause of ones deprivation and moving
towards amelioration of conditions through organisation and participation
in the process of development, (iii) acquiring skills to improve the economic
status and general wellbeing and (iv) imbibing the values of national
integration, conservation of the environment, women's equality, observance
of small family norm etc ...

2.8 REFERENCES
Advaita Ashram. 1990. Selections From the Complete Works of Swami
Vivekananda. Calcutta: Advaita Ashram.

Ahmed, Moharnrnad Ashfaq. 1987. System of Education in Medieval India. New

Delhi: Panchasheel Publishers.

Altekar, A. S. 1944. Education in Ancient India. Varanasi: National.

Anil Bordia, 1982. Planning and Administration of National Literacy

Programme: The Indian Experience. Paris: IIEP.

Bataille, L. 1976. A Turning Point for Literacy. New York: Pergamon Press.

Cipolla, Carlo M. 1969.Literacy and Development in The West. London: Penguin

Books.

Directorate of Adult Education. 1973.Farmers Training and Functional Literacy:

A Pilot Evaluation Study of Functional Literacy Project in Lucknow District.
New Delhi: National Staff College.

Dube, S. C. 1990. Indian Society. New Delhi: National Book Trust.

Dutta, S. C. 1986. History of Adult Education in India. New Delhi: Indian Adult
Eduction Association.

Fernandes, T. F. 1939. Adult Education in Rural India. Adult Education, Vol.

XII, No. 1, September.

Goody, Jack. 1975. Literacy in Traditional Societies. Cambridge: University

Press.

Government of India.1952. First Five Year Plan. New Delhi: Planning

Commission.

Government of India. 1963. Report on Social Education. New Delhi: Committee

on Plan Projects.

Government of India, Ministry of Education and Social Welfare. 1972. Handbook

qf Farmers Functionnl Literacy Project. New Delhi: Manager Publications.

Government of India. 1978. National Adult Education Programme: An Outline.

New Delhi: Ministry of Education and Social Welfare.
69
Development of ~ d u l t Government of India. 1980. Report of the Review Conznzittee on the National
Education
Adult Education Programme. New Delhi: Ministry of Education and Culture.

Government of India, 1988. National Literacy Mission. New Delhi: Ministry of

Human Resource Development. See also Government of India. 1986. Programme
of Action. New Delhi: Ministry of Human Resource Development; and National
Adult Education Programme: An Outline. 1978 Op. Cit.

Graff, Harvey J. 1987. The Legacies of Literacy. Bloomington: Indiana Press.

Gurumurthy, S. 1979. Education in South India. Madras: New Era Publication.

Hudson. J. W. 1851. The Histop ofAdult Education. London: Longman & Brown.

Indian Adult Education Association. 1952. Indian Adult Education Association:

What it is and what it does. New Delhi: Indian Adult Education Association.

Indian Journal of Adult Education. 1964. Vol. XXV, No.4.

Keay, F. E. and Karvey, D. D. 1973.A History of Education in India and Pakistan.

Calcutta: Oxford University Press.

Laubach, Frank. 1940. India Shall Be Literate: Jubbalpore: National Christian

Council of India.

Majumdar, Veena. 1972. Educatiorz and Social Change. Simla : Indian Institute
of Advanced Study.

Mathew, Arthur. 1926. The Education in India. London : Faber and Gwer.

Mathur, R. S. and Jambhulkar, G. L,. 1985. Evaluation of Adult Education

Programme: A Synoptic Account. New Delhi: Directorate of Adult Education.

Mohisini, S. R. 1993. History ofAdult Education In India. New Delhi: Anmol

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