EDUCATION AND CULTURE

PRIMARY EDUCATION

The primary education in the Ahmadnagar city and in the Cantonment area is looked after by the Municipal School Board, Ahmadnagar and the Cantonment Executive Officer, respectively, while in the rest of the district it is looked after by the Zilla Parishad. Formerly it was looked after by the District School Board.

The growth of primary education in Ahmadnagar district for a few years viz. 1947-48. 1950-51. 1955-56 and 1958-59 is shown in the following statement:-

During this period, there was significant and rapid increase in the number of primary schools and in the number of pupils. This large expansion in the primary education was mainly due to the compulsory primary education introduced in the former Bombay State in 1947-48 under the Compulsory Primary Education Act of 1947. All the villages with a population of 1,000 and above were covered by the Act which was applied progressively to children in age-groups of 7-8, 7-9, 7-10 and 7-11 from year to year. This compulsory primary education is also being introduced in small villages having a population of less than 1,000 in various stages and now practically all the villages are covered by the scheme of compulsory primary education except stray villages with a population of less than 200. Taking the population of 1951 as the basis for estimating the population of the district for different years and taking 15 per cent of the population as the population of children in the age-group of 7-11, the percentage of children attending school to the total population of the children of school-going age for a few years viz., 1950-51. 1955-56 and 1958-59 is given below: —

While 48 per cent of children were attending school in 1950-51. the percentage during the First Five-Year Plan period increased to 73 and in 1958-59 to 81.

Other indices of the progress of primary education in the district compared with those of the State averages are as shown in the following statement as on 31st March 1962:—

Table No. 8 shows the number of students enrolled in the Ahmadnagar district in 1951, 1956 and 1961.

The following statement shows taluka-wise increase in the number of pupils in the year 1963-64 over that of 1962-63:—

(Base Year 1961-62 = 100)

TABLE No. 8—TALUKA-WISE NUMBER OF STUDENTS ENROLLED IN

PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN THE AHMADNAGAR DISTRICT IN

1951, 1956 AND 1961

These figures reveal that during 1962-63 the total number of pupils went up by 8 per 100, while by the end of 1963-64 the increase of 17 per 100 pupils had been registered. Increase in the number of boys during the two years, viz., 15 per 100 was smaller than the corresponding increase of 19 per 100 in case of girl-students. This increase spells out that the tempo of enrolment of girls, which could have been expected to be low in earlier periods, had improved during these two years and in 1963-64 particularly. The comparison in regard to this increase in various talukas shows that Kopargaon and Ahmadnagar talukas had registered an increase of 28 per cent and 24 per cent, respectively in two years. Progress of Rahuri taluka was slow in this respect, as it had registered an increase of only 5 per cent over that of the corresponding figure of 1961-62.

The following statement shows the number of girls per 100 boys in different talukas during 1961-62 and 1963-64:—

The above figures reveal that during 1963-64, there were on an average only 55 girl-students per 100 boys in the district in primary schools. However, the ratio has shown an upward trend in most of the talukas which could be regarded as a redeeming feature. In urban areas it would be natural to expect a higher girls/boys ratio among pupils and this was reflected by a high ratio of 69 in case of Ahmadnagar taluka, which contains a high proportion of urban population viz., 48 per cent. The following statement shows the distribution of pupils in primary institutions according to medium of instruction:—

In the year 1961-62 the number of pupils on roll was 2,20,281 in the district. This rose to 3,00,934 in the year 1966-67 and to 3,46,722 in 1970-71.

The total backward class beneficiaries in 1967-68 was 67,079 out of whom 22,366 were girls. In the year 1970-71 there were 82,417 backward class students of whom 33,457 were scheduled castes and 14,326, scheduled tribes.

In the year 1951 the number of teachers was 3,986 as against 4,383 in 1956. The same rose to 5,013 in 1961. The highest number of teachers was 791 in Ahmadnagar taluka as against 201 in Jamkhed taluka which was the lowest in the year 1961. In 1961-62 the pupils/ teachers ratio was 42. During the subsequent two years this ratio increased to 44. It, however, showed that the increase in the number of pupils was not accompanied by a commensurate increase in the number of teachers. The following statement shows the percentage of trained primary teachers to total teachers:—

As compared to the percentage of 79.2 of all teachers male and female in Ahmadnagar district in 1963-64 the corresponding proportion in the whole of the State of Maharashtra was 73.5 per cent.

In the year 1961-62 the number of primary school teachers was 5,275, out of whom 3,886 were trained. This number rose to 6,639 in the year 1965-66, of which 5,359 were trained teachers. In 1970-71 the number of teachers in the primary schools was 8,624, of which 1,817 were female teachers. Of 8,624 teachers, 7,701 were trained hands including 1,593 female trained teachers.

The number of primary schools had increased considerably before Independence. After the enforcement of the Compulsory Primary Education Act in 1947, the number of primary schools and the school-going children witnessed a phenomenal growth. The percentage increase in the number of institutions for a few years over that in 1947-48 is given in the following statement:—

By the end of the First Five-year Plan, the number of primary schools increased by nearly two times while the number of students increased by more than four times. During 1958-59 the number of primary schools was more by 208 per cent as compared to those in 1947-48 while the number of pupils was 473 per cent to those in 1947-48.

The number of primary schools in the district rose from 1,433 in 1951 to 1,692 in 1961. In the year 1970-71 this number stood at 2,060.

The position of the primary schools as regard to their classification in 1967-68 was as under:—

The following statement gives the number of primary schools in the district according to different media of instruction:—

The basic education at the primary stage was introduced in the former Bombay State in the year 1939. The growth in this field in Ahmadnagar district from 1955-56 to 1958-59 could be seen from the statement below:—

The State Government's policy of converting primary schools into basic schools has also made steady progress. In 1955-56 there were 215 basic schools whereas the number stood at 420 as on 31st March 1962.

The number of primary schools and their classification as on 31st March 1962 was as follows:—

In 1962 out of a total of 1,743 primary schools, 80 per cent were managed by the Zilla Parishad, 17.38 per cent by private institutions, 1.43 per cent by municipalities, and 0.29 per cent by cantonment boards.

In 1958-59 there were 32 stray villages in the district having a population of less than 200 and had no facilities of primary education. In 1966 out of the total number of 1,328 villages and towns, 1,310 had schooling facilities where as only 18 villages having population under 199 did not have schooling facilities. At present there is not a single village or a wadi where there is no schooling facility in the district.

Table No. 9 gives the classification of towns and villages without primary schools by population range in Ahmadnagar district during 1961, 1964 and 1967.

TABLE No. 9—CLASSIFICATION OF TOWNS AND VILLAGES WITHOUT

PRIMARY SCHOOLS BY POPULATION RANGE IN AHMADNAGAR

DISTRICT DURING 1961, 1964 AND 1967

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