EDUCATION AND CULTURE

GENERAL EDUCATION

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION IN THE KOLABA DISTRICT is under the control of the District Educational Inspector. This Officer belongs to Class I of the Maharashtra Educational Service, who works under the Deputy Director of Education, Bombay Region, and is ultimately responsible to the Director of Education, Maharashtra State. He is responsible in his district for:−

(i) the supervision of primary education,

(ii) the administrative control of all Government primary schools, secondary schools and training institutions under the control of the Education Department, and

(iii) the control and inspection of all secondary schools, vocational high schools (i.e., agricultural, commercial and technical high schools), training institutions of primary teachers, and such special schools as are under the control of the Education Department.

As regards girls' schools and institutions for women, the Inspectress of Girls' Schools, Poona (M. E. S., Class I), performs the functions and duties of the District Educational Inspector in respect of (a) the inspection of girls' secondary and special schools in the district, (b) visiting girls' primary schools in the district, and making suggestions for improvement.

In carrying out his duties of inspection and control, the Educational Inspector is assisted by an inspecting staff, consisting of one Deputy Educational Inspector (M.E.S., Class II) and twenty-three Assistant Deputy Educational Inspectors (M.E.S., Class III) who are directly responsible to him for the supervision and inspection of primary schools in the district under section 48 of the Bombay Primary Education Act (LXI of 1947).

There are separate Inspectors, having jurisdiction over the whole State, for Physical Education, Visual Education, Drawing and Craft work and Commercial Schools, who are responsible for organisation and inspection in their respective spheres. These Inspectors have jurisdiction in the Kolaba district in regard to their respective subjects under the Director of Education.

The Deputy Educational Inspector, Kolaba, is the Chief Government Inspecting Officer of the district so far as primary schools are concerned. Under the rules framed under the Bombay Primary Education Act, he decides the question of recognition of private primary schools. He keeps himself in close touch with the working of primary schools maintained or approved by school board, social education classes and village libraries. He has to report regarding housing arrangement, equipment, staff, efficiency of institution, etc., of the primary schools, so that the department may be in a position to determine whether the school board is conducting its schools satisfactorily. All aided schools are inspected by him or by the inspecting staff under him. He also assists the Educational Inspector in the inspection of secondary schools and reports on any specific points about them whenever he is required to do so by the Educational Inspector.

Primary Education.

It is the declared policy of Government that universal, free and compulsory primary education should be reached by a definite programme of progressive expansion, and under the Bombay Primary Education Act (LXI of 1947) the State Government has taken upon itself the duty of securing the development and expansion of primary education in the State. The object aimed at is to have a minimum course of seven years' education for every child. The agency employed in Kolaba district for discharging this duty is the District School Board. There are no "Authorised Municipalities" in this district.

District School Board.

"Approved Schools" ["Approved school" means a primary school maintained by the State Government or by the School Board or by an " Authorised Municipality " or which is for the time being recognised as such by a school board or by the State Government or by an officer authorised by it in this behalf (section 2 of the Bombay Primary Education Act, LXI of 1947).] within the area of all non-authorised municipalities and of the District Local Board are under the control of the Kolaba District School Board. This school board is composed of 15 members. Of these, three are appointed by Government, one being a Government official; two elected by non-authorised municipalities falling within the District School Board's area of jurisdiction; and the rest elected by the Kolaba District Local Board. The rules prescribe that of those elected, one shall be from the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and shall have passed the Matriculation or the Second Year Training Certificate Examination.

Working of Primary Education Act.

Under the Primary Education Act and the Rules thereunder all the District School boards have to maintain an adequate number of primary schools in which instruction is given through the medium of the local regional language. For children whose mother-tongue is other than the regional language of the area, school boards have been instructed to open schools in their language if the number of such children is not less than 40 in the first four standards and 20 in the upper standards. The teaching of the regional language of the area is also compulsory in such schools from standard III onwards. Responsibility is laid on the District School Board to maintain a schedule of staff of Assistant Administrative Officers or Supervisors, primary teachers, clerks, inferior servants and other staff, sanctioned by Government, setting forth the designation, grades, pay and nature of appointment of different members. The members of this staff are servants of the District School Board and receive their pay, allowances, etc., from the Primary Education Fund maintained by the District School Boards. No change or alteration can be made in the schedule of staff without the previous sanction of Government.

The annual budget of the District School Board has to be submitted to the Director of Education for sanction. The District School Board derives its income mainly from Government grants, which form nearly 92.5 per cent of its total expenditure. It also receives from the District Local Board a contribution equal to such portion of its income from the cess on land revenue and water rates as may be fixed by Government from time to time and from non-authorised municipalities whose schools are under its control such proportion of the rateable value of properties in the area of the respective municipalities as may be fixed by Government from time to time. The District School Board, Kolaba, has under the present rules to contribute 15 pies of the three anna cess on land revenue and water rates that it is allowed to levy. The amount to be paid by non-authorised municipalities has been fixed by Government at 5 per cent of the rateable value of properties in their respective areas.

The Administrative Officer, District School Board, Kolaba, is the Chief Executive Officer of the District School Board. This Officer is appointed and paid by the State Government. Under the Administrative Officer there are Assistant Administrative Officers, Supervisors, primary school teachers, clerks and inferior servants and other staff under the employ of the District School Board. The Administrative Officer is responsible for the general administration of all primary schools maintained by the school board. He is responsible for carrying out the suggestions made from time to time by Government Officers. It is his duty to advise the school board on all matters connected with primary education. He is also a member and secretary of the Staff Selection Committee. This is a committee composed, besides him, of the Chairman of the School Board and the Educational Inspector of the district. Its duty is to select candidates for appointment as Assistant Administrative Officers or Supervisors and teachers. The committee also selects the teachers to be deputed for training. The District School Board has to make appointments of candidates in accordance with the directions given by the committee. The selection of the candidates and teachers is made in accordance with the instructions issued by the Government. The Administrative Officer has powers subject to the general instructions received from the Director of Education, to promote, transfer and take all disciplinary actions including removal or dismissal, against the staff. His orders, however, are subject to appeal to a tribunal consisting of the Chairman of the District School Board and the Educational Inspector of the district. A primary school teacher who was a guaranteed teacher on the date the Primary Education Act came into force has, however a right of further appeal to the State Government against any order of his removal or dismissal.

Statistics.

There were 1,368 primary schools (both lower primary, i.e., teaching standards I-IV and upper primary, i.e., teaching standards V-VII) of which 25 were exclusively for girls. The distribution of schools by management was as follows:−

There were 66,403 boys and 38,687 girls in the lower primary stage and 15,213 boys and 5,804 girls in the upper primary stage giving a total of 126,107 pupils in all primary schools. The percentage of the school-going children to the population was 13.9.

The number of teachers in primary schools was 3,100 of whom 2,519 were men and 581 women. This works out roughly at 40 pupils per teacher. Only 1,106 of male teachers and 334 of female teachers were trained.

There were three training institutions−two Government and one non-Government training colleges−in 1959-60. There is no training institution for women in the district.

There were two practising schools, one at Panvel and the other at Sasawane. One of them was under the control of Government. These schools were attached to the Government Training College for Men at Panvel and Sasawane. One practising school attached to the Mahad Training College for Men was aided by Government.

Expenditure

The total expenditure on primary schools was Rs. 38,57,135 and it was met from the following resources:−

The average cost of educating a pupil was Rs. 31.4 per annum, of which Government's contribution was Rs. 26.7.

Compulsory Education.

The District School Board, Kolaba, introduced compulsory education for the first time from June 1, 1948. This was, however, applicable only to children between seven and eight years of age. Gradually it was extended to children of 7−11 age-group in 1951. The population under compulsion was 50,480 boys and 51,609 girls. The total number of children actually attending schools was 40,397 boys and 37,200 girls or 75.9 per cent of the total number of children of the age-groups under compulsion.

Medium of Instruction.

According to the medium of instruction, in 1959-60, the schools were distributed as follows:−

Buildings.

In 1959-60, out of 1,372 buildings in which the District School Board schools were housed, 477 were owned by the Board, 199 were rented and the remaining were housed in rent-free buildings such as temples, etc.

Basic and Craft Schools.

A new ideology has been influencing the educational activities of the State since 1937-38. It has come to be recognised that education must centre round some form of manual productive work. In 1959-50 following was the position of basic and craft schools in the district:−

Secondary Education.

Secondary education is now under the general regulations of Government. Government control is exercised by means of conditions for receipt of grant-in-aid. At the end of the high school course, an examination is conducted by the Secondary School Certificate Examination Board which has its headquarters at Poona and the students who pass are awarded the Secondary School Certificate. The examination provides optional courses for pupils with varied interests and aptitudes. Each University, however, lays down the subjects which a candidate must take for entrance to its courses.

There were 33 secondary schools in the district with a total of 7,756 pupils (5,706 boys and 2,050 girls). Two of these schools were exclusively for girls. The number of girls in the schools exclusively meant for girls was 449 while 1,601 girls were in mixed schools. There is not a single Government secondary school in this district. However, there is a Government technical centre attached to a private high school at Mahad. It is directly under the control of the Director of Technical Education. Maharashtra State. Similarly, there is one Government commercial centre at Alibag which is attached to the Topiwala Industrial High School. It is directly under the control of the Director of Education and is inspected by the Inspector of Commercial Schools. The grant paid to non-Government Secondary Schools in the year 1959-60 amounted to Rs. 3,19,460 for boys' schools and Rs. 20,225 for girls' schools.

There were 33 aided private schools having 7,756 pupils.

Secondary education is imparted solely by private agencies aided by the Government giants. Major responsibility in this direction has been shouldered by the Konkan Education Society. There were 328 teachers in secondary schools, of whom 271 were men (188 trained and 83 untrained) and 57 women (35 trained and 22 untrained). The total expenditure on secondary education was Rs. 9,03,000. The total average annual cost per pupil in secondary schools was Rs. 116.2.

Special Schools.

The number of different types of special schools was as follows:−

physical Education.

One trained Graduate Assistant Deputy Educational Inspector looks after the activities regarding physical education in the district. He visits secondary, full primary schools and training institutions and gives suggestions and guidance to further the cause of physical education. He also inspects the gymnasia run by the private bodies and recommends grants. He often conducts short-term courses for primary teachers for training in physical education. He also organises Youth Camps and Auxiliary Cadet Corps. In 1959-60 there was only one troop of 37 schools with 40 scouts in it. There were 20 Auxiliary Cadet Crops sections with 990 cadets in 14 schools working under qualified teachers.

National Discipline Scheme has been introduced in three secondary schools in the district out of which one is a girls' school.

Medical Inspection.

There is arrangement for medical inspection of high schools and training colleges.

School Broadcasts and Visual Education.

Seven secondary schools in the district possess radio sets and six schools own 16 m.m. projectors in order to cater to the need in respect of visual education.

Social Education.

The work of social education in the district is entrusted to the Deputy Educational Inspector and is looked after by the Regional Social Education Committee for Maharashtra. During the year 1959-60, 84 classes in Social Education were conducted. The number of literates turned out was 393. Expenditure on account of Social Education was Rs. 1,969.

Village Libraries.

The number of village libraries during the year 1959-60 was 77 and the grants paid to them amounted to Rs. 1,832,50.

Professional and This district has no college, making provision for technical Education. education. The only institution of the kind is the Government Technical Centre at Mahad, attached to K. E. S. High School at Mahad. There is a Government Commerce Centre at Alibag attached to the non-Government secondary school−K. E. S. Industrial High School, Alibag. Alibag College has now made provision for higher education in commerce. No other college giving professional education exists in the district, except two Government Basic Training Colleges at Panvel and Sasawane, respectively, and one Basic Training College of K. E. S. at Mahad and the S. T. C. Institute at Karjat which impart professional education to primary and secondary teachers, respectively.

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