EDUCATION AND CULTURE

GENERAL EDUCATION

Before the advent of the Zilla Parishad, education was under the jurisdiction of the State Government and the Director of Education was the head of the department at the State level.

Schemes of the Central Government and the policy of the State Government regarding education were executed at the district level by the Government Inspectorate in the district. The District Inspectorate consisted of one Educational Officer of class I, one Deputy Educational Inspector of class II and 20 Assistant Deputy Educational Inspectors. All educational institutions in the district were under the control of the Educational Officer. To facilitate the administration of primary education, District School Boards were entrusted with the work connected with it. Secondary schools, primary training colleges and other technical and professional institutions were placed under the control of the Educational Officer. The Inspector and his deputies visited and inspected these institutions and recommended grant-in-aid. Besides this, the Educational Officer was also empowered to exercise general supervision over, the administration of the schools including primary schools.

The District School Board, which is now a defunct body, was composed of a Chairman, a Vice-chairman and 14 other elected and nominated members. The Administrative Officer, who worked as an ex officio Secretary of the body, was the representative of the State Government to guide the Board on Government policies in regard to the educational matters. He executed the programmes chalked out by the Board as regards the primary education, in consultation with the Staff Selection Committee, a statutory body under the Primary Education Act, 1947. Teachers were interviewed, selected and appointed by him in accordance with the rules prescribed by the State Government in this behalf. He had the administrative control over the primary schools, and transferred, promoted and deputed teachers for further training in consultation with the Staff Selection Committee. He was assisted by four Assistant Administrative Officers in his work.

The academic side of the work regarding primary schools was supervised and controlled by the Assistant Deputy Educational Inspectors working under the control of the Educational Officer.

They recommended cases for opening of primary schools, grants to primary schools, etc., through the Deputy Educational Inspector who was their immediate superior. Besides this, they performed several other duties for the promotion of primary education.

This was, in brief, the picture of administrative set up with the powers and duties of the functionaries of the Education department.

With the advent of Zilla Parishad, education continues as one of the important and the major departments of the Zilla Parishad. There have been noticeable changes in the organisational pattern of the department with the formation of the Zilla Parishad.

The powers and duties of the Educational Officer remain much more the same. He is to act, hereafter, as the Secretary to the Education Committee of the Sangli Zilla Parishad. With the policy of decentralisation a portion of the work formerly done by the Administrative Officer, District School Board, has been transferred to the Block Development Officers of the Panchayat Samitis, who are assisted by the Assistant District Educational Inspectors. Bulk of the work regarding primary education still remains in the district sector.

Statistics of Primary and Secondary Schools Schools.

The statistics pertaining to primary and secondary education in the district and information regarding education of backward classes, gram shikshan mohim, scouting and educational organisations in the district is given below: -

Schools with languages other than Marathi as media of instructions numbered 103. Of these, 41 schools had Urdu as the media of instruction (37 for boys and 4 for girls), 58 had Kannada (54 for boys and 4 for girls), two had Sindhi, one had English and one had Gujrati as the medium of instruction. Urdu schools had 5,999 pupils (2,680 boys and 3,319 girls), Kannada had 5,072 (3,310 boys and 1,762 girls), Sindhi had 160 (85 boys and 75 girls). Gujrati had 213 (116 boys and 97 girls) and English 94 (55 boys and 39 girls).

Basic Schools.

Of the 156 basic schools. 36 had spinning and weaving as a basic-craft. 113 had agriculture, four had woodwork and three had wool spinning. The total number of backward class students stood at 31.761, inclusive of 22,088 boys and 9,673 girls.

The Zilla Parishad employed 4.089 teachers. Of these 3,755 were trained teachers including 3,095 men and 660 women against only 334 untrained teachers including 270 men. The compulsory primary education was introduced in 528 villages covering 1,22,857 pupils including 71,951 boys and 50,906 girls. Of the primary schools, 714 were held in owned premises, 548 in rented premises and 601 in rent-free premises. The residential accommodation for backward class students was provided by 30 hostels for boys.

During the year 1962-63, the Zilla Parishad spent Rs. 68,05,536 including an expenditure of Rs. 3,04,492 on aided schools.

Secondary Education.

All the 134 secondary schools in the district were non-Government schools. Of these 69 provided education up to 11th standard, 28 up to 10th standard, 31 up to 9th standard and 6 up to 8th standard. Of these six were multipurpose schools with commerce, fine arts, home science and agriculture as the special subjects. Nine schools provided technical education. The total number of students attending these schools stood at 23.321 including 18,974 boys and 4,347 girls. Of the total number of 1,015 teachers, only 341 were untrained.

These schools received maintenance grant of Rs. 9,63,650. The benefit of 3.5 per cent freeships was given to 527 students in 49 schools. The expenditure on the same amounted to Rs. 30,855.62 Paise. The advantage of freeships and concessions was taken by 30 schools giving benefit to 75 students at an expenditure of Rs. 3,174.75 Paise.

Physical Education.

There was one national unit of fifty cadets under the national discipline scheme. The total number of units of the auxiliary cadet corps stood at 51. Each unit had 50 cadets. There were four boy scouts and girl guides units in the district.

College Education.

The first college in Sangli district was started by the Deccan Education Society of Poona, viz., the Willingdon College (of Arts and Science) at Sangli in June 1919.

It proved to be an event of capital importance in the intellectual and cultural life of Sangli. The Deccan Education Society established another college at Sangli known as the Chintamanrao College of Commerce in June 1960.

The Maharashtra Technical Education Society of Poona established an Engineering College at Sangli known at that time as the New Engineering College, Sangli. A donation of Rupees one lakh was given to the society for the purpose from the then State funds. The college was opened in June 1947. Subsequently in 1955-56, it was renamed as the Walchand College of Engineering.

Besides the above colleges-, there is the Sangli College conducted by the Lathhe Education Society and the Atreya College of Ayurved.

Literacy.

The following table shows the level of literacy, urban and rural in Sangli district according to 1961 census.

LEVEL OF LITERACY IN URBAN AREAS OF SANGLI DISTRICT IN 1961 [Census Report, 1961.]

*Census Report, 1961.

TOP