MES -011

ANs a)

Analysis of Constitutional Provisions on Education

​

in India
Below are given constitutional provisions on Education:

1. Free and Compulsory Education:

The Constitution makes the following provisions under Article 45 of the Directive Principles

of State Policy that, “The state shall endeavour to provide within a period of ten years from

the commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory Education for all children

until they complete the age of fourteen years.” The expression ‘State’ which occurs in this

Article is defined in Article 12 to include “The Government and Parliament of India and the

Government and the Legislature of each of the States and all local or other authorities within

the territory of India or under the control of the Government of India.” It is clearly directed in

Article 45 of the Constitution that the provision of Universal, Free and Compulsory Education

becomes the joint responsibility of the Centre and the States.

2. Education of Minorities:

Article 30 of the Indian Constitution relates to certain cultural and educational rights to

establish and administer educational institutions.

It lays down:

(i) All minorities whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and

administer educational institutions of their choice.

(ii) The state shall not, in granting aid to educational institutions, discriminate against any

educational institution on the ground that it is under the management of a minority, whether

based on religion or language.

3. Language Safeguards:

Article 29(1) states “Any section of the citizen, residing in the territory of India or any part

there of having a distinct language, script or culture of its own, hall have the right to conserve

the same.” Article 350 B provides for the appointment of special officer for linguistic

minorities to investigate into all matters relating to safeguards provided for linguistic

minorities under the Constitution.

4. Education for Weaker Sections:

Article 15, 17, 46 safeguard the educational interests of the weaker sections of the Indian

Community, that is, socially and educationally backward classes of citizens and scheduled

castes and scheduled tribes. Article 15 states, “Nothing in this article or in clause (2) of

Article 29 shall prevent the state from making any special provision for the advancement of

any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the scheduled castes and

the scheduled tribes.

Under Article 46 of the Constitution, the federal government is responsible for the economic
and educational development of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes It states. “The

state shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker

sections of the people and in particular, of the Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes and

shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation.” It is one of the Directive

Principles of State Policy.

5. Secular Education:

India is a secular country. It is a nation where spirituality based on religion, had always been

given a high esteem. Under the Constitution, minorities, whether based on religion or

language, are given full rights to establish educational institutions of their choice. Referring

to the constitutional provisions that religious instructions given in institutions under any

endowment or Trust, should not be interfered with even if such institutions are helped the

State.

Article 25 (1) of the Constitution guarantees all the citizens the right to have freedom of

conscience and the right to profess, practice and propagate religion.

Article 28 (1) states, “No religious instruction shall be provided in any educational institution

if wholly maintained out of state fund.”

Article 28 (2) states, “Nothing in clause (1) shall apply to an educational institution which is

administered by the State but has been established under any endowment or Trust which

requires that religious instruction shall be imparted to such institution.”

Article 28 (3) states, “No person attending any educational institution by the state or

receiving aid out of state funds, shall be required to take part in any religious instruction that
may be imported in such institutions or to attend any religious worship that may be

conducted in such institution or in any premises attached thereto unless such person or, if

such person a minor, his guardian has given his consent thereto.”

Article 30 states, “The state shall not, in granting aid to educational institution maintained by

the State or receiving aid out of State funds, on grounds only of religion, race, caste,

language or any of them.”

6. Equality of Opportunity in Educational Institutions:

Article 29(1) states “No citizen shall be denied admission into any educational institution

maintained by the State or receiving aid out of State funds, on grounds only of religion, race,

caste, language or any of them.”

7. Instruction in Mother -Tongue:

There is diversity of languages in our country. After the dawn of Independence, Mother-

Tongues have received special emphasis as medium of instruction and subjects of study. In

the Constitution of India, it has been laid down that the study of one’s own language is a

fundamental right of the citizens.

Article 26 (1) states, “Any section of the citizens, residing in the territory of India or any part

there of, having a distinct language, script or culture of its own, shall have the right to

converse the same.”

Article 350 A directs, “It shall he endeavour of every state and every local authority to

provide adequate facilities for instruction in the mother-tongue at the primary stage of

education to children belonging to linguistic minority groups.”

8. Promotion of Hindi:

The Indian Constitution makes provision for the development and promotion of Hindi as

national language. Article 351 enjoins the Union, the duty to promote the spread of the Hindi

language.

Hindi accepted as the Official Language of India as laid down by the Constitution in following

words:

9. Higher Education and Research:

Entry 63 of the Union List:

The institutions known at the commencement of this Constitution as the Banaras Hindu

University, the Aligarh Muslim and the Delhi University, and any other institution declared by

Parliament by law to be an Institution of National importance.

Entry 66 of the Union List:

Co-ordination and determination of standards in institution for higher education or research

and scientific and technical institutions.

10. Women’s Education:

One of the unique features of Modem Indian Education is the tremendous advancement of

Women’s Education. Education of the girls is considered to be more important than that of

the boys.

The Constitution makes the following provisions under different articles:

Article 15(1) provides that the State shall not discriminate any citizen on groups only of sex.

Article 15 (3) reads: ”Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any special

provision for women and children.”

11. Education in the Union Territories:

Article 239 of the Constitution states, “Save as otherwise provided by Parliament by Law,

every Union Territory shall be administrator by the president acting to such extent as he

thinks fit through an administrator to be appointed by him with such designation as he may

specify.”

12. Educational and cultural relations with foreign countries:

Entry 13 of the Union List reads. Participation in international conferences, associations and

other bodies and implementing decisions made there at.

constitutional provisions play an important

role in the development of modern India.
The Preamble to the Constitution states:

“We the people of India having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a Sovereign
Democratic Republic and to secure to all its citizens:

Justice, Social, economic and political, liberty of thought, expression, belief faith and
worship, equality of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all:

Fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity of the Nation, in our Constituent
Assembly, this 26th day of November, 1949, do hereby adopt, enact and give to ourselves
this Constitution.”
All these provisions have vital significance for our Education. The Forty-Second Amendment,
1976 brought about drastic changes in the Indian Constitution. Before 1976, Education as a
whole was a State Subject and the Central Government used to play only an advisory role. A
lot of controversy continued for some time regarding the constitutional provisions of
education.

The persons connected with educational administration felt that the Education should be the
joint responsibility of the Central and State governments. In 1976, this controversy was put
to rest by a Constitutional Amendment. The amendment which is known as the
Forty-Second Amendment of the Indian Constitution received the assent of the President on
December 18, 1976.

Accordingly, education was put on the Concurrent list. The implications of making education
a concurrent subject is that both the Centre and the States can legislate on any aspect of
education from the Primary to the University level.

By having education in the Concurrent list, the Centre can implement directly any policy
decision in the States. The amendment was suggested by a Committee headed by. S.
Swaran Singh. Education on the Concurrent list was put on the recommendations of the
Swaran Singh Committee in 1976.

This Committee said, ”Agriculture and Education are subjects of primary importance to
country’s rapid progress towards achieving desired socio-economic changes. The need to
evolve all-India polices in relation to these two subjects cannot be over-emphasized.

This amendment makes Central and State government equal partners in framing educational
policies. Union becomes supreme over states in enacting laws regarding education. The
executive power is given to the Union to give direction to the States. The States have
powers limited to the extent that these do not impede or prejudice the exercise of the
executive powers of the Union.

The Centre can implement directly any policy decision in any State. National Institutions like
UGC, NCERT and National bodies like CABE have higher power and strength to shape the
Education of the country in all states.

India is a democratic country. The Government is also democratic. The task of education is
to take lead in organizing a society on the pattern envisaged by the framers of our
Constitution when they declared our country a “Sovereign Democratic Republic” and the
State to be Welfare State. Our Constitution is a federal one. It has divided powers in the
Centre and States and describes some powers as concurrent.

Accordingly there are three lists which are as follows:

(a) List I (Union List)

(b) List II (State List)

(c) List III (Concurrent List)

(a) Union List:

List-I includes items which are of great interest to the nation. The Centre has exclusive
powers to make laws in respect of the items in List-I.

(b) State List:

List-II includes items of local interest. The states have the power to make laws to cover items
in List-II.

(c) Concurrent List:

List-III includes it which concerns both the centre and the states. For those included in List-III
Centre and States both can legislate. With this amendment, Education comes under
Concurrent List and Central and State Governments become meaningful partners in it.
ANS - B ) ​CONCEPT OF EDUCATION

​Education influences the economic and social order of society. Education

was once considered as a pursuit for those who had leisure. An educated

man was supposed to be an idler, a person who did not like to work with his

own hands. It was generally believed that a person of high education was

only. fit to be an armchair politician, philosopher or thinker.

During the christian era, Greek city-states were at the zenith of their

prosperity. Education during this period aimed at preparing students for

citizenship and enabling the youth to successfully participate in statecraft. In

Sparta, education was controlled by the state and every individual had to get

military training for the defense of Sparta. Attaining physical excellence was

the main criterion for the success of education. In Athens. the influence of

sophists ' and their philosophy was significant and they promoted the growth

of individual s such, civilizations designed their own education systems. We

find there British period, British period, and Post-independence period in the

history of / education of India. Each had its emphasis according to the

socio-political situation then prevailing.

What is Learning?

When we talk of learning are we talking of the process or its product? Why

does one learn? How does one define the content of learning? There arc

numerous questions related with this term, therefore no one should be

surprised if there is not much convergence on the answers advanced.

In simple language when we talk of one's learning, unless specified, it

generally covers both schooling as well as non-schooling engagements. Here

we talk of a process, which relates to an individual's natural tendency to learn.

Learning ability is Mother Nature's gift to guide and conduct an individual's

survival. The ones that are deprived of hs gift require permanent medical care

for their helplessness. human survival is entirely dependent on this gift.

Luckily, schooling alone is not the only medium to learn. Peer groups are the

next best teachers after the family. True, the peers teach the most and the

rest is taught by the instinct to survive, which continues to face constant

challenges from circumstantial problems. If this were not so, human survival

would have been extremely difficult. A vast section of human population is still

deprived of the benefits of schooling. Does it mean that these illiterates do not

learn? If they have no schools to guide where do they go to learn? Answers to

these questions carry within themselves the subject matter of Sociology and

Anthropology and not of Pedagogy. Pedagogy may have borrowed methods

of teaching from these subject areas but its content being crowded with the

heavy borrowings from other disciplines is singularly inadequate to meet all

our requirements.

Psychologists have closely studied learning as a process. We know that

education and learning are closely related. It is inconceivable to think of

either as separate entities or phenomena. One must learn in order to be

educated. Learning in that case is a dependent variable of education. The

quality and the quantum of learning come to define education. It is therefore

necessary to know exactly what learning means and how one learns. B.F.

Skinner and J.A. McGeoch say that there is no need to theorize learning

behavior. They proposed to discover the conditions that produce and control

learned behaviour. Skinner studied instrumental conditioning (operant

conditioning) on rats. He discovered that repeated success leads to

acquisition of a new behavior. This, he called, as conditioning. A Russian

psychologist, Pavlov, came to join this branch of research. Conditioned

response came to be defined as learned behavior. This branch of psychology

suggests that almost all-human leaming is some form of conditioning rooted in

the principles of reward and punishment. McGeoch specialized in human rote

memory. As part of the extension of what Skinner and his followers had

studied we have today teaching machines, computer-aided instruction,

behavior modification programs etc.

 SCHOOLING

We need lo define the term 'schooling' here. How and why is the school such

a great necessity? When did schools appear for the first time in the West? It

is believed that in the West, formal instruction through schools started in

ancient Greece first. The first references to what needs to be taught and what

should be avoided was made in Plato's Republic. To the question, "what kind

of education shall we give them then?" We shall find it difficult lo improve on

the time-honored distinction between the training we give to the body and the

training we give to the mind and character. A lengthy discussion, which Plato

recorded, offered the conclusion, as ''the object of education is to love

beauty." However, this object is beyond achievement if schools do not exist,

teachers do not teach and there are no courses of instruction. But as far as

Aristotle was concerned he preferred intellectual, artistic, cultivated life, which

the Greeks called 'scl~ole', translated as "leisure". But he said clearly "No

citizen belongs to himself, he is part of the state, and is not entitled to be

educated privately in private tastes and standards." The Greeks were divided

between two sections-one, the free and the other -- the slaves, who

constituted the vast majority. The education being referred to was intended

for the free citizens and not for the slaves. For the first time we find state
schools being mentioned in early Greek books.

In practice, before Renaissance, we find education was either imparted by the

clerics in Churches or given as private tuition. Indeed, one of the reasons why

the West had no secondary system was that privately taught students were

allowed to proceed for higher education and western universities themselves

started appearing very late in the 10"' century A.D. Nevertheless, schools, as

distinct institutions existed, even if only for charitable purposes.

ANS-C

children acquire knowledge

One of the most effective approaches to acquiring knowledge is teaching.

This is how Richard Feynman acquired knowledge. He selected a concept

then taught it to an imaginary person. He spoke, wrote, and drew the concept

to his ‘student’. When he got stuck or felt that an explanation was too wordy,

he went back to the reference material. He continued this process until he

could recall everything using simple explanations and analogies.

The key is to acquire small chunks of knowledge and then apply them in

different ways. Input, process, output. Teach, solve problems, or build

something. Retrieving information from memory is the process of learning.

When you use information in a new setting, that’s when you start

understanding it.

To strengthen this process you can leverage five principles:

* Take breaks

* Plan and structure your learning

* Hook your knowledge into multiple pieces of information

* Create a system for identifying knowledge blind spots

* Leverage your emotions

Breaks also enable you to process a broader set of information. Focus

narrows the activity to a small part of your brain. Some problems and

concepts require that you use a broader set of information to understand

them. This happens when you take breaks. Steve Wozniak did this. First he

mapped out the prerequisites to build a proof of concept, the Apple 1. Then,

for each new iteration of the Mac he could reuse that knowledge. This

enabled him to deepen his knowledge. Since he had the trunk of the

knowledge — the 80% that mattered — he could also attach the branches

and the leaves.

When you structure your learning, add the same lenses: Frequency, value,

and prerequisites. Which concepts will you need 80% of the time? What is the

quickest way to add genuine value? How can I map out the prerequisites that

are specific to my challenge Hook your knowledge into more information so

that accessing it becomes easier. This refers back to a discovery in

neuroscience: neurons wire together if they fire together. To use this facet,

study in various differing environments, use multiple senses, and apply your

knowledge in various ways. If you need to recall knowledge for a specific

occasion — say a presentation — do the opposite; study in an environment

similar to the one where the knowledge will be used. This will make it more

accessible in that type of environment, but less retrievable otherwise.

Knowledge blind spots create failures. You run out of motivation and

resources while learning things that you don’t need. They also decrease your

knowledge acquisition. Your ability to acquire knowledge depends on your

working memory, which becomes overloaded when you have significant gaps

in your knowledge. This reduces your capacity to transfer knowledge to your

long-term memory — your ability to acquire knowledge. To avoid blind spots,

take advantage of other’s learning journeys, have mentors, and gain

feedback. This is not news for many. Still, we seldom notice our blind spots.

That’s because we lack a prerequisite: Character. We are afraid of being

vulnerable.

The final tactic for knowledge acquisition is controlling your emotions. What

you find emotionally engaging is what you will think about, talk about, and

work on. That’s the knowledge you will retain. Memory champions leverage

this. They symbolize numbers in shocking mental images. Then they place

the images in an imaginary house and create a storyline. This skill allows

them to remember long sequences of numbers. It’s a skill anyone develop.

children construct of knowledge

The significance of understanding children's construction of knowledge

emanates from the ideological position on the nature of learning, which is the

constructivist view. This, in turn, has deep connotations for the

conceptualisation o learners' assessment. The present study attempts to

explore the processes and approaches by which the learners attempt th given

tasks. The study has a qualitative research design. The sample consisted of

fifty children from Classes II and IV Data was collected through a

questionnaire which related to the broad areas of understanding of issues of

Environmental Studies (a subject taught in the primary school curriculum).

The findings reveal that children come up with multiple an diverse responses,

based on their own experiences of which they are a part. The findings have

implications for both learners and teachers at the primary school level.

Thus paper puts forth the point that children entering primary school at around

5– 6 years of age are already in th process of learning. So rich experiences

provided to them at school need to acknowledge and build on what they

already 'know'. This also has significant connotation on how assessment of

children is conceptualised. Drawing from field-base evidences, the paper

argues for a re-definition of the notion of assessment to be understood as

more dynamic an process-oriented, which values each learner as 'special'

and worthwhile. Finally, the educational implications of th findings are

discussed.