Ten Years of Freedom

Abstract

This is an attempt at a brief: stock-taking of what the country has done and has attempted to do in the field of education during the last ten years. Ten years is a long period in the life of individuals and they are rightly inclined to examine critically the measure of their achievements and failures and often suffer from understandable impatience at the gap between the possible and the ideal, between what is and might be. It is not, however, a long period in the life of a nation, though in this age of urgency no nation can afford to cultivate the complacency of slackness. A cautious and objective assessment of the situation, therefore, has to balance individual impatience and sense of urgency against a sense of perspective and take into account the starting point of the national endeavour. This survey w ill show that, during the decade that has just come to an end, the Central and State Governments, as w ell as private organizations working in the field of education, have put in a great deal of effort to make up the leeway which centuries of neglect and lack of social consciousness had created. Measured quantitatively there has been considerable expansion and development in the fields of Elementary, Secondary, University, Technical and Adult education and the scope of-the Education Ministry has been expanded to embrace many new cultural and literary activities. The attempt to democratize^opportunity is mirrored in the rapid expansion of scholarship facilities. This quantitative improvement can be seen in the rapidly increasing number of schools and colleges and scholars, in the increased budget allotment for education both in the States and at the Centre, in the establishment of new type of educational institutions to cater to new needs, and in many other schemes outlined in this publication.