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MES-053 EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT, PLANNING AND FINANCE DISCUSS BRIEFLY THE IMPORTANCE OF ACCOUNTABILITY AND AUTONOMY IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. (OR) IMPORTANCE OF AUTONOMY AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN INDIA
In recent years, one of the topics most widely discussed in India and in developing countries, in public as well as in private conversations, is the state of education. There are achievements and failures to take note of. On the one hand, India has emerged as a global leader in Information Technology competence but, on the other hand, there is the embarrassing fact that the country has the largest number of illiterate people in the world. The Constitution made a commitment to make primary education universal by I960, but even today it remains a distant goal. The growth of population has resulted in a surge of children and youth looking for educational opportunities at all levels and it is turning out to be a pressure not easy to cope with. The resolve to make primary education universal and compulsory is still there; it is recognized that education at higher levels needs to be expanded and toned up (Singh 2004). The problems and issues relating to higher education today are privatization and commercialization of education, political interference and corruption, mismanagement and agitations, falling standards, and irrelevance. The prolific and unplanned expansion of higher education since independence is undoubtedly a major factor responsible for the present dissatisfaction. In the 1950s and 1960s the annual rate of growth of the sector was 13 to 14 per cent (Singh 2004), which was about double the rate in any other country. There was no agency to supervise or coordinate what was going on. According to the Constitution, education was a state subject, but the center was assigned special responsibilities for higher and professional education. The universities came under the states with the state governments responsible for their administration and funding. The University Grants Commission (UGC) was set up in 1956 by an Act of Parliament with the dual responsibility to provide funds for higher education and to determine and coordinate standards, a strangely unique combination. It was argued by Singh that in no other country of the world does the grant-giving agency have the power to sit in judgment upon the quality of performance of a university". At the level of the states, while the governments establish and supervise the universities, there are fewer norms for setting up colleges, which are the primary units for instruction. Colleges are almost fully responsible for undergraduate education, which constitute over 85% of the total student enrolment in higher education. Colleges dominate postgraduate education also, and have come to have an increasing share of it over the years. Today in higher education in India, there are a number of professional bodies, which render legitimate and valuable services to the profession. But in the sphere of higher education they lead to two sets of problems. There is a positive side for autonomous institutions. It can create experiments and enable the teachers to accept greater responsibility for what they do. For the improvement of functioning of autonomous institutions, student evaluation of teachers can be introduced soon and be made an integral part of higher education. Looking back over the past 50 years, if we periodically make an attempt to review the conditions of higher education in this country, some worthwhile ideas can be advanced like how educational institutions are running, what is sought to be achieved and to what extent it is achieved and so on, things would have become vastly better.

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DESCRIBE THE IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ON HIGHER EDUCATION.

We have discussed the ramifications of globalization for Indian education, particularly higher education. In order to meet global challenges, multi-dimensional reforms will have to be introduced with a view to modifying/ improving the university system. A brief discussion of the needed reforms follows: CURRICULUM UP-GRADATION: Students need to be equipped with, besides theoretical knowledge, adequate skills to enable them to fully participate in the emerging social, ujonomic and cultural environment. This would necessitate continuous pruning and up-graduation of curriculum. The emphasis should be on productivity up-gradation. The ongoing scheme of vocationalization of the first degree course would need drastic modification from that point of view. INDUSTRY-UNIVERSITY LINKAGES: Industry being the user agency should be taken intoconfidence in curriculum up-gradation, on the job training provision of guest faculty as also for providing financial and other assistance for university development. RESEARCH: The present level of research spending is very low - less than one per cent of the GDP. In order to compete effectively with world class institutions, it would be necessary to raise the level of expenditure on Research and Development (R & D). VALUE EDUCATION: In order to avoid the pitfalls of aggressive competitiveness, value education, which emphasises cooperation rather than competition, sharing of experience rather than self-centredness, should be an integral part of our educational system. FINANCE: We have discussed the behaviour of educational finance overall, as well as sectoral, in another Unit. Suffice it here to say that all the reforms suggested above will need much larger level of investment - with governments - at the centre and in the states -being the main providers.

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"EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT IS AN APPLIED DISCIPLINE". DISCUSS THE STATEMENT WITH EXAMPLES. (OR) NATURE OF EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT Management is a branch of study that essentially deals with the organization, the people manning the organization, its resources and the objectives for which organization is meant. It makes the nature of educational management as a discipline quite complex. However, some salient features of "Educational Management" as a branch of study, as a discipline, are worth noting in order to understand the nature of educational management. CENTRALITY OF GOALS AND OBJECTIVES An educational organization has certain goals and objectives - broader as well as specific. It is also important to bear in mind that educational organization is different from any other organization or say a corporate organization or a firm/company. For example, an educational organization such as school or college stands for the production and dissemination of knowledge. It stands for values such as character building, national integration, etc. Hence the educational management of an educational organization must incorporate this particular specificity throughout the principles. The centrality of goal orientation of schools and colleges is common to most of the difficulties in applying pure management concepts to the educational organization. The point at discussion is whether management of education is different from the management of other organizations. In other words, one approach to educational management is to import the concepts of management of any organization and apply or adapt/modify it to the educational organization. Another approach would be to think afresh the principles of educational management, assuming that an educational organization is not like any other organization and that fundamentally it has a distinct character of its own. In other words, a distinct approach as opposed to the common approach to educational management is required. These are certainly valid arguments in favor of the distinct approach to educational management. For example, the concepts of a bureaucracy, hierarchy, too many formal rules, issue of leadership, etc., should not be imported from the general principles of management of, say, a corporate/ defence/governmental organization. Administration of a school or a college where tender minds are to be nurtured has to be above rules and too formal a setting. AN APPLIED DISCIPLINE Educational management is not an academic discipline such as basic sciences, economics, anthropology etc. It is an applied discipline or extension of pure research or knowledge to the improvement of practices in an organization. financial aspects of management are drawn from commerce. Principles of scientific management may be drawn from science. Hence it is an applied discipline that demands an interdisciplinary approach. It is like an engineering discipline, that is, an applied branch of science dealing with technology. Some related applied disciplines are public administration, business economics, business management, and hospital administration. It is from this point of view that understanding of an organization at the level of practices is more important. Education should be considered as a profession and educational management should provide professional approach to manage the educational institutions. As an applied discipline, educational management should not be considered as an exercise in abstraction. DUALITY OF MANAGEMENT Educational management covers practices at both the levels - schools, colleges and educational institutes as well as at different administrative units such as state, district, block or circle.

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The former relates to academic units whereas the latter refers to administrative units. This creates duality of educational management, as principles of managemenfanay vary depending upon whether an organization is academic or administrative. In academic organization decision-making is more informal, collegial, and based on mutual trust. In administrative set up, decision-making is rather more formal and participants are top echelons. Managing the teachers or experts in respective fields demands an academic or experienced head of the organization. Managing the generalists or non-experts demands an altogether different approach to management. It is for this reason that literature on educational administration is also diverse and addresses two sets of issues school/college based management issues and issues relating to public administration of education department. It relates to private as well as public management. Education is primarily run under public management, where mostly the educational grant is received from the government. Education is also administered under private management. The private schools or colleges are managed by the private management committees. In public (governments) managed schools or colleges, teachers are accountable to education departments or universities. STATIC OR DYNAMIC The life span of an educational organization is very long -sometimes more than a century. Several schools and colleges were established in 18th and 19th century. It implies that change is an important element that an educational administrator should understand. Educational organizations which incorporate changes as per the need of the time have a higher survival rates. Educational management is, therefore, a dynamic discipline. An important point in this regard is how to incorporate variables in the analysis of educational management. It raises various theoretical problems at analytical level. For example, it may not be analytically easy to test a particular model of leadership over a period of time in an organization. Hence it is only at the descriptive level that the educational management becomes a dynamic branch of knowledge. NORMATIVE OR POSITIVE 'Positive' approach is concerned with 'what is', whereas a 'normative' approach deals with 'what ought to be'. In the former approach to educational management it is value neutral; in the latter approach, the value judgement is a part of educational management. Basic sciences have a 'positive' methodology. ART OR SCIENCE There may also be diverse views on whether educational management is an Art or Science. An educational organization is so much dependent upon culture, environment, and other social factors that it may not be easy to approach educational administration from a pure 'cause' and'effect' approach. educational management should be viewed as pure 'Arts'. However, scientific understanding of a particular phenomenon means that there is a systematic body of knowledge to explain a particular phenomenon. In this sense the educational management may be considered as 'Science'aswell. Cultural and other social factors may be integrated systematically to explain various management issues such as inter-personal conflict and co-ordination.

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Monitoring and evaluation reports are valuable sources of information that can form the basis for decision-making and learning at the programme or project level. The reports should identify potential problems or success. There is no common format for reporting. Following is a list of tips that might help in improving your drafting evaluation reports: START THE PREPARATION OF THE EVALUATION REPORT AT AN EARLY STAGE It is useful to start the preparation of the report before data collection. There are a number of sections that can be prepared by using the material of the evaluation plan or proposal (background section, information about the project and some aspects of the methodology, evaluation questions, etc.). Those will remain the same throughout the evaluation. The evaluation findings, conclusions, and recommendations generally need to wait for the end of the evaluation. Evaluations generate huge amount of information. Therefore, it is useful to organize evaluation data and field notes as soon as they are collected and to document fieldwork experiences and observations as soon as possible. Finally, preparing sections of the findings chapter during the data collection phase allows researchers to generate preliminary conclusions or identify potential trends that need to be assessed by additional data collection activities. MAKE THE REPORT SHORT AND CONCISE One of the most challenging tasks that evaluators face is how to organize the huge amount of data gathered into a useful, concise, and interesting report and what data to include and not to include. It is useful to remember that only a small and concise amount of tabulations prepared during the analysis phase should be reported. A report outline will help in classifying information. It is necessary to always abide by your key evaluation questions, the indicators you are assessing and the type of information that your audience needs. MAKE YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS CLEAR, CONCISE, AND DIRECT. EXAMPLES INCLUDE: 1. Ways for improving management of the program (planning, decision making, policy development, etc.) and where capacity building/technical assistance and training are needed. 2. Actions needed to increase effects of the project. 3. Actions needed to improve monitoring and evaluation processes and methods. 4. Topics for further research. MAKE THE PRESENTATION INTERESTING Remember that the level and content of evaluation reports depend on for whom the report is intended, e.g., staff, beneficiaries, the general public, etc. 'Presentation must be clear and adjusted to the target group. The presentation must be made in simple language.

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RATIONALE FOR MICRO-LEVEL PLANNING

The progress of educational planning during the initial period after independence in India has revealed that the non-involvement of the personnel at the lower levels in the process of plan formulation resulted into a number of problems. According to the Planning Commission, ihese are: the wide disparities which exist between levels of development attained by different areas and community groups within a state and their potential for development cannot be narrowed down unless the resources to be provided and (he programmes to be taken up in each area or for each community are determined on (he basis of a specific and local assessment of problems, resources and productive potential; meaningful assessment of the on-going schemes cannot be undertaken except at the lower level and with the participation of workers at that level and the beneficiaries of schemes; without a systematic study and planning of the local infrastructure, a firm and objective basis cannot be provided for the planning of the state superstructures nor can the time lags in its utilization be reduced; proper phasing to ensure synchronization of one programme with other related programmes, cannot be attempted without working out the details of programmes at the ground level and measures for mobilization of local resources for development purposes cannot be planned realistically except in the specific context of the needs, aspirations and the socio-economic conditions of the people and the level of performance of local institutions. To sum up: "Decentralization of development planning and administration has the virtue of permitting development strategies and programmes to be customized to the needs of diverse groups of people. Centrally planned strategies tend to be uniform and monolithic and fail to take into account the differences in the characteristics of various population groups. Our socio-economic and ecological diversity and cultural heterogeneity point to the inescapability of decentralised decision making ...." (Ninth Plan, p.231). It is therefore necessary that the present practice of over-centralized planning should be replaced by a system of decentralized planning in which the lower administrative units are closely involved in the process of plan formulation. To achieve this, a district should be taken up as a unit of planning. In case, however, the district happens to be very large in area, population, etc. the block may be designated as the planning unit. The decentralization process would also necessitate coordination of the district level mechanism with Panchayati Raj institutions with the three-fold structure of Zila Parishad, Panchayat Samiti, and Village Panchayat. The case of making the district as a unit to be involved in the process of planning rests on the following premises: The district is a viable administrative unit because: of the uneven expansion of education on account of certain socio-economic factors, variations in educational development between different districts are more pronpunced than between different states; the compilation of educational statistics and the evaluation of educational programmes at the district level could be more efficiently done; and adequate staff is available at the district/block levels, who can be trained for planning purposes.

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HUMAN RESOURCE ASSESSMENT APPROACH

This approach developed by Harbison (1964) starts from the position that education is one of the main sources of human resource development; the other sources being measures in the fields of manpower, employment, training and health. The strategy of human resource development consists of integrating these factors with general economic and social development planning. It takes into consideration such factors as the scale of development feasible considering the availability of specialized manpower, the scale of development needed to absorb the backlog of unemployed and the new entrants to the labour force, the extent of in-service training in the industry, the pattern of investment priorities envisaged in the plan and The broad economic, social and educational goals of development. According to Harbison, there are at least six essential elements in the strategy of human resource development: an assessment of manpower requirements; a programme for development of formal education; a programme for strengthening training in employment a programme for building of incentives a programme for health development; and appropriate machinery for integrating human resource planning with general development planning. Other measures for improvement of levels of living such as food consumption and nutrition, employment, working conditions, housing, clothing, social security and human freedoms have also a bearing on human resource development but they are logically treated as hoped for consequences of general social and economic growth.

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MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS OF AN EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION

An educational organization in the context of a developing country like India offers many challenges for an educational administrator. In most of the developing economies, education serves economic and social functions to an individual and the family. There are some challenges to provide education to the first generation learners and to the girls. Most importantly, educational administrators have to ensure the relevance and quality of education. PLANNING Educational planning is an important instrument for educational administrators to carry out educational programmes in a targeted manner in order to meet the educational opportunities of all. Planning has to be at multiple levels to ensure that plans are realistic and the implementation of plans can be carried out efficiently. Institutional plans at the level of the schools are also an important tool for educational administrators at the school level to carry out the functions of the school as an organization. Recent attempts to decentralize plan in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan should go together with the administrative autonomy and accountability to implement the plan. COORDINATION Coordination is another important function of educational administrators at the level of the implementation of programme. It involves the selection of people in different positions, defining their roles and functions and imparting them proper decision-making powers to carry out different activities as per the plan. Coordination involves an effective personnel management. It should ensure the capacity building of educational administrators to carry out different tasks within an organization. Coordination is based on the psychological principles of motivation, where an effective leader would like to coordinate different activities not only in terms of structural programming but also in terms of motivating, initiating schemes of rewards and incentives and making performance appraisal of personnel working within an organization INSPECTION AND SUPERVISION Controlling and continuous monitoring of educational activities are important administrative functions for effective implementation and maintenance of educational standards. Although inspection is the most accepted mode of control and monitoring, yet educational institutions require more of supervision rather than inspection. Supervision has an advisory role to guide the teachers rather than controlling them through inspection. It is necessary that an administrator carefully prepares supervision reports and discuss with the teachers. Further the follow-up of the supervision should also take place through correspondence, visits, and periodical meetings. FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT In order to implement the plan it is necessary to prepare a budget. Budget is a planned receipt and expenditure account. It would ensure the resource mobilization and other means of income for carrying out the programmes. It is also necessary that the expenditure on programmes is made within sanctioned limit as prescribed in the budget approved by an appropriate authority. There should also be proper accounting practices within an organization. The auditing of those accounts should be done regularly.

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PERSPECTIVES IN MANAGEMENT THEORIES

The science of management has developed almost for over a century. It is possible to classify this development along with three important strands of thought. 1. Scientific management approach 2. Human relations approach 3. Behavioural approach SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT APPROACH One of the earliest strands of thought in management is the scientific management approach. Frederic Taylor is considered to be the originator of this approach. He derived the knowledge from his experience of working in industrial organizations, First of all, he believed in the principle that every person in an organization should have a clearly defined task. He advocated that for every day's task we engage. Secondly, he also advanced the idea that a workman should be given standardized conditions and appliances to complete his task effectively. Thirdly, the wages given to a workman should be related to successful completion of the task. Quality of services produced is most important. Besides, psychological or sociological dimensions of a person's ability to work are also very important. For example, a principal's appreciation of a teacher's work may provide encouragement to a teacher, who will feel motivated to work efficiently. Taylor believed in mechanistic approach as he treated man as a machine. Man is considered a rational, logical, orderly and conforming being. Taylor's view that members of an organization should know the aims and objectives of their duties are important. No teacher without good equipment, library, laboratory, text books, and teaching resources can work with the maximum efficiency. Fayol (1841-1925) like Taylor took scientific approach to administration. He defined administrative behaviour as plan, organize, command, co-ordinate, control. POSDCORB Later, Gulick and Warwick described the duties of chief executive more comprehensively. They defined POSDCORB representing various administrative actions as indicated below: Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting, Budgeting HUMAN RELATIONS APPROACH APPROACH TO MANAGEMENT Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933) recognized the importance of the human factor in administration. Mary Follett believed that the fundamental problem in all organizations was that of developing and maintaining dynamic and harmonious relationships. Administration is more a social process rather than a mechanical manipulation. The importance of an informal group within the formal organizational structure was recognized in an educational context. Within the formal structure of the school, informal inter group relation between Principal, teachers, students and support staff help to attain the objectives of an organization. The concept of democratic administration, manifested in the works of John Dewey, Kurt Lewin and his associates at the University of Iowa's Child Welfare Research station, too supported the idea that social climate affected the work productivity. The concept of human relations in administration places great emphasis on leadership. The cooperation among members of an organization is considered the most important element in achieving the goals of an organization. The principal of the school, as leader of an organization can plan, organize and direct effectively only when he/she is able to get cooperation from the students, teachers and other personnel. The human relations approach emphasizes the following features of an organization: Sensitivity to human factor, Importance to informal organisations, Free interplay of ideas, Motivation, Real versus nominal leader, Men as active human beings, Co-operation enlarging the span of control.

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BEHAVIORAL APPROACH TO ADMINISTRATION Behavioral approach to administration tends to understand the work behavior of a person in its entire dimension drawing ideas from sociology, psychology, economics, anthropology, political science etc. The Administrator needs to know why people behave the way they do. it might be due to their cultural pattern, their special physical make up or to their natural desire for power, wealth and influence, all of which affect their attitudes to work. Chester Barnard examined carefully the relationship which exists among the members of an organization. The structural concepts in his model relate to the individual The main dynamic concepts are free will, cooperation, communication, authority, decision making process and a forceful working stance-Herbert Simon expanded on Barnard's work and used the concept of organizational balance as a central point for a formal theory of work motivation. Simon viewed the organization as an exchange system in which rewards are exchanged for work. The concept of inducement is psychological, economic and sociological in nature. It implies the interdisciplinary nature of administration. Administration is a process where the behaviour of employees in an organization is rational but influenced by various factors.

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What is systems approach to the management of a school ? Explain briefly the steps for introducing total quality management (TQM) in schools. (Or) Total quality management (TQM) TQM is an important issue in the management of an educational institution. KEY ELEMENTS OF TQM VISION An important element of TQM is vision building and sharing of vision. There should be a guiding force or vision towards which a school/college works and aims. A vision statement expresses hopes, aspirations, and beliefs. All participants within an organization share the hopes and inspirations and they all work towards achieving it. Two examples of vision statements are: "Serve and obey" "If you do not sow, you will not harvest" A VISION STATEMENT SHOULD HAVE THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERISTICS: a vision should be inspiring a vision statement should be challenging it should be stated in clear terms it should not be conflicting it should be memorable and should not be too short or too long (roughly 20-25 words) it should be linked to the students in case of a school or college. SYSTEMS APPROACH TQM means a system approach to the management of a school. A school may be considered as a system that consists of various sub-systems that are interdependent and interrelated. Harmonious functioning of all sub-systems need to be ensured for the smooth operation of a system. LEARNER SATISFACTION A third important component of TQM is learner's satisfaction. In a TQM setup, the decision will flow not top-bottom but in a bottom-up manner. In a conventional system, the governing body of a school - Principal and members of the board - take certain decisions. These decisions percolate down to the teachers and the students who are at the receiving end. In such a situation the students are passive doers. PARTICIPATORY MANAGEMENT AND TEAM BUILDING The fourth important element of TQM is the participatory management process and team building. TQM works in a learning organization and it is necessary to build teams in order that the institution is transformed into a learning organization. Continuous learning is essential for continuously improving their work as teachers, educators and administrators. Teams are more powerful learning entities than individuals seeking to learn on their own. CHARACTERISTICS OF HIGH PERFORMING TEAMS a shared sense of purpose and vision open communication trust and mutuality creative conflict appropriation working methods regular review and reflection enabling individual development cross functional links with teams APPROACH TO LEADERSHIP UNDER TQM As total quality management requires a shared vision and goal with a participatory approach to planning, it calls for a completely different approach to leadership.

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Leadership is here not determined by status but is earned through knowledge, trust and cooperation of the colleagues. TQM leadership requires a very different set of assumptions about management and the work of managers. MURGATROYD AND MORGAN (1992), NOTE THE FOLLOWING FEATURES OF THE TQM LEADERSHIP: TQM leadership is about imagination, enabling and empowerment of the rank and file - not about status. The role of the TQM leader is to activate, coach, guide, mentor, educate, assist and support his or her colleagues so that they focus on a shared vision, strategy and set of intended outcomes. TQM visionary leaders realize that it is cost effective to empower those nearest to a process to manage that process themselves. TQM leaders concentrate on the whole picture and keep it at the forefront of people's thinking. TQM leaders also search for the small things that can make a critical difference. TQM leaders believe that challenge and fun go together - laughter is healing. STEPS FOR TQM IN SCHOOLS Different steps for introducing TQM in schools may be divided into two broad categories strategic planning organisational diagnosis. STRATEGIC PLANNING An important aspect of TQM in schools is that the TQM philosophy and principles need to be put in place in a systematic manner. In other words, no less than strategic planning will be required to achieve total quality. Strategic planning for TQM means skillful and judicious use of resources - men, material and money - through the shared understanding and participative process to achieve quality on a continuous basis. Strategic planning for TQM has the following steps: vision diagnosis implementation ORGANISATIONAL DIAGNOSIS SWOT ANALYSIS SWOT analysis will be in order to identify the factors responsible and identify suitable strategies for quality improvement. SWOT is a popular acronym in management S = stands for strengths W = stands for weaknesses O = stands for opportunities T = stands for threats All the participants working in a school should identify the strengths as well as weaknesses of the institution. Strengths and weaknesses are internal to the organization. The institution should also identify opportunities and threats. The source of opportunities and threats are external but the effects are internal to the organization.

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The main characteristics of educational planning may be briefly stated below:

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MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF EDUCATIONAL PLANNING

1. Planning should aim at the development of education both in quantitative and qualitative terms. It has been experienced that the progress of education is assessed in terms of the extent to which the quantitative targets have been fulfilled. In many cases, even the physical targets are overlooked and stress is laid on the achievement of financial targets. Understandably, mere fulfillment of quantitative goals, in terms of expansion of physical facilities such as enrollment, number of teachers, creation of new buildings etc. and the utilization of the outlays provided for the purpose, is not sufficient. While assessing the progress of educational plans, it is incumbent to subject the plan to a comprehensive review which should include physical, financial and qualitative aspects of the plan schemes. The assessment should be a continuous process rather than a one time activity at the expiration of the annual plan or the five year'plan. 2. Planning should be participatory in character. Planning is a comprehensive process and its success depends on the participation of all the stake holders - planners, administrators, teachers, community and even the students. For this purpose, it would be necessary to evolve a system under which all those, who are affected by planning, are encouraged to contribute to the process of plan formulation, implementation, monitoring and feed back. 3. Educational planning should be a decentralized activity. We have explained in a subsequent unit, i.e. Unit 4, the need for decentralized planning in order to make it realistic and workable. We have also pointed out the pitfalls that are likely to arise in case planning becomes a centralized activity. As mentioned in the Ninth Plan document: "Decentralization of development planning and administration has the virtue of permitting development strategies and programmes to be customized to the needs of diverse groups of people. Centrally planned strategies tend to be uniform and monolithic and fail to take into account the differences in characteristics of various population groups. Our economic diversity and cultural heterogeneity point to the inescapability of decentralized decisionmaking."Education is an all-embracing activity. It transcends socio-economic, regional, caste, creed and religious barriers. It flourishes best if the various stake-holders are encouraged to collaborate with this great nation-building endeavour. For this purpose, (he association of all the concerned entities should be encouraged. Otherwise educational planning would degenerate itself into a bureaucratic activity, having no relationship with the situation at the ground level. This kind of planning has little prospect of achieving its goals. 4. Educational planning should be an integral part of the socio-economic development. We have discussed the significance of education in accelerating the process of socio-economic development. It may be stated that while education impinges upon the pace of development, it is also effected by the state of economy, the social and demographic factors and the political scenario in the country, A realistic and workable plan of educational development would, therefore, not only take cognizance of these factors but also become a part of the comprehensive plan of the country's development.

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CRITICALLY EXAMINE THE DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO EDUCATIONAL PLANNING. EXPLAIN WHICH APPROACH IS THE MOST SUITABLE TO PLAN AND DIRECT EDUCATIONAL SCENARIO IN INDIA. (OR) APPROACHES TO EDUCATIONAL PLANNING INTRODUCTION Educational planning, like planning in other sectors, is based on a set of variables like socio-economic and cultural, which cannot be easily controlled. These factors may be inherent in the educational systems like students, teachers, curriculum, and transactional techniques or may be extraneous like demography, the state of economy and social and cultural value systems. Realistic educational planning has to take note of these factors and try to anticipate variations that might take place in the foreseeable future. Three approaches to educational planning namely, 1. manpower approach, 2. social demand approach, 3. rate of return approach MANPOWER APPROACH This is based on the fact that the main link of education with economic development is through the knowledge and the skills it produces in the labour force. To the extent that the educational system produces qualified persons of the right caliber, the major part of the economic and social contribution of educational planning is achieved. The manpower approach necessitates a longer lime horizon and a thorough study of the occupational changes and technological progress as well as a particular level of educational standards. As stated in the Education Commission Report (1966), which is also called National Educational Commission Report ( 1966), the aim of man power planning is to provide every educated person with a job and every available job with a qualified person. According to Bluug (1966) the approach stems from the idea that educational plans must he established in the light of economic and social objectives. The method used is that of proceeding in stages from an initial projection of a desirable GDP in a future year, as given by prior economic plan, to a supply of educated manpower of the requisite calibre andcompetencies required to reach in the target years. The steps to achieve these objectives are as follow: The target GDP is broken down by major sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, transport, distribution and the like; These sectoral GDPs are then broken down by industries; An average labour-output co-efficient, the reciprocal of the familiar concept of average productivity of labour is applied to the sectoral or industrial GDP targets yielding the forecast of labour requirements by the sector or industry; The labour force is distributed among a number of mutually exclusive occupational categories; and The occupational structure of the labour force is converted into an educational structure by applying a standard measure of the level of formal education and skill training required to perform adequately in each occupation. Allowances are then made of deaths, retirements and emigrations, that is for replacements as well as additions to the stock of manpower. The final result is conditional forecast of the demand for educated people in a particular year; conditional subject to the achievement of the GDP as also the presence of other socio-economic factors. The manpower approach to planning has advantage such as the following: (i) there is no scope for unemployment in a situation where manpower planning has been resorted to, (ii) the contribution of manpower to economic of work would be optimum, (iii) education would be cost-effective. The manpower approach to planning has also certain limitations described as follow:

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It is difficult to forecast, with a fair degree of accuracy, the level of economic development over a longterm period. To the extent that the economy does not grow in terms of the long-term projections, the estimates of manpower requirements are likely to go awry. Another important limitation of the manpower approach is that it does not take into account the provision for education as a consumer good and it makes no provision for the social milieu. The occupational needs of the economy are not the whole of society's needs for education. The need for girls' education, who are not gainfully employed and education for cultural, political and social development should also be accounted for. SOCIAL DEMAND APPROACH (EDUCATION FLOW MODEL) The Social Demand Approach, which is akin to the Education Flow Model, assumes that access to all branches of education should be available to those wishing to enter them provided they are qualified to do so by ability and attainment. An important pre-requisite under this technique is to examine the educational system as if it were a complex mechanized production system. The inputs into the educational processes are children, teachers, equipment, and buildings. The outputs are various types of educated or trained people. The first component is to get a reliable set of demographic forecasts by individual years, and age and population of school going children throughout the planning period. Forecasts of enrollment must take account of the differences in educational experience, educational specialization, geographic regions etc. Further, children themselves are not homogeneous. They enter the educational system from different environmental conditions and with different inherent abilities, attitudes and aptitudes. As they pass through the different levels of the system, such differences are often magnified rather than minimized. In India, education at the school level, particularly of the elementary education stage, is planned on the basis of social demand approach. Article 45 in the Directive Principles of State Policy in the Constitution of India stipulates: "the state shall endeavor to provide, within a period of 10 years from the commencement of this Constitution for free and compulsoryeducation for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years". Further, Article 21 A, enjoins on the State to provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen in such manner as the State may, by law, determine. This has been included as a fundamental right of the childrep in the Indian Constitution. It would thus appear that the State is bound tp provide for free and compulsory education to all children till they complete education at the elementary stage of education. At the secondary and higher education levels, no such provision has been included in the Constitution, and, therefore, education is provided on the basis of social demand approach.At the higher education stage, students are generally enrolled on the basis of the demand for education as conceived by the students and their parents as also the capacity of the institution to provide educational facilities. In the case of professional education, however, the admissions are generally based on the employment possibilities available for various disciplines. For obvious reasons, there is no exact relationship between the demand of the market and the availability of seats in educational institutions. This mismatch between the demand and supply gives rise to the incidence of unemployment and under employment of the products of professional institutions. The fast expanding Distance Education and Non-formal Education systems also have a direct influence on the inflow of students to educational institutions. The types and pattern of courses available under these systems determine the response of students and accelerate or decelerate the demand for seats in educational institutions. As already stated, in India the Educational Flow Model is generally resorted to at the elementary education stage, which, according to Constitutional Directive is to be provided free and conipuNoi-\ education for children up to 14 years of age. In the case of secondary and non-

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Rate of return approach (cost-benefit approach) Education exercises a decisive influence on the socio-economic development by enhancing the productive capacity of the people. It also brings about an equitable distribution of wealth generated, by facilitating the social mobility of the people. Thus, the expenditure on education can be justified by its capacity to influence the process of national development. It is, however, necessary to find out how education compares with other forms of investment. Further, are all forms of education equally productive? These questions necessitate a scientific study of Rates of Return from different stages of education. The purpose of the analysis is to provide a measure of the expected yield of investment as a guide to rational allocation of resources. According to Blaug (1966), the Rate of Return approach takes into account a cross-tabulation of the labour force by age, education and earnings before and after the payment of tax. From then, we construct age-earning profiles by years of schooling, that is, we use cross section data to project lifetime earnings associated with additional education, it is convenient to treat costs of education, as merely negative earnings, with the result that we can proceed immediately to calculate the present value of the net earning differentials associated with extra education at different discount rates. The internal rate of return on investment in education is simply the discount rate that sums up the present value of the net life time earnings to naught or that equates the discounted value of the costs of certain amount of education with the discounted value of the future earnings anticipated by it.

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There are three important stages of planning: Plan formulation, Plan implementation, and Evaluations and appraisal. A discussion of the problems associated with these aspects are as follows: PLAN FORMULATION

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PLANNING METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURES

In the process of plan formulation, a number of lacunae have been experienced. The worst among these is the tendency to consider planning as an exercise to be undertaken at the national and the state levels and to hand it over lower down for implementation. It may be conceded that the macro-approach to plan formulation may be useful up to a point, but beyond that point, it not only becomes sterile but definitely harmful by obscuring "important regional and social differences and imposing a strait jacket on policy and action". (Coombs, 1970) The process of educational planning during the last 50 years in India has revealed that not much success has been achieved in involving people at the lower levels in the process of plan formulation. As a consequence, the wide disparities existing between the levels of development among different areas and community groups have become wider. Further a meaningful assessment of the ongoing schemes cannot be made and local communities cannot be encouraged to contribute to the success of planning. Need for decentralization: It is, therefore, necessary that while broad policy directions should emanate from the authorities at the national and the state levels, the regional and the area plans should be worked out keeping in view the requirements of the area, the infrastructure already existing, and the capacity of the region to harness physical, financial and human resources for the implementation of educational schemes etc. In short, planning has to take account of the regional socio-economic disparities within the country. It is with this end in view that stress has been Paid on decentralised planning, which envisages planning at the grass roots level and integrating them with the regional, state and national plans. We will discuss the modalities of bringing about decentralization in the process of planning in Unit 4. Widening scope: Besides the emphasis on decentralised planning leading to greater peoples' participation at the grass-roots levels, there is also need for widening the scope of educational planning to include social and cultural regeneration, national integration, self reliance and greater equality not only of access, but also of outcomes, between sexes, regions, urban and rural areas social classes and ethni-linguistic groups. Planning as a continuum: It has been realised that educational planning is not a one time activity but a continuous process entailing the following succession of inter-dependent actions: i) the clarification of educational objectives reflecting society's idea of its own future -embracing basic human values; ethical, cultural and aesthetic and also various roles the individual will be required to play in society as a citizen, worker and member of a family; ii) diagnosis of present conditions and recent trends so as to provide a perspective for further planning; iii) the assessment of alternatives: to manoeuvre for overcoming the constraints, which are not only physical and economic but also political, sociological, administrative and psychological. It is also essential to identify the major alternative courses of action available within the boundaries of likely constraints and to identify the important options; iv) translation of plan into action, which will involve continuous consultations between the various constituent units in a federal set up; v) evaluation and adjustment, this has to be a continuous process, inbuilt into the system of planning. It is unwise to have an evaluation at the end of implementing a scheme. At that stage, it is difficult to make proper adjustments in the system of planning and to apply corrective measures.

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Perspective planning: The formulation of realistic educational plans on a quinquennial or annual basis is inconceivable without reference to the long term goals of educational development. It has been pointed out that education refines "a relatively long term time span for its returns to accrue, but it has a lower rate of obsoleteness than most physical capital. For planning purposes, a time span often to twenty years has to be envisaged for the educational system as a whole". The term "perspective" generally turns out to be an aggregation of pious hopes without much regard for the actualities of the situation. To a certain extent, this criticism may be valid, although the fear has been grossly exaggerated. It may however, be stressed that the attempt at perspective planning should be the culmination of the efforts to make a thorough study of the position on the ground; to perceive the situation that is likely to exist within the next 10-15 years; to consider the factors that are likely to accelerate or retard the progress of" educational schemes during the intervening period and on the basis of a thorough study to lay down realistic objectives and goals of educational programmes on a long term basis. The planners have to make sure that, given a set of circumstances, it will be possible to achieve the desired progress in education. If the situation changes materially due to certain unforeseen circumstances, the utility of the effort would not be lessened. PLAN IMPLEMENTATION Implementation of the plan is the most crucial part of the planning process. Quite a few plan schemes drawn up with utmost methodological finess, are distorted in the course of implementation. Implementation of schemes therefore deserves very serious attention by the concerned authorities. Unfortunately, implementation of plan scheme is done half-heartedly and, in the process, the progress is retarded. Quite often, the schemes are prepared in haste, without giving thought to the availability of academic and physical facilities. To give one example, the founding fathers of the Indian Constitution included among the Directive Principles of State Policy, the provision for free and compulsory education for children till they attain the age of 14, which was to be realized within 10 years of the commencement of the Constitution i.e. by I960. Thai this target has not been achieved even by 2006 speaks eloquently about the formulation of the plan target without giving thought to the problems that are likely to be faced in its implementation. Another problem regarding the timely implementation of the schemes is the stranglehold of rules and regulations particularly with regard to the grant of 'administrative approval' and 'financial sanctions'. Quite often, undue delay is caused leading to the distorted implementation of the schemes. It is therefore, necessary that, besides formulation of well thought out schemes, the procedures and policies of the government should be rationali/ed drastically so that the implementation of the plan programes is facilitated rather than thwarted. This would also involve devolution of authority to the functionaries at the lower levels of administration. It is also necessary to improve the channels of information and transmission of directives. It has often been noticed that the authorities at the Central or State levels do not transmit full information to the lower units, with the result that those charged with implementation at the lower levels cannot have fuller appreciation of the plan schemes and are content with the implementation of the directives from the higher echelons of power. This process of strict remote control not only dwarfs their initiative, but also results in the implementation of the plan schemes going awry. Implementation of plan schemes is also thwarted if it is left solely to the administrative units of the central and state governments. For successful implementation, all the stake holders in the process have to be involved. These include the central 'government, the state governments, PRls and the ULBs, the non-government organizations (NGOs), the voluntary action groups and most importantly, the people at the grass roots level. Further, "the process of democratic decentralization can have true meaning only when sufficient autonomy and freedom is available to the states as well as PRIs and the ULBs in the formulation and implementation of plans" (Ninth Plan).

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MONITORING AND EVALUATION There is a need for evolving an in-built process of monitoring and evaluation of the progress of educational schemes. This would ensure that modifications are brought into effect during the implementation of a programme rather than at the end of the programme. Further, as emphasized by the Planning Commission: "In order to be effective, the review and monitoring of the state plans has to be a participative exercise with the state governments. Further, these detailed exercises for review and monitoring may not be held in only at Delhi, but in various state capitals to the extent feasible...." (Ninth Plan). The process of evaluation has suffered most, through the neglect of the educational planners. So far, the evaluation almost exclusively meant getting information about achievements in physical and financial terms. In a number of cases, the information received lacked consistency. Further, the qualitative aspects of the educational programmes are generally neglected. Not much effort is made to analyse the causes that contribute to the retardation or acceleration of achievement. The irony of the situation is that if the financial targets have been realized, no attempt is made to see whether the physical achievements have also been commensurate with the financial inputs. The process of evaluation, therefore, needs to be emphasized as a very important constituent of the process of planning. There is also a need for special evaluation of the schemes for which a machinery for evaluation will have to be properly developed. The tendency to super-impose extraneous evaluating machinery should be resisted. Evaluation should be entrusted to those who are conversant with the job. The intention of evaluation should be to see that the benefits accruing from the implementation of the schemes are commensurate with the financial inputs. It should also bring out the factors responsible for accelerating or retarding the progress of the schemes. Another important requirement of a sound system of educational planning is the need for up-to-date data collection. It is unfortunate that the system of data collection is so cumbersome and time-consuming that no effective use can be made of these data for the purpose of making projections for the future. Further, the statistical information is only of an aggregative type and not of an analytical character. It is necessary that the availability of educational statistics should be brought up-to-date and the methodology of collecting, collating and analyzing the data should be made much more efficient. Needless to say that any projections of educational development based on obsolete data would be misleading and become an exercise in futility.

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GLOBALIZATION AND INTERNATIONALIZATION

With the developments in information and communication technology as well as developments in easy commutation of persons among the nations, the flow of educational information and knowledge has been very speedy. Similarly, the movement of students and teachers has also been very frequent. This speed and frequency of communication has broken the barriers making information and knowledge flow from one country to another. This used to take place in the past also, but it was slow and selective. The advent of these technologies not only influenced education, but also various other sectors of economy and social life. In education the influence has resulted in the following: a) international comparison of educational developments, b) mobility of students from India to other countries for studies, c) scholars from India going abroad for research and vice a versa, d)-setting up of educational arrangement by other countries in India and Indian institution abroad e) marketing of education in India. Added to the influence of technology there has been change in global economic order through formation of World Trade Organization and signing of agreements by a large number of countries on liberalization of international trade in goods and merchandise through General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and liberalization of trade in services through General Agreement on Trade in Services. Under these arrangements member countries have agreed to liberalize the economy and trade. We shall discuss below how education is proposed to liberalize under the provisions of GATS. This agreement in general covers all the services (presently specified in 19 services) including the education services. This is first a multilateral agreement, which provides "legally enforceable right to trade in all services ". Only when the services are provided entirely by the Government, they do not fall within the GATS rule. However, when the services have been provided either by the Government partially or some prices are charged (as happens in Education) or provided by the private providers shall fall under the GATS rule. Some people argue that any institution that requires payment, like fees, should fall under the GATS as it currently exists. It is also indirectly a first multilateral agreement on investment, as the WTO literature covers not just cross boarder trade but other possible means of supplying the services including right to set-up a commercial presence in the export market.

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THE IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION AND INTERNATIONALISATION OF EDUCATION

With the developments in information and communication technology as well as developments in easy commutation of persons among the nations, the flow of educational information and knowledge has been very speedy. Similarly, the movement of students and teachers has also been very frequent. This speed and frequency of communication has broken the barriers making information and knowledge flow from one country to another. This used to take place in the past also, but it was slow and selective. The advent of these technologies not only influenced education, but also various other sectors of economy and social life. In education the influence has resulted in the following: a) international comparison of educational developments, b) mobility of students from India to other countries for studies, c) scholars from India going abroad for research and vice a versa, d)-setting up of educational arrangement by other countries in India and Indian institution abroad e) marketing of education in India.

POLICY
One of the well accepted and implemented policies of education in India is that education should be provided by the government, people and philanthropists, and is not for profit. Under the law of the land all educational institutions should be managed by governments, or trusts registered under Charitable Trust Act or Society registered under the Society Registration Act. 1860. Under the policy a nominal fee was charged from the students and most of the expenditure on education was met by the government in public institutions and in private institutions by the trust or the society. The institutions should run on non profit basis. Under the concept of liberalization in public institutions self financing courses, where students are expected to meet the full cost, have been started and private self financing intuitions charging full cost of education have been permitted. Though the concept of non-profit still continues, under the provision of GATS it may become imperative to allow institutions to operate on profit basis. For allowing this it may become necessary to change or amend the law.

PLANNING
The planning of education has been incremental and by the government. Private initiative has been recognized but has not formed the part of planning. Under the impact of globalization the concept of public-private partnership in the development of education and other services is seriously encouraged. The development planning is also viewed from international comparison. Therefore, it has become imperative to assess, where India stand in comparison to development of education globally and plan accordingly.

FINANCING
The impact on policy of financing of education is likely to be far reaching. In the first instance students would be required to meet almost full cost of their education. There may be some provision of loan financing to those students who may not be able afford the full instructional cost of education. Private initiative in education will increase and investment in education may also increase. Under the liberalization foreign direct investment in education has already been allowed. If provision of education services under the GATS is agreed many foreign education provider may also invest in education in India. Under the GATS education services may also operate for profit.

MANAGEMENT
Presently educational institutions are managed by government, Charitable Trust and Societies registered as non-profit making entities. Under the policies of liberalization and agreement under GATS it may become imperative to allow for profit companies to set up and manage educational institutions. Under this arrangement companies might as well announce shares in market. Accordingly educational institutions might be managed on the corporate style of management. Under the global competition system of management has to be flexible and result oriented. Under the provision of GATS India will also be able set up its educational arrangements in other countries. Indian companies can also provide education abroad for profit. The globalization and internalization of education has caused changes as discussed above. The changes are likely to be far reaching as the system become more global. On one side the international competition will help improving the quality of education on the other it may affect indigenous development of education and affordability of education by many. Domestic policy and regulatory mechanism would need to be put in place to avoid negative impact of globalization of education.

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EDUCATION AS AN INVESTMENT

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The Defers Commission (1996) has referred to the unprecedented economic expansion, particularly as a result of increasingly rapid technological progress and more intense international competition. According to the Commission "this progress is due, above all to the capacity of humanity to control and organize its environment in accordance with its needs; in other words, to science and education; the main driving forces of economic progress". The Commission however, was of the view that 'the present growth model has obvious limits because of the inequalities it provokes and the human and ecological costs its entails. The Commission wishes to define education, not as hitherto, solely from the point of view of its impact on economic growth, but from the broad perspective of human development". This broadened form of education, according to the Delors Commission, would mean that it does not limit itself to provide skilled labour force for the development of economy but should 'serve to make human beings not the means but the justification of development, (emphasis added). Bringing out the talents and aptitude latent in every one fulfils, at one and the same time, the fundamentally humanist mission of education, "the requirements of equity that should inform all educational policy and the genuine need for an endogenous development that shows regard for the human and natural environment and the diversity of traditions and culture" . In other words, as pointed out by Fedrico Mayor: 'the process of development must first and foremost make room for an awakening of the potential of the beings, who are both its critical protagonists, and its ultimate targets: human beings... (Delors Commission, 1996). Whether education is a consumption activity or an activity that is undertaken as an investment proposition in a question that has been discussed for quite some time in the subject of Economics of Education. If it is a consumption activity it is taken up for its own sake and if it is an investment activity it is taken up with the purpose of increasing earning potential. An author illustrates this concept with a suitable example thus: If an African cook learns music with or without investing any money in it, it is an example of education for consumption. If he increases his expertise by investing in aspects pertaining to cooking, it is an example of education for investment Vaizey (1973) states thus the explain education as investment, "There is of course, another side of the matter. A soccer player who is good in investing in future when trains and learns from his coach, if he decides to be a professional player. This argument may be generalized. It can be assumed!hat any country or society that decides to put a substantial part of its current income into educating its young people and to improving their attitudes, skills and attainments must hope to see an important change in its economic and social returns in future years. It must expect a rising rate of growth in future years. And what is true of the nation is likely also to be true of families".This is how Vaizey explains education as an investment proposition. The role of education as an investment has been highlighted in the five-year plans. The First Plan underlined the basic importance of education in the planned development of the country and its bearing on the quality of manpower and social climate of the country. It said: "Education is of basic importance in the planned development of a nation.... The education system has also an intimate bearing on the attainment of the general objective of the plan in as much as it largely determines the quality of the manpower and the social climate of the country The Second Plan was more explicit about the relationship of education with economic development. It said: "The system of education has a determining influence on the rate at which economic progress is achieved and the benefits which can be desired from it. Economic development naturally makes growing demands on human resources and in a democratic set up, it call for values and attitudes in the building up of which, the quality of education is an important element....". The Eighth Plan, recognizing that the goal of plan efforts is human development, of which human resource development is a necessary pre-requisite, emphasized: "Education is the catalytic factor, which leads to human resource development, comprising better health and nutrition, improved socio-economic opportunities and more congenial and beneficial natural environment for all. There is already enough evidence to show that high literacy rates, especially high female literacy rates, are associated with low rates of population growth, infant mortality, besides a higher rate of life expectancy...." The Ninth Plan reiterating the role of education for individual and social development, pointed out: "Education is the most crucial investment in human development. Education influences improvement in health, hygiene, demographic profile, productivity and practically all that is connected with the quality of life. The policies and approach to investment in the education

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EDUCATION AS AN INDUSTRY

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Education has been juxtaposed with industry. Considered from its dimensions and outreach, it is among the gigantic industries all over the World. It has, however, similarities and dissimilarities with the industrial establishments. Among the similarities, mention may be made of the very large staff, extensive buildings, equipments and ever-increasing clientele; students and parents in the case of education and the vast body of users of goods and services in the case of industry. Among the dissimilarities, reference may be made to the differences in the overall objectives and the methodology used to produce the output by education and the industry. While industry is, by and large, imbued with the profit motive - to maximize the material gains; the educational institutions pursue a social obligation that is to accelerate the process of students' all round development - body, mind and spirit. The educational institutions are also instrumental in the furtherance of knowledge, through research and development while the industrial establishments have, by and large, no such obligations. Some of the industries, however, provide financial support for Research and Development. Another difference between the two is the quality of output. While an industrial establishment has to produce goods of the best quality, an educational institution will, at best endeavor to do so. It can only help the students to develop their mental and physical capabilities to the optimum extent. Unlike the industry, all the products of educational institutions cannot attain the same quality. Another important variation is that while the industrial process at the production level is repetitive, uninteresting and quite often boring, the process of education is lively, innovative and interesting. It may also be mentioned that while an industrial establishment will close down if it does not produce goods of the requisite quality, an educational institution will hardly shut its doors on account of indifferent output. It may, however, be clarified that a continuing deterioration in the quality of output in an educational institution should be a sufficient reason for its eventual closure.

Giganticism
A casual glance at the educational system, as it has developed in the post-independence period, would testify the gigantic nature of the system. There has been a very sizeable increase in the number of institutions, as also the increase in the number of teachers. The number of schools at the primary and upper primary stage increased from 2,23,267 in 1950-51 to about 9 lakh (i.e. 0.9 million) in 2002-2003. The corresponding increasing in the number of secondary schools was phenomenal: from 7,416, they increased to 1,37,207. There was also significant increase in the number of colleges - from a mere 578 in 1950-51, the number rose to 11,146 in 2002-03. Similarly; the number of universities increased from 27 in 1950--51 to over 300 in 2002-03. There was very large increase in the enrolment at various stages of education: at the primary and upper primary stages. It increased from about 2 crores (i.e. 20 million) in 1950-51 to 9 crores (i.e 90 million) in 2002-03. Similar increase was registered at the secondary and tertiary levels. The number of teachers increased from 7,75,000 to 51,93,000 in 2002-03, making educational system one of the largest employment agencies. The annual cost of Indian education is a staggering 1,00,000 crores (i.e. 100 billion), which is next only to the expenditure on defence.

Inadequacies
Inspite of this very large expansion, there have been quite a few inadequacies in the de-velopment of education at various stages of education. These have been highlighted in Unit 5 of Block 2. To recapitulate briefly, it may be stated that while the Gross Enrolment Ratios (GER) registered a significant increase at the elementary education stage: from 42.6 in 1950-51 to 94.9 in 1992-2000 at the primary level and from 12.7 to 58.79 at upper primary level, the Net Enrolment Ratios (NER) (excluding children belonging to lower and higher age groups) for the corresponding period were 78 per cent for boys and 64 per cent for girls. At the primary level in 1997-98, the overall NER was 71 per cent indicating that 29 per cent of children in the age group 6-10 were out of school in that year. Further, about 40 per cent of the children at the primary stage and about 55 per cent at the upper primary stage dropped out of schools. At the secondary stage, only 35 per cent of the children in the age group 14-17 were enrolled in schools in 2002-03. At the higher education level, only 8 to 9 percent of the age group 17-23 is covered in the universities and colleges. This only shows that India has to go a long way in bringing students of the relevant age groups to the educational institutions of various types.

Need for efficiency

The point that needs to be"emphasized is that Indian education will have to become much more efficient and cost effective. No industrial establishment will be able to survive if there is such huge wastage and stagnation as is witnessed, inspite of sizeable investment, at the various stages of Indian education. As discussed earlier, Indian education is facing the problem of paucity of resources and therefore, it would be prudent to ensure that these resources go the longest way.

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HUMAN CAPITAL IN AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Among the classical economists, Adam Smith (1776) is credited with expounding the idea of human capital as a part of the fixed capital. According to him: human capital "consists of the acquired and useful abilities of all the inhabitants and members of the society. The acquisition of such talents, by the maintenance of the acquirer during his education, study or apprenticeship always costs a real expense, which is a capital fixed and realized, as it were, in his person. These talents, as they make a part of his future, so do they likewise of that of the society to which he belongs. The improved dexterity of a workman may be considered in the same light as a machine or instrument of trade, which facilitates and abridges labour, and which, though it costs a certain expense, repays that expense with a profit" (Cohn, 1990). Similar views were expressed by Von Thuren (1875), Alfred Marshal (1890) and John Stuart Mill (1909). Marshall accepted the view of Adam Smith that an educated man may be compared to an expensive machine. He also assumed that the profit motive operates in personal investment in the same manner as it operates in any other investment decision. According to him: "The motives which induce a man and his father to invest capital and labour in preparing him for his work... are similar to those, which lead to investment of capital and labour in building up the material plant and the organization of a business. In each case the investment is carried up to that margin at which any further investment appears to offer no balance or gain... and the price, that is expected for all this investment is, therefore, a part of the normal expenses of production of the services rendered by it..." ( Cohn, 1990). Schultz (1963) emphasised the significance of relationship between investment in education, human capital formation and the economic development and well being of the society. Schultz categorized various educational benefits including the social benefits, which accrue from education as a source of economic growth and also the social benefits, which flow from the research function of private and public universities. According to Schultz, "educational establishment discovers and cultivates potential talent... and increases the capability of people to adjust to change in job opportunities associated with economic growth" (Cohn, 1990). Schultz emphasized the following propositions: (a) The process of learning results in a new form of productive resource known as human capital. (b) (c) (d) Spending on education is an investment giving rise to further capital formation; both human capital and physical formation. The process of learning could be compared in similar manner as we compare the process of production in an industry. Wage differentials arise due-to differentials in education and training, which raises the so called marginal productivity and the efficiency of labour. (Source: V.P. Garg: The Economics of Education, 1989).

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CONVENTIONAL BUDGETING AND INNOVATIVE BUDGETING

There are quite a few types and procedures of the budgetary systems. Broadly speaking, they can be grouped under two main heads: (a) Conventional and (b) Innovative: The Conventional types, which are basic to the budgetary system include Line Item type -Function/Object type and formula type. Among the Innovative systems, mention may be made of Planning, Programming Budgeting System (PPBS) Zero-Based Budgeting (ZBB) and Performance Budgeting (PB). A system that permeates the various budgetary types is the 'Plan' and 'Non-Plan' budgetary system. The former encompasses all developmental programmes, e.g. opening of new institutions, appointment of additional teachers, providing equipment and constructing additional buildings for the existing schools/colleges. The Non-Plan budget is a kind of maintenance budget i.e. to provide for the continuance of the on-going programmes at the end of the plan period.

Conventional budgeting
The main feature of these systems are discussed below in somewhat greater detail. Line item budgeting Barry Mundt et.al. define Line Item or traditional budgeting as a technique in which line items or objects of expenditure - e.g. personnel, supplies contractual services and capital outlays -are the focus of analysis, authorization and control (Encyclopedia of Education, p. 1953). This system is not helpful in planning because it does not explain the functions of expenditure, the particular need, school site and type of students being served etc. All these are not reckoned within spending, aggregated by line. As an example, it may be pointed out that teacher' salaries or construction of buildings is a line item in the budget. It does not, however, explain qualifications, experience etc. of teachers the location of building or the type of equipment. Function/object budgeting This kind of budgeting system organizes spending around the basic function of the system such as teaching, student support, administration and transportation etc. These functions are subdivided in terms of sectors of education like elementary, secondary and tertiary education. The objects being purchased are also specified. These include textbooks, equipment, buildings etc. Formula budgeting Formula budgeting was introduced in the 1950s and 1960s as a means to ensure the equitable and rational distribution of resources. It is a procedure of estimating resource requirements by establishing relationships between the demand and cost of the programme envisaged for various sectors of education. These relationships are often expressed as mathematical formulas that is, the instructional portion of an institutional budget can be as simple as a single student faculty ratio or as complicated as an array of cost per student credit hour by discipline for many levels of instruction. "The basis of budget formulas can ue historical data, projected trends and parameters negotiated to provide desired levels of funding. Budget formulas are, in summary, a combination of technical judgments and political agreements". (Meisinger and Dubek, 1984). The advantages and disadvantages of formula budgeting, as pointed out by Mckeown 1996), are:
Advantages Provides an objective method to determine institutional needs equitably; Reduces political competition and lobbying by the institutions; Provides a reasonably simple and understandable basis for measuring expenditure and revenue needs of campuses and determining the adequacy of support; Enables institutions to project needs on a timely basis; Eases comparison between institutions; and Permits policy makers to focus on basic policy issues. Disadvantages May reduce all academic programmes to a common level of mediocrity by funding each one in the same way, because quantitative measures cannot assess the quality of a programme; May reduce incentive for institution to seek outside funding; May perpetuate inequities in funding that existed before advent of the formula because formula may rely on historical cost data; Cannot serve as substitute for public policy decisions; Are only accurate as the data on which they are based; and Are linear in nature and may not account for sudden shifts in enrolments and costs.

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Innovative budgeting

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While these broad categories, objects and processes are generally the same for education budgeting across the country, efforts have been made to introduce some effective forms of the budgeting system. The intention is that the resources available for education should go the longest way. This is more pertinent to the Indian situation, where education budgets are faced with the gigantic problem of inadequacy of resources. The important among the innovative budgetary forms are: Zero Based Budgeting (ZBB) Programme Planning Budgeting System (PPBS) Performance Funding/Budgeting (PBS) A discussion of the main features of the above-mentioned budgetary systems follows: Zero based budgeting (ZBB) The origin of the Zero Based Budgeting System (ZBB) can be traced back to 1924, when the noted English authority E Hilton Young emphasized the need for annual re-justification of budget programmes. It was Peter A Pyhrr, however, who designed its logical framework and implemented it successfully in private industry in 1969. According to Phyrr, ZBB.is an "operating, planning and budgeting process, which requires each manager to justify his entire budget request in detail from scratch and shifts the burden of proof to each manager to justify why he should spend any money at all. This approach requires that all activities be identified in 'decision packages', which shall be evaluated by systematic analysis in rank order of importance". It may be mentioned that the traditional approach to budgeting, which is widely adopted in education and other services is incremental i.e. taking the previous years' budget as a given phenomenon and, a particular percentage is added to take care of inflationary processes or the increasing demand on account of various additional activities. This is, however, a very unscientific way of preparing budgets because it tantamounts to, more or less, maintaining the status quo. It does not meet the changing requirements of various sectors. It also does not take into account the inadequate performance or even non-performance of various sectors. The benchmark in the traditional budgeting is the level of activity and expenditure in the immediate past and budget proposals are related in terms of 'more or less'.

MAIN OBJECTIVES OF ZERO BASED BUDGETING

Zero Based Budgeting began with the assumption that the school system starts out yearly with a clean slate. Under this system, each function, programme and agency has to justify its expenditure relating all costs to the system's goals and objectives in order to avoid habitual spending. In brief, the main objectives of the ZBB are: Improvement in performance; Reduction in total budgetary allotments; Rational allocation of resources; Cost effectiveness; Improved plans and well conceived decision about allocation of resources; and Linking planning, budgeting and review system with a single process. According to the Ministry of Finance, Government of India (1986), the main objectives of ZBB are: "ZBB requires identification and sharpening of objectives, examination of various alternative ways of achieving these objectives, selecting the best alternative through cost-benefit and cost effectiveness analysis, prioritization of objectives and programmes, switching of resources from programmes with lower priority to those with higher priority and identification and elimination of programmes, which have outlived their utility". It has been further stated that the "objective is not just to cut expenditure', but to make public expenditure more cost-effective by allocating the resources to various programmes". (Joshi and Raja, 1988). The Planning Commission, emphasised that the main thrust in the Eight Plan would be on initiating some basic improvements in the administrative system so as: (a) to increase efficiency and reduce public expenditure, and (b) considerably improve the services to the people. The Commission suggested the introduction of Zero Based Budgeting along with other reforms.

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PROGRAMME PLANNING, BUDGETING SYSTEM (PPBS)

The system was used by the United States (US) during the Vietnam War. It seeks greater efficiency by attaching spending to particular programmes. "While rarely used in education, PPBS would need school districts to spell out their mission and goals, lay out alternatives to reach these objectives, attribute costs to each choice, analyse the costs, select the best option and then build the budget around this outcome, and finally feed data back to adjust the costs to the results". (Encyclopedia of Education, 2003, p.1955). The objectives of PPBS according to Carlson (1969) are: "It is an approach to decision making designed to help make as explicit as possible the costs and consequences of major choices and to encourage the use of this information systematically in the making of public policy" (Quoted from V.P. Garg, 1989, p.100).

UTILITY OF PPBS
PPBS constitutes the process by which objectives and resources and inter-relations among them, are taken into account to achieve a coherent and comprehensive programme of action for the government as a whole. This process makes it necessary for the government to lay down the expenditure in a systematic manner to achieve well-tried objectives, activities and tasks to be fulfilled. PPBS function is to make the necessary comparisons among various objectives. The alternatives are experimented in view of resource constraints and accrual of gains. Each alternative serves a contingent upon other alternative with the sole object to get the best out of the situation. Such alternatives-enable the government to appropriate its expenditures and manpower supplies in the best possible ways so as to achieve policy objectives. It makes the decision-making process easy. It may be appreciated that the process of decision making has far reaching consequences for the immediate future and as strategic defence for perspective planning. The requirement of choice enables the government to be more cautious, rational and knowledgeable of the possible implications of such choices. PPBS involves: appraisal and comparison of various government activities in terms of their contribution to national objectives; determination of how given objectives can be attained with minimum expenditure of resources; projection of government activities over an adequate time horizon; comparison of the relative contribution of private and public activities to national objectives; and revision of objectives, programmes and budgets in the light of experiences and changing circumstances (Garg, 1989). LIMITATIONS OF THE TECHNIQUE Budgeting as defined by PPBS involves calculation of costs based on the decisions made in the planning and programming steps, but in practice many decisions and alternatives are to .be evaluated during actual budget preparation. PPBS does, not provide an operating tool to line managers to implement policy and programme decisions. It does not provide a mechanism to evaluate the impact of various funding levels on each programme or established priorities. The present budgeting system has a short-term time span for one year. In the absence of long-term perspective,

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MOBILIZATION OF RESOURCES

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In the previous unit, we came to the conclusion that because of the burgeoning need of finances for the maintenance and development of education, it is not possible for the government alone to invest adequate resources for education, at least in the foreseeable future. Further, the preoccupation of the governments - both at the centre and in the states, - with the gigantic programme of universalizing elementary education, would make them difficult for them to look after the financial needs of secondary and higher education sectors. There is, therefore, the need for harnessing alternative sources of finance. This could take the form of institutions attempting to generate additional resources through the traditional means i.e. increasing the quantum of cost recoveries from students particularly at the secondary and higher education stages. Further, attempts may also be made to encourage community participation in the financing of education. Another method is to encourage private participation in financing and management of education, particularly at the secondary and higher education levels. These issues will be discussed in detail in a subsequent section.

Augmenting resources for education

As already stated, there is a dire need for augmenting resources from sources other than government, because it is not possible for the government to provide adequate finances for education in view of its stake in the expansion and development of elementary education. Further, the structural reforms introduced from the early nineties have impacted adversely on the flow of resources for education. It is, therefore, imperative that avenues other than the government should be found for providing an adequate financial base for education. We shall discuss the methods of augmenting resources for education for school and university education sectors.

SCHOOL EDUCATION
School education consists of two stages: elementary education stage and secondary education stage. According to Article 45 in the Directive Principles of State Policy in the Indian Constitution, the State has to provide for free and compulsory education to children till they attain the age of fourteen. There is, therefore, no possibility of levying any tuition or other fees on children at this stage. Instead, they have to be provided with financial and other incentives like mid-day meals, free dresses, text books etc., in order to attract them to, and retain them in, educational institutions. There is, however, scope for encouraging community participation in the financing and management of elementary schools. It has been suggested that the school should become the center of community life. The parents and the community at large should be invited to school functions through parent teacher associations (PTAs). They should also be involved in the organization of school functions. They may also be encouraged to participate in school improvement conferences, which should be utilized as fora for apprising the community of the needs of the school. It has been experienced that such interactions with the community are potential means of getting community support for the quantitative and qualitative development of school education. It may be mentioned that inspite of recommendations of various committees and commissions, the community continues to play an insignificant role in the financing and management of school education, partly because of some sort of distrust about the involvement of the community in the administration of educational institutions. The experience also does not succeed because of the free play of politics in education and the consequential lack of confidence in the participation of elected representatives in the affairs of education. Notwithstanding this setback, the government remains committed to the involvement of the community in the filed of education at all levels, but more so at the school level. An important step, that has been taken to achieve this objective, is through the 1991 Amendment or Panchayati Raj Act. Under this amendment, democratically elected bodies at the district and panchayat level have been made responsible for, among other things, economic development and social justice. An important Junction of these bodies is 'the development of education including primary and secondary schools, technical training and vocational education, adult and non-formal education'. It is hoped that these bodies will be in a better position to participate in school activities and mobilize resources for its maintenance and development. Organizing cultural programmes, holding inter-school sports and declamation competitions can be utilized as important mechanisms for making the community aware of the needs of the school; thereby motivating them to provide resources for school improvement programmes.

UNIVERSITY INSTITUTIONS
Private participation: It has been stated that in view of the preoccupation of the governments -at the centre and in the states -with the programmes of universalizing elementary education, it would be difficult for the government to

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provide adequate resources for higher education. To meet this situation, the view that the private sector should be encouraged to play a far greater role in the financing and management of institutions of higher education seems to be gaining ground in official circles. This policy has found ample support from the structural reforms introduced from the early nineties, which laid emphasis on a policy of liberalization and privatization. The first indication of this paradigm shift in government policy became evident from the recommendations made in the Eighth Plan (1992-97), which stated that the opening of new conventional universities and colleges should not be encouraged. Further, a significant recommendation was regarding the involvement of voluntary agencies and private sector participation in the opening and conduct of higher education institutions with proper checks to ensure maintenance of standards and facilities to make higher education, as far as possible, self-financing (emphasis added). To assuage the feelings of the academic community, a rider was also added: 'the quality of education is not to be compromised at any cost'. Another milestone towards privatization of higher education was the Ministry of Finance's paper on Government Subsidies (1997), which described higher education as a 'non-merit' good. This statement was based on the reasoning that higher education benefited individuals more than the society. In view of this, it was suggested that government should not subsidise higher education. Instead, it should be left to private bodies to provide the requisite finances. The move towards privatization of higher education got a boost by the Birla Ambani Report (2001) submitted to the Prime Minister in which, among other things, it was suggested that government subsidies to higher education should be minimal and the funds thus saved should be invested in expanding facilities at the primary and secondary stages of education. Flaws in the proposition: The suggestion about complete privatization of university education is flawed on a number of counts. The main argument against this kind of reasoning is that it is not prudent to segmentalise education into various independent units. Education is a continuum and all stages of education are complementary to one another. It is difficult to visualize the expansion and qualitative development of primary and secondary education without the availability of qualified teachers, who have to be produced in universities and colleges. Further, universities are concerned with the production of highly trained scientific and technical manpower, which is an essential pre-requisite for the socio-economic development of the country. Any slackening of effort towards the expansion and qualitative development of higher education, by reducing financial investment for this sector, is bound to be counterproductive.

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MEASURING RATES OF RETURNS FROM EDUCATION

There are various ways of measuring the rates of return from education. Conn (1990) has described the methodology of measuring rates of return. A brief summary of the different approaches to measuring the benefits of education is given below: The simple correlation approach A number of scholars have noted a striking correlation between measures of educational attainment or expenditure and income. Such results are obtained from cross country studies and from time series (longitudinal) and cross sectional studies; for example, state by state studies. According to these studies education and income are somehow related with one another. No explanation is offered as to why such correlation exists. Jt is possible that higher income permits more education and more education results, in time, in higher incomes. Further, the correlation approach does not provide the data necessary for the selection of optimal educational investment among sets of alternative strategies. The residual approach It has been noted that a large portion of economic growth remains unaccounted for when inputs like land, labour and capital have been accounted for. One possible explanation is that classical inputs like land, labour and capital include only the quantity of labour and not its quality, which may be attributed to education and training. The direct return to education approach This approach is based upon the premise that education results in direct, measurable returns to individual and society. These returns, because of lack of relevant data, have been defined in terms of income and earnings alone. Indirect returns to education Besides monetary returns, there are a number of non-monetary benefits and important private and social benefits, which are caused by education. These include 'fringe benefits', better working conditions and earning stability, etc. While concluding, it may be stated that the methodology of working out the relationship between education and individual and social benefits has a number of grey areas, which cannot be easily explained. To quote Conn (1990), "Any of these methods is subject to a host of conceptual and statistical problems.... Prominent among these problems is the question of impact of ability upon earnings or productivity... other problems involve such matters as the use of cross section vs. life cycle data, the identification of investment and consumption components, the question of quality vs. quantity of educational programmes and other conceptual or statistical difficulties" (Conn, p.68).

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CHALLENGES AND ISSUES IN DECENTRALIZATION

The main drawbacks faced by centralization mechanism is that educational decision-making does not percolate to the local level (major educational reforms and changes were done at the center) Secondly, state governments act as passive recipient of funds from the central government and implementer of centrally sponsored schemes. States are engrossed in day-today administration and do not have much interest in strategic planning for human development. The system never gave importance to planning and management tasks, which have to be, shared with the lower levels of the administrative structure i.e. development blocks and panchayati raj institutions. Keeping these drawbacks into view, the New Education Policy and Programme of Action (POA 1992) also recommended far greater role for local level educational bodies. The Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE Committee, 1993) also emphasized the need for integrating educational planning and management efforts at the district level with Panchayat Raj institutions (elected body at the village level). However many criticized that the decentralization system lacks the mechanism of capacity building at the grass root level, which is prerequisite for decentralization. Effective decentralization, which envisages basic transformation in the organizational framework and genuine empowerment of the people at the grass root, level-was missing in this system. The main challenges of present decentralization system are How to make the community participation as the backbone of decentralization?

Total disbanding of central authority and intervention may prove to be a costly mistake; Can social transformation from above be a possible remedy? How to build an atmosphere of mutual confidence between the bureaucracy and grass root-level bodies?
How to control nepotism? How to bring about social change? In some cases, decentralization means decentralization of corruption; how to handle it? The 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992 marked a new era in the democratic set up of the country as it created Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) as tiers of self-governance below the level of states in the federal set up. It is also a landmark in the decentralized development as it envisions people's participation in the process of planning, decisionmaking, implementation, and delivery. These Constitutional provisions provide for devolution of powers and responsibilities to different tiers of PRIs with respect to preparation of plans and programmes for economic development and social justice and their implementation in relation to 29 subjects listed in the Eleventh Schedule. The process of empowering PRIs has followed a varied pattern across States. Prior to 1991, economic power was heavily centralized with the Government of India and decentralization has been a logical consequence of economic reforms in India. At present, India is undergoing a process of economic and political decentralization. The National Policy on Educationl986 and Programme of Action have emphasized the importance of decentralized planning and management of education and involving people in the process. In pursuance of the Programme of Action, many state governments have taken steps to set up structures for decentralized planning and management. With the implementation of the District Primary Education Programme, which aims at universalisation of primary education with focus on decentralized management structures, Village Education Committees have been constituted to become the body at grass root level for the management of education under DPEP and SSA. VECs are expected to work towards the management and development of educational activities in the village and that is how they have to establish a link between the school and the community. This is ensured by involving not only the Gram Panchayat representatives but also by involving a vide spectrum of community representatives, i.e. women, economically weaker sections, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, as VECs are supposed to have representation from all these sections. However efforts towards decentralization can be successful and sustainable only when local level capacity to plan and manage educational activities, which are to be developed and institutionalized. In the absence of developing local level capacity, decentralization may become an excuse for non-performance and wastage of resources.

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MANAGEMENT MECHANISM OF PROJECTS UNDER DECENTRALIZATION

The innovative nature of this programme has given birth to a management structure where there is administrative flexibility and smooth flow of funds and mechanism to ensure accountability. These mechanisms are:

The DIET
The District Institute of Education and Training is the institutional mechanism at the district level, for teachers training. There is a well defined staff structure in the DIETs. However, in actual practice the staff strength in most states in not adequate to undertake the responsibilities. The overall responsibility of pre-service training programme for primary school teachers is given to the DIET (District Institute of Education and Training}. However, for the in-service training a well defined mechanism was devised under the DPER Under this different strategies were worked out. One approach was the creation of District Resource Group (DRG), Identification of the Master Trainers, Teachers Training at Block Level and development of Electronic Teaching and Learning Materials. At the block level, the Block Resources Centers (BRC) work as a mini DIET. The BRCs are chaired by the BEO (Block Education Officer) and to assist him/her there is one Block Resource Coordinator (BRCC); the Master Trainers (MTs) work as the academic staff at the BRC level. The role of BRC (Block Resource Centers) under DPEP is very crucial. At the district level major work of DIET (District Institute of Education and Training) is being carried out at BRC (Block Resource Centers) level it not only provide administrative help but also organizes training programmes. The CRC (duster resource center): It is the grass-root level resource institution to support DPEP (District Primary Education Programme in India), It is concerned with policies like making the community to take active part in the primary education development of teaching learning materials, convening of monthly meetings etc. The organization of VEC (Village education committee} meetings and training to VEC is the more important achievement of CRCs (Cluster resource centers) at the block level. However, few problems like insufficient money etc. are there further, strengthening the monitoring system is essential. The village education committee: The function of Village Education Committee has nothing to do with the teacher training programmes. It is meant to inspire people to send their children to school and to preserve the school building in good condition, It consists of 12 members (six male and six female). Its term extends to 3 to 5 years. VEC is quite representative in terms of gender as 33% of members are women. Participation of weaker sections is a must as at least one SC/ST should be represented on it. Inclusion of those persons who would play a major role in bringing about change in the community in VEC is very essential. The functions of VEC are to preserve the school building in good condition, maintaining regularity in teaching learning process, to ensure maximum enrolment of children in primary schools,

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EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMES AND PROJECTS IN DECENTRALIZED MODE

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Educational planning in India is an integral part of overall economic planning. It is a multilateral framework, with planning efforts initiated and carried out at national, state and district levels. Planning in India in the initial stages used to be centralized at the federal *and the state levels. The need for a decentralized approach, although recognized from the very beginning, was not translated into an operational practice. During 1980, a Committee constituted by the Planning Commission under the Chairmanship of C. H. Hanumantharao clearly identified district as the viable unit for planning. The National Policy on Education (1986) and POA (1992) reiterated the need for decentralization in education. The CABE committee on decentralization of management of education emphasized the need for integrating educational planning and management efforts at the district level with the panchayati raj institutions.
Local level planning for people-centered development is an important component of the Panchayati Raj system. This aspect, however, has not received as much attention as some of the other aspects of Panchayati Raj. It was felt that there is need to strengthen Panchayats to undertake participatory local planning and budgeting. In this process, it is necessary to not only provide support to them in resource identification and mobilization, local budgeting and plan formulation but also promoting participation of gram sabhas, participatory monitoring and evaluation of plans, mobilization of local resources and social audit. The important goal should be to bring women and the excluded groups into the center stage of local governance and development processes and to place their respective concerns at the center of local planning and budgeting. With this idea, India has introduced few prestigious projects in education with the help of international aid i.e. DPEP and SSA (no international funding). The DPEP (District Primary Education Programme 1993) and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA 2000) are the most recent efforts to translate the idea of decentralized planning into an operational reality. It envisages planning from below with wider participation in the planning process. The DPEP, launched in 1993, seeks to operationalize the strategy of district level planning; in accordance with the proposals made in the Eighth Five Year Plan (1992-1997). Emphasis has been placed on local area planning with the district plans being formulated in their own right rather than being derived from a state plan project document. The programme is being built on the experience of previous projects run with overseas assistance. These included Andhra Pradesh Primary Education Project, implemented with the British ODA (Overseas Development Association), which addressed issues of teacher training, child-centered learning and school buildings; the shiksha karmi, helped by SIDA (Swedish International Development Authority), which looked at problems of teacher absenteeism and Mahila Samakhya, supported by Holland, which tackled women's issues. Key elements of the DPEP are: local planning with community participation; a holistic approach; a 'matrix' of networking among districts, state and national institutions as well as between educational, management and social science institutions; an emphasis on capacity building; rigorous professional input and a focus on girls and other socially disadvantaged groups (Varghese, 1997,NIEPA). The DPEP has targeted some 250 educationally backward districts with low female literacy levels and the districts where the total literacy campaigns have been successful, so the project can take advantage from the increased demand for elementary education. Community participation is the backbone of decentralization. The District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) and Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) in India are the most recent efforts to translate the idea of decentralized planning into an operating reality taking care of the previous shortfalls. DPEP and SSA were aimed at providing universal access of primary education either in the formal system or through the non-formal education (NFE) programme, to reduce the difference in dropout rates, enrolment rates and learning achievements to less than 5% for the social groups and to reduce the overall primary dropout rates for all students to less than 10%. Quality is expected to improve through focusing on teaching learning activities at the school level and strengthening the capacity of the state, district and block level resource institutions. To involve grass root level people in educational planning and management to raise the achievement level by 25%over measured baseline levels.

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THE MEANING AND CONCEPT OF DECENTRALIZATION

The word decentralization means transfer of authority and responsibility for some government functions from central government to intermediate and local governments, and often to communities and the private sector. Decentralization of the system can meet Multiple Levels like National Decentralization Framework and Local Service Institutions and concerns. It requires political representation to develop policies to encourage local competitive political system, to
ensure that local politicians represent local groups and to enable local NGOs for disadvantaged groups. The political accountability is at the same time required to design programs so that service providers are accountable to locally elected councils and their local clients and locally elected councils are accountable to their constituents. Fiscal devolution is equally essential for policy dialogue to ensure whether central government devolves appropriate fiscal authority, or fiscal policies and procedures are in place for each level of government, or whether local governments are assuming authority and enact appropriate, responsible policies. Fiscal capacity and accountability is necessary to ensure checks and balances in the system. All fiscal transfer schemes need to be transparent, predictable, so that local units can have appropriate level of autonomy and these local units can build their capacity to implement their fiscal responsibilities and systems to mobilize local resources. Decentralized planning in a multi-level planning framework of a country can be undertaken at national, state, district, block and village/habitation level. Generally the plans are formulated at higher levels, namely national and state-levels which are quite distant from the grass root realities. Thus there is a wide gap between those who plan (at higher levels) and those who implement (at the local level). Planning at the lower levels can reduce this gap. It is perceived that lower the level or unit of planning the smaller will be the gap between planning and implementation. This is one of the strongest justifications of decentralized planning. In addition to this there are many advantages of decentralized planning. These are: (i) local needs can be taken care of more effectively and efficiently at the lower levels, (ii) plans are expected to be more effective because of the homogeneity of the unit, (iii) it helps to overcome local specific problems in a better way, (iv) flow of information/data will be faster, which is very crucial for planning and (v) there are more chances of success. Administrative decentralization is the first stage, which may hinder further progress if delegation of administration is not done properly. Administrative capacity is extremely important so that, local managerial and technical expertise is recognized and used. Local knowledge will also be incorporated into the programmes. Administrative accountability and transparency intends the programmes to be better planned, budgeted and spent. Implementation of plans is more effective as the implementers will be partner in planning process. In the backdrop of this view, we will discuss various aspects of decentralization, and its implementation in education sector. This unit will facilitate the reader to understand the need of decentralization in education and development of the country.