The 14th meeting of the CABE and the All
India Educational Conference held in January 1948 raised question of future
programme of education. It was generally agreed that the period of forty years
laid down in the report of post war education development in India published in
January 1944 must be curtailed and if necessary for the purpose, stage up to
which compulsion should be enforced may be reduced. It was therefore decided to
appoint a committee to examine the existing financial condition and the
programme for educational development for all provinces and states and to make
suggestions to ensure that educational development may not be held up for want
of funds. The Chairman of this Committee was Shri B. G. Kher.
Agenda:
1. To
consider in the light of present conditions in the finances (recurring and
nonrecurring) required for different stages of a comprehensive system of
education for India.
2. To
consider ways and means of any and all of the following methods-
- Central grants – allocation of the sources of revenue between the central and the provincial governments under the new constitution; scope and extent of grants from central revenues –to provincial governments, for central all India schemes of development, and to universities and all India institutions.
- Levy of an educational cess- its feasibility and details of its levy, administration and distribution.
- Educational loans- purposes for which educational loans may be raised and the terms on which they should be raised and applied.
3. To
consider any other feasible suggestions for raising the finances for
educational development programme.
The committee recommended that
- The state
must undertake the responsibility of providing at least junior basic
education for every body.
- The basic
minimum salary of trained basic school teachers should be Rs. 40 per
mensem and should on no account be reduced.
- Teacher-pupil
ratio may be 1:40 for at least coming five years.
- In urban
areas, where conditions justify, the same school buildings should be used
for two shifts provided different teachers are employed in each shift.
- The may
enact suitable legislation for ensuring that an adequate percentage of the
income of all charitable trusts is allotted for expenditure on education
provided that the government may exempt certain specified types of
trust(medical trust; etc) from the operation of such law.
- Voluntary
efforts should be encouraged for meeting the capital and recurring cost of
educational institutions with such assistance from government as may be
feasible.
- About 70
% of the expenditure on education should be borne by the local bodies and
provinces and the remaining 30% by the centre.
- All
contributions for education approved by the provincial or central
government should be exempted from income tax.
