Conceptual Evolution of Adult Education in India and Correspondence with Global Trends

Conceptual Evolution of Adult Education in India and Correspondence with Global Trends

Dr A. Mathew

Introduction

What we understand today about the scope of adult education and its curriculum and contents is a vastly changed and broadened vision and version as compared to the initial phase when attention was devoted to this engagement and programme. An entire evolutionary process resides in this journey and its understanding could yield a better appreciation. It could be interesting to notice how and why these incremental additions to the scope of adult education came on the national discourse which inevitably got reflected in the curriculum and content.

Two instances could serve as a snap shot, with regard to the focus of this paper, viz., to look back and appreciate the evolution and broadening of perception and vision of adult education with respect to its scope and contours. One, the view of Education Committee of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) in 1939, the earliest official document on adult education, that “literacy is a movement of further education and must not be regarded as an end in itself.” Referring to the Mass Literacy Campaigns and Programmes in many Provinces in 1938, the Committee said that “the primary aim of the campaign must not be merely to make adults literate, but to keep them literate. The instruction itself should be closely related to the adult learner’s occupation, their personal interests and the social and economic condition under which they live” (cited in Sohan Singh, 1957: 57). The other, the view of the Education Commission (1964-66) that “Adult education is as wide as life”.

With reference to the concept, vision, objectives and purpose of adult education and also the learning components envisaged and spelt out during different programme phases, as encapsulated in its curriculum and contents, there are two central points that this paper seeks to highlight, viz., (a) the centrality and continuity of certain basic life needs, as the core of adult education; and (b) the changing focuses, as sought to be given precedence, at certain programme phases, without necessarily negating the other important needs that adult education should address. These trends in the perceptions and visions of adult education, are perused through programme phases like: (i) Literacy as social mobilization for the nationalist movement; (ii) Literacy for citizenship and democracy through Social Education in the fifties; (iii) the Gram Shikshan Mohim in Maharashtra, (iv) Functional Literacy phase of 60s; (v) Critical Pedagogy and literacy as instrument for liberation phase of NAEP during the 70s; (vi) the retention of the critical pedagogy in diluted forms through the 1980s, with other larger social objectives suggested by the Review Committee on NAEP in 1980 and as further reiterated by the NPE, 1986 and its Programme of Action; (vii) the continuation of these objectives under NLM and through the 90s and beyond, till 2007, guiding the content and curriculum of the full blown literacy movement covering basic literacy, post-literacy and continuing education programme. The approach during the 1980s and 90s in India approximates to the global trend of Mass Literacy Campaign and the EFA Movement approaches. Thus, an attempt is also made to trace the coincidence of international trends corresponding to the Indian trend in adult education. It is not a history of implementation of different adult education programmes and projects. It seeks to touch the vision and focus of adult education and its curriculum and content during the various programme phases.