Indian education development and school administration with special reference to Tamil Nadu-A historical perspective

Educational administration means the capacity of an individual or organization to manage all the activities of that educational institute. It is also defined as, the activity of a government or state in the exercise of its powers and duties. Educational administrators have education backgrounds similar to school guidance counsellors, librarians, curriculum coordinators, educational specialists and teachers. Understanding the requirements and expectations of various other educational jobs helps administrators lead others in an empathic capacity. Educational administrators usually have advanced degrees in teaching, administration or educational leadership. Most administrators have many years of experience as teachers, leaders and mentors. Additionally, many educational administrators are required to participate in ongoing training and professional development to learn new methods and policies of school leadership. Educational administration refers to secretarial and authority roles in an institution or school, and educational management is a role in management of grounds, security and repairs, etc.


INTRODUCTION Tamil Nadu at a glance
Tamil Nadu is one of the 35 states of India.It lies on the eastern coast of the southern Indian peninsula bordered by Puducherry, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.Tamil Nadu is bound by the Eastern Ghats in the north, the Nilgiris, the Annamalai Hills, and Palakkad on the west, Bay of Bengal in the east, Gulf of Mannar, Palk Strait in the south east and Indian Ocean in the south.Tamil Nadu is the homeland of the Tamilians and has existed since prehistoric times.The culture and artwork of this region are considered to be some of the oldest in the world.It is home to one of the classical languages of World, Tamil.The language has been documented as being around for at least 5,000 years in the form script and but was spoken long before that.Tamil Nadu also has one of the oldest culinary heritages in the world.It is one of the foremost states in the country in terms of overall development.One of the most industrialized and urbanized states in India (Agarwal, 1967), it is home to many natural resources, rare flora and fauna, cool hill stations, grand Hindu temples of Dravidian architecture, beach resorts, multi-religious pilgrimage sites and three UNESCO world heritage site.
Tamil Nadu covers an area of 130,058 km² and is the eleventh largest state in India.Tamil Nadu has a coastline of about 1000 km which forms about 18% of the country's coastline (third longest).The 32 districts of Tamil Nadu are listed in Table 1.
According to Census 2011, the state's population is 72 E-mail: kannans145@gmail.com.Tel: 09626516383.Life expectancy is projected to be 65.2 years for males and 67.6 years for females.Tamil Nadu is today the most urbanized state in India with 43 percent of the population living in urban areas.Tamil Nadu's urban slum population in 2001 census is 2.9 million, which is 10.6% of the total urban population of the State.More than 30% of Chennai's population live in slums.The population of Scheduled Castes (SCs) is 19% in 2001 against 19.2% in 1991, higher than the national percentage of 16.2 in 2001 and16.3 in 1991. However, Tamil Nadu has a lower percentage of Scheduled Tribes (ST) 1% of the state's population ¬ in 2001 against the national average of 8.2 %.Tamil Nadu is one of the educationally more advanced states in the country.The literacy rate stands at 80.3 percent (male literacy, 86.8% and female literacy, 73.9%), higher than the national literacy rate of 74.0%.As per the Human Development Index prepared by the State Planning Commission, the districts that fare well in terms of both HDI and Gender Development Index (GDI) are Chennai, Kanyakumari, Thoothukudi, Kancheepuram, Coimbatore and the Nilgiris.The poorly performing districts include Pudukottai, Thiruvannamalai, Villupuram and Dharmapuri.

Educational administration
Educational Administration means the capacity of an individual or organization to manage all the activities of that educational institute.It is also defined the activity of a government or state in the exercise of its powers and duties.Educational administrators have education back-grounds similar to school guidance counsellors, librarians, curriculum coordinators, educational specialists and teachers.Understanding the requirements and expectations of various other educational jobs helps administrators lead others in an empathic capacity.Educational administrators usually have advanced degrees in teaching, administration or educational leadership.Most administrators have many years of experience as teachers, leaders and mentors.Additionally, many educational administrators are required to participate in ongoing training and professional development to learn new methods and policies of school leadership (Jagannath, 2003).Educational administration refers to secretarial and authority roles in an institution or school, and educational management is a role in management of grounds, security and repairs, etc.

DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CONCEPT FROM 1900 TO THE PRESENT DAY
1. Increasing the public debate on alternative approaches towards educational excellence 2. Creating possibilities and opportunities to promote innovation and piloting of new ideas/approaches 3. Supporting state and central governments to move towards a quality education revolution 4. Serving as a resource centre for the country in the areas of education and development 5. Emerging as a centre of excellence in education policy and implementation.

EDUCATION IN INDIA-BACKGROUND
Indian education is mainly provided by the public sector, with control and funding coming from three levels: federal, state, and local.Child education is compulsory.The Nalanda University was the oldest university-system of education in the world.Western education became ingrained into Indian society with the establishment of the British Raj.Education in India falls under the control of both the Union Government and the states, with some responsibilities lying with the Union and the states having autonomy for others.The various articles of the Indian Constitution provide for education as a fundamental right.Most universities in India are Union or State Government controlled.
A Monastic order of education under the supervision of a guru was a favoured form of education for the nobility in ancient India.The knowledge in these orders was often related to the tasks a section of the society had to perform.The priest classes, the Brahmins, were imparted knowledge of religion, philosophy, and other ancillary branches while the warrior classes, the Kshatriya, were trained in the various aspects of warfare.The business classes, the Vaishya, were taught their trade and the lowered class of the Shudras was generally deprived of educational advantages.The book of laws, the Manusmriti, and the treatise on statecraft the Arthashastra were among the influential works of this era which reflect the outlook and understanding of the world at the time.
Apart from the monastic orders, institutions of higher learning and universities flourished in India well before the Common Era, and continued to deliver education into the Common Era.Secular Buddhist institutions cropped up along with monasteries.These institutions imparted practical education, e.g.medicine.A number of urban learning centres became increasingly visible from the period between 200 BCE to 400 CE.The important urban centres of learning were Taxila and Nalanda, among others.
These institutions systematically imparted knowledge and attracted a number of foreign students to study topics such as logic, grammar, medicine, metaphysics, and arts and crafts.By the time of the visit of the Islamic scholar Alberuni (973-1048 CE), India already had a sophisticated system of mathematics and science in place, and had made a number of inventions and discoveries.With the arrival of the British Raj in India a class of Westernized elite was versed in the Western system of education which the British had introduced.This system soon became solidified in India as a number of primary, secondary, and tertiary centres for education cropped up during the colonial era.Between 1867 and 1941 the British increased the percentage of the population in Primary and Secondary Education from around 0.6% of the population in 1867 to over 3.5% of the population in 1941.
However this was much lower than the equivalent figures for Europe where in 1911 between 8 and 18% of the population were in Primary and Secondary education.Additionally literacy was also improved.In 1901 the literacy rate in India was only about 5% though by Independence it was nearly 20%.Following independence in 1947, Maulana Azad, India's first education minister envisaged strong central government control over education throughout the country, with a uniform educational system.However, given the cultural and linguistic diversity of India, it was only the higher education dealing with science and technology that came under the jurisdiction of the central government.The government also held powers to make national policies for educational deve-lopment and could regulate selected aspects of education throughout India (Blaug and Woodhall, 1979).The Central Government of India formulated the National Policy on Education (NPE) in 1986 and also reinforced the Programme of Action (POA) in 1986.The government initiated several measures: the launching of DPEP (District Primary Education Programme) and SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, India's initiative for Education for All) and setting up of Navodaya Vidyalaya and other selective schools in every district, advances in female education, inter-disciplinary research and establishment of open universities.
India's NPE also contains the National System of Education, which ensures some uniformity while taking into account regional education needs.The NPE also stresses on higher spending on education, envisaging a budget of more than 6% of the Gross Domestic Product.While the need for wider reform in the primary and secondary sectors is recognized as an issue, the emphasis is also on the development of science and technology education infrastructure on sex.

Primary education
The Indian government lays emphasis on primary education up to the age of fourteen years (referred to as Elementary Education in India.The Indian government has also banned child labour in order to ensure that children do not enter unsafe working conditions.However, both free education and the ban on child labour are difficult to enforce due to economic disparity and social conditions.80% of all recognized schools at the Elementary Stage are government run or supported, making it the largest provider of education in the country.However, due to shortage of resources and lack of political will, this system suffers from massive gaps including high pupil teacher ratios, shortage of infrastructure and poor level of teacher training.Education has also been made free for children for six to 16 years of age or up to class X under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009. There have been several efforts to enhance quality made by the government.The District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) was launched in 1994 with an aim to universalize primary education in India by reforming and vitalizing the existing primary education system.85% of the DPEP was funded by the central government and the remaining 15 percent was funded by the states.The DPEP, which had opened 160000 new schools including 84000 alternative education schools delivering alternative education to approximately 3.5 million children, was also supported by UNICEF and other international programmes.This primary education scheme has also shown a high Gross Enrolment Ratio of 93-95% for the last three years in some states.Significant improvement in staffing and enrolment of girls has also been made as a part of this scheme.The current scheme for Universalization of Education for All is the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) which is one of the largest education initiatives in the world.Enrolment has been enhanced, but the levels of quality remain low.

Secondary education
The National Policy on Education (NPE) 1986 has provided for environment awareness, science and technology education, and introduction of traditional elements such as Yoga into the Indian secondary school system.Secondary education covers children 14-18 which covers 88.5 million children according to the of Census, 2001.However, enrolment figures show that only 31 million of these children were attending schools in 2001-02, which means that two-third of the population remained out of school.A significant feature of India's secondary school system is the emphasis on inclusion of the disadvantaged sections of the society.Professionals from established institutes are often called to support in vocational training.Another feature of India's secondary school system is its emphasis on profession based vocational training to help students attain skills for finding a vocation of his/her choosing.A significant new feature has been the extension of SSA to secondary education in the form of the Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan.
A special Integrated Education for Disabled Children (IEDC) programme was started in 1974 with a focus on primary education, but which was converted into Inclusive Education at Secondary Stage.Another notable special programme, the Kendriya Vidyalaya project, was started for the employees of the central government of India, are distributed throughout the country.The government started the project in 1965 to provide uniform education in institutions following the same syllabus at the same pace regardless of the location to which the employee's family has been transferred.
A multilingual web portal on Primary Education is available with rich multimedia content for children and forums to discuss on the Educational issues.India Development Gateway is a nationwide initiative that seeks to facilitate rural empowerment through provision of responsive information, products and services in local languages.

Tertiary education
India's higher education system is the third largest in the world, after China and the United States (Agarwal, 1993;2006).The main governing body at the tertiary level is the University Grants Commission (India), which enforces its standards, advises the government, and helps coordinate between the centre and the state.Accreditation for higher learning is overseen by 12 autonomous institutions established by the University Grants Commission.
As of 2009, India has 20 central universities, 215 state universities, 100 deemed universities, 5 institutions established and functioning under the State Act, and 13 institutes which are of national importance.Other institutions include 16000 colleges, including 1800 exclusive women's colleges, functioning under these universities and institutions.The emphasis in the tertiary level of education lies on science and technology.Indian educational institutions by 2004 consisted of a large number of technology institutes.Distance learning is also a feature of the Indian higher education system.Some institutions of India, such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), have been globally acclaimed for their standard of education.The IITs enrol about 8000 students annually and the alumni have contributed to both the growth of the private sector and the public sectors of India.However, India has failed to produce world class universities like Harvard or Cambridge.Besides top rated universities which provide highly competitive world class education to their pupil, India is also home to many universities which have been founded with the sole objective of making easy money.Regulatory authorities like UGC and AICTE have been trying very hard to extirpate the menace of private universities which are running courses without any affiliation or recognition.Students from rural and semi urban background often fall prey to these institutes and colleges.Three Indian universities were listed in the Times Higher Education list of the world's top 200 universities-Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Management, and Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2005 and 2006.Six Indian Institutes of Technology and the Birla Institute of Technology and Science -Pilani were listed among the top 20 science and technology schools in Asia by Asia week.The Indian School of Business situated in Hydera-bad was ranked number 12 in global MBA rankings by the Financial Times of London in 2010 while the All India Institute of Medical Sciences has been recognized as a global leader in medical research and treatment.

INDIAN EDUCATION ADMINISTRATION
Education in India is mainly provided by the public sector, with control and funding coming from three levels: federal, state, and local.Child education is compulsory.The Nalanda University was the oldest university-system of education in the world.Western education became ingrained into Indian society with the establishment of the British Raj.Education in India falls under the control of both the Union Government and the states, with some responsibilities lying with the Union and the states having autonomy for others.The various articles of the Indian Constitution provide for education as a fundamental right.Most universities in India are Union or State Government controlled.
India has made a huge progress in terms of increasing primary education attendance rate and expanding literacy to approximately two thirds of the population.India's improved education system is often cited as one of the main contributors to the economic rise of India.Much of the progress in education has been credited to various private institutions.

Table 1 .
The 32 districts of Tamil Nadu.
ratio, defined as the number of girls per 1000 boys in the age group of 0-6 years, has gone up from 942 in 2001 to 946 in 2011.The density of the population is 555 persons per sq.km in 2011 against 478 in 2001 and 429 in 1991.
Government of Tamil Nadu has set up some advisory bodies and boards for strengthening educational planning and administration in the state.Composition and functions of some important boards and committees are as follows:1.The State Board of School Examination merging erstwhile Board of Secondary Education and Board of Higher Secondary Examination was constituted in the year 2001 to advise the Director of Government Examination in all matters relating to high and higher secondary examination including teacher education examination.2.The state government in 1985 has reconstituted the Board of Matriculation Schools.The Director of School Education is the chairman of the Board.The Board is the advisory body to advise the Director of School Education from time to time on all matters relating to matriculation education, namely, the courses of study, syllabus, textbooks for these schools, etc. 3. The implementation of DPEP scheme in 7 Districts is almost over.Subsequently a scheme of education for all Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has been introduced in the State of Tamil Nadu from the year 2001-2002.To monitor the scheme a state level Empowered Committee, District Level Committee, Block Level committee, Village Level committee have been formed.4.Committee on revision of syllabus has been formed to prescribe curriculum and syllabus for standards from six to twelve.For introduction in phased manner from the year2003-2004.5.A committee has been formed in the year 2001 on the functioning of matriculation schools and report is awaited 6.A committee has been formed on the codification of different educational rules in the year 2002.The report is awaited.7. The state government in 2000 has constituted the Committee on Nursery and Primary Schools.