India [Population education in countries of the region
Parakh, B.S.
Bulletin of the Unesco Regional Office for Education in Asia and the Pacific 23: 70-79
1982
PMID: 12265668 Document Number: 401429
In 1981 India had a population of 683,810,051, representing a growth of 135 million over the preceding 10 years. An uneven sex ratio, rapid urbanization, a high dependency ratio, and a majority of the population in agriculture were other aspects of the population problem. A goal of the Indian government is to reduce the net reproduction rate from its present 1.67 to 1 by 1996, which implies a reduction of family size from the present 4.2 children/couple to 2.3 children. The importance of population education in efforts to reduce growth was not realized until 1969, when the 1st National Seminar on Population Education recommended introduction of population content into the existing curriculum of schools and colleges. Following the seminar, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) set up a population education cell in its Department of Education in Social Sciences and Humanities. The population education cell developed curricula and instructional materials and worked out a model syllabus for population education for teacher training institutions. Promotional activities were later undertaken when it became apparent that the population education cell's efforts were not reaching the local schools. 4 regional workshops were organized in 1979, and a 3-year national population education project was designed to help students develop an insight into the relationship between population and economic problems and of India's population situation and policies, to institutionalize population education in the formal educational system, and to encourage rational family size decisions by students and the community at large. 2 workshops were held for preparation of detailed state project proposals. The state councils of Educational Research and Training or their equivalents were assigned the tasks of preparing the population education curricula, developing instructional materials, developing and implementing training programs for teachers and administrators, and monitoring the program. Workshops for curriculum and materials development were held in July 1980, and the NCERT Population Education Unit has published curriculum guidelines, draft syllabuses and reference materials. Several intensive workshops have been held for fulltime population education personnel. 5 slide and tape presentations have been developed for teacher training. The project is still in too early a stage for evaluation of its impact on the target audience.