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The first and more important of the two new parameters is possibly going to change the character of the Indian Constitution itself in a very significant way by adding another layer of democratic government to the functioning of the polity. The new third level of constitutional authority in the shape of the panchayati raj bodies is virtually created by the Constitution (73rd Amendment) and Constitution (74th Amendment) Acts of 1992. These now enable Article 243 of the Constitution to provide for bodies like the district planning committees and the metropolitan planning committees to deal with, besides certain other subjects, the planning and administration of eduction. Education thus becomes now a concurrent subject at three levels of democratically elected government— the Centre, the state and the districts.

... one must have a completely reliable system of democratically installing the panchayati raj apparatus, and then keeping its governmental components in place all the time, just as it happens at the Central or state levels.The recent postponement of the panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh, for example, may raise reasonable fears that the third tier of democracy introduces a new level of uncertainty at the district level. Decentralised planning ' and its implementation cannot obviously thrive on such fears.

With a view to giving a fresh impetus to the programme of universalisation of elementary education, the Centre has asked the states to draw up appropriate legislations providing for the establishment of panchayati raj committees for education.

According to official sources, some states have already drafted the Bill while others are being asked to follow suit. The Panchayati Raj Act envisages the formation of panchayats for a village or a group of villages.

These panchayats will have elected representatives. Each panchayat will constitute a village education committee which will be responsible for the administration of education programmes at the village level. The major responsibility of the village committees would lie in making operational micro-level planning and school mapping in the village through systematic house to house surveys and periodic discussions with parents.

They will have the responsi-blity of preparing plans and implementing educational pro-grammes besides dealing with those subjects closely related to education such as health social welfare and women and child development The sources also disclosed thatdetailed parameters for a decentralised management of education had already been worked out by a central advisory board of education committee on decentralised management of education.

The committee's recommendations indicated how educational structures should be set up at the district and village levels.

The sources said the Panchayati Raj Act provided a framework for viable strategies and interventions that would play an important role in promoting universal elmentary education.

For instance, cover planning, the responsiblity vested with the district level body, includes, inter alia, area development, spatial planning, institutional planning, administrativeand financial control and personnel management with respect to primary, middle, secondary and higher secondary schools and educational programmes.

From the district level, the process of decentralisation would percolate down to the village level.

- States asked to set up panels on education, Business Standard, 10/07/1995, [C.ELDOC.N00.10jul95bs1.pdf]

"It is true that a strong sec-tion of the elite has a vested interest in keeping the people ignorant. But gradually even they are realising that it is a short sighted view; no country can move an inch forward by keeping the people ignorant deliberately. This cannot be in the interest of the country or even the elite," says Ahmed. He feels that decentralisa-tion, for instance with the introduction of the Panchayat Raj Bill, might help. "But it is not so easy," he agrees, when it was pointed out that the Indian villa-ge operates on complex levels of an ossified power structures, caste, gender hierarchies and even the literacy missions are finding it difficult to create basic changes at local levels. "Decentralising education at the district level is just one step. These ideas are supposed to be carried out in reality. Ahmed is clear that things must actually be made to happ-en at the grassroot level. That local voluntary groups, educa-tionists, activists, literacy mis-sion campaigners must mobili-se concerted pressure on the administration to push through the reforms as much as possible. He cites the example of China which has near primary education for all in the country. The "village" in China is an extraordinary, decentralised unit of motivation, resources, idealism. As long as the commu-nes were there, they were the main economic centres which helped education to grow. Now that they do not exist, there are difficulties. But even then, the local village system has its own resources through taxes.

He said the "State Government had accepted the recommendation of the CABE Committee on Management of Education, regarding the estab-lishment of village education committees.The experience of the state, he added, had been that decentralisation not only meant a greater involvement of the com-munity— with education but also lead to a greater involvement and committment by the administra-tive machniery.

THE government's Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (education for all) is in serious trouble. Many places have no schools and many schools have no teachers. A recent report in this paper shows that most states have failed dismally to reach their teacher-appointment targets for 2003-04.

Bihar's achievement was 0%, despite which Laloo Yadav won the election handsomely. Clearly Biharis expect so lit-tle from the government that zero performance in educa-tion no longer constitutes non-performance. The achieve-ment of teacher-appointment targets was just 21 % in West Bengal and 22% in UP. It was best in Orissa (79%) and Jharkand (69%) where appointments were decentralised to the panchayat or community level.In Bihar, power remains tightly centralised and that militates against flexi-ble hiring. This drives home the need to decentralise educa-tion. Ideally panchayats and communities should have the authority and funds to hire, pay and fire teachers. That alone will ensure accountability to the community and end the current scandalous state of education where teacher absenteeism can be as high as 40 %.
Para-teachers are not state government employees, and so can be paid a tiny fraction of government teachers' salaries. True, they cannot provide high-quality education, yet some education is better than none. But as long as they are appointed by state governments, they can always claim and get parity with regular teachers. To prevent this,they must be appointed by panchayats, not state governments.

- Teachers day out Give Panchayats Right To Hire & Fire, Economic Times, 30/06/2004 [C.ELDOC.N20.30june04et1.pdf]

The higher primary school in Chikkenahalli, Bangalore rural district, needed an extra classroom for over ten years. Though it had been sanctioned by the government, bureau-cratic red-tapism, corruption and political interference en-sured that the room never got built. These seemingly small but significant changes are happening on the educational front in Karnataka following a School Information Catnpaign launched by the Citizens' Initiative on Elementary Education, Kamataka (CIEE-K) in February 2000. Education is hardly ever discussed as a developmental issue, and hence there is a total lack of information about its status among the people. CIEE-K initiated a discussion on education with the people by gathering information on the government school in their area on the school infrastructure, school management, the teachers and students and then presenting it to them at a Shikshana Grama Sabha. The grama sabha has been legitimised as a means of ensuring direct democracy (as opposed to respresentative democracy) through the tribal self-rule and 73 rd constitutional amendment. In the Grama Sabhas, information is presented in a simple manner motivating people to engage in action for change. Rather than merely stating problems, solutions are sought from the people. People are articulating problems related to basic infrastructure of schools (water, toilets, playgrounds) quality of education (relevant curriculum, teachers' attendance and competence) community participation (regular parent-teacher meetings) and several other issues.

EGS reduces costs of delivering primary education by re-examining critical basic inputs required. These have been identified as local resident teachers, training these teachers, teaching-learning material, a cer-tain amount for contingencies and academic supervi-sion. The annual cost of operating an EGS school works out to just Rs 8,500. The EGS model is based on decentralised manage-ment. History reveals that centralised models of de-livery delayed the spread of primary education even where resources were identified. In Madhya Pradesh, a Lok Sampark Abhiyan or a door-to-door survey was undertaken jointly by panchayat leaders, teachers and literacy activists in 19,978 panchayats in 1996 for a detailed identification of children who were not going to school, and to follow it up with an enrollment dri-ve. This led to the development of decentralised pan-chayat level plans of primary education and for the first time created an alternative peoples information sys-tem on primary education.
- A school for EVERY KILOMETER, Pioneer, 22/11/2000, [C.ELDOC.N21.22nov00pio1.pdf]

Community participation is vital for the success of any people oriented programme. Villagers, as mentioned earlier, are very much a part of Janashaala programme. Making the community own the school is another means through which Janashala is ensuring community involvement. In an ample proof of the community’s involvement villagers of a particular cluster are now willing to construct pucca road to the school at their own cost.
The school sanitation programme, termed School Water And Sanitation Towards Health and Hygiene (SWASTHH) is a comprehensive health programme that involves the teacher, children and the community. The clean toilets and multi-hued compound walls and availability of drinking water in most Janashala schools are a result of SWASTHH. Basics of School sanitation are taught to teachers in 4 days.

The people of Chuttumail Doks village in Kargil decided that teaching was far too serious a matter to be left to schoolteachers at the government primary school. So they set up a Village Education Committee to monitor the school’s activities. Since then the school has become the envy of the surrounding villages and has witnessed a dramatic increase in enrolments.

The government primary school in Chuttumail Doks village in Kargil has been in the direct line of firing from across the Line of Control (LoC). But this has not stopped school children from braving the bullets and attending school, even at the height of the Kargil war. Rather, the villagers here, under the leadership of the Village Education Committee (VEC), took the unprecedented step of building an underground bunker where the children could scramble for shelter during the firing.

... But the question that rises is whether gram sabhas as they are held today are mere cultural events? Where decisions come top to bottom instead of the ideal vice versa? Where women especially have no say? What of communities that abuse school premises and use them for illegal activities? If so, there is need to monitor and super-vise the functioning of these and this is where NGOs can come in useful as the representative of the people, working as facilitators for the changes the people seek. After all, community participation is aimed to bring in the deprived peo-ple and let them have a say, not the panchayat or the influential mem-bers of the place. It becomes important for government officials to listen to people's demands and examine the need for change. The teacher should be answerable to the community, so also the school and the government. Overall, the experiences of gram sabhas have shown that a group of concerned people can bring about a change in a way that no government or pri-vate body can. Whether it be the case of disinfecting classrooms of lice, or converting a neighbouring rubble ground into a playground or leasing out an unused class-room, the community power is vis-ible. However a note of caution was issued on how communities should participate, but not inter-fere with the schooling process.

- Moving beyond functional literacy, Deccan Herald, 31/12/2000, [C.ELDOC.N21.31dec00dch1.pdf]

During its first year, the RCCs not only helped in the education of children of migrating parents but also set an example in community involvement and attitudinal change. In Ainlabhatta, for example, where casteism is dominant, the commu-nity started caring for the children ir-respective of their caste or econom-ic status. The fact that children, of all castes stayed together was accepted without much fuss. "Initially I was skeptical about the initiative and when the volunteers came, I said, Kharakhol and Saintala. Before these were opened, village meetings were conducted to sensitise and mobilise villagers, and to fix their roles and re-sponsibilities. What started as a unique collective effort of government, NGO and the community in the first year, and re-sulted in a policy change to focus on education of the children of migrat-ing parents - is now, unfortunately, mired in corruption, inadequate funds, administrative hassles and de-creasing motivation levels among the community, district administra-tion and the volunteers. Of the 115 schools only 70 are now operational. Government resources for day-to-day running of the centres are inad-equate, increasing the financial bur-den on the local NGOs and the community.

- Community schools for migrants' children, Elisa Patnaik, Grassroot Development, 01/08/2004, [J.ELDOC.N21.01aug04GRD7.pdf ]

In many cases community participation is perceived as an unwanted intrusion by teachers and officials...

In a move to decentralise power in the field of education and be more transparent and accountable to the public, the Karnataka government has embarked on a novel idea called the School Development and Monitoring Committee (SDMC).

However, the response is not as positive among many other teachers. A considerably large section of the teachers feel that some of the powers given to the committee will only hamper the normal functioning of the school. “How can the parents be given the powers to sanction leave and maintain funds? What does that reduce us to?” ask some of the enraged teachers. The problem apparently is also the fact that the teachers may have to listen to ‘uneducated’ parents.
- Towards transparency, MAITREYI M R, Deccan Herald, 26/08/2001, [C.ELDOC.N20.education.htm ]

Community Participation in Education does not mean that the government absolves it duty but instead it works harder to understand and deliver the communities needs...

...reliance on NGO efforts, should not lead to reduction in the responsibility of the government. In the same context, it may alsobe mentioned that some of the initiatives proposed in the CMP such as strengthening elected panchayats, empowering gram sabhas,devolution of responsibilities and funds directly to panchayats, should not lead to abdication of the responsibilities by the union government and marginalisation of the elected state governments.

For more material on Decentralised Management of Education - type combinations of the following words into our search systems to read articles:
- " ED1 Education Community Participation"

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1. Different Approaches for Achieving EFA - Indian Experience, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, 01/01/2003, [R.N00.41 ]
- Community Participation- pg38, pg 89 pg 100-104

2. India Education Report, Govinda, R, Oxford University Press, 01/01/2002,[ N21.G.1 ],
- Decentralisation of Education – Vinod Raina Ch 9 pg 111- 120

5. A Unique Revolution - Children Lead the way to Decentralisation and Civil Society Participation, The Concerned for Working Children, 01/01/2004, [R.N21.32]

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1. Rural University, The: The Jawaja Experiment in Educational Innovation, Matthai, Ravi J., Popular Prakashan, 01/01/1985, [B.N24.M1]

2. Community Participation and Empowerment in Primary Education, Govinda, R and Diwan, Rashmi, Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd, 01/01/2003,[B.N21.G2]

3. Education and Democracy in India, Ch 8. Primary Education in India Today: Is Decentralization the Way Out?, pg 129 Ch 12 Decentralisation of Education, Samia Kazi Aoul pg 229 ,Manohar, 2004, [B.N00.V1]