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Ans 1: The development of any nation or region is indicated by the level of education and that too of both genders. That is why ‘education for all’ is strongly recommended and focused on by our government. India has made a considerable progress in this sector and with all the efforts the literacy rate grew to 74.04% in 2011 from meager 12% in 1947. But still, India has not achieved what it should have during this period.

First of all, the progress made in this sector is very slow. Secondly, there a considerable gap between male and female literacy rates in India. It has been estimated that at the current rate of progress, India will attain universal literacy only until 2060. As per the census of 2011, an effective literacy rate for men was 82.14% whereas for women it was 65.46%.

Region-based and state-based disparity There is a dramatic difference in the female literacy rate based on various regions in India.

Kerala has the highest female literacy rate (92% as per 2011 census) whereas Rajasthan (52.7% as per 2011 census) has the lowest female literacy rate in India. States such as Uttar Pradesh (59.3% as per 2011 census) and Bihar (53.3% as per 2011 census) that are the most populated states in India show low levels of female literacy. This is directly related to the health and infant mortality. Kerala has the lowest infant mortality whereas states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have a high mortality rate.

Low female literacy rate and its impact on our society

Low female literacy rate means an overall sluggish growth of India, as it impacts every arena of the development. India is struggling hard to stabilize its growing population through family planning programs. But if females are illiterate, then this has a direct and negative impact on these initiatives.

Lack of education means lack of awareness. Illiterate women are not aware of their rights. They know nothing about initiatives taken by the government for their welfare. Illiterate women keep on struggling hard and bear harshness of life, family and even their husbands.

Why is female literacy rate low in India?

The negative attitude of parents towards the girl child and her education is one of the major reasons of low female literacy rate in India. In most of the families, boys at home are given priority in terms of education but girls are not treated in the same way. Right from the beginning, parents do not consider girls as earning members of their family, as after marriage they have to leave their parents’ home. So their education is just considered as a wastage of money as well as time. For this reason, parents prefer to send boys to schools but not girls.

Poverty is the root cause of many problems in India and also of low female literacy rate. More than one-third of population in India is living below the poverty line. Though government is putting efforts to make the primary education free but still parents are not ready to send their girls to school.

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Another barrier to female education in India is the lack of female teachers. As India is a gender segregated society, it is a very important factor in the low female literacy rate in India.

But in spite of all reasons, women must understand and realize that education can actually end the vivacious cycle of poverty, their misfortune, so that they can live a life with pride. In case of any misfortune in life, it is education that would help her, not anything else. The government should really work towards the number, distance and quality of schools in rural as well as urban India. We should encourage the girl child in getting education to create a balanced and an educated society.

Ans 2: Truth Analysis

The process is based on two axioms:

truth is not subjective truth never contradicts itself

Because truth is not subjective, some ideas are more objective than others. This means that no matter what your worldview is, it can always be improved to be more objective. It shows that there is indeed something to strive for.

The idea that truth never contradicts itself is a very powerful axiom. Lies can be internally consistent as well, but a mixture of truth and lies will show contradictions. You can use this principle to discover what’s true and what’s false. Here’s what I mean:

It is difficult to tell if any single idea is true or false, just like it is difficult to tell which of two similar puzzles a single puzzle piece belongs to. But a large collection of non-contradicting ideas will reveal whether the entire collection is true or false. The larger the collection, the easier it is to see. You start with one ambiguous puzzle piece, find others that fit onto it, and soon you can tell which of the two puzzles you’ve put together.

The analysis phase is best done with pen and paper (or a sketchbook) to lay out intuitive thoughts for dissection, to survey the possibilities, to brainstorm, and to distill derived conclusions into precisely worded statements that “nail” the answer. What begins as a question, mystery, paradox, or ambiguity can be brought into full clarity this way.

When analyzing a theory, be it something read elsewhere or one that just came to mind, it is far better to look for what’s wrong with it than what’s right. That is because debates can rage forever concerning the thousand facts supporting a single lie, but no one can argue with a single fact that disproves a thousand lies. The self-deluded spend their lives finding reasons to justify their delusions, and they find reasons galore… but they remain deluded only because they refuse to look at the fatal flaws in their assumptions or reasoning. Therefore look for these flaws at the outset and you can avoid a lifetime of self-delusion.

Remember, as long as your worldview is internally consistent, it is most likely entirely true or entirely false. Combine this principle with the five-step process below, and you will have an

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effective truth analysis method. The process of discovering truth is one of cycling between gathering material, formulating theories, working out inconsistencies, and gathering more material.

Most importantly, truth is always verified by both logic and intuition — logic without intuition, or intuition without logic should never be used to determine truth. They must be used in tandem. If there is conflict between logic and intuition, check your logical assumptions. Use intuition to guide and logic to analyze.

The coherence theory of truth

The coherence theory of truth relies on the proposition fitting in with what we know to make sense. If we had made the knowledge claim that the striker was playing in the match without having been at the match and seeing him on the pitch for ourselves, then the claim would have been made based on other pieces of information that made that fact likely. Perhaps we knew that he was fit, playing extremely well, and reported by the manager beforehand as being the team’s main goal-scoring hope.

This theory of truth is similar to rationalism, and demands us to use information not acquired through personal experience to logically reach an answer.

The consensus theory of truth

Consensus means the agreement of a group of people, so our third theory of truth is based around the idea that truth is what the majority of people believe. In our example, the fact of the striker playing in the match would be confirmed as true if the majority of people watching the game confirmed that he was present.

The pragmatic theory of truth

The pragmatic theory of truth is a little more complicated, and requires us to understand a little bit about the background of the philosophical school of pragmatism, and its most famous member, William James. Pragmatism holds that truth is whatever is useful and profitable to us, and whatever brings us benefit.

Ans 3 c): DIETs: Mission and Role

With the background given in the preceding sections, a DIETs Mission could be briefly stated in the following terms: -

“To provide academic and resource support at the grass-roots level for the success of the various strategies and programmes being undertaken in the areas of elementary and adult education, with special reference to the following objectives: -

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Elementary Education

Universalisation of Primary/Elementary Education.

Adult Education

NLM targets in regard to functional literacy in the 15-35 age group.

The above is a general mission statement. It will have to be translated into specific goals for the DIET, so as to suit the needs of individual states and districts, and will be ultimately operationalised through specific performance norms set for individual DIETs.

DIETs: Pace-setting Role

 Pursuit of excellence would have to inform all activities of the DIETs, in which context, it will have two inter-related aspects:-

 (i)    Excellence in the Institute’s own work, and

(ii)    Helping the elementary and adult education systems in the district, in achieving excellence.

As far as the first aspect is concerned, efforts will be made to provide to DIETs all necessary physical and manpower resources. But it will be for them to harness these and other available resources in the best possible manner, so as to achieve and promote excellence.

Ans 3 a):  Education is a social institution that sociologists are very interested in studying. This includes teaching formal knowledge such as reading, writing, and arithmetic, as well as teaching other things such as morals, values, and ethics. Education prepares young people for entry into society and is thus a form of socialization. Sociologists want to know how this form of socialization affects and is affected by other social structures, experiences, and outcomes.

Sociology of education is a field that focuses on two separate levels of analysis. At a macro-level, sociologists work to identify how various social forces, such as politics, economics, culture, etc., creates variation in schools. In other words, what effects do other social institutions have on the educational system? At a micro-level, sociologists look to identify how variation in school practices lead to differences in individual-level student outcomes. That is, when schools have different teaching methods or have different practices, how does that affect the individual students and what are the individual outcomes?

Ans 3 e) Some of the major constitutional provisions on education in India are as follows:

There are some changes regarding the 42nd Amendment to the Constitution. During 1976 our constitution was amended in many of its fundamental provisions. Under the Constitution of India, the Central Government has been specifically vested with several educational responsibilities.

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Below are given constitutional provisions on Education:

1. Free and Compulsory Education

2. Education of Minorities

Article 30 of the Indian Constitution relates to certain cultural and educational rights to establish and administer educational institutions.

It lays down:

(i) All minorities whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.

(ii) The state shall not, in granting aid to educational institutions, discriminate against any educational institution on the ground that it is under the management of a minority, whether based on religion or language.

3. Language Safeguards

4. Education for Weaker Sections

5. Secular Education

6. Equality of Opportunity in Educational Institutions

7. Women’s Education

8. Education in the Union Territories

9. Educational and cultural relations with foreign countries.

Ans 4: Early education in India commenced under the supervision of a guru. Initially, education was open to all and seen as one of the methods to achieve Moksha, or enlightenment. As time progressed, due to superiority complexes, the education was imparted on the basis of caste and the related duties that one had to perform as a member of a specific caste. The Brahmans learned about scriptures and religion while the Kshatriya were educated in the various aspects of warfare. The Vaishya caste learned commerce and other specific vocational courses while education was largely denied to the Shudras, the lowest caste. The earliest venues of education in India were often secluded from the main population. Students were expected to follow strict monastic guidelines prescribed by the guru and stay away from cities in ashrams. However, as population increased under the Gupta empire centres of urban learning became increasingly common and Cities such as Varanasi and the Buddhist centre at Nalanda became increasingly visible.

Education in India in its traditional form was closely related to religion. Among the Heterodox schools of belief were the Jain and Buddhist schools. Heterodox Buddhist education was more

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inclusive and aside of the monastic orders the Buddhist education centres were urban institutes of learning such as Taxila and Nalanda where grammar, medicine, philosophy, logic, metaphysics, arts and crafts etc. were also taught. Early secular Buddhist institutions of higher learning like Taxila and Nalanda continued to function well into the common era and were attended by students from China and Central Asia.

On the subject of education for the nobility Joseph Prabhu writes: "Outside the religious framework, kings and princes were educated in the arts and sciences related to government: politics (danda-nıti), economics (vartta), philosophy (anvıksiki), and historical traditions (itihasa). Here the authoritative source was Kautilya’s Arthashastra, often compared to Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince for its worldly outlook and political scheming." The Rgveda mentions female poets called brahmavadinis, specifically Lopamudra and Ghosha. By 800 BCE women such as Gargi and Maitreyi were mentioned as scholars in the religious Upnishads. Maya, mother of the historic Buddha, was an educated queen while other women in India contributed to writing of the Pali canon. Out of the composers of the Sangam literature 154 were women. However, the education and society of the era continued to be dominated by educated male population. It is possible that later historian twisted the truth that the so-called lower castes in the society were denied the right to education only in order to pitch for better concessions and create a feelgood factor to the leaders of society so they may corner the valuable mass support. If one did not learn how to kill a wild boar without being goared or gather honey without being strung by it or sow maize and harvest or brew the fine somabanams or make tools and implements, the society would have perhaps gone without food or shelter. It is wrong to say that the teaching existed only in schools run by the upper cast teachers in their so-called Gurukuls. The society was teaching its subjects in the exact and required skills as appropriate to the time. It is widely acclaimed now that the class room education does not teach the actual required skill sets either for life as it is perceived now or add value to the humanity at large.