(1)     Constitution .-  The Zila. Parishad  consists of elected members (two members per block out of the primary members of all the panchayats in a block elected by the Panchayat Samiti concerned) ;Chairman of every Panchayat Samiti in the district; the Deputy Commissioner; associate members (comprising members of Lok Sabha, Punjab Vidhan Sabha and Punjab Vidhan Parishad representing the district or any part of it ); and co-opted members (confined to women and members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes on the Zila Parishad has been ensured through co-opted members, as under: -

 

            Two women if there is none among the elected members; and if there is only one more woman is be co-opted

 

Five members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, if there is none among the elected members; and if only one, two three of four such persons get elected the four, three two or one such person(s) respectively are co-opted.

           

            The term of office of a Zila Parishad is, like that of a Panchayat Samiti, five years. A Zila Parishad has a Chairman and a vice Chairman elected by members (excluding associated members i. e, M.P.s. M.L.A.s,  M.L.C.s  and ex officio members i.e. Deputy Commissioner, who have no right to vote at any meeting of Zila Parishad) from the amongst themselves.

 

            The District Board , Ludhiana , was abolished in February 1962, and the Zila Parishad Ludhiana, was formed in March, 1962.  In March 1966, the Zila Parishad consisted of 30 elected, 1 ex-officio, 14 associated and 5 co-opted members.  The Deputy Commissioner is the ex-officio member.

 

            (ii) Financial Resources. – The main financial sources of the Zila Parishad are Government grants, share of local rate and funds allotted to it foe implementing\ng departmental schemes. It has no independent powers of taxation.

 

            The Zila Parishad Ludhiana Is paying contribution to the provincialized civil hospitals I the district; T.B. Clinic Ludhiana and Mental Hospital, Maritsar. It has also constructed some roads viz. Akhara-Hatur Road (Class II), measuring  93/5 Kilometers, Dugri- Dhandra Road (Class II), measuring 13/5 Kilometres, Sarabha- Raikot Raod measuring 3/15 kilometers, Jodhas Narangwal Road measuring 6 kilometers 6 kilometers, and Alour-Kheri Road (Class II) measuring 8 kilometers.

 

            The income and expenditures of the Zila Parishad during the year 1962-63 to 1965-66 were as under:    

 

Year

 

Income

Expenditure

 

 

Rs.

Rs.

1962-63

..

16,56,040

11,05,999

1963-64

..

17,62,364

13,41,041

1964-65

..

15,37,686

11,01,620

1965-66

..

12,90,477

12,20,412

 

(Source : Secretary, Zila Parishad, Ludhiana)

CHAPTER XV

EDUCATION AND CULTURE

v     Historical Background

v     Literacy and Educational Standards

v    General Education

v     Professional and Technical Education

v     Physical Education

v      National Fitness Crops, National Cadet Crops and Scouts and Guides

v     Cultural and Literary Societies

v     Libraries

 

 

(a)  Historical background

 

            The Ludhiana City owes its existence to the Lodhis towards the closed of the fifteenth century.  The principal town or the surrounding area included in the district cannot boast of any notable centres of learning in the early times. In keeping with the general tradition, however, the old system of education in vogue in ancient and medieval period may be expected to have been followed in some form or the other.  The primary object education in the olden days appears to be the religious initiation of the pupil.  The teacher had to teach the pupil how to perform the religious duties in the prescribed manner.  This teaching, however, implied a certain amount of General Knowledge, Grammar, Mathematics, Mythology, perhaps Astrology, etc.  The basic purpose of all education was essentially religious and personal.  This system appears to have been followed all through the middle ages.

 

            Under the Mughals, an attempt was made to follow a systematic educational policy in order to promote learning among as wide a section of the people as possible.  From the earliest times Indian parents and rulers were conscious of their duty to give their children and subjects at least an elementary education.  The personal and religious character of education in any case was maintained throughout the period.  Individual teaching was generally practiced especially among the higher classes and the nobility in particular.  The teacher had the pupil all to himself.  Education was looked upon as a personal or a family concern.  The teacher had to live with the pupils, talking and listening to them, observing them or being observed by them. Since earning of living had not yet become the principal aim of education, this less business like but certainly more scientific attitude was consistently followed.

 

            Dr. Leitner, the ardent protagonist of traditional system of education in the Punjab, had paid a glowing tribute to the reverential popular attitude towards education in Pre-British Punjab in the words :-

 

            “Respect for learning has always been the redeeming feature of ‘the East’.  To this the Punjab has formed no exception.  Torn by invasion and civil war, it ever preserved and added to educational endowments.  The most unscrupulous chief, the avaricious money-lender, and even the freebooter, vied with the small landowner in making peace with his conscience by founding school and rewarding the learned.  There was not a mosque, a temple, a dharamsala that had not a school attached to it, to which the youth flocked chiefly for religious education.  There were few wealthy men who did not entertain a Maulvi, Pandit or Guru to teach their sons, and along with them the sons of friends and dependents.  There were also the secular schools, frequented alike by Mohannandans, Hindus and Sikhs, in which Persian or Lande, were taught.  There were hundreds of learned men who gratuitously taught their co-religionists,  and sometimes all comers, for the sake of God, ‘lillah’.  There was not a single villager who did not take pride in devoting a portion of his produce to a respected teacher.  In respectable Mohammadan families husbands taught their wives, and these in turn taught their children ; nor did the Sikhs prove in that respect to be unworthy of their appellation of “learners and disciples”.  In short the lowest computation gives us 3,30,000 pupils (against little more than 1,90,000 at present) (1882) in the schools of various denominations who were acquainted with reading, and wwiting.”1 

 

1.  G.W. Leitner, History of Indigenous Education in the Punjab Since Annexation and in 1882, p. (i).

 

            The state of education in the Ludhiana district in the middle of the 19th century was both antiquated and backward.  The indigenous method of education, according to the Ludhiana Settlement Report of 1853, was very primitive ; “In the district there are some sixty schools, where the children of the mercantile class receive the education necessary to enable them to usually be seen acquiring the rudiments of arithmetic, witht the finger for a pencil, and the sand on the ground at the doorway for a slate.  Among the agricultural classes, generally, there is no attempt at education.  In some of the higher families, as of jagheerdars, or others possessed of property exceeding the usual amount of an ancestral share in a village community, a reader of the “Grunth” may be found, who imparts instructions, to the extent of reading and writing Goormookhee.  The young girls are likewise thus far instructed.  Such a teacher, if not permanently attached to the family, usually resident in it some six or seven years, and the children of other neighbouring families are similarly admitted to share in the instruction.2

 

2.  H. Davidson, Report on the Revised Settlement of the District of Ludhiana in the Cis-sutlej-States, 1853, pp. 29-30.

 

            The first step in the formation of the (Punjab Education) Department was the appointment of the D.W. Arnold to the post of Director of Public Instruction at the commencement of 1856.  That officer immediately drew up a scheme which provided for the introduction of a system of education suitable to the requirements of the Punjab.

 

            The scheme was based upon the principle of making existing indigenous village schools the nucleus of a new improved and organised system.  These schools were to be searched out and fostered ; they were to be aided by contributions from thr yield of the 1 per cent school cess and thus partly supported by a system of grants-in-aid, they would become in some degree amenable to Government supervision.  The aim was to secure the introduction and substitution of  useful and systematic instruction of an elementary character in place of the desultory impracticable course of study then existing.

 

            At the same time it was proposed to open out new sources for the provision of instruction, and to set up a higher standard than the village school could be expected to attain by the establishment of district Government institutions supported wholly by the state.

 

Under the provision of the Honourable Court’s dispatch, 1854, the scheme contemplated also the introduction of  the system of grants-in-aid that is, affording pecuniary aid/assistance to mission and other private schools unconnected with Government institutions.

 

According to the Punjab Administration Report for the year 1958-59, there was a Government Zillah or district school at the district headquarters.  In addition to this, there were three types of schools  in which the medium of instruction was exclushively vernacular.  These were Government tahsil school, the village schools-maintained by the cess of one per cent on land revenue, and the indigenous schools, which were independent of Government control unless supported by grants-in-aid.  In the last mentioned category, the plan of study was purely native and the instruction generally crude and vicious.  But the machinery of the Education Department was systematically employed in the creation and improvement of the tahsil and one per cent village schools.3

 

3.  Punjab Administration Report for the year 1958-59, paras 32-33.

 

The position of indigenous education in the district in 1882 is described by G.W. Leitner as under :

 

“It  has been shown above that the scheme of education was based upon the principle of making the existing indigenous schools the nucleus of a new and improved system.  Practically this part of scheme has failed.  These schools, as they then existed, scarcely deserved the name ; for the most part they consisted of assemblies of lads collected at the thresholds of mosques and temples, and taught by the priestly attendants to repeat passage from Koran or Shasturs.  In a few instances this course of study may have been varied by a little secular instruction of desultory and fantastic character.  It was found impossible to elevate the standard of these schools.  The teachers were firmly wedded to their old, time-honoured but useless system, and they adhered to it in all its integrity, readily accepting and additional aid afforded them from the yield of 1 per cent school cess, but quite ignoring the fulfillment of the conditions on which such aid was granted.  They neglected to adhere to the simple rules furnished for their guidance, and they failed to introduce the scheme of secular studies, proposed by the officers of this department.  Moreover, those who had originated these schools, as soon as they observed a prospect of obtaining aid from the yield of cess, attempted to withhold their own contributions, and to throw the whole burden of support on the village school fund.”4

 

4.  G.W. Leitner, History of Indigenous Education in the Punjab, since Annexation and in 1882, Appendix  VI. P. 23.

 

 

During the second half of the 19th century Sardar sir Atar Singh K.C.I.E. Chief of Bahadaur (in the present Sangrur District) was always prominent in matters connected with the education and intellectual improvement of the people.  having been educated at Varansi he had acquired a taste for learning.  He resided principally at Ludhiana where he had built a magnificent house known as the Bahadaur House.  He had acquired a great amount of local influence and rendered valuable services in the cause of learning.  He started the teaching of Sanskrit and Persian and also established a public library at the Bahadaur House, Ludhiana which was well stocked with valuable manuse ripts in Sanskrity Gurmukhi and Persian.  After his death in 1896 the library along with its whole equipment was passed on to the Punjab Public Library, Lahore, in pursuance of his will.

 

               The State of education in the district towards the last quarter of the 19th century may be summed up as follows :-

 

            The returns of the Census of 1881 show that of the total population (6,18,835) 21,920 or 33 in 1,000, could wither read and write or were under instruction : only 552 of this number being females while one-third belonged to the towns.  From among the rural population hardly 14,530, or 26 in 1,000 could read and write or were under instructions and most of these might be taken as belonging to the shop-keeping class.  A few of the rising generation of agriculturists had received instruction in government schools and some of the older men who carried on business transactions kept account books in Gurmukhi.  Learning was still confined to the official and trading classes.  The district was, however, not backward in comparison with the  average of the province at the time.

 

            The number of those under instruction was, according to the 1881 Census, barely 4,962 in the whole district ; but the educational returns showed 4,235 attending government or aided schools; and to this might be added 4,345 in the private schools making a total of 8,580.

 

            There was a Government high school at Ludhiana and ten middle schools at important towns of Jagraon, Raikot, Khanna, Mahchiwara, Dehru, Sawaddi, Gujarwal, Raipur, Maloud and Baddowal.  There were 60 primary schools for boys and 19 schools for girls.  In addition to these Government schools, there were the aided American Presbyterian Mission High and Boarding Schools and the Church of England Zenana Mission Training Schools.  There was also the aided Hindu School and a School of Industry run by the Ludhiana Anjuman Mufid-I-Am, the chief object of which was to encourage and improve the local industry of the town in carpet-making and shawl-making.

 

            The Government High School, Ludhiana, was originally started as a private vernacular seminary on October 27, 1864, at the instance and with the aid of certain leading members of the Hindu and Muhammadan communities of Ludhiana, who felt it a desideratum, since there was no institution where secular education could be obtained, and many objected to send their children to the Mission School where religious instruction was compulsory.  This private seminary became a Government grant-in-aid school in April, 1865, and was created a purely Government high vernacular school high district school like those of Delhi, Lahore, Amritsar etc., with a vernacular department attached.

 

            Towards the years 1878-83, there were 396 indigenous schools with an attendance of 4,345.  These institutions were in Muhammadan villages under the chargeof a mullah or priest, who gave instructionin the loran to a class of eignt or ten pupils seated in the village mosque or takia.  The school was called a maqtab.  The boys merely learnt by rote from the master two or three chapters ; but to this was sometimes added a little writing on a slate, and portions of some elementary Persian text books (karima, Khaliqabri, etc.) ; and it was only in this case perhaps that the institution could rightly be called a school5.  the mullah who was also the village priest had generally a small piece of land given him, or received an allowance of grain, and also presents at odd times.  Lands was taught to boys of the shop-keeping class in the village by a pada or master.  The boys learnt to write on a slate, there being, of course, no books, as the character was purely commercial.  Fees were paid by the parents ; re. 1 when the boy entered, another rupee when he could write the letters, and so on.   Gurmukhi was taught in the dharmsalas by the sadh, who was probably in possession of an endowment, and also received presents from the parents.  The instruction here, to, was by slated, the boy first learning to form the letters and then to write from dictation. An advanced boy would sometimes begin to read the Granth Sahib, but the use of books had not yet been introduced.  These schools were of the most elementary character. 

 

5.  Walkar, T.Gardon, final Report on the Revision on Settlement of the Ludhiana District, 1878-83, p. 78.

 

            In the indigenous schools, the girls generally received instruction along with the boys, more or less of their own age, in maktabs of all sorts, but respectable Muhammadans, who observed pardah, did not allow their girls to attend.  In their case, the mullah went to their parents’ house to teach the Koran., nimaz, pakki roti, etc., or, as long as the girl was a minor she went to the mullah’s house, where she received similar instruction from his wife or some other woman of the house.  Woman did not as a rule attend the makrab or go to the mullah’s house.  They received instructions of a similar kind from educated members of their own family, if any such there would be.  Missionary ladies, however, both Indian and European, went about in the towns and villages, and offered to teach a little reading, writing and arithmetic to women of respectable households, and the people frequently accepted their friendly help.

 

            The script in common use was lande, in which the ordinary bania kept his accounts.  In the towns, well-to-do merchants used the improved lands known as the ashrafi.  Some Hindu Jats used Gurmukhi, and Brahmans used Devnagri for religious purposes.  The Persian character was little used.  Advertisements and signboards in English were quite common in Ludhiana town.

 

            In the beginning of the present century, the literacy among the people of Ludhiana was above the average.  It was largely due to the exertions of the Presbyterian Mission.  The advance in this direction during the two decades from 1881 to 1901 was remarkable.  In  1881, the proportion of literates per mile was 48 among males and 1 among females.  In 1901, it was 83 among males and 4 among females.  Of the small community of Christians, nearly half could read and write.  Next  came Jains with 315 per mile then Hindus with 63, Sikhs with 53, and lastly Muhammadans with 20.

 

            Bhai Sahib Bhai Narain Singh of Sidhwan Khurd and his daughter, Padamshri Harparkash Kaur, deserve special mention for their outstanding efforts in the field of female education in the district.  Early in the century when the public opinion was least responsive to the spread of female education, particularly in rural areas, Bhal Narain Singh started in 1909 a girls primary school at his village Sidhwan Khurd.  The small Institutions in course of time grew up into a degree college.

 

            Educational Set-up. – Prior to the re-organisation of the educational set-up in 1963, there were separate agencies for the control of boys and girls’ schools in the district.  The boy’s schools up to the middle standard were controlled by District Inspector of Schools and girl’s middle school by District Inspectress of Schools.  They were assisted by Assistant District Inspectors/Inspectresses in regard to the control of the primary schools. The high and higher secondary schools for boys and girls were controlled by the Divisional Inspector and Divisional Inspectress of Schools, Jullundue, respectively.  With the re-organisation of educational set-up on May 8, 1963, the district Education Officer, Ludhiana, has been made responsible for the administration of all primary, middle, high and higher secondary schools for boys and girls in the district.  He is assisted by 3 Deputy Education Officers, one of whom is a women.  The District Education Officer generally consults the Deputy Education Officer (Women) in matters relating to the women teachers.  He is under the supervisory control of the Circle Education Officer, Jullundur.

 

            The District Education Officer is assisted by 16 Block Education Officers whose areas of operation are normally co-terminus with the development blocks.  There may, however, be more than one Block Education Officer in a Block, depending upon the number of primary schools.  Thus, there are two Block Education Officers each in Ludhiana, Mangat, Dehlon and Samrala blocks.  In addition to the above supervisory staff an Assistant Education Officer (P.T.) assists the District Education Officer in connection  with the promotion of physical education in primary and middle schools.

 

            At ministerial level, the establishment, accounts, examination and general (including statistics) branches function under the general supervision of a Superintendent, who is responsible to the District Education Officer for general administration and working of the District Education Office.

 

            Medium of Instruction. – According to the Sachar Formula introduced in the State in 1949, the teaching of Punjabi as the first language and as medium of instruction began from the first class and Hindi as the second language was introduced from the fourth class.  There was, however, an option that a parent could declare Hindi as the mother tongue of his child and, if the number of such children came to 10 or more in a class, or 40 or more in a school at the primary stage, or 1/3rd of the total number of students in the school at the secondary stage, provision for teaching of Hindi as the first language and as medium of instruction was made for such a group of children.

 

            With the re-organisation of the Punjab from November 1, 1966, the whole of the new Punjab State has become a unilingual   Punjabi speaking State.  With the passing of the Punjab Official Language Act, 1967, Punjabi has become the official language of the State.  It has been introduced in the administration from January 1, 1968 at the district level and from April, 13, 1968, at the State level.

 

(b)  Literacy and Educational Standards

 

            Growth of Literacy. – The 1961 Census revealed that Ludhiana District had a much higher literacy percentage (36.3) than in the then Punjab State (24.2) and the Indian Union  (24) as a whole.  Among the districts of the re-organised Punjab State, Ludhiana district again occupies first position in regard to literacy percentage according to the 1961 Census.  This high percentage of literacy has been achieved through the Five-Year Plans as is borne out by the following table :-

 

Progress of Schools Education in Ludhiana District, 1951-52 to 1960-61:-

 

 

  Schools

Scholars

 

Boys

Girls

Boys

Girls

1951-52

 

 

 

 

Primary schools

262

113

22,785

-

Middle schools

32

13

7,062

-

High schools

37

7

9,557

-

Total

331

133

39,511

-

1960-61

 

 

 

 

Primary schools

553

122

38,221

25,221

Middle schools

51

26

9,527

8,647

High schools

65

27

27,838

15,919

Higher secondary schools

9

4

15,290

3,058

Total

678

179

90,876

52,845

 

(Ludhiana District Census Handbook 1961, p.37)

 

            The School going boys, past 5 years and below 15 years in age, formed 60 per cent of the male population, though the girl students were only 40 per cent in this age group.

 

            The people in general are becoming education-minded and there is a general demand for more and more school, especially in the villages.  The parents seem to be eager that their children be given proper facilities for education. There is a equally strong urge for education of women and the number of women students shows an upward trend.

 

            As expected in the new national set-up, the responsibility for providing education for the citizens has mainly been assumed by the Government, though missions, and philanthropic endowments, as mentioned below, are also rendering valuable service in this field.  Their contribution still continues to be noteworthy.

 

            (i)  Christian Missions. – The Christian Missionaries have done pioneering work in the sphere of education in the district. The Ludhiana Mission of the Preshyterian Church of the United States of America started its High School for boys at Ludhiana as early as 1834 and transferred its Christian boys Boarding High School from Lahore to Ludhiana in 1877.  The Ludhiana Zenana and Medical Mission initially set up in 1867 a Christian Girls Boarding School and subsequently converted it in to the Christian Medical School for Women.  The institution along with its attached hospital has acquired has been raised to degree standard since 1953.

 

            (ii)  Khalsa Dewan, Ludhiana. –It was set up in 1907 with a view to establishing and maintaining educational institutions and boarding houses.  In 1966 the Dewan was running the following four institutions :-

 

              (1)   Malwa Central College of Education, Ludhiana ;

 

              (2)   Khalsa College for women, Ludhiana ;

 

              (3)   Malwa Khalsa Higher Secondary School, Ludhiana and

 

              (4)   Khalsa Girls’ Higher Secondary School, Ludhiana.

 

            (iii)  Nankana Sahib Education Trust, Ludhiana. -  Registered on February 24, 1953, it aims at providing facilities to the poor, backward and other deserving students in engineering and scientific education and in making special arrangements for the preparation of competitive examinations and tests for recruitment to the various services and also for admissions to the various   professional colleges, schools and institutions in India.  In 1966, it was running Guru Nanak Engineering College, Ludhiana.

 

            (iv)  Shri Guru Har Gobind Ujjagar Hari Trust, Sidhwan Khurd. – It was established in 1934 by Bhai Sahib Bhai Narian Singh of Sidhwan Khurd to run the khalasa High School for Girls, Sidhwan Khurd, which he had founded.  In 1966, the Trust was running the following three institutions, all of which are affiliated to the Punjab University, Chandigarh :-

 

(1)    G.H.G.Harparkash College of Education for Women,  Sidhwan Khurd ;

 

(2)    Khalsa college for Women, Sidhwan Khurd, and

 

(3)    Sikh Girl’s Higher Secondary School, Sidhwan Khurd.

 

(v)   The Ajitsar Education Committee, Mohi (Ludhiana). – After shifting from the West Pakistan on the partition of the Punjab, this society started functioning in 1948 in village Mohi, tahsil Jagraon.  It was then named as the Executive Committee, Khalsa High School, Ajitsar, Mohi (Ludhiana), which got the approval of the State Education Department on Novemeber  25, 1950.  In 1966, its name was changed to the Ajitasr Education Committee, Mohi, which was registered on August 21, 1966.

 

The object of the Committee is the establishment, maintenance and promotion of educational institutions.  In 1966, it was running the following four institutions6 :-

 

    (1)  Camp Khalsa High School, Ajitsar, Mohi (Luhdiana).    (opened in 1948)

 

    (2)   Ajitsar Khalsa High School, jangpur (Ludhiana).           (Opened in 1949)

 

    (3)   Sri Dasmesh Khalsa High School, Tahliana Saheb, Raikot.  (Opened in 1953).

 

6.  Another institutions, viz., Ajitsar Khalsa Girls High School, Mushiana Saheb (Mullanpur, Ludhiana District) was opened in 1968.

              

 

Women’s Education : Prior to the annexation of the Punjab by the British, little attention was paid to the education of women.  Only among a few well-to-do families, girls were given rudimentary education in 3 Rs.

 

            The Christian Missionaries were the first in the field of women’s education in the district.  The Ludhiana Zenana and Medical Mission was started in 1867 by the Society for Promoting Female Education in India and the East, which, at the invitation of the Missionaries of the American Presbyterian Mission, sent Miss Jerrom to carry on Zenana and School work in Ludhiana.  The Ludhiana Christian Girl’s Boarding School was established in 1871 for the purpose of training Indian Christian Girls as teachers.  They were taught the vernacular and a little English, Government text books being used for the most part.  In 1882, there were 37 boarders and 29 day scholars, besides 11 little boys, who were afterwards transferred to the American Mission School.  Muhammadan and Hindu girls were admitted if willing to conform to the rules of the school ; but no separate arrangements were made for them on account of their religion.  This school was carried on for many years till financial difficulties compelled it to be closed.

 

            Medical work was begun in 1875 among Zenana and School and pupils and became so popular that in 1881 the City Dispensary for Women and Children was opened.  It was followed in 1886 by a Branch Dispensary in village Gill and in 1879 by another Branch Dispensary at Phillaur (District Jullundur).  The Charlotte Hospital for Women and Children was opened at Ludhiana in February, 1889.  On the dissolution of  the Society fro Promoting Female Education in India and The East in 1899, the sole responsibility of the Ludhiana Zenana and Medical Mission devolved on Miss Greenfield, under whose charge it had functioned since 1879.7

 

7.  For further particulars regarding the work of the Ludhiana Zenana and Medical Mission, in Ludhiana district, refer to Miss Greenfiled’s ‘Five Years in Ludhiana’, 1886.

           

            Education of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes. – The Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes, particularly those inhabiting rural areas, are still not enthusiastic about education.  The introduction of free compulsory primary education has had a salutary effect on them, and they have been given various other inducements and encouragements.  Education is free up to the Middle Standard in all Government and provincialised schools.  Free books, stipends and scholarships are awarded to the students belonging to these classes in all institutions including colleges, under the various schemes sponsored by the State and the Union Government.  Remission and refund of examination fees for departmental and university examination are also made.

 

            Books and clothes are given to the poor students irrespective of caste and creed out of school Red Cross fund upto 50 per cent of the annual income of the fund.

 

            The financial assistance given to the students belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes in the district, during the period 1962-63 to 1965-66, is detailed as under :

 

Year

Stipends

No. of students benefited

1962-63

2,10,517

3,389

1963-64

1,35,419

2,297

1964-65

1,85,327

2,517

1965-66

1,36,562

3,175

 

(Source : District Education Officer, Ludhiana)

 

            The number of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes students studying in different institutions in the district, during the year 1965-66, was as under :

 

Type of institution

No of schedule Castes and backward Classes Students

 

Boys

Girls

Total

Primary Schools

13,197

7,241

20,438

Middle Schools

3,167

1,370

4,537

High Schools

4,035

1,000

5,035

Higher Secondary Schools

1,458

420

1,878

Multipurpose Higher Secondary Schools

977

-

977

Basic Training

6

10

14

Total

22,840

10,041

32,881

Degree College

..

..

..

Professional and Technical Colleges

..

..

..

Total

..

..

..

 

 

(C)  General Education

 

            Role of Local Bodies in the Field of Education. – The Zila Parishad (formerly District Board), Ludhiana, and the various municipal committees in the district have done commendable work in the field of education.  Elementary education was their exclusive responsibility.  Prior to the provincialisation of school in October, 1957, the number of primary, middle and high school, maintained by the local bodies in the district was as follows:-

 

Name of Local Body

No. of Schools maintained before 1957

 

Primary

Middle

High

 

Boys

Girls

Boys

Girls

Boys

Girls

Zila Parishad Ludhiana

545

93

28

20

20

3

Municipal Committee, Ludhiana

11

10

4

1

-

2

Municipal Committee, Jagraon

3

3

-

-

-

1

Municipal Committee, Samrala

-

-

-

-

-

1

Municipal Committee, Khanna

5

1

-

-

-

-

Municipal Committee, Railkot

-

-

-

-

-

1

Total

564

107

32

21

20

8

 

(Source: District Education Officer, Ludhiana)

 

            On the provincialisation of these schools, the local bodies were required to pay annually, specified subsidy towards maintenance.  The contribution, thus, made by them from 1957-58 to 1965-66 is shown in the following table :-


 

Amount of contribution Made by the Local Bodies towards the Maintenance of Provincialised Schools

in Ludhiana District, during 1957-58 to 1965-66

 

 

Name of Local Body

Year

1957-58

1958-59

1959-60

1960-61

1961-62

1962-63

1963-64

1964-65

1965-66

Zila Parishad Ludhiana

76,181

4,20,028

3,12,782

3,12,782

3,12,782

-

-

-

-

Municipal Committee, Ludhiana

2,84,350

3,68,252

3,09,382

3,22,087

2,50,000

-

-

-

-

Municipal Committee, Jagraon

20,716

70,800

91,944

91,944

91,944

-

-

-

-

Municipal Committee, Samrala

2,617

6,280

6,280

-

6,280

-

-

-

-

Municipal Committee, Khanna

22,161

45,000

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Municipal Committee, Railkot

1,939

13,491

13,491

13,791

13,491

13,491

-

-

-

Total

4,07,964

9,23,851

7,33,879

7,40,304

6,74,497

13,491

-

-

-

 

(Source: District Education Officer, Ludhiana )

 

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