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Education in India in the 50s and 60s
Graduation and Post
Graduation
By Sunita Rajiv
Chikhalikar
Prologue:
As already indicated in my previous article, during my father’s time,
education up to post graduation level in India, at the place where he
lived, was a FOUR+SEVEN+FOUR+TWO pattern.
That means:
A child was admitted to school at the age of five. His/her education
pattern was as follows:
4 years - Primary school education
7 years - Secondary school education
4 years - Graduation
2 years - Post graduation
=A total of 17 years
Graduation:
The colleges offering graduate level education were usually situated at
districts. Hence students from villages and small towns would usually
migrate to theses places.
Admissions to colleges were purely on merit basis depending on the
marks obtained at the Board examination of the eleventh standard.
At graduation level, there were primarily two streams that the students
opted for: Science and Arts.
Students who left their homes far away and migrated to new places used
to stay in rented rooms on cot-basis.
The general food charges were INR 20 to 25 per month.
Accommodation charges were INR 30 per term (Two terms constituted one
year)
Many students came from families whose main occupation was farming.
Such families would reap the harvests of crops, fruits and vegetables
from their own fields. It was cheaper and for them to provide daily
food for their children from their homes at the villages itself, rather
than eat outside foods in the districts. For such students, a special
arrangement used to be made by the State Transport Buses in the
following way:
Daily, lunch would be packed in a container bearing the name of the
student and the contact address of his/ her college. This would be
handed over to the driver of the bus, when it reached the bus stop of
the village or town along with its regular passengers. In turn, when
the bus reached the bus depot near the concerned college, the student
would collect the lunch. Later, when the bus made its return journey,
the emptied lunch boxes would be again given to the driver and he would
deliver it back to the concerned family. A minimum of INR 2 -3 per
month would be charged as delivery expenses for the same. As this was
more economical, most of the students adopted this option.
Post Graduation:
Universities offering post- graduation curriculum were located in big
towns, cities and state capitals. Here again, students would live on a
cot-basis arrangement system.
For Science students, post graduation constituted one year of B.Sc. (Hons.)
and one year of M.Sc. (Master of Science).Admission was very tough and
in his opening lecture, the H.O.D. (Head of the Department) of
Chemistry had announced that Physical Chemistry was in great demand and
only twelve students, strictly on merit basis would be admitted into
that field.
There were 48 students who had opted for Chemistry when my dad was
pursuing his post graduation. As already declared by the H.O.D., the
first twelve students gained admission to the Physical Chemistry
department.
All the twelve students, on completion of the course, appeared for
interviews for jobs all over India. And as expected and predicted by
the Department head, they were all selected within no time in all the
leading industries and establishments during that time. My dad was one
amongst them.
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This is the
photograph of my dad and other candidates at Chittaranjan station,
Calcutta, when they appeared for an interview at a leading
establishment in the place.
This is the
photograph of my aunt-in-law at her convocation ceremony
This is the
photograph of my father-in-law at his convocation ceremony
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