Education is not only a means of development but it is also an end in itself. To be more clear, education leads a man from darkness to light. Explicitly, if we want to bring the tribal people in light, we will have to impart them proper education for their all-round development. The Government of India has made immense endeavour to educate the tribal people and now there is, at least a primary school in every remote corner of the tribal belts.

In this book the editors bring out the facts and figures relating to tribal education. The book gives a general description of tribal education. It further deals with modern Indian education in the context of the tribes and their development. The relation of tribes with primary, secondary and university education constitute a significant part of this work. Finally, it delineates the problems of tribal education ending with job-oriented education for the tribes.

Dr. Devendra Thakur (b. 1939), D.Litt., was formerly Professor in L.N. Mishra College of Business Management, P.G. Deptt., B.B.A. Bihar University, Muzaffarpur. He was Ex-Member, Bihar College Service Commission. He has taught Economics, Co-operation and Extension in the Rural Institute of Higher Studies, Birauli for more than a decade. He completed his Ph.D. in 1970 and D.Litt. in 1989. He was awarded post-Doctoral fellowship by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India to study problems relating to Tribals.

He visited Naples, Italy, on Italian Government. Scholarship to study plan implementation course. A number of articles written by him on Socio- Economic and Political problems have been published in reputed journals of and also dozens of talks have been broadcast by him from A.I.R., Patna. He is also author of a number of outstanding books.

Dr. D.N. Thakur is M.A. in Hindi, English, Prakrit and Jainology and Ph.D. on the subject "Trends of Traditions of Indian Semantics". He has been a dedicated teacher and always endeavoured to explore new areas of study in different fields of knowledge including socio-economic development of Indian Tribes. Moreover, Dr. Thakur has assisted a lot of South-East Asian research scholars in fulfilment of their works on different subjects. He is still devoted to serve humanity through his writings.

The tribal people who are treated to be the original inhabitants of India, still reside in remote corners of the country where communication is more difficult than the plain areas. Moreover, they have their own culture as well as language which creates further problems of communication from the mainstream of the Indian Republic. But, in spite of these facts, Indian Government is constitutionally bound to educate all the people of India, particularly the tribal people for whom there are special provisions in the Constitution of India.

It is almost obvious that education is not only a means of development but it is also an end in itself. To be more clear, education leads a man from darkness to light.

Explicitly, if we want to bring the tribal people in light, we will have to impart in them proper education for their all-round development.

The Government of India has made immense endeavour to educate the tribal people and now there is, at least a primary school in every remote corner of the tribal belts within their easy approach. In addition to that there are several kinds of incentives which can bring their children to school and help them to continue their education.

In the present volume, we have tried to reproduce the facts and figures relating to tribal education. The work starts traditionally with an introduction giving general description of tribal education. It further deals with modern Indian education in the context of the tribes and their development. The relation of tribes with primary, secondary and university education constitute a significant part of this work.

Education is not only a means of adjustment into the society and all round development, but it is also an end in itself. Education affords perfection to life. In addition to its relation with moral values, it is closely associated with socio-economic development. Education is, therefore, very significant for the development of a country and in spite of having many severe problems, the developing countries provide high priority to education. India is, undoubtedly, one among them.

India is a vast country and similarly vast is its education. It is not only vast, but also varied in nature, in the number of educational institutions, in the number of students and in the number of teachers. It forms the largest system of education in the world having more than one hundred million students and three million teachers, costing billions of rupees every year. The system of education was not so vast in the pre-independence period. The development of education in the post-independent India was the result of its welfare policy.

When India was declared independent in 1947, the number of school-going students was very meagre. At the college level this number was even smaller. But after independence, there has been a rapid expansion in primary, secondary and higher education particularly in the number of institutions and the enrolment of students. But, in spite of all endeavour it is felt that the educational system in India is still far from satisfactory.

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