Kothari Commission

National Education Commission , popularly known as Kothari Commission, was an ad hoc commission set up by the Government of India to examine all aspects of the educational sector in India, to develop a general pattern of education, and to recommend guidelines and policies for the development of education in India. It was formed on 14 July 1964 under the chairmanship of Daulat Singh Kothari, then chairman of the University Grants Commission. The terms of reference of the commission was to formulate the general principles and guidelines for the development of education from primary level to the highest and advise the government on a standardized national pattern of education in India. However, the medical and legal studies were excluded from the purview of the commission. The tenancy of the commission was from 1964 to 1966 and the report was submitted by the commission on 29 June 1966.

Structure

The commission, under the chairmanship of Daulat Singh Kothari, was the sixth commission in India post independence and the first commission with comprehensive terms of reference on education. It was composed of a member secretary, an associate secretary and fifteen members. Apart from the core group, the commission had a panel of overseas consultants numbering twenty and nineteen task forces, their sub groups and special panels of invitees.

Core group

Consultants

A panel of 20 consultants, selected from various parts of the world and deemed experts in education, was constituted for consultative assistance to the commission.

No.	Incumbent	Position
1	James E. Allen, Jr.	Commissioner, State Education Department, USA
2	C. E. Beeby	Visiting Professor, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University
3	P. M. S. Blackett	President, the Royal Society, UK
4	Recteur J. J. Capelle	Director-General of Education in France, Paris
5	Christopher Cox	Educational Adviser, Ministry of Overseas Development, UK
6	Philip H. Coombs	Director, UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning, Paris
7	Andre Daniere	Centre for Studies in Education and Development, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University
8	Stevan Dedijer	Institute of Sociology, University of Lund, Sweden
9	Nicholas DeWitt	Director, International Survey of Educational Development and Planning, Indiana University, USA
10	John Guy Fowlkes	School of Education, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA
11	Willis Jackson	Professor of Electrical Engineering, Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London
12	J. Paul Leonard	Professor of Education, Columbia University Teachers' College
13	Gordon N. Mackenzie	Professor of Education, Teachers' College, Columbia University, New York, USA
14	C. A. Moser	Director, Unit for Economic and Statistical Studies on Higher Education, London School of Economics
15	S. Okita	Executive Director, Japan Economic Research Centre, Tokyo
16	A. R. Prest	Professor of Economics and Public Finance, University of Manchester, England
17	Lionel Robbins	Professor Emeritus, London School of Economics
18	Edward A. Shils	Professor, University of Chicago, USA
19	Frederick Seitz	President, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, USA
20	W. C. Smith	Director, Centre for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University

Task Forces and Working Groups

The main front line activities were handled by nineteen task forces or working groups, each handling a specific area of activity.
Task Force on Adult Education
The group's main objective was the eradication of illiteracy by focusing on adult education. The group was composed of three foreign members, J. F. McDougall, Welthy Fischer and Hans Simons and fifteen Indian members, V. S. Jha, Abdul Qadir, G. K. Chandiramani, A. R. Deshpande, Durgabai Deshmukh, K. L. Joshi, D. R. Kalia, T. A. Koshy, M. S. Mehra, A. R. Moore, J. P. Naik, M. S. Randhawa, K. G. Saiyidain, Sohan Singh and group secretary, S. M. S. Chari.
Task Force on Agriculture Education
The group had 15 members of which two were foreign members, J. F. McDougall and R. W. Cummings. The Indian members included B. P. Pal, Hashim Amir Ali, Anant Rao, Chintamani Singh, V. M. Dandekar, K. C. Kanungo, A. B. Joshi, S. N. Mehrotra, S. K. Mukherji, J. P. Naik, K. C. Naik, N. K. Panikar, C. S. Ranganathan, S. C. Verma and secretary, S. Ramanujam. The group focused on the development of agricultural education.
Task Force on Educational Administration
This twelve member group examined the shortcomings on the educational administration and had Prem Kirpal, A. C. Deve Gowda, V. Jagannadham, M. V. Mathur, S. N. Mukherjee, J. P. Naik, H. M. Patel, D. M. Sen, J. D. Sharma, V. D. Sharma, Rudra Dutt Singh and S. Rajan as its members.
Task Force on Educational Finance
The task before the group was to examine the existing set up with regard to educational finance and identify ways to overcome the shortfalls. The group had M. V. Mathur, D. A. Dabholkar, B. Dutta, R. A. Gopalaswami, K. L. Joshi, D. T. Lakdawala, Gautam Mathur, Atmanand Misra, Sadashiv Misra, J. P. Naik, K. A. Naqvi, Pritam Singh and Gurbax Singh as its members.
Task Force on Higher Education
The group's objective was to coordinate the higher education system in India and advise on ways of improvement. The group was one of the largest and had 20 members, including three overseas members, J. F. McDougall, Hans Simons and H. J. Taylor. The Indian members were K. G. Saiyidain, J. W. Airan, P. K. Bose, Chandrahasan, V. S. Jha, A. C. Joshi, K. L. Joshi, C. L. Kapur, D. S. Kothari, M. V. Mathur, P. G. Mavlankar, J. P. Naik, P. J. Philip, A. B. Shah, Amrik Singh, R. K. Singh and S. Rehman.
Task Force on Manpower
The group had twelve members which included R. A. Gopalaswami, Abdul Qadir, K. L. Joshi, M. V. Mathur, J. P. Naik, R. Prasad, T. Sen and S. P. Aggarwal. The group had its mandate to examine the recruitment and training of teaching and non teaching staff.
Task Force on Techniques and Methods in Education
This seventeen member task force was entrusted with the designing of the functional mechanics of the educational system. The members were V. S. Jha, G. K. Athalye, M. L. Bharadwaj, A. R. Dawood, S. Dutt, C. L. Kapur, S. S. Kulkarni, J. C. Mathur, J. F. McDougall, S. K. Mitra, J. P. Naik, Paul Neurath, S. Panandikar, Albert J. Perrelli, S. Rehman, J. M. Ure and S. M. S. Chari, who served as the Secretary.
Task Force on Professional, Vocational and Technical Education
The group trained its focus on the professional and vocational courses. The group had sixteen members including the associate secretary, J. F. McDougall. The other members were T. Sen, S. K. Bose, G. K. Chandiramani, L. S. Chandrakant, D. R. Dhingra, R. N. Dogra, V. G. Garde, R. A. Gopalaswami, K. L. Joshi, P. K. Kelkar, S. G. Pendse, S. C. Sen, R. K. Srivastav, H. C. Visvesvaraya and secretary, S. Venkatesh.
Task Force on Science Education
The mandate of the group was to focus on the science education excluding medical education and consisted of D. S. Kothari, S. Deb, B. D. Jain, P. Florence Nightingale, R. C. Paul, R. N. Rai, T. S. Sadasivan, D. Shankernarayan, Shantinarayan, A. R. Verma, R. D. Deshpande and I. C. Menon.
Task Force on School Education
The group worked on the modalities of school education excluding primary education in India. It consisted of twelve members including the commission secretary, J. P. Naik along with A. R. Dawood, K. L. Gupta, G. S. Khair, K. Kuruvila Jacob, D. R. Mankad, P. N. Mathar, R. Muralidharan, S. Panandikar, H. Radhakrishna, S. N. Saraf, and S. Doraiswami.
Task Force on Student Welfare
The welfare aspects of the students including scholarships and other measures of incentives were attended to by this group which had A. R. Dawood, V. S. Jha, D. R. Mankad, M. S. Mehta, Perin H. Mehta, J. P. Naik, Prem Pasricha, V. Ramakrishna, A. S. Raturi, D. S. Reddy, S. L. Saruparia, Vikram Singh and S. Doraiswami as its members.
Task Force on Teacher Education and Teacher Status
The group inspected the proficiency of the teachers and their remuneration packages. One of the tasks before the group was to standardize the public and private sector compensation packages and also to design a machinery for continuous on-job training of the teachers. The members of the group were S. Panandikar, S. P. Aggarwal, Reginald Bell, A. C. Deve Gowda, G. N. Kaul, J. P. Naik, S. Natarajan, K. G. Saiyidain, Salamatullah and M. D. Paul.
Working Group on Educational Buildings
This group had its focus on the educational infrastructure and had several construction and infrastructure experts among its fifteen members. The members were A. R. Dawood, R. K. Chhabra, Dinesh Mohan, B. V. Doshi, J. F. McDougall, M. M. Mistri, J. P. Naik, M. H. Pandya, C. B. Patel, S. Rahaman, J. L. Sehgal, T. S. Vedagiri, H. C. Visvesaraya, H. Williams and S. Venkatesh.
Working Group on Education of the Backward Classes
The group had fifteen members and was mandated to focus on the education of the scheduled caste, scheduled tribe and other backward communities in India. L. M. Shrikant, Sashimeren Aier, N. V. Bapat, S. R. Bhise, P. D. Kulkarani, J. Lakra, D. J. Naik, J. P. Naik, V. Rajlakshmi, T. Sanganna, S. C. Sen Gupta, Manikya Lal Verma, Vimal Chandra, N. M. Wadiwa and the secretary of the group, Gurbax Singh were the members.
Working Group on Educational Statistics
The group provided the statistical tools for the commission and had J. P. Naik, S. P. Aggarwal, R. K. Chhabra, G. P. Khare, D. Natarajan, H. Webster and Gurbax Singh as members.
Working Group on Pre-Primary Education
This group was intended to work on the primary education and its standardization as the primary education till that time was unorganized with several different schools such as basic primary and Montessori systems in practice. The group had ten women, S. Panandikar, Bilquis Ghufran, L. Jesudian, Shalini Moghe, A. Pakrashi, Grace Tucker, P. K. Varalakshmi, Amrita Varma and R. Muralidharan and two men, M. C. Nanavatty and Shesh Namle as members.
Working Group on School Community Relations
The group composed of L. R. Desai, Hulbe, V. S. Jha, H. B. Majumder, P. N. Mathur, J. P. Naik, M. C. Nanavatty, H. Radhakrishna, K. G. Saiyidain, R. K. Singh and M. P. Balakrishnan worked on the extra curricular ambience and activities of the education.
Working Group on School Curriculum
This group had one of the major tasks of the commission which included the design and development of a standardized curriculum to be used across the country. S. Panandikar, J. P. Naik, A. R. Dawood, L. S. Chandrakant, A. J. Perrelli and B. Ghosh were the members.
Working Group on Women's Education
The group, consisting the chairman, D. S. Kothari and the commission secretary, J. P. Naik, had Durgabai Deshmukh, Rajammal Devadas, P. N. Mathur, S. Panandikar, K. G. Saiyidain, Raksha Saran, Premlila V. Thackersey and S. Rajan as members.