Introduction

Population education is an educational intervention which has emerged in response to the problems emanating from the population situation. Education as a potential agent of socialization has to deal with everything that is dynamic. It serves the current and emerging needs of individuals and responds to the growing needs, aspirations and demands of a modernizing egalitarian society. Particularly when an issue requires attitudinal and behavioural change among individuals, education is expected to play a decisive role. Population being the function of fertility behaviour, the change in the demographic situation depends on the attitude and behaviour of individuals towards population and development issues. Which is why the potential role of education as an intervention strategy to attain the goal of population stabilization was realized and population education emerged as an educational innovation aimed at influencing attitude and behaviour of individuals in respect of population issues.

However, the theoretical framework of population education which was concretised at national and international levels during early 1970s has been undergoing change since its inception. It has been so because of the on-going changes in the perception of population situation and its inter-relationships with other parameters of development. Although Thomas Malthus was the first to ring the warning bell at the end of the eighteenth century about the adverse impact of population expansion in England, the rapid pace of population growth became an issue of serious concern world over only in the later half of the present century. Many countries particularly of the developing world launched policies and programmes aimed at reducing the rate of population growth. In the beginning it was thought that for arresting the population growth, it would be enough to make the people aware of the population situation, the fast rate of population growth and adverse impact of the growing population on human-life. Accordingly like other interventions, population education also focussed exclusively on demographic concepts and data aimed at making the learners aware of the inter-relationships between population growth and socioeconomic development, environment, resources and different

aspects of quality life. It was a demography-laden conceptual framework of population education.

The perception of population phenomenon underwent a change when it was realized that population situation depends more on the understanding of population situation at the micro level and the appreciation of the implications of sociocultural ethos that influences reproductive behaviour of individuals. People do not feel so much concerned if the problems of population growth are presented, as serious concerns at national and world levels. But if population issues are discussed at the family and the community levels it is expected to influence attitude and behaviour of individuals. Moreover, it was also realized by policy framers that it was not enough to make the people aware of only the adverse impact of population growth. It would be more effective if a strategy is adopted to develop an understanding among them about the inter-relationships between population change and resource development, family welfare, status of women and health of mother and child. During 1980s, therefore, population education framework was reconceptualized to focus on themes like family size and family welfare, delayed marriage, responsible parenthood, population change and resource development, population related values and beliefs and status of women. It was a value-laden conceptual framework of population education.

During the early 1990s the conceptual framework of population education has undergone yet another change as a follow up of the Programme of Action adopted by the International Conference on Population and Development held at Cairo in September 1994. The Conference recommended a basic change in the policy perspective relating to population and development by bringing about changes in the governmental policies and programmes on population and adopting suitable socioeconomic policies to promote sustained economic growth in the context of sustainable development. It laid special emphasis on the urgency to integrate population issues into all developmental policies and strategies. The Programme of Action states that the goal of population stabilization can be attained only when the essential conditions are created to attain it. Unless people appreciate the criticality of sustained economic growth and alleviation of poverty in the context of sustainable development, the importance of gender equality and equity, the significance of reproductive health and reproductive rights of every individual, the implications of strengthening family as a basic social institution, the importance of education and health as key factors for population stabilization and the relevance of population distribution, urbanization and migration, the goal of population stabilization may not be attained.

In view of the above, the theoretical framework of population education has been reconceptualized once again to reflect the changes in the perception of population phenomenon. The present conceptual framework focuses on the essential conditions for population stabilization. The framework also reflects the fundamental principles of existing education system according to which education cannot afford to be prescriptive or didactic, and hence it cannot be treated as an adjunct to the Information, Education and Communication (IEC) approach of population programmes of the government. The reconceptualized framework focuses on six basic themes - sustainable development, gender equality and equity, adolescent reproductive health, family: socioeconomic factors and quality of life, health and education : key determinants of population change and population distribution, urbanization and migration. Although the reconceptualized framework reflects the continuity of the basic elements of previous frameworks, it contains new elements and renewed thrusts. Particularly a major component on adolescent reproductive health, conceptualised as adolescence education is a fresh addition.

The most important factor that would facilitate the integration of elements of the reconceptualised framework of population education in the content and process of school education is the process of teacher preparation. The new framework requires that pupil teachers as well as in-service teachers are empowered to deal with this area effectively. It not only contains certain new content areas that do not belong to any one discipline but also suggests strategies of curriculum transaction that are sporadically employed by teachers in classrooms. Teachers of any one subject may not be adequately equipped to deal with all the components of population education, It is essential, therefore, to make them aware of the basic changes effected in the population education framework and to master the new strategies to be employed in curriculum transaction and evaluation, so that they understand the implications of the change and make a renewed commitment to their professional responsibilities and change the way they usually interact with their students in the classroom and outside it. They are now also required to acquire and use the skills of a counsellor as well as an opinion leader.

With a view to enabling the process of teacher preparation to respond to the above mentioned needs, the first and foremost requirement is to develop a new generation of materials on the reconceptualised framework of population education and make those available to the pupil teachers and in-service teachers. There is a complete lack of such

materials primarily because some of the new areas like adolescent reproductive health including HIV/AIDS reflected in the reconceptualised framework have not so far been the concerns of school education. Moreover, even those elements that have already been integrated in the school curriculum also need to be understood afresh and treated differently.

The existing syllabi and textbooks contain elements on population and economic development, social development, environment, health and nutrition, status of women, family size and family welfare, age at marriage and related areas. But the existing lessons treat population issues primarily in terms of the growing number and its adverse impact on different aspects of human life. However, the new framework demands a different treatment of population issues in such lessons. The treatment should now focus on the essential conditions for population stabilisation as an integral part of development strategies directed to attain the goal of sustainable development. Moreover, a host of new and multi-disciplinary content areas have been included in the reconceptualised framework of population education. Most of the teachers and even pupil teachers may not be exposed to the areas like process of growing up during adolescence, HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, sustainable development, population distribution, urbanisation and migration. The foremost need, therefore, is to make available to teachers such materials which may are expose them to the new areas and concerns.

The present volume makes an humble attempt to meet this requirement. It tries to cover major content areas contained in the reconceptualised framework of population education and some related educational interventions. The strategies and methods of curriculum transaction and evaluation have also been discussed in it. The volume is primarily addressed to pupil teachers and teacher educators, though it will equally be useful for in-service teachers, master trainers, curriculum framers, textbook writers, other educational functionaries an all those who have interest in these areas.

The present publication contains ten chapters. The First Chapter on population education discusses the evolution of the concept since its inception, delineates the basic changes that have been effected in the latest reconceptualized framework of population education and its objectives at the stage of school education. It also suggests suitable strategies for the integration of population education elements into the content and process of school education and teacher education. Chapter Two is devoted to the analysis of population situation in the world, Asia-Pacific region and India. It deals with various demographic concepts that help in understanding the overall population situation and its implications for development. It also provides latest demographic data on the population situation in world, India and certain Asian countries.

The Third Chapter is devoted to the discussion on different aspects of inter-relationship between population and development. It focuses on relationship between population and resources, population and economic development and population and various aspects of sustainable development. Chapter Four discusses the institution of family and various dimensions of family life. It explains the critical issues related to marriage, gender equality and responsible parenthood. Various components of adolescence education conceptualized to incorporate critical elements of reproductive health are discussed in Chapter Five entitled ‘Reproductive Health". It provides analytical treatment to various relevant concepts and issues relating to reproductive health and national programme on reproductive and child health.

The Sixth Chapter provides comprehensive treatment to different dimensions of AIDS prevention education. It discusses the status of HIV/AIDS and provides basic information on the routes of HIV transmission, the impact of HIV infection on human body, prevention of HIV/AIDS, and no risk and risky behaviour. It also delineates the implications of AIDS for women, the relationship between AIDS and drug abuse and the role of teachers as AIDS educators.

Apart from the above mentioned Six Chapters dealing primarily with the content, the following four chapters discuss issues related to the process population education: Chapter Seven discusses critical issues relating to curriculum development in population education including strategies for the integration of these elements into the ongoing school curriculum. Chapter Eight is devoted to the methodologies of curriculum transaction in class rooms that are suitable for population education. It explains innovative teaching methods that need to be employed in the teaching - learning process of population education. The Ninth Chapter is devoted to the co-curricular approach of curriculum transaction. It discusses the significance of co-curricular activities in population education and delineates various kinds of co-curricular activities that would be effective in attaining the objectives of population education. The last chapter, i.e. Chapter Tenth discusses evaluation in population education. It explains various types of evaluation including the techniques and instruments of evaluation in population education.