Development of School Education in Andaman and Nicobar Islands: Issues and Challenges

ABSTRACT: Prior to the advent of the skills of reading and writing, society could be classified as being in the pre-literate cultural stage. The change from pre-literate to literate society is said to have begun somewhere during the fourth millennium BC through a gradual transition from pictography to the use of an alphabet (Golden, 1968). After the advent of the dual skills of reading and writing, the relevance of education to the cultural advancement enhanced significantly. Education is essential for eradicating poverty and mental isolation. It is also necessary for permitting the free play of demographic processes. It is considered as an index of the pace at which the socio-economic transformation of a society is taking place. Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a far flung place away from mainland India and where the sight of economic growth reaches very slow, education plays an important role in its overall development.