Indian Educational Policy

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INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY.

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INDIAN
EDUCATIONAL POLICY
B.c.575
BEING A RESOLUTION
ISSUED BY THE GOVERNOR GENERAL IN COUNCIL,
ON THE 11th MARCH 1904.
CALCUTTA:
OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT, GOVERNMENT PRINTING, INDIA,
1904.
Brico Four Annas,

CALCUTTA:
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA CENTRAL PRINTING OFFICE,
8, HASTINGS STREET.

CONTENTS. PARA. PAGE I I . 3 5 6 4 . 7 8 5 6 8 9 12 II 13 14 13 14 15 16 1 15 16 . 17 17 18 17 18 . 19 20 19 History up to 1854 Despatch of 1854 History since 1854 Extent of the present system Its merits and defects Education and Government service. The abuse of examinations Government control and private enterprise Primary Education Its extent Its progress Its cost Its claims Functions of local authorities Courses in Primary schools Rural primary schools Secondary Education School final examination Ethics of education. Languages in schools Female education University Education Education of Europeans and Eurasians in India Chiefs' Colleges Technical Education Schools of Art Industrial Schools Commercial Education Agricultural Education Training Colleges 21 20 22 21 24 25 26 23 24 25 27 28 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 31 32 33 35 . . 36 35 38 36 38 39 41

LUNILNIS.
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Training schools for primary teachers
Hostels
Inspecting staff
Administration
Educational services
Conclusion
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Boon card INDIAN -575 EDUCATIONAL POLICY. EDUCATION in India, in the modern sense of the word, may be said to date from the History up to 1854. year 1854, when the Court of Directors, in a memorable despatch, definitely accepted the systematic promotion of general education as one of the duties of the State, and emphatically declared that the type of education which they desired to see extended in India was that which had for its object the diffusion of the arts, science, philosophy, and literature of Europe; in short, of European knowledge. 2. The acceptance of this duty was an important departure in policy. The advent of British rule found in India systems of education of great antiquity existing among both Hindus and Muhammadans, in each case closely bound up with their religious institutions. To give and to receive instruction was enjoined by the sacred books of the Brahmans, and one of the commentaries on the Rig Veda lays down in minute detail the routine to be followed in committing a text-book to memory. Schools of learning were formed in centres containing considerable high caste populations, where Pandits gave instruction in Sanskrit grammar, logic, philosophy, and INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. law. For the lower classes, village schools were scattered over the country, in which a rudimentary education was given to the children of traders, petty landholders, and well-to-do cultivators. The higher education of Muhammadans was in the hands of men of learning, who devoted themselves to the instruction of youth. Schools were attached to mosques and shrines and supported by State grants in cash or land, or by private liberality. The course of study in a Muhammadan place of learning included grammar, rhetoric, logic, literature, jurisprudence, and science. Both systems, the Muhammadan no less than the Hindu, assigned a disproportionate importance to the training of the memory, and sought to develop the critical faculties of the mind, mainly by exercising their pupils in metaphysical refinements and in fine-spun commentaries on the meaning of the texts which they had learnt by heart. 3. The first instinct of British rulers was to leave the traditional modes of instruction undisturbed and to continue the support which they had been accustomed to receive from Indian rulers. The Calcutta Madrassa for Muhammadans was founded by Warren Hastings in 1782, and the Benares College for Hindus was established in 1791. Provision was made for giving regular assistance to education from public funds by a clause in the Charter Act of 1813, which empowered the Governor General in Council to direct that one lakh of rupees in each year should be "set apart and applied to the revival and improvement of literature and the encouragement of the learned natives of India and for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories in India.''

INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 4. This grant was at first applied to the encouragement of Oriental methods of instruction by paying stipends to students. But the presence of the British in India brought about profound changes in the social and administrative conditions of the country ; and these in their turn reacted on the educational policy of Government. The impulse towards reform came from two sources, the need for public servants with a knowledge of the English language, and the influence in favour both of English and of Vernacular education which was exercised by the missionaries in the early years of the nineteenth century. The well-known Minute written by Lord Macaulay (at that time Legal Member of Council and Chairman of the Committee of Public Instruction) in 1835 marks the point at which official recognition was given to the necessity of public support for Western education. Then followed a period of attempts, differing in different provinces, to extend English education by the establishment of Government schools and colleges, and by strengthening the indigenous schools; while missionary effort continued to play an important part in promoting educational progress. 5. In their despatch of 1854, the Court of Directors announced their decision that the Despatch of 1854. Government should actively assist in the more extended and systematic promotion of general education in India. They regarded it as a sacred duty to confer upon the natives of India those vast moral and material blessings which flow from the general diffusion of useful knowledge. They hoped by means of education to extend the influence which the Government was exerting for the suppression of demoralizing practices, INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. by enlisting in its favour the general sympathy of the native mind. They also sought to create a supply of public servants to whose probity offices of trust might with increased confidence be committed, and to promote the material interests of the country by stimulating its inhabitants to develop its vast resources. The measures which were prescribed for carrying out this policy were :- (1) the constitution of a Department of Public Instruction; (2) the foundation of Universities at the Presidency towns; (3) the establishment of training schools for teachers ; (4) the maintenance of the existing Government colleges and schools of a high order, and the increase of their number when necessary ; (5) increased attention to all forms of vernacular schools; and finally (6) the introduction of a system of grants.in-aid which should foster a spirit of reliance upon local exertions, and should in course of time render it possible to close or transfer to the management of local bodies many of the existing institutions. 6. The policy laid down in 1854 was re-affirmed in 1859 when the administration had History since 1854. been transferred to the Crown. The Universities of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay were incorporated in 1857 and those of the Punjab and Allahabad in 1882 and 1887, respectively. The growth of schools and colleges proceeded most rapidly between 1871 and 1882, and was further augmented by the development of the municipal system, and by the Acts which were passed from 1865 onwards providing for the imposition of local cesses which might be applied to the establishment of schools. By the year 1882 there were more than two million and a quarter of pupils under INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. instruction in public institutions. The Commission of 1882-83 furnished a most copious and valuable report upon the state of education as then existing, made a careful inquiry into the measures which had been taken in pursuance of the despatch of 1854, and submitted further detailed proposals for carrying out the principles of that despatch. They advised increased reliance upon and systematic encouragement of private effort, and their recommendations were approved by the Government of India. Shortly afterwards a considerable devolution of the management of Government schools upon Municipalities and District Boards was effected, in accordance with the principles of local self-government then brought into operation. 7. As a result of these continuous efforts we find in existence to-day a system of public Extent of the present instruction, the influence of which extends in varying degrees to every part of India, and is upon the whole powerful for good. The system includes five Universities, those of Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, the Punjab, and Allahabad, which prescribe courses of study and examine the students of affiliated colleges. These colleges are widely scattered throughout the country and number in all 191 (exclusive of some colleges outside British India, which are not incorporated in the Provincial statistics), with 23,009 students on the rolls. In them provision is made for studies in Arts and Oriental learning, and for professional courses of Law, Medicine, Engineering, Tcaching, and Agriculture. Below the colleges are secondary schools, to the number of 5,493, with an attendance of 558,378 scholars, and primary schools numbering 98,538, with 3,268,726 pupils. system, 6 INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. Including special schools, technical and industrial schools of art, and normal schools for teachers, the total number of colleges and schools for public instruction amounts to 105,306, with 3,887,493 pupils; and if to these are added the "private institutions" which do not conform with departmental standards, the total number of scholars known by the Education Department to be under instruction reaches about 41 millions. The gross annual cost of maintaining these institutions exceeds 400 lakhs, of which 127 laklis are derived from fees, and 83 lakhs from endowments, subscriptions, and other private sources; while the expenditure from public funds aggregates 191 lakhs, of which 504 lakhs are derived from Provincial and Imperial revenues, 74 lakhs from local and Municipal sources, and 13 lakhs from the revenues of Native States. It is a striking feature of the system, and one which must constantly be borne in mind when dwelling upon its imperfections, that its total cost to the public funds, provincial and local together, falls short of £1,300,000 annually. The wider extension of education in India is chiefly a matter of increased expenditure; and any material improvement of its quality is largely dependent upon the same condition. 8. It is almost universally admitted that substantial benefits have been conferred upon Its merits and defects. the people themselves by the advance which has been made in Indian education within the last fifty years; that knowledge has been spread abroad to an extent formerly undreamed of; that avenues of employment have been opened in many directions ; and that there has been a marked improvement in the character of the public servants new INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. now chosen from the ranks of educated natives, as compared with those of the days before schools and Universities had commenced to exercise their elevating influence. But it is also impossible to ignore the fact that criticisms from many quarters are directed at some of the features and results of the system as it exists at present, and that these criticisms proceed especially from friends and wellwishers of the cause of education. Its shortcomings in point of quantity need no demonstration. Four villages out of five are without a school; three boys out of four grow up without education, and only one girl in forty attends any kind of school. In point of quality the main charges brought against the system are to the general effect (1) that the higher education is pursued with too exclusive a view to entering Government service, that its scope is thus unduly narrowed, and that those who fail to obtain employment under Government are ill fitted for other pursuitsi; (2) that excessive prominence is given to examinations ; (3) that the courses of study are too purely literary in character ; (4) that the schools and colleges train the intelligence of the students too little, and their memory too much, so that mechanical repetition takes the place of sound learning ; (5) that in the pursuit of English education the cultivation of the vernaculars is neglected, with the result that the hope expressed in the Despatch of 1854 that they would become the vehicle for diffusing Western knowledge among the masses is as far as ever from realization. The Governor General in Council having closely considered the subject, and having come to the conclusion that the existing methods of instruction stand in need of substantial reform, has consulted the Local Governments 8 INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. and Administrations upon the measures necessary to this end, and believes that he has their hearty concurrence in the general lines of the policy which he desires to prescribe. He therefore invites all who are interested in raising the general level of education in India, and in spreading its benefits more widely, to co-operate in giving effect to the principles laid down in this Resolution. With this object in view, an attempt is made in the following paragraphs to review the whole subject in its various aspects, to point out the defects that require correction in each of its branches, and to indicate the remedies which in the opinion of the Government of India ought now to be applied. 9. A variety of causes, some historical and some social, have combined to bring about the result that in India, far more than in England, the majority of students who frequent the higher schools and the Universities are there for the purpose of qualifying themselves to earn an independent livelihood; that Government service is regarded by the educated classes as the most assured, the most dignified, and the most attractive of all careers; and that the desire on the part of most students to realize these manifold advantages as soon and as cheaply as possible tends to prevent both schools and colleges from filling their proper position as places of liberal education. On these grounds it has often been urged that the higher interests of education in India are injuriously affected by the prevailing system of basing selection for Government service on the school and University attainments of those who come forward as candidates for employment. Some indeed have gone so far as to suggest that educational Education and Government service.

INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. cg were standards would be indefinitely raised if it were possible to break off these material relations with the State, and to institute separate examinations for the public service under the control of a special board organized on the model of the English Civil Service Commission. 10. The Government of India cannot accept this opinion. It appears to them that such examinations, if established admittedly as a substitute for, and not merely as supplementary to, the University course, would necessarily be held in subjects differing from those prescribed by the University; and that two distinct courses of study would thus exist side by side, only one of them leading to Government service. If students attempted to compete in both lines, the strain of excessive examination, already the subject of complaint, would be greatly intensified; while, on the other hand, if the bulk of them attracted by the prospect of obtaining Government appointments, the result would be the sacrifice of such intellectual improvement as is achieved under the existing system. Success in the Government examination would become the sole standard of culture, the influence of the Universities would decline, the value of their degrees would be depreciated, and the main stream of educational effort would be diverted into a narrow and sordid channel. Such a degradation of the educational ideals of the country could hardly fail to react upon the character of the public service itself. The improved tone of the native officials of the present day dates from, and is reasonably attributed to, the more extended employment of men who have received a liberal education in the Universities, and have imbibed through the influence of their teachers some of the traditions of English public life.

10 INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. Nor is there any reason to believe that by introducing its own examinations the Government would raise the standard of fitness, or secure better men for the public service than it obtains under the present system. There is a general consensus of opinion among all the authorities consulted that no examining board would do better than the Universities. If a separate examination did no more than confirm the finding of the Universities, it would be obviously superfluous; if it conflicted with that finding, it would be mischievous. 11. The Government is in the last resort the sole judge 'as to the best method of securing the type of officers which it requires for its service. It alone possesses the requisite knowledge and experience : and by these tests must its decision be guided. The principle of competition for Government appointments was unknown in India until a few years ago; it does not spring from the traditions of the people, and it is without the safeguards by which its operation is controlled in England. It sets aside, moreover, considerations which cannot be disregarded by a Government whose duty it is to reconcile the conflicting claims of diverse races, rival religions, and varying degrees of intellectual and admi. nistrative aptitude and adaptability. For the higher grades of Government service there is no need to have recourse to the system since it is possible in most cases for the Government to accept the various University degrees and distinctions as indicating that their holders possess the amount of knowledge requisite to enable them to fill particular appointments; while in the case of the more technical departments, a scrutiny of the subjects taken up by the candidate, and of the degree of success INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. attained in each, will sufficiently indicate how far he possesses the particular knowledge and bent' of mind that his duties will demand. The Government of India are of opinion, therefore, that special competitions should, as a general rule, be dispensed with ; and that the requisite acquaintance with the laws, rules, and regulations of departments may best be attained during probationary service, and tested after a period of such service. In short, the Government of India hold that the multiplica. tion of competitive tests for Government service neither results in advantage to Government nor is consistent with the highest interests of a liberal education. In fixing the educational standards which qualify for appointments, the natural divisions of primary, secondary, and University education should be followed; school and college certificates of proficiency should, so far as possible, be accepted as full evidence of educational qualifications, regard being paid, within the limits of each standard, to their comparative value; and due weight should be attached to the recorded opinions of collegiate and school authorities regarding the proficiency and conduct of candidates during their period of tuition. 12. Examinations, as now understood, are believed to have been unknown as an instrument of general education in ancient India, nor do they figure prominently in the Despatch of 1854. In recent years they have grown to extravagant dimensions, and their influence has been allowed to dominate the whole system of education in India, with the result that instruction is confined within the rigid framework of prescribed courses, that all forms of training which do not admit of being tested by written C 2 The abuse of examinations.

12 INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. examinations are liable to be neglected, and that both teachers and pupils are tempted to concentrate their energies not so much upon genuine study as upon the questions likely to be set by the examiners. These demoralizing tendencies have been encouraged by the practice. of assessing grants to aided schools upon the results shown by examination. This system, adopted in the first instance on the strength of English precedents, has now been finally condemned in England, while ex perience in India has proved that, to whatever grade of schools it is applied, it is disastrous in its influence on education and uncertain in its financial effects. It will now be replaced by more equitable tests of efficiency, depending on the number of scholars in attendance, the buildings provided for their accommodation, the circumstances of the locality, the qualifications of the teachers, the nature of the instruction given, and the outlay from other sources, such as fees and private endowments or subscriptions. The Educational Codes of the various Provinces are being revised so as to embody these important reforms, and to relieve the schools and scholars from the heavy burden of recurring mechanical tests. In future there will be only two examinations preceding the University course. The first of these, the primary exaniination, will mark the completion of the lowest stage of instruction, and will test the degree of proficiency attained in the highest classes of primary schools. But it will no longer be a public examination held at centres to which a number of schools are summoned; it will be conducted by the inspecting officer in the school itself. The sccond examination will take place at the close of the secondary, usually an Anglo-Vernacular course, and will record the INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 13 educational attainments of all boys who have completed this course. In both stages of instruction special provision will be made for the award of scholarships. In giving effect to this change of system, it will be necessary to guard against the danger that the subordinate inspecting agency may misuse the increased discretion entrusted to them. The principles upon which the grant to an aided school is to be assessed must therefore be laid down by each Local Government in terms sufficiently clear to guide the inspecting officer in his recommendations; precautions must be taken against the abuse of authority, or the perfunctory performance of the duties of inspection; and in those provinces where the application of standards of efficiency other than those afforded by written examinations is a novelty, it will be incumbent upon the Education Department, by conferences of inspecting officers and by other means, to secure a reasonable degree of uniformity in the standards imposed. The Governor General in Council does not doubt that the discipline and ability of the educational services will prove equal to maintaining, under the altered conditions, a system of independent and efficient inspection. 13. From the earliest days of British rule in India private enterprise has played a great Government control and private enterprise. part in the promotion of both English and Vernacular education, and every agency that could be induced to help in the work of imparting sound instruction has always been welcomed by the State. The system of grants-in-aid was intended to elicit support from local resources, and to foster a spirit of initiative and combination for local ends. It is supplemented by the direct action of Government 14 INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. which, speaking generally, sets the standard, and undertakes work to which private effort is not equal, or for which it is not forthcoming. Thus the educational. machinery now at work in India comprises, not only institutions managed by Government, by District and Municipal Boards, and by Native States, but also institutions under private management, whether aided by Government or by local authorities, or unaided. All of these which comply with certain conditions are classed as public institutions. They number, as already stated, 105,306 in all; and over 82,500 are under private management. The progressive devolution of primary, secondary, and collegiate education upon private enterprise, and ihe continuous withdrawal of Government from competition therewith was recommended by the Education Commission in 1883, and the advice has been generally acted upon. But while accepting this policy, the Government of India at the same time recognize the extreme importance of the principle that in each branch of education Government should maintain a limited number of institutions, both as models for private enterprise to follow and in order to uphold a high standard of education. In withdrawing from direct management, it is further essential that Government should retain a general control, by means of efficient inspection, over all public educational institutions. 14. Primary education is the instruction of the masses, through the vernacular, in such sub- Primary education. jects as will best stimulate their intelligence and fit them for their position in life. It was found in 1854 that the consideration of measures to this end had been too much neglected and a considerable INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 15 increase of expenditure on primary education was then contemplated. The Education Commission recommended in 1883 that "the elementary education of the masses, its provision, extension, and improvement should be that part of the educational system to which the strenuous efforts of the State should be directed in a still larger measure than before." The Government of India fully accept the proposition that the active extension of primary education is one of the most important duties of the State. They undertake this responsibility, not merely on general grounds, but because, as Lord Lawrence observed in 1868, among all the sources of difficulty in our administration and of possible danger to the stability of our Government, there are few so serious as the ignorance of the people." To the people themselves, moreover, the lack of education is now a more serious disadvantage than it was in more primitive days. By the extension of railways the economic side of agriculture in India has been greatly developed, and the cultivator has been brought into contact with the commercial world, and has been involved in transactions in which an illiterate man is at a great disadvantage. The material benefits attaching to education have at the same time increased with the development of schemes for introducing improved agricultural methods, for opening agricultural banks, for strengthening the legal position of the cultivator, and for generally improving the conditions of rural life. Such schemes depend largely for their success upon the influence of education permeating the masses and rendering them accessible to ideas other than those sanctioned by tradition. 15. How, then, do matters stand in respect of the extension among the masses of primary education? The population of British India is over two hundred and forty millions. It Its extent.

16 INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. appears that is commonly reckoned that fifteen per cent. of the popula. tion are of school-going age. According to this standard there are more than eighteen millions of boys who ought now to be at school, but of these only a little more than one-sixth are actually receiving primary education. If the statistics are arranged by Provinces, it out of a hundred boys of an age to go to school, the number attending primary schools of some kind ranges from between eight and nine in the Punjab and the United Provinces, to twenty-two and twenty-three in Bombay and Bengal. In the census of 1901 it was found that only one in ten of the male population, and only seven in a thousand of the female population were literate. These figures exhibit the vast dimensions of the problem, and show how much remains to be done before the proportion of the population receiving elementary instruction can approach the standard recognized as indispensable in more advanced countries. 16. While the need for education grows with the growth of population, the progress towards supplying it is not now so rapid as it was in former years. In 1870-71 there were 16,473 schools with 607,320 scholars; in 1881-82 there were 82,916 with 2,061,541 scholars. But by 1891.92 these had only increased to 97,109 schools with 2,837,607 scholars, and the figures of 1901-02 (98,538 schools with 3,268,726 scholars) suggest that the initial force of expansion is somewhat on the decline ; indeed the last year of the century showed a slight decrease as compared with the previous year. For purposes of exact comparison some allowances have to be made for differences in the basis of the statistics, but their broad effect is not altered by these modifications. Nor has the rate of Its progress.

INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 17 growth of primary schools kept pace with that of secondary schools, in which the number of scholars has considerably more than doubled during the last twenty years, It' may be said indeed that the expansion of primary. schools has received a check in recent years from the calamities of famine and plague; and it is further impeded by the indifference of the more advanced and ambitious classes to the spread of primary education. These however are minor obstacles, which would soon be swept away if the main difficulty of finding the requisite funds for extending primary education could be overcome.. 17. The expenditure upon primary education does not admit of exact statement, since the cost of the instruction given in the lower classes of secondary schools is not separately shown, nor is the expenditure on the administration and inspection of primary schools capable of separate calculation. But the direct outlay from public funds upon primary schools stands as follows:- Its cost. 1886-87. 1891.92. 1901-02. From Provincial funds R 16,00,239 R 13,43,343 R 16,92,514 From Local and Municipal 26,07,624 35,86,208 46,10,387 funds. TOTAL 42,07,863 49,29,55 I 63,02,901 18. On a general view of the question the Government of India cannot avoid the conclusion that primary education has hitherto received insufficient attention and an inadequate Its claims.

18 INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. Functions of local authori. tes. share of the public funds. They consider that it possesses a strong claim upon the sympathy both of the Supreme Government and of the Local Governments, and should be made a leading charge upon Provincial revenues; and that in those provinces where it is in a backward condition, its encouragement should be a primary obligation. The Government of India believe that Local Governments are cordially in agreement with them in desiring this extension, and will carry it out to the limits allowed by the financial conditions of each province. 19. In so far as District or Municipal Boards are required to devote their funds to education, primary education should have a predominant claim upon their expenditure. The administration of primary schools by local bodies is already everywhere subject to the general supervision of the Education Department as regards tuitional matters; but the degree of control differs in 'different provinces, and where it is most complete, primary education is most advanced. It is impossible to extend that control to financial matters, as there are other objects besides education which have legitimate claims upon local funds. But it is essential, in order to ensure that the claims of primary education receive due attention, that the educational authorities should be heard when are being allotted, and that they should have the opportunity of carrying their representations to higher authority in the event of their being disregarded. In future, therefore, so much of the budget estimates of District or Municipal Boards as relates to educational charges will be resources INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 19 submitted through the Inspector to the Director of Public Instruction before sanctior. 20. The course of instruction in primary schools naturally consists mainly of reading Courses la primary schools. and writing (in the vernacular) and arithmetic. Progress has been made in several parts of India during recent years in the introduction of Kindergarten methods and object lessons. Where these methods have been applied with discretion by competent teachers, who have discarded elaborate forms and foreign appliances, and have used for the purpose of instr ion objects familiar to the children in their every-day life, they have been productive of much benefit by imparting greater life and reality to the teaching, and by training the children's faculties and powers of observation. The experience which has been gained of Kindergarten teaching in Madras and Bombay has enabled those provinces to effect steady advances in the system; a complete scheme has been drawn up for Bengal, for the introduction of which teachers are being trained; and a manual of the subject is being prepared in the Punjab, where well designed courses of object lessons are already given. The Government of India look with favour upon the extension of such teaching, where competent teachers are available, as calculated to correct some of the inherent defects of the Indian intellect, to discourage exclusive reliance on the to develop a capacity for reasoning from observed facts. Physical exercises also find a place in the primary schools, and should as far as possible be made universal. A series of native exercises, systematized for the use of schools, has been adopted in the Central Provinces, and has been memory, and 20 INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. commended to the attention of the other Local Govern, ments. 21. The instruction of the masses in such subjects as will best fit them for their position Rural primary schools. in life involves some differentiation in the courses for rural schools, especially in connection with the attempts which are being made to connect primary teaching with familiar objects. In Bombay a separate course of instruction, with standards of its own, is prescribed. In the Central Provinces a system of half-time schools has been successfully established, providing simple courses of instruction in the mornings for the children of agriculturists, who work in the fields during the rest of the day. This system seems worthy of imitation elsewhere; at present a similar experiment made in the Punjab has met with less success. The aim of the rural schools should be, not to impart definite agricultural teaching, but to give to the children a preliminary training which will make them intelligent cultivators, will train them to be observers, thinkers, and experimenters in however humble a manner, and will protect them in their business transactions with the landlords to whom they pay rent and the grain dealers to whom they dispose of their crops. The reading books prescribed should be written in simple language, not in unfamiliar literary style, and should deal with topics associated with rural life. The grammar taught should be elementary, and only native systems of arithmetic should be used. The village map should be thoroughly understood; and a most useful course of instruction may be given in the accountant's papers, enabling every boy before leaving school to master the intricacies of the village accounts INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. a and to understand the demands that may be made upon the cultivator. The Government of India regard it as matter of the greatest importance to provide a simple, suitable, and useful type of school for the agriculturist, and to foster the demand for it among the population. This and other reforms in primary schools will involve some revision of the pay of primary teachers which varies greatly, and in some provinces is too small to attract or to retain a satisfactory class of men. Thus in Bengal the rates fall as low as R5 per month, while the average pay in the Bombay Presidency rises to R17 and R18. The matter has been under consideration, and improvements will be made where they are most needed. 22. The growth of secondary instruction is one of the most striking features in the Secondary education. history of education in India. The number of secondary schoois has risen in the last twenty years from 3,916 to 5,493 and that of their pupils from 214,077 to 558,378. In all provinces there is considerable eagerness among parents to afford their sons an English education, and the provision and maintenance of a high school are common objects of liberality among all sections of the community. Whether these schools are managed by public authority or by private persons, and whether they receive aid from public funds or not, the Government is bound in the interest of the community to see that the education provided in them is sound. It must, for example, satisfy itself in each case that a secondary school is actually wanted; that its financial stability is assured; that its managing body, where there is one, is properly constituted; that it teaches the proper subjects up to a proper standard ; that due provision has been 29 INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. made for the instruction, health, recreation, and discipline of the pupils; that the teachers are suitable as regards character, number, and qualifications; and that the fees to be paid will not involve such competition with any existing school as will be unfair and injurious to the interests.of education. Such are the conditions upon which alone schools should be eligible to receive grantsin-aid or to send up pupils to compete for or receive pupils in enjoyment of Government scholarships; and schools complying with them will be ranked as recognized" schools. But this is not sufficient. It is further essential that no institution which fails to conform to the elementary principles of sound education should be permitted to present pupils for the University examinations ; and in future admission to the Universities should be restricted to bond fide private candidates and to candidates from recognized schools. In this way the schools which enjoy the valuable privilege of recognition will in return give guarantees of efficiency in its wider sense and the public will be assisted in their choice of schools for their children by knowing that a school which is "recognized” is one which complies with certain definite conditions. 23. It is frequently urged that the courses of study in secondary schools are too literary in their character. The same complaint is otherwise expressed by saying that the high school courses are almost exclusively preparatory to the University Entrance Examination, and take insufficient account of the fact that most of the scholars do not proceed to the University, and require some different course of instruction. Attempts have therefore been made, in pursuance of the recommenda- INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 23 tions of the Education Commission, to introduce alternative courses, analogous to what is known in England as a “modern side," in order to meet the needs of those boys who are destined for industrial or commercial pursuits. These attempts have not hitherto met with success. The purely literary course, qualifying as it does both for the University and for Government employ, continues to attract the great majority of pupils, and more practical studies are at present but little in request. The Government of India, however, will not abandon their aim. In the present stage of social and industrial development it appears to them essential to promote diversified types of secondary education, corresponding with the varying needs of practical life. Their efforts in this direction will be seconded by that large body of influential opinion which has supported the recommendation of the Universities Commission that the, Entrance Examination should no longer be accepted as a qualifying test for Government service. 24. But the question what subjects should be taught and by fwhat means proficiency in School final examination. them should be tested forms only a part of the larger problem of the true object of secondary education. Whatever courses a school may adopt it should aim at teaching them well and intelligently, and at producing pupils who have fully assimilated the knowledge which they have acquired, and are capable of more sustained effort than is involved in merely passing an examination. Some test of course there must be ; and the Government of India are disposed to think that the best solution of the difficulty will probably be found in adapting to Indian conditions the system of leaving 24 INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. examinations, held: at the conclusion of the secondary course, which has been tried with success in other countries. Such examinations would not dominate the courses of study, but would be adapted to them, and would form the natural culminating point of secondary education : a point not to be reached by sudden and spasmodic effort, but by the orderly development of all the faculties of the mind under good and trained teaching. They would be of a more searching character than the present Entrance test, and the certificate given at their close would be evidence that the holder had received a sound education in a recognized school, that he had borne a good character, and that he had really learnt what the school professed to have taught him. It would thus possess a definite value, and would deserve recognition not only by Government and the Universities but also by the large body of private employers who are in want of well-trained assistants in their various lines of activity. 25. The remark has often been made that the extension in India of an education modelled upon European principles, and, so far as Government institutions are concerned, purely secular in its character, has stimulated tendencies unfavourable to discipline, and has encouraged the growth of a spirit of irrev erence in the rising generation. If any schools or colleges produce this result, they fail to realize the object with which they are established-of promoting the moral no less than the intellectual and physical wellbeing of their students. It is the settled policy of Government to abstain from interfering with the religious instruction given in aided schools. Many of these maintained by native managers or by missionary bodies in Ethics of education.

INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 25 any formal various parts of the Empire, supply religious and ethical instruction to complete the educational training of their scholars. In Government institutions the instruction is, and must continue to be, exclusively secular. In such cases the remedy for the evil tendencies noticed above is to be sought, not so much in methods of teaching conduct by means of moral textbooks or primers of personal ethics, as in the influence of carefully selected and trained teachers, the maintenance of a high standard of discipline, the institution of well-managed hostels, the proper selection of textbooks, such as biographies, which teach by example, and above all in the association of teachers and pupils in the common interests of their daily life. Experience has further shown that discipline and conduct are sure to decline when the competition between schools is carried so far as to allow scholars to migrate from one school to another without inquiry being made as to their conduct at their previous school and their reasons for leaving it. Rules have accordingly been framed regulating the admission of scholars to Government and aided schools and their promotion on transfer from one school to another so as to secure that a record of their conduct shall be maintained and that irregularities and breaches of discipline shall not pass unnoticed. These rules will now be extended to all unaided schools which desire to enjoy the benefits of recognition. 26. Except in certain of the larger towns of Madras, where, like Urdu in Northern India, Languages in schools. it serves to some extent the purpose of a lingua franca, English has no place, and should have no place, in the scheme of primary education. It D 26 INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. has never been part of the policy of Government to substitute the English language for the vernacular dialects of the country. It is true that the commercial value which a knowledge of English commands, and the fact that the final examinations of the high schools are conducted in English, cause the secondary schools to be subjected to a certain pressure to introduce prematurely both the teaching of English as a language and its use as the medium of instruction; while for the same reasons the study of the vernacular in these schools is liable to be thrust into the back-ground. This tendency however requires to be corrected in the interest of sound education. As a general rule a child should not be allowed to learn English as a language until he has made some progress in the primary stages of instruction and has received a thorough grounding in his mother tongue. It is equally important that when the teaching of English has begun, it should not be prematurely employed as the medium of instruction in other subjects. Much of the practice, too prevalent in Indian schools, of committing to memory ill-understood phrases and extracts from text-books or notes, may be traced to the scholars having received instruction through the medium of English before their knowledge of the language was sufficient to enable them to understand what they were taught. The line of division between the use of the vernacular and of English as a medium of instruction should, broadly speaking, be drawn at minimum age of 13 No scholar in a secondary school should, even then, be allowed to abandon the study of his vernacular, which should be kept up until the end of the school course. If the educated classes neglect the cultivation of their own languages, these will assuredly sink to a INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 37 Female education, the level of mere colloquial dialects possessing no literature worthy of the name, and no progress will be possible in giving effect to the principle, affirmed in the Despatch of 1854, that European knowledge should gradually be brought, by means of the Indian vernaculars, within the reach of all classes of the people. 27. In their efforts to promote female education the Government have always encountered peculiar difficulties arising from the social customs of the people; but they have acted on the view that through female education a "far greater proportional impulse is imparted to the educational and moral tone of the people than by the education of men,” and have accordingly treated this branch of education liberally in respect of scholarships and fees. Nevertheless though some advance has been made, female education as a whole is still in a very backward condition. The number of female scholars in public schools in the year 1901-02 was 444,470, or less than a ninth of the number of male scholars. The percentage of girls in public schools to the total female population of school-going age has risen from 1'58 in the year 1886- 87 to 2:49 in 1901-02. This rate of progress is slow. The Education Commission made recommendations for the extension of female education, and the Government of India hope that with the increase of the funds assigned in aid of education their proposals may be more fully carried out. The measures which are now being taken for further advance include the establishment in important centres of model primary girls' schools, an increase in the number of training schools, with more liberal assistance to those already in existence, and a strengthening D 2 28 INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. University education. of the staff of inspectresses. The direct action of Government will be exerted in cases where that of the municipalities and local boards does not suffice. Nearly onehalf of the girls in public schools are in mixed boys'- girls' schools. Their attendance along with boys is often beneficial to them, especially in village schools, and nothing in the report of the Commission of 1882 need be taken as indicating that such attendance ought to be discouraged. Great assistance is rendered to the cause of female education generally by missionary effort, and in the higher grades especially by zenana teaching. The Government of India desire that such teaching shall be encouraged by grants-in-aid. 28. In founding the Universities of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras, the Government of India of that day took as their model the type of institution then believed to be best suited to the educational conditions of India, that is to say, the examining University of London. Since then the best educational thought of Europe has shown an increasing tendency to realize the inevitable shortcomings of a purely examining University, and the London University itself has taken steps to enlarge the scope of its operations by assuming tuitional functions, The model, in fact, has parted with its most characteristic features, and has set an example of expansion which cannot fail to react upon the corresponding institutions in India. Meanwhile the Indian experience of the last fifty years has proved that a system which provides merely for examining students in those subjects to which their aptitudes direct them, and does not at the same time compel them to study those subjects INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 29 systematically under first-rate instruction, tends inevit. ably to accentuate certain characteristic defects of the Indian intellect :--the development of the memory out of all proportion to the other faculties of the mind, the incapacity to observe and appreciate facts, and the taste for metaphysical and technical distinctions. Holding it to be the duty of a Government which has made itself responsible for education in India to do everything in its power to correct these shortcomings, the Governor General in Council two years ago appointed a Commission, with the Hon'ble Mr. T. Raleigh as President, to report upon the constitution and working of the Univer-' sities, and to recommend measures for elevating the standard of University teaching and promoting the advancement of learning. After full consideration of the report of this Commission, and of the criticisms which it called forth, the Government of India have come to the conclusion that certain reforms in the constitution and management of the Universities are necessary. They propose that the Senates, which from various causes have grown to an unwieldy size, should be reconstituted on a working basis and that the position and powers of the syndicates should be defined and regulated. Opportunity will be taken to give a statutory recognition to the privilege of electing members of the Senate which, since 1891, has been con: ceded by way of experiment to the graduates of the three older Universities. A limit will be placed upon the number of ex-officio fellows; and a reduction will be made in the maximum numbers of the Senates so as to restrict nominations to those bodies to the persons well qualified to discharge their responsible duties. Powers will be conferred upon all the Universities to make suitable 30 INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. provision for University teaching. The teaching given in colleges will, instead of being tested mainly or wholly by external examinations, be liable to systematic inspection under the authority of the Syndicate ; and the duty of the University not only to demand a high educational standard from any new college that desires to be recommended to Government for affiliation, but also gradually to enforce a similar standard in colleges already affiliated, will be carefully defined. A college applying for affiliation will be required to satisfy the University and the Government that it is under the management of a regularly constituted governing body ; that its teaching staff is adequate for the courses of instruction undertaken ; that the buildings and equipment are suitable, and that due provision is made for the residence and supervision of the students; that, so far as circumstances permit, due provision is made for the residence of some of the teaching staff; that the financial resources of the college are sufficient ; that its affiliation, having regard to the provision for students made by neighbouring colleges, will not be injurious to the interests of education or discipline; and that the fees to be paid by the students will not involve competition injurious to the interests of education with any existing college in the same neighbourhood. Colleges already affiliated will be inspected regularly and will be required to show that they continue to comply with the conditions on which the privilege of affiliation is granted. The necessary improvements in the Universities and their affiliated colleges cannot be carried out without financial aid. This the Government of India are prepared to give; and they trust that it will be possible to afford liberal recognition and assistance to genuine effort on the part of the colleges to i INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 31 and Eurasians in India. adapt themselves to the new conditions. They also hope that this increase of expenditure from the public, funds may be accompanied by an increase in the aid given to colleges and Universities by private liberality, so that the policy of progressive development which was adopted in 1854 may be consistently followed, and that the influence of the improved Universities may be felt throughout the educational system of the country. 29. The problem of the education of European and Eurasian children in India has been Education of Europeans anxiously considered by the Government of India on many occasions. As long ago as 1860 Lord Canning wrote that if measures for educating this class were not promptly and vigorously taken in hand, it would grow into a profitless and unmanageable community, a source of danger rather than of strength to the State. Since then repeated efforts have been made both by the Government and by private agency to place the question on a satisfactory basis by establishe ing schools of various grades, both in the plains and in the hills, by giving liberal grants-in-aid, and by framing a code of regulations applicable to all forms of instruction that the circumstances require. As a result of this action there are now more than 400 schools and colleges for Europeans in India, with nearly 30,000 scholars, costing annually 42) lakhs, of which 81 lakhs are contributed by public funds. Notwithstanding the expenditure incurred, recent quiries have shown that a large proportion of these schools are both financially and educationally in an unsatisfactory condition. Munificent endowments still support flourishing schools in certain places; but in some cases these endowments have been reduced by mismanagement; and of the schools are unable to support themselves ir efficiency upon the fees of the scholars and the grants entoo many 32 INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. made by Government on the scale hitherto in force. Their most conspicuous want is well qualified teachers, especially in schools for boys; and this cannot be met so long as their financial position precludes them from offering to the members of their staff fair salaries, security of tenure, and reasonable prospects of advancement. The Government in its turn is interested in maintaining a sufficient supply of well educated Europeans to fill some of the posts for which officers are recruited in India; while without efficient schools the domiciled community must degenerate rapidly in this country. The Government of India are taking steps to ascertain and to supply the chief defects in the system. A single Inspector in each of the provinces is being charged especially with the duty of inspecting European schools; a Training College for teachers in these schools is to be established at Allahabad, and stipends are to be provided for the students; a register of teachers will be formed, and, in future, no one will be employed without proper tuitional qualifications. The systems, both of grants-inaid and of scholarships, are being revised on a more liberal basis; and more intelligent methods of testing efficiency are to be substituted for the rigid system of departmental examinations which has hitherto prevailed. Measures will also be taken to secure the proper administration of endowments and to enforce sound methods of financial control in those schools which depend upon Government for assistance. 30. During the last thirty years the idea that the Chiefs' Colleges. changed conditions of Indian life demand a change in the traditional modes of education, has found acceptance amongst the ruling Chiefs of Native States. Chiefs' Colleges have been established, of which the most important are those INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 33 at Ajmer, Rajkot, and Lahore, where some of the features of the English public school system have been reprogluced, with the object of fitting young Chiefs and Nobles physically, morally, and intellectually for the responsibilities that lie before them. Convinced of the great importance of promoting this object, His Excellency the Viceroy has closely examined the organization and conduct of these colleges, which appeared to admit of improvement, and has placed before the ruling Chiefs proposals of a comprehensive character for their reform. An increase will be made in the number of tr-achers of high qualifications to be engaged upon the staff; and in regulating the studies and discipline of the colleges, the aim kept in view throughout will be the preparation of the sons of ruling Chiefs for the duties which await them, on 'lines which will combine the advantages of Western knowledge with loyalty to the traditions and usages of their families or States. The proposals have been received by the Chiefs with satisfaction; the interest of the aristocratic classes has been universally aroused in the scheme; and the institution of the Imperial Cadet Corps, which will in the main be recruited from these colleges, will assist to keep this interest alive. The Governor General in Council confidently hopes that the reforms now in course of execution will result in giving a great impetus to the cause of education among the Indian nobility. 31. Technical education in India has hitherto been mainly directed to the higher forms of instruction required to train men for Government service as engineers, mechanicians, electricians, overseers, surveyors, revenue officers or teachers in schools, and for employment in railway workshops, Technical education.

34 INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. cotton-mills, and mines. The institutions which have been establighed for these purposes, such as the Engineering Colleges at Rurki, Sibpur, and Madras, the Colleges of Science at Poona, the Technical Institute at Bombay, and the Engineering School at Jubbulpur, have done and are doing valuable work, and their maintenance and further development are matters of great importance. The first call for fresh effort is now towards the development of Indian industries, and especially of those in which native capital may be invested. Technical instruction directed to this object must rest upon the basis of a preliminary general education of a simple and practical kind, which should be clearly distinguished from the special teaching that is to be based upon it, and should as a rule be imparted in schools of the ordinary type. In fixing the aim of the technical schools, the supply or expansion of the existing Indian markets is of superior importance to the creation of new export trades, and a clear line should be drawn between educational effort and commercial enterprise. As a step towards providing men qualified to take a leading part in the improvement of Indian industries, the Government of India have determined to give assistance in the form of scholarships to selected students to enable them to pursue a course of technical education under supervision in Europe or America. They hope that the technical schools of India may in time produce a regular supply of young men qualified to take advantage of such facilities, and that the goodwill and interest of the commercial community may be enlisted in the selection of industries to be studied, in finding the most suitable students for foreign training, and in turning their attainments to practical account upon their return to this INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 35 Schools of Art. country. The experience which has been gained in Japan and Siam of the results of sending young men abroad for study justifies the belief that the system will also be beneficial to Indian trade. 32. There are four Schools of Art in British India, at Madras, Bombay, Calcutta, and Lahore. The aims to be pursued in them, and the methods proper to those aims, have been the subject of much discussion during recent years. The Government of India are of opinion that the true function of Indian Schools of Art is the encouragement of Indian Art and Art industries; and that in so far as they fail to promote these arts or industries, or provide a training that is dissociated from their future practice, or are utilized as commercial ventures, they are conducted upon erroneous principles. Their first object should be to teach such arts or art industries as the pupil intends to pursue when he has left the school. Examples of the arts which may thus be taught to those who will practice them professionally in future, or to drawing masters, -designing (with special reference to Indian arts and industries), drawing, painting, illumination, modelling, photography, and engraving. The Art industries taught in Schools of Art should be such as are capable of being carried on in the locality, and in which improvement can be effected by instructing pupils or workmen by means of superior appliances, methods, or designs. Instruction in these arts or art industries should be directed to their expansion through the improvement of the skill and capacity of the pupil or workman, but it should not be pushed to the point of competing with local industries, of doing within the school what can equally well be done outside, are 36 INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. or of usurping the sphere of private enterprise. The schools should not be converted into shops, nor should the officers of the Education Department be responsible for extensive commercial transactions; but samples of the wares produced may legitimately be kept, for sale or for orders, and may be exhibited in public museums. A register of the workmen or pupils trained in school should be kept, with the object of enabling orders which may be received to be placed with advantage. The teaching should be in the hands of experts, trained as a rule in Indian Colleges or in Art Schools. The specialization of a limited number of arts and art industries in the several schools should be preferred to the simultaneous teaching of a large number. Free admission and scholarships should, as a general rule, be discouraged, and should gradually be replaced by payment of fees; but this is compatible with giving necessary assistance to promising pupils, and with the payment of wages to students as soon as their work becomes of value. 33. Industrial schools are intended to train intelligent artizans or foremen, and to further Industrial Schools. or develop those local industries which are capable of expansion by the application of improved methods or implements. Schools of this type are not numerous, nor have they at present succeeded in doing much to promote the growth of industries. A recent enumeration gives their total number as 123, with 8,405 pupils in attendance, and the number of different trades taught as 48. Some are conducted by Government, either as separate institutions or attached to Schools of Art, while others are managed by local authorities, or by private persons under a system of grants-in-aid. Their INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 37 shortcomings are obvious and admitted. A large proportion of the pupils who attend them have no intention of practising the trade they learn, but pass into clerical and other employments, using the industrial schools merely in order to obtain that general education which they could acquire in ordinary schools at less cost to the State, but at greater cost to themselves. Even for those who do intend to follow the trades taught in the industrial schools, it is feared that in some cases the teaching given does not provide a training of a sufficiently high standard to enable them to hold their own with artizans who have learnt their craft in the bazaar. The industries selected are frequently not those which are locally of most importance, and there is an undue predominance of carpentry and blacksmiths' work amongst them. 34. An attempt will now be made to remedy these defects. The Government of India do not expect a large immediate increase in the number of industrial schools, and they desire rather to encourage experiment than to prescribe fixed types for this form of education. Admission will be confined to those boys who are known by their caste or occupation to be likely to practise in afterlife the handicrafts taught in the schools, and the courses of study will be so ordered as not to lend themselves to the manufacture of clerks, but to bear exclusively upon carefully selected industries. A distinction will be drawn between those types of school which will be suitable for the large centres of industry, where capital is invested on a great scale and the need of trained artizans is already recognized by the employers, and those adapted to places where hand industries prevail and where the belief in the value of technical training has yet to make its way. In 38 INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. Commercial education. the former the prospects are favourable for the establishment of completely equipped trade schools, such as are found in other countries; in the latter, search has still to be made for the kind of institution which will take root in Indian soil. Suggestions for experiment based upon observation of the habits and tendencies of Indian artizans have been placed before the Local Governments. They will be pursued further under the advice of skilled experts in particular industries. 35. A system of education intended to impart “useful and practical knowledge, suitable to every station in life," cannot be considered complete without ampler provision than exists at present in India for school training definitely adapted to commercial life. There is at present no University course of training of a specialized description for business men; in the field of secondary education the establishment of examinations and the inclusion of commercial subjects in the optional lists of subjects for examination have outstripped the progress made in the organization of courses of instruction. The beginnings which have been made at Bombay, Lucknow, Calicut, Amritsar, and elsewhere, show that the attempt to provide suitable courses meets with encouraging response ; and increased attention will now be given to the extension of such teaching in large centres of commerce and population. The proper development of the teaching demands that it should be adapted to Indian needs, and should not be based merely upon English text-books. The London Chamber of Commerce examinations supply a convenient test for those pupils (especially Europeans) who are likely to proceed to England. Commercial courses, INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 39 leading up to this or other examinations, are now being placed upon an equality with purely literary courses as a qualification for Government service. But their chief aim will be to supply practical training for those who are to enter business houses either in a superior or subordinate capacity. Registers will be kept of the pupils who have been so trained, and endeavours will be made to find employment for them by communication with Chambers of Commerce and mercantile firms. The Government of India trust that they may look for the co-operation of the mercantile community in framing suitable courses of instruction, and in giving preference in selecting employés to those who have qualified themselves by directing their studies towards those subjects which will be useful in commercial life. 36. For a country where two-thirds of the population are dependent for their livelihood Agricultural education. on the produce of the soil, it must be admitted that the provision for agricultural education in India is at present meagre and stands in serious need of expansion and reorganization. At Poona in Bombay and Saidapet in Madras there are colleges teaching a three years' course, which is fairly satisfactory at Poona, though the staff is hardly strong enough, while at Saidapet the training is somewhat defective on the practical side. In the United Provinces the school at Cawnpore has a two years' course, especially intended for the training of subordinate revenue officials in which direction it has done and is doing very good work, but the teaching staff is weak and the equipment inadequate. At Nagpur a school with a two years' course gives good practical education, and special arrangements are made for a 40 INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. vernacular class for sons of landowners and others. Bengal has added to the Engineering College at Sibpur, near Calcutta, classes which give a two years' agricultural training to students who have taken their B.A. degree at the University or have passed the F.E, standard in the college ; but the conditions are not such as to admit of a thoroughly satisfactory course. In the Punjab and Burma no attempt has as yet been made to teach agriculture. In all these institutions instruction is given almost entirely in English, and until advanced text-books have been compiled in the vernacular this must continue to be the case in all but the most elementary classes. 37. At present, therefore, while the necessity for developing the agricultural resources of the country is generally recognized, India possesses no institution capable of imparting a complete agricultural education. The existing schools and colleges have not wholly succeeded, either in theory or in practice. They have neither produced scientific experts, nor succeeded in attracting members of the land-holding classes to qualify themselves as practical agriculturists. Both of these defects must be supplied before any real progress can be looked for. In the first place an organization must be created by which men qualified to carry on the work of research, and to raise the standard of teaching, can be trained in India itself. Before agriculture can be adequately taught in the vernacular, suitable text-books must be produced, and this can only be done by men who have learnt the subject in English. The Government of India have therefore under their consideration a scheme for the establishment of an Imperial Agricultural College in connection with an Experimental Farm and Research Laboratory, to INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 41 be carried on under the general direction of the Inspector General of Agriculture, at which it is intended to provide a thorough training in all branches of agricultural science combined with constant practice in farming work and estate management. In addition to shorter courses for those students who are intended for lower posts, there will be courses of instruction extending to five years, which will qualify men to fill posts in the Department of Agriculture itself, such as those of Assistant Directors, Research Experts, Superintendents of Farms, Professors, Teachers, and Managers of Court of Wards and Encumbered Estates. It is hoped that a demand may arise among the landowning classes for men with agricultural attainments and that the proposed institution may succeed in meeting that demand. Arrangements will also be made to admit to the higher courses those who have undergone preliminary training at the Provincial colleges and thereby to exercise upon those colleges an influence tending gradually to raise their standard of efficiency. 38. If the teaching in secondary schools is to be raised to a higher level, -- if the Training colleges. pupils are to be cured of their tendency to rely upon learning notes and text-books by heart, if, in a word, European knowledge is to be diffused by the methods proper to it,-then it is most necessary that the teachers should themselves be trained in the art of teaching. Even in England divided counsels have till recent times prevented due progress from being made with this most essential condition of the reform of secondary education. The Indian Education Commission referred to the conflict of opinion 'upon this fundamental principle, and to the diversity of practice which prevailed ;. and B 42 INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. while hesitating to lay down a general rule requiring secondary teachers to be trained, recommended "as an inadequate, but the only practicable alternative," that an examination in the principles and practice of teaching should be instituted, success in which should hereafter be made a condition of permanent employment as a teacher in any secondary school. Other and larger views of the subject are now in the ascendant, and the Government of India are glad to know that the principle of providing training institutions for secondary teachers meets with universal acceptance among the Local Governments and Administrations. There already exist at Madras, Kurseong, Allahabad, Lahore, and Jubbulpore, institutions in which students are trained for service as teachers in the highest classes of secondary schools. Such students have either passed the Entrance or the Intermediate Examination of the University or are graduates. These institutions have done good work, and the time has come to extend the system to the provinces where it does not exist, notably Bombay, and to endeavour to create a supply of trained teachers which shall be adequate to the needs of the secondary schools throughout the country. Not only must the supply be increased, but the quality of the training given must be improved. 39. The details of the measures taken with that object are already engaging the attention of the various Local Governments. But the general But the general principles upon which the Government of India desire to see the training institutions developed are these. An adequate staff of well-trained members of the Indian Educational Service is required, and for this purpose it will be necessary to enlist more men of ability and experience in the work of INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 43 i higher training. The equipment of a Training College for secondary teachers is at least as important as that of an Arts College, and the work calls for the exercise of abilities as great as those required in any branch of the Educational Service. The period of training for students must be at least two years, except in the case of graduates, for whom one year's training may suffice. For the graduates the course of instruction will be chiefly directed towards imparting to them a knowledge of the principles which underlie the art of teaching, and some degree of technical skill in the practice of the art. It should be a University course, culminating in a University degree or diploma. For the others, the course should embrace the extension, consolidation, and revision of their general studies; but the main object should be to render them capable teachers, and no attempt should be made to prepare them for any higher external examination. The scheme of instruction should be determined by the authorities of the Training College and by the Education Department; and the examination at the close of it should be controlled by the same authorities. The training in the theory of teaching should be closely associated with its practice, and for this purpose good practising schools should be attached to each college, and should be under the control of the same authority. The practising school should be fully equipped with well trained teachers, and the students should see examples of the best teaching, and should teach under capable supervision. It is desirable that the Training College should be furnished with a good library, and with a museum in which should be exhibited samples, models, illustrations, or records of the school work of the province. Every possible care should E 2 44 INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. mary teachers. be taken to maintain a connection between the Training College and the school, so that the student off leaving the college and entering upon his career as a teacher may not neglect to practise the methods which he has been taught, and may not (as sometimes happens) be prevented from doing so and forced to fall into line with the more mechanical methods of his untrained colleagues. The trained students whom the college has sent out should be occasionally brought together again, and the inspecting staff should co-operate with the Training College authorities in seeing that the influence of the college makes itself felt in the schools. 40. The institution of Normal Schools for primary Tralaing schools for pri. teachers, which was enjoined by the Despatch of 1854, has been very generally carried out. Recent enquiries into the sufficiency of their number have shown that an increase is called for lin some provinces, notably in Bengal; and provision is being made for this increase, its possibility depending partly upon the salaries paid to primary teachers being sufficient to induce men to undergo a course of training. The usual type of normal school is a boarding school, where students who have received a vernacular education are maintained by stipends and receive further general education, combined with instruction in the methods of teaching, and practice in teaching, under supervision. The course differs in length in the different provinces. In future it will as a general rule be for not less than two years. 41. Steps are also being taken to supply courses of training specially suited for teachers of rural schools. These do not attempt the impossible task of reforming INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 45 the agricultural practice of the peasantry by the agency of village school masters imbued with a smattering of scientific theory. They serve the more limited and praca tical purpose of supplying the village schools with teachers whose stock.in-trade is not mere book learning, and whose interests have been aroused in the study of rural things, so that they may be able to connect their teaching with the objects which are familiar to the children in the country schools. Various plans are being tried, such as drafting the teachers from the normal school to a Government farm and training them there for six months, or giving a continuous course at the normal school itself by means of lectures combined with practice in cultivating · plots of ground or school gardens. Experience will show which methods work best in different provinces, and it is not necessary to pronounce in favour of one plan to the exclusion of others. 42. Great importance is attached by the Government of India to the provision of hostels or boarding-houses, under proper super vision, in connection with colleges and secondary schools. These institutions protect the students who live in them from the moral dangers of life in large towns; they provide common interests and create a spirit of healthy companionship; and they are in accord not only with the usage of English public schools and colleges but also with the ancient Indian tradition that the pupil should live in the charge of his teacher. Missionary bodies have joined with alacrity in the extension of this movement. The credit for the first hostel established in India is claimed by the Madras Christian College, which still continues to add others; and a striking example of the success of the Hostels.

46 INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. residential system is to be found in the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh. The Local Governments have been active both in ſounding hostels for Government colleges and schools and in aiding their provision. In Madras at the present time a large hostel, the result of private munificence aided by Government, is nearing completion ; in Bombay, Calcutta, Allahabad, and Lahore signs are to be seen of the growth of similar institutions. The returns for the year 1901-02 showed that there were then 1,415 hostels, with 47,302 boarders; while the extent to which they derive their funds from sources independent of Government is made clear by the fact that more than two-fifths of the boarders were in unaided hostels, and that of the total expenditure upon all hostels, ten lakhs were derived from subscriptions and endowments, as compared with two lakhs sixty-three thousand rupees from public funds. The Government of India believe that the system of hostels, if extended with due regard for its essential principles, which include direct supervision by resident teachers, is destined to exercise a profound influence on student life in India and to correct many of the shortcomings which now attend our educational methods. 43. The reduction in the number of examinations which is being carried out, and the Inspecting staff. general raising of educational standards which is contemplated, demand an increased stringency in inspection and a substantial strengthening of the inspecting staff. In the Despatch of 1854, it was enjoined that inspectors should "conduct, or assist at, the examination of the scholars and generally, by their advice, aid the managers and schoolmasters in conduct- .

INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 47 ing colleges and schools of every description throughout the country.” The latter function is no less important than the former, and calls for wider educational knowledge, greater initiative, and the exercise of a wise discretion in adapting means to ends. It is a task which will provide worthy occupation for men who are imbued with the best traditions in the matter of school management, and it is through the influence of such men alone that there is any real prospect of its accomplishment. Their assistance can only be enlisted by increasing the cadre of the Indian Educational Service. Some additions in the lower branches of the inspectorate are also needed in order to provide for a complete system of inspection in situ instead of collective examinations. The Government of India do not require that inspectors should be precluded from having recourse to examination as a means of inspection ; but they desire that inspectors should be much more than mere examiners. They should not only judge the results of teaching, but should guide and advise as to its methods; and it is essential that they should be familiar with the schools in their ordinary working conditions. The work of schools should be defined with reference rather to the courses of instruction followed than to the examinations that have to be passed, and rigid uniformity either in the arrangement of subjects or in the classification of the scholars should be avoided, free play being given to the proper adaptation of the working of the schools to their local circumstances. 44. The more active and progressive policy that is now being adopted in educational matters will throw a constantly increasing burden of work and responsibility upon the Administration.

48 INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. Directors of Public Instruction. The wider the influence chat these officers exercise, the more essential is it that they should not be prevented by the growth of their routine duties from making frequent tours of inspection and thus acquiring a direct and intimate knowledge of the educational conditions of their provinces and the circuinstances of the numerous schools under their control. Four officers are therefore to be added to the Indian Educational Service, in order to provide the Directors of Public Instruction in Madras, Bombay, Bengal, and the United Provinces with assistants upon whom part of their duties may be devolved. Arrangements will also be made for periodical meetings of the Directors in conference, in order that they may compare their experience of the results of different methods of work, and may discuss matters of common interest. 45. The Education Department is divided into the superior and the subordinate services. Educational services. The superior service consists of two branches, called respectively the Indian and the Provincial Educational Services, of which the former is recruited in England and the latter in India. The opportunities and responsibilities which work in the Department brings to an officer of this service give scope for a wide range of intellectual activity. Such an officer takes an active part in the profoundly interesting experiment of introducing an Eastern people to Western knowledge and modern methods of research; he comes into contact with the remains of an earlier civilization and the traditions of ancient learning; he can choose between the career of a professor and that of an educational administrator ; and in either capacity he has great opportunity of exercising personal influence and INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 49 promoting the best interests of genuine education. In order that members of the Indian Educational Service may keep themselves abreast of the advances which are now being made in other countries in the science of education, facilities are given to them while on furlough to study the theory and practice of all branches of education both in England and in other parts of the world. The part, already considerable, that is taken by natives of India in the advancement of their countrymen in modern methods of intellectual training will, it is hoped, assume an even greater importance in the future. If the reforms now contemplated in the whole system of instruction are successfully carried out, it may be expected that the Educational Service will offer steadily increasing attractions to the best educational talent. Where the problems to be solved are so complex, and the interests at stake so momentous, India is entitled to ask for the highest intellect and culture that either English or Indian seats of learning can furnish for her needs. 46. The Governor General in Council has now passed in review the history and progress of Western education under British rule in India, the objects which it seeks to accomplish, and the means which it employs. It has been shown how indigenous methods of instruction were tried and found wanting; how in 1854 the broad outlines of a comprehensive scheme of national education were for the first time determined; how the principles then accepted have been consistently followed ever since; how they were affirmed by the Education Commission of 1882, and how they are now being further extended and developed, in Conclusion.

50 INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. response to the growing needs of the country by the combined efforts of the Government of India and the Provincial Governments. The system of education thus extended makes provision in varying degrees for all forms of intellectual activity that appeal to a civilized community. It seeks to satisfy the aspirations of students in the domains of learning and research ; it supplies the Government with a succession of upright and intelligent public servants ; it trains workers in every branch of commercial enterprise that has made good its footing in India; it attempts to develop the resources of the country and to stimulate and improve indigenous arts and industries; it offers to all classes of society a training suited to their position in life; and for these ends it is organized on lines which admit of indefinite expansion as the demand for education grows and public funds or private liberality afford a larger measure of support. It rests with the people themselves to make a wise use of the opportunities that are offered to them and to realise that education in the true sense means something more than the acquisition of so much positive knowledge, something higher than the mere passing of examinations, that it aims at the progressive and orderly development of all the faculties of the mind, that it should form character and teach right conduct—that it is, in fact, a preparation for the business of life. If this essential truth is overlooked or imperfectly appreciated, the labours of the Government of India to elevate the standard of education in this country and to inspire it with higher ideals will assuredly fail to produce substantial and enduring results. Those labours have been undertaken in the hope that they will command the hearty support of the INDIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 51 leaders of native thought and of the great body of workers in the field of Indian Education. On them the Governor General in Council relies to carry on and complete a task which the Government can do no more than begin. G. I. C. P. 0.-No. 7463 H. D.-10-3-04-2,500-). E, F.

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Indian Educational Policy