high and middle English schools, only 286 are government institutions. These figures, however, cover many types of schools, from the most efficient to the least efficient. Admirable schools have been and are maintained by missionaries and other bodies. But the underlying idea of the grant-system, the subvention of local organised effort, has not always been maintained. Schools of a money-making type, ill-housed, ill-equipped, and run on the cheapest lines, have in certain cases gained recognition and eluded the control of inspection. Schools have sprung into existence in destructive competition with neighbouring institutions. Physical health has been neglected and no provision has been made for suitable residential arrangements and play-fields. Fee-rates have been lowered; competition and laxity in transfer have destroyed discipline; teachers have been employed on rates of pay insufficient to attract men capable of instructing or controlling their pupils. Above all, the grantsin-aid have from want of funds often been inadequate. No fewer than 360 high schools with 80,247 pupils are in receipt of no grant at all, and are maintained at an average cost of less than half that of a government school, mainly by fee-collections. Especially do these conditions prevail in the area covered by the old provinces of Bengal and Eastern Bengal and Assam; a result due, no doubt, to the rapid extension of Eng. lish education beyond the ability of the Local Governments to finance it. In Bengal and Eastern Bengal the number of high schools is greater than in the rest of British India put together, and the cost of their maintenance to public funds is proportionately less

Schools. General principles.

than a third of the cost prevailing in other provinces. A special inquiry showed that out of some 4,700 teachers in privately managed high schools in these areas about 4,200 were in receipt of less than Rs. 50 a month, some 3,300 of less than Rs. 30 a month, while many teachers of English and classical languages drew salaries that would not attract men to superior domestic service. The great variations in conditions in different parts of India point to the difficulty of making any but the most general statements about the results of private enterprise and the special measures that are needed to assist it to perform efficiently its work in the educational system.

22. Subject to the necessities of variation in deferSecondary English ence to local conditions the policy

of the Government of India in regard to secondary English

schools is— (1) To improve the few existing government

schools, by(a) Employing only graduates or trained

teachers; (b) Introducing a graded service for teachers

of English with a minimum salary of Rs. 40 per month and a maximum

salary of Rs. 400 per month; (c) Providing proper hostel accommodation ; (d) Introducing a school course complete in (e) Introducing manual training and im

proving science teaching. (2) To increase largely the grants-in-aid, in order

that aided institutions may keep pace with the improvements in government schools on the above-mentioned lines, and to encour: age the establishment of new aided institu

tions where necessary. (3) To multiply and improve training colleges so

that trained teachers may be available for

public and private institutions. (4) To found government schools in such locali

ties as may, on a survey of local conditions and with due regard to economy of educational effort and expense, be proved to require them.

23. The Government of India also desire that the

grant-in-aid rules should be made Grants-in-ald.

more elastic so as to enable each school, which is recognised as necessary and conforms to the prescribed standards of management and efficiency, to obtain the special assistance which it requires in order to attain the fullest measure of utility. As larger grants become available and as the pay and the personnel of the teaching staff are improved, it will be possible for the inspecting officer to concentrate his attention more and more upon the general quality of instruction. Full encouragement can then be given to improved and original methods of teaching and courses; and gradually the grant-earning capacity of an institution will come to be judged on grounds of

Modern side,

general efficiency and desert rather than by rigid rules of calculation. 24. The introduction of a school course complete in

itself and of a modern and practi

cal character, freed from the domination of the matriculation examination, was recommended in the first instance by the Education Commission of 1882. In some provinces and particularly in Madras real progress has been made towards the accomplishment of this reform. The figures for 1901-02 and 1910-11 are :

In other provinces the school final examination has not yet been established except for special purposes. The total number of candidates in 1910-11 for the school final examination or leaving certificate in all British provinces was 10,161; that of candidates for matriculation was 16,952.

25. The principal objects of the school final exami-Secondary English nation are adaptability to the School-leaving

a

Administrations further developments of the system in regard to the character of the tests by which certificates are granted at the end of the school course. Before proceeding further, however, they restate and emphasise the three principles laid down by the Indian Universities Commission in paragraph 170 of their report.

“ (1) The conduct of a school final or other school examination should be regarded as altogether outside the functions of a University.

(2) It would be of great benefit to the Universities if the Government would direct that the matriculation examination should not be accepted as a preliminary or full test for any post in Government service. In cases where the matriculation examination qualifies for admission to a professional examination the school final examination should be substituted for it.

(3) It would be advantageous if the school final examination could, in the case of those boys who propose to follow a University career, be made a sufficient test of fitness to enter the University. Failing this, the best arrangement would appear to be that the matriculation candidate should pass in certain subjects in the school final examination, and be examined by the University with regard to any further require ments that may be deemed necessary. ”

a