XIV

THE HIGHER EDUCATIONAL SERVICE

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WHEN colleges for more advanced education in English were first started in India, no little rally experienced in staffing them. staffed locally, as we should now say; that is, the least unsuitable men who could be found ready at hand were appointed. Obviously there was no specially literate class of Englishman in India previous to 1854. Even the Haileybury men, however high their intellectual capacity, were not academically educated, and were not pre-eminently scholars. Moreover, as we have seen, members of the Civil Service were implicitly excluded by the Despatch of 1854 from the work of the education departments after the first few years, and I am not aware that a single member of that service was ever a college principal or professor.

From what material, then, could selection be made? An examination of the earliest appointments will show. It will show also that if there was ever a qualified teacher among them it was by accident.

At the Hindu College the teaching staff was originally Indian, but one of the two secretaries was a European "appointed for the special purpose of superintending the English department." The suggestion that it might be necessary to bring teachers from England appears first in 1823 in connection with the teaching of natural science, or, as it was then called, natural philosophy. Five hundred pounds was spoken

of as "the lowest sum likely to attract a well-qualified individual to India." The General Committee commented in 1825 on the want of well-qualified instructors: "In order to afford to the students of the Hindu College that full and comprehensive instruction that was desirable, persons duly qualified for the office must be brought from England." "The General Committee considered it of importance that those gentlemen who might be brought out from England should have received a Collegiate education; that they should be laymen, so as to afford no possible ground for misinterpreting the motives of Government; and that they should be persons of extensive acquirements, and capable of communicating as well as accumulating knowledge." The proposal was for two professors so appointed, a Professor of Mathematics and a Professor of English Literature, and particular consideration was given to the qualifications required in the latter. The Committee pointed out that whereas no special qualifications were wanted for teaching Mathematics in India beyond those needed for such work in England, "a teacher of English Literature would be placed in a situation to which there was nothing analogous at Home." They added that as it was of great moment to inspire a feeling of interest in our national literature "the preceptor in this department should be imbued with its spirit, and should be a man of taste as well as of letters. He should not only be well read in English authors of different periods, but familiar with their merits, and be able to teach them so that they shall be felt as well as understood." All this was admirably well considered. No professor was appointed from England till 1841, when "two gentlemen selected by Dr. Mill and Mr. Macaulay" arrived in India. "Previous to 1839," writes Mr. Kerr in his Review of Public Instruction in the Bengal Presidency

(dated 1853), from which the preceding quotations are also made, "the higher situations in the public colleges, including those of Professors, were invariably filled by men who were available on the spot. The Army, more particularly the Medical Service, furnished some valuable officers, and others were selected from the miscellaneous class who came out to push their fortunes in India. As the colleges rose in importance this source of supply became inadequate, and in 1839 Government perceived the necessity of engaging the services of welleducated men in England."

As soon as it was decided to bring men from England for educational work in India, the question of remuneration and prospects at once became acute. What would suffice for men whose homes were in India, and whose strictly educational qualifications were negligible, became ridiculously inadequate for men of "distinguished attainments" from Oxford and Cambridge. The Court of

Directors took strong ground on the principle that the colleges "should be placed under European superintendence of the most respectable kind, both as to station and acquirements." "It is, however, to be regretted," adds Mr. Kerr, "that Government has not seen fit to adopt the most rational means in its power of attracting talent to the educational service by holding out the inducement of more liberal remuneration." In 1852, when this was written, the salary of Principals of colleges was Rs.600 a month, of a Professor Rs.400 to Rs.500. This scale was the result of arrangements made in 1840. "It must be allowed," writes Mr. Kerr, "that a very great improvement was effected at this time. But the scale of remuneration is still too low. It is essential to the efficiency of the service that there should at least be a few appointments better paid than any which are at present open to us. As it is, there are no high prizes

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to reward successful exertion. Our prospects are limited to the attainment of a very moderate income, upon which we live in comfort so long as we enjoy uninterrupted health, but which does not, except in the most favourable circumstances, enable us to make any provision for our families, or to retire to our native land."

It is not without relevance to the present to note the exact circumstances of these small beginnings and of the earliest protests of the professional teacher for a more adequate recognition of the importance and worth of his profession. When the Graded Educational Service was organized (about 1870), it afforded something in the shape of the higher prospects, the want of which Mr. Kerr deplored. The initial salary was Rs.500. The highest attainable was Rs.1500. There were four grades, the 4th from Rs.500 to Rs.750; the 3rd from Rs.750 to Rs.1000; the 2nd from Rs.1000 to Rs.1250, and the 1st from Rs.1250 to Rs.1500. In 1896, the service was reorganized under the title of the Indian Educational Service appointed in England. Meanwhile the fall of the rupee had changed relative values much for the worse as compared with earlier times. The range of salaries otherwise remained the same, Rs.500 to Rs.1500. The only change of importance was that instead of waiting for vacancies before promotion from the 4th to the next highest class members of the service are advanced steadily from Rs.500 to Rs.1000 in the first ten years of service. This gives the advantage of regular increase of income, independent of accident. The prospects beyond ten years were not improved. A very limited number of personal allowances were added, lower allowances of Rs.200 to Rs.250; higher allowances of Rs.250 to Rs.500; and in default of one of these there is an allowance of Rs.100 after fifteen years of approved service. The ordinary limit of the prospects

of a member of the Indian Educational Service is Rs.1500 a month, or £1200 a year; and as these higher allowances are very few in number, the average prospects must be rated at something below that.

Two questions can very pertinently be asked from the standpoint of the present: (1) Has the result of these measures been entirely satisfactory? (2) If not, has everything in reason been done to ensure success in this particular? Now as regards the first it happens that a very striking and very public deliverance has recently been made by an observer who must be admitted both competent to pass an opinion and impartial, the author of the Times articles on "Indian Unrest." Mr. Valentine Chirol speaks of the Indian Educational Service as "regarded and treated as an inferior branch of the public service." This is at a time when the immense importance of education is reiterated by every responsible representative of Government; and that such a reference could for a moment be made with any plausibility shows that something must be very wrong. It is obligatory then to investigate what has been the mode of recruitment and what has been the status and attainments of the personnel of the higher educational service. In theory appointments to the service, at all events latterly, were made in England: in practice a certain number have always been made in India. A good many of the men appointed were already engaged in educational work in India. Some had come out as missionaries, some as schoolmasters to institutions like the Calcutta Martinière and the Doveton College, some as tutors to Indian minors of high birth and ample estates. A certain percentage of appointments have always been so made sometimes with very happy results for educational work. Others again have been adventurous

1 Chirol, "Indian Unrest," p. 227.