this matter would strengthen the hands of teachers for the work they are told to do. Fifthly, another direction in which we may look with great hopefulness is the development of college and school as institutions. When fully developed the sentiment called forth by the institution may be even more powerful in its sway over conduct than the influence of individual teachers. Here a departmental system is to some extent a hindrance, because to a department a college or school is necessarily not a selfcontained whole, but one member of a group. Recent tendencies, however, have all been in the direction of giving fuller recognition to the organic unity of the institution and a measure of autonomy is already attained by the colleges within the bounds of the department. It is on this ground as well as on the ground that students living uncared for and insufficiently supervised in "messes are exposed to dangers, physical and moral, that the immediate prospect of a large provision of hostels in Calcutta is so greatly a matter of congratulation. In order that the full benefit may be realized, it is essential that this provision of hostels should be based on the unity of the college as an institution. This is indeed part of the ideal of the complete residential college, now fully accepted by the University. The members of the college not only study in the same classrooms, but share a social life which extends to all three sides of education, intellectual, physical and moral. Lastly, the greatest need and the greatest hope for higher education in a broad sense lies in a recognition in the near future of the comparative neglect from which school education has long suffered and the adoption of a systematic policy of giving the schools their rightful place in national education. The hopefulness consists in this, that so much more can be done with school-boys. The habits, intellectual and moral, formed in the earlier years count more than later influences. If the schools lay the foundations of character and intellectual life wrongly, hardly can four or even six years at college repair the mischief; but if the schools do their work adequately and well, the chief obstacles in the way of success in college education will have been cleared away. The whole problem of education in India is so vast that only some of its aspects have been treated in these papers, and that cursorily. On the main question, I venture to think the answer is complete. The work of Government and of the Education Departments is vindicated. This vindication holds as against the impatience of advanced political thinkers who complain that too little has been done and grasp at a hasty realization of the ends towards which the educational process is working before the work of training is sufficiently advanced; and also against the one-sided condemnation of critics who pay disproportionate attention to the morbid products of a vast intellectual and moral transmutation and decline to see to what extent these are merely incidental to a process in itself essentially healthy and beneficial. It appears that the policy of the Government of India from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the present day has in the main been justified by its results as well as in its inception; that no startling reversal of policy is called for, not even any radical change in the direction of its leading activities. Improvement in the details, expansion all along the line, more liberal employment of funds, these are wanted, as they always have been wanted. For the rest, the watchword is "Forward" and not "Back"; "Courage" and not words of doubt and despondency. The movement is greater than the men who have taken part in it. Individuals may doubt and repine at what has been done in their name and by their means. But this work of education is the work of the British in India. The spirit of it is in the race and works in spite of the individuals who do not understand it and cavil at it. It has spoken out from time to time in the words of some master mind, and stands recorded in the great public documents which express the avowed policy of the State. Trevelyan (Sir Charles Edward). On the Education of the People of India. Longman, Orme, Brown, Green & Longmans. 1838. 1853. Kerr (James). A Review of Public Instruction in the Bengal Presidency. W. H. Allen. Cameron (Charles Hay). An Address to Parliament on the Duties of Great Britain in respect of the Education of the Natives and their official employment. Longmans. 1853. Howell (Arthur). Education in British India. Calcutta. 1872. Lethbridge (Sir Roper). High Education in India. W. H. Allen & Co. 1882. Mahmood (Syed). A History of English Education in India (1781 to 1893). Aligarh. 1895. Satthianadhan. History of Education in the Madras Presidency. Srinivasa, Varadachari & Co. Madras. 1894. Reports of Public Instruction in Bengal from 1831. Minutes of the Calcutta University from 1857. Quinquennial Reviews of the Progress of Education in India from 1886. Educational Despatch of 1854. Report of the Education Commission of 1882. Report of the Universities Commission of 1902. Resolution of the Government of India, March, 1904. Resolution of the Government of India, February, 1913. Colebrooke (Sir T. E.). Life of the Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone. 2 vols. Murray. 1884. Arbuthnot (Sir A. J.). Life of Major-General Sir Thomas Munro. Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. 1889. Morison (Sir Theodore). Imperial Rule in India. Constable. 1899. Craik (Sir Henry). Impressions of India. Macmillan. 1908. Arbuthnot (Sir A. J.). Memories of Rugby and India. Fisher Unwin. 1910. Chirol (Sir Valentine). Indian Unrest. Macmillan. 1910. Morison (Sir Theodore). The Economic Transition in India. Murray. 1911. Andrews (C. F.). The Renaissance in India. Church Missionary Society. 1912. PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, BECCLES |