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Legislative Assembly, sanctioned the construc-possible to berth ships in the new harbour in

tion of the new railway line from Raipur to Parvatipur and the work is in progress. They have also decided to develop the port of Vizagapatam under their direct control and the port has accordingly been declared to be a major

port.

The scheme for the construction and development of the Harbour will be carried out in sections. At present, the first section only has been sanctioned and consists of a wharf 1,500 feet long, capable of taking 3 or 4 steamers, according to their length, with moorings for two vessels in the harbour, plus accommodation at the oil jetty for 1 oil tanker or oil burning steamer. The wharf will afford a depth of 30 feet below low water ordinary spring tides and the entrance channel, through the creek to the harbour, will also be dredged to the same depth. In the first section also, goods facilities are provided for in the form of 2 large transit sheds with some 170,000 square feet of floor space, with necessary railway sidings and electric cranes, and passenger traffic is provided for by means of a dharamsala, a waiting room and the necessary customs examination sheds. On the south side of the creek, away from the Harbour, an oil depot is also to be established where oil tankers can come alongside to fill storage tanks in the depot.

The estimated cost of the first section is Rs. 193 lakhs approximately and the time required to complete this will depend on the period that the dredging and reclamation work will take; but it is anticipated that it will be

about 4 years' time.

The work is being carried out by a staff of Engineers under the direct charge of an Engineerin-Chief, who comes under the administrative charge of the Agent, Bengal Nagpur Railway, who is ex-officio administrative officer for the development scheme. An advisory committee consisting of the above-mentioned officers and representatives of the Local Government, the Vizagapatam Port Administration and the commercial interests concerned, has also been constituted to advise in the development of the Harbour.

Good progress has been made with the initial portion of the development scheme. Most of the land has been acquired. A marine survey to investigate the sand travel and formation of the bar has been completed. Detailed designs have been prepared for the wharf wall, etc., and preliminary work on the quay wall has been taken in hand. Schemes for sewage and town planning have been prepared in consultation with the municipality and a malarial survey of the suburban area has been completed. Arrangements have also been made with the municipality for the supply of water to the Harbour area during construction.

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Education.

Indian education is unintelligible except through its history. Seen thus, it affords the spectacle of a growth which, while to one it will appear as a blunder based on an initial error easily avoided, to another it stands out as a symbol of sincerity and honest endeavour on the part of a far-sighted race of rulers whose aim has been to guide a people alien in sentiments and prejudices into the channels of thought and attitude best calculated to fit them for the needs of modern life and western ideals. There is to-day no subject in the whole area of administrative activity in India which presents greater complexities and differences of opinion than education. Government, local bodies and private persons of learning have in the past devoted their limited funds to meeting the demands of those who perceived the benefits of education, rather than to cultivating a desire for education where it did not exist. The result is that the structure has become top-heavy. The lower classes are largely illiterate, while the middle classes who constitute the bulk of the intelligentsia are in point of numbers at least educated to a pitch equal to that of countries whose economic conditions are more highly developed. As might be expected from this abnormal distribution of education, the form which it has eventually assumed contains corresponding defects. There have, however, in recent years been strong movements, leading to the passing of Primary Education Acts in several Provinces, in favour of the expansion of primary education among the masses.

The Introduction of Western Learning -In the early days of its dominion in India, the East India Company had little inclination for the doubtful experiment of introducing western learning into India. Warren Hastings, the dominating figure of the time, was a genuine admirer of the laws and literature of the East.

His policy was to enable the ancient learning to revive and flourish under the protection of a stable government, and to interfere as little as possible with the habits and customs of the people. Even the Act of 1813 which set apart a lakh of rupees for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences was interpreted as a scheme for the encouragement of Sanskrit and Arabic. In the following year the Court of Directors instructed the GovernorGeneral to leave the Hindus "to the practice of usage, long established among them, of giving instruction in their own homes, and to encourage them in the exercise and cultivation of their talents by the stimulus of honorary marks of distinction and in some cases by grants of pecuniary assistance."

It was from sources other than Government that the desire for western knowledge arose in India. In 1816, David Hare, an English watchmaker in Calcutta, joined hands with the enlightened Brahmin, Mohan Roy, to institute the Hindu College for the promotion of western secular learning. The new institution was distrusted both by Christian missionaries and by orthodox Hindus, but its influence grew apace. Fifteen vears later, the Commit tee of Public Instruction in Bengal reported

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that a taste for English had been widely disseminated and that independent schools, conducted by young men reared in the Hindu College, were springing up in every direction. In Bombay, the Elphinstone Institution founded in memory of the great ruler who left India in 1827. A still more remarkable innovation was made in 1835 by the establishment of the Calcutta Medical College, whose object was to teach" the principles and practice of medical science in strict accordance with the mode adopted in Europe." Many pronounced the failure of the undertaking to be inevitable; for, under the Hind ucustom the higher castes were forbidden to touch the dead. This obstacle was surmounted by Madusudan Gupta who, with a few courageous pupils, began the dissection of a human body. From that time onward Indians of the highest castes have devoted themselves with enthusiasm and with success to the study of medicine in all its branches.

Another impetus to the introduction of western learning was the devotion of Christian missionaries. The humanitarian spirit, which had been kindled in England by Wesley, Burke and Wilberforce, influenced action also in India. Carey, Marshman and Ward opened the first missionary College at Serampore in 1818; and twelve years later, Alexander Duff reversed the whole trend of missionary policy in Indis. by his insistence on teaching rather than on preaching, and by the foundation of his school and College in Calcutta. In Madras, the missionaries had been still earlier in the field; for as early as in 1787 a small group of missionary schools were being directed by Mr. Schwarz. The Madras Christian College was opened in 1837. In Bombay, the Wilson School (afterwards College) was founded in 1834.

Lord W. Bentinck's minute of 1835 (ba sed upon Macaulay's famous minute) marks the somewhat tardy acceptance by Government of the new policy. Government then determined while observing a neutrality in religious matters to devote its available funds to the maintenance of secondary schools and colleges of western learning to be taught through the medium of English. But this decision did not entail that Oriental learning should be neglected; still less that the development of the vernaculars should be discouraged. Other changes powerfully contributed to the success of the new system. The freedom of the press was established in 1835; English was substituted for Persian as the language of the Courts in 1837 and in 1844 Sir Henry Hardinge ordained that preference in Government appointments should be given to those who had received a western education. In the following decade the new learning took firm root in India: and, though the Muhammadans still held aloof, the demand for English schools outstripped the means of Goveroment for providing them. Fortunately there has been of late a marked appreciation among Muslim leaders of the need of improving the instructional level of their co-religionists; and in many of the provinces of India a great impulse towards educational advance among the Muhammadan community is now noticeable.

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Percentage of female scholars in public institutions to

TOTAL SCHOLARS in public institutions. Male

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High schools include vernacular high schools also, in some provinces. N. B.-Owing to the reclassification adopted in the Revised Edu

cational Tables, the figure for 1922-23 are not strictly comparable with those of the preceding years. § This excludes expenditure on European Education in the United Provinces, Assam and the North-West Frontier Province. The total expenditure actually amounted to Rs. 19,04,04,036.

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GROWTH AND ORGANISATION OF ENGLISH

EDUCATION.

An epoch in Indian educational history is marked by Sir Charles Wood's despatch in 1854. Perhaps its most notable feature was the emphasis which it laid on the importance of primary education. The old idea that the education imparted to the higher classes of society would filter down to the lower classes was discarded. The new policy was boldly "to combat the ignorance of the people which may be considered the greatest curse of the country." For this purpose Departments of Public Instructions were created on lines which do not differ very materially from the Departments of the present day. The despatch also broke away from the practice followed since 1835 whereby most of the available public funds had been expended upon a few Government schools and colleges, and instituted a policy of grants-in-aid to private institutions. "Such a system as this, placed in all its degrees under efficient inspection, beginning from the humblest elementary institution and ending with the university test of a liberal education would impart life and energy to education in India, and lead to a gradual but steady extension of its benefits to all classes of people." Another feature of the despatch was an outline of a university system which resulted in the foundation of the Universities of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay three years later. The affiliating type of university then became the pivot of the Indian education system. It has undoubtedly been of value in several ways. It enabled Government to select recruits for its service on an impartial basis; it did much, through the agency of its Colleges to develop backward places; it accelerated the conversion of Indians to a zeal for western education; and it cost little at a time when money was scarce. On the other hand, the new universities were not corporations of scholars, but corporations of administrators; they did not deal directly with the training of men, but with the examination of candidates; they were not concerned with learning, except in so far as learning can be tested by examination. The colleges were fettered by examination requirements and by uniform courses; their teachers were denied that freedom which teachers should enjoy and their students were encouraged not to value training for its own sake but as a means for obtaining marketable qualifications. In certain Important respects the recommendations in the despatch were not followed. The Directors did not intend that university tests, as such, should become the sole tests qualifying for public posts; they also recommended the institution of civil service examinations. They did not desire the universities to be deprived of all teaching functions; they recommended the establishment of university chairs for advanced study. They were aware of the dangers of a too literary course of instruction; they hoped that the system of education would rouse the people of India to develop the vast resources of their country ...and gradually, but certainly, confer upon them all the advantages which accompany the healthy increase of wealth and commerce. encouragement of the grant-in-aid system was

The

advocated to an even greater extent by the Education Commission of 1882, which favoured the policy of withdrawing higher education from the control of Government within certain limits and of stimulating private effort. In theory the decision was correct, but in practice it was irretrievably wrong. In its fatal desire to save money, Government deliberately accepted the mistaken belief that schools and colleges could be maintained on the low fees which the Indian parent could be expected to pay. And, in the course of time, an unworkable system of dual control grew up, whereby the Universities with no funds at their disposal were entrusted with the duty of granting recognition to schools and the Departments of Public Instruction were encouraged to cast a blind eye on the private institutions and to be content with the development of a few favoured Government institutions. There can be little wonder that, under such a system of neglect and short-sightedness, evils crept in which are now being removed gradually by the establishment of independent Boards of Intermediate Education charged with the administration of the bigh school and intermediate stages of education The Reforms of 1902-4.

In 1902, the Universities Commission was appointed by Lord Curzon's Government, and its investigation was followed by the Universities Act of 1904. The main object of the Act was to tighten up control, on the part of Government over the universities, and on the part of the universities over the schools and colleges. The Chancellors of the Universities were empowered to nominate 80 per cent. of the ordinary members of the Senates and to approve the election of the remainder: the Government retained the power of cancelling an appointment, and all university resolutions and proposals for the affiliation or disaffiliation of colleges were to be subject to Government sanction. The universities were given the responsibility of granting recognition to schools and of inspecting all schools and colleges, the inspection of schools being ordinarily conducted by the officers of the Department of Public Instruction. Permission was also given to the universities to undertake direct teaching functions and to make appointments, subject to Government sanction, for these objects but their scope was in practice limited to postgraduate work and research. The territoria l limits of each university were defined, so that universities were precluded from any connexion with institutions lying outside those boundaries. Neither the Commission nor the Government discussed the fundamental problems of university organisation, but dealt only with the immediate difficulties of the Indian system. They did not inquire whether the affiliating system could be replaced by any other mode of organisation, nor whether all schools might be placed under some public authority which would be representative of the universities and of the departments. They assumed the per manent validity of the existing system, in its main features, and set themselves only to improve and to strengthen it.

Recent Developments.

Since the passing of the Universities Act of 1904, there has been a considerable expansion of the educational system. The two tables given below afford useful comparisons with previous years and serve to illustrate the growth and expansion of education in India.

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5,253,065 875,660 6,128,725 5,828,182

952,539 6,780,721

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5,871,184 1,112,024 6,983,208 6,431,215 1,186,281 7,617,496 6,050,840 1,156,468 7,207,308 6,621,527 1,230,419 7,851,946 6,119,423 1,192,309 7,311,742 6,683,879 1,264,189 7,948,068

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6,098,129 1,240,534 7,338,663 6,623,149 1,313,428 7,936,577 6,306,128 1,306,711 7,612,839 6,829,204 1,377,021 8,206,225

6,427,966 1,347,027 7,774,993 6,964,048 1,412,979 8,377,027 6,401,434 1,340,842 7,742,275 6,962,979 1,418,422 8,381,401

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6,807,708 1,371,267 8,178,975 7,341,285 1,449,805 8,791,094
7,249,256 1,424,747 8,674,003
7,807,594 1,509,060 9,316,654
7,688,901 1,497,510 9,186,411 8,220,080 1,577,264 9,797,344
8,268,144 1,624,559 9,892,703
8,804,377 1,709,944 10,514,321

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