Among other measures, the Despatch of 1854 urged the preparation of vernacular school books : "70. Equal in importance to the training of schoolmasters, is the provision of Vernacular School Books which shall provide European information to be the object of study in the lower classes of schools, Something has, no doubt, been done of late years toward this end, but more still remains to be done." While the preparation of School Books has not been altogether neglected since the Despatch was written, the work cannot be said to have received the attention it deserves. Lord Northbrook, since his arrival in India, has visited Schools and Colleges in different parts of the country, himself questioning the students, and, in some cases, examining their written exercises. The following Resolution embodies the views his Lordship has formed with regard to the text-books used in Government Schools: His Excellency the Governor-General in Council has lately found reason to believe that the attention of local Governments and Administrations might usefully be drawn towards the method upon which text-books are now compiled or chosen for public instruction in schools. 2. It is understood that these books belong to two classes : (i).-Those that are specially written or compiled for use in schools. (ii).-Those that are selected out of general literature for study and examination in schools. 3. The question has been raised whether in either of these two classes, the books now used are altogether accordant with what appears to His Excellency in Council to be a sound principle of elementary education, namely, the contents of the book taught shall be as much as possible, within easy range of the pupil's comprehension and ordinary experience. His Excellency in Council believes that it is important to lay out the course of school teaching in India upon this principle. The introduction of books containing allusions to scenes or ideas which boys of this country cannot possibly realize or appreciate is apt to hinder progress in mastering the language itself, which should be the main object of education at this stage; while examinations upon this kind of instruction must have a tendency towards favoring the practice of what is commonly called cramming, which in the training of schools it is particularly expedient to discourage. For while the more advanced student may be required rapidly to acquaint himself with a variety of new ideas and of references to things which open out fresh lines of thought or points of view, to the schoolboy all facts that are above his head, or beyoud his experience, are a set of isolated expressions, carrying no meaning and raising no associations. The consequence is that he must usually learn such things by rote and * Proceedings of the Government of India in the Home Department, (Educa tion) No. 143, dated Fort William, the 29th March, 1873. must fill his head with them unprofitably by the mere effort of memory ; as when for instance he is put to read or is questioned in extracts from pieces of English poetry, full of classical metaphors and allusions to European history; or when he is taken through a chapter from an English novel of social life. 4. His Excellency would therefore shape the course of text-books more closely towards their main object-elementary knowledge of the language in which they are written, coupled with useful instruction in common things; he would largely substitute familiar for foreign sub- jects, and in examinations he would avoid testing a boy's capacity to retain and repeat what cannot yet be of use to him. His Excellency is not unmindful of the exertions which at various times and in different provinces have already been made to supply the demand for proper school books in India, and to deal with the difficulties that underlie the salient points here only touched upon. The Madras School-Book Society not only did much in this field up to 1864, but afterwards projected a scheme for providing a vernacular literature to educated adults. Mr. H. Reid, while Director of Public Instruction in the North Western Provinces, did a great deal with his coadjutors towards the editing and arrangement of school books; and the services rendered to education by Mr. J. L. Murdoch, LL.D., are known to the Supreme Government. The question has been kept in view by other Administrations, and the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab in his review of the educational report for 1871-72 desired most careful attention to the improvement of existing text-books, observing that improvement was very much needed. His Excellency in Council however considers that more general revision of the books used in all the courses of public teaching is still expedient and in some respects even necessary. 6. For this purpose it has been determined that all Local Governments and Administrations shall be requested to appoint Committees to examine and report upon the class books that are now prescribed in all those schools which receive any formal support from the State in order to discover defects either in form or substance, and to adapt more carefully the course of authorized reading to the general educational policy. Whether prizes might not be offered for sound and suitable elementary school books if such are found to be wanting, is a suggestion which the Committees will no doubt consider in its place. 7. A report upon the conclusions adopted by these Committees, and upon the steps thereupon taken, should be submitted hereafter to His Excellency in Council. Now that the subject of text-books is under consideration, the best opportunity is afforded to any persons who wish to make suggestions to the Committees appointed. In venturing to offer some remarks, the writer is not taking up a question new to him. For upwards of thirty years he has been more or less connected with education at home or in the East. He has examined numerous schools in India, from Peshawar to Cape Comorin, and from Moulmain to Kurrachce. He has visited every country in Europe noted for its educational system, as well as crossed the Atlantic, to ascertain what improvements might be introduced with advantage in India. To School Books he has paid special attention. The subject under consideration would require a large volume for its adequate discussion; but only some general remarks can be offered. The writer bears cheerful testimony to the gradual improvement in Indian School Books. Still, it is no depreciation of them to say that, were the great resources at the command of the Government of India rightly employed, text-books might be prepared as much superior to any at present in use as the Martini rifle is to the "Brown Bess" of former days. AIMS OF GOVERNMENT EDUCATION. Before considering the modifications in School Books which are desirable, it is important to understand clearly the ends contemplated by Government in promoting Education in India. These may best be shown by extracts from the Despatch of 1854 "2. Among many subjects of importance, none can have a stronger claim to our attention than that of education. It is one of our most sacred duties to be the means, as far as in us lies, of conferring upon the natives of India those vast moral and material blessings which flow from the general diffusion of useful knowledge, and which India may, under providence, derive from her connexion with England. "3. We have, moreover, always looked upon the encouragement of education as peculiarly important, because calculated not only to produce a higher degree of intellectual fitness, but to raise the moral character of those who partake of its advantages, and so to supply you with servants to whose probity you may, with increased confidence, commit offices of trust' in India, where the well-being of the people is so intimately connected with the truthfulness and ability of officers of every grade in all Departments of the State." The above may be summed up as follows: The aims of Government education are, 1. To promote the temporal well-being of the people of India; 2. To elevate them intellectually; 3. To raise their moral character. No course of education can be considered complete which does. not combine these three objects, though different importance will be attached to each by different persons. They may be briefly examined in turn, as a clear understanding of them is necessary in future remarks. It is true that, to some extent, they are so connected, that certain means tend to secure them all. Still, they may be considered separately. General principles will first be noticed; details will afterwards receive attention. I.-PROMOTION OF THE TEMPORAL WELL-BEING OF THE PEOPLE. The following means may be employed to secure this object :1. Teaching to read, write, and cipher.-Everywhere, an educated man has advantages over the ignorant in the race of life. Professor Huxley says that "getting on" is "the English conception of Paradise."* This is the great aim of English parents in sending their children to school. Even in Germany, University professors "are constantly warning their pupils against Brodstudien, studies pursued with a view to examinations and posts."+ It is reasonable to expect that parents in India should have similar motives. The writer was once present when "Nineveh Layard" visited an English Institution in Calcutta. When he asked a lad what brought him there to study, he frankly replied that it was for the sake of his stomach ! With regard to Vernacular Schools in Bengal, Mr. Woodrow says the boys are sent "to learn to write and to keep accounts. It is quite a matter of indifference to their parents whether they are taught to read or to understand what they read. The understanding what is read is supposed to come of itself in after life." With parents of higher position, the wish, says a Madras Report, is that their children may learn English as the supposed "surest passport to official employment." "The knowledge that is to be conveyed through the medium of a language is with them a very secondary consideration."§ The feeling is the same in Bengal. Mr. Woodrow remarks : "In theory, and to some extent in practice also, the Anglo-Vernacular School teaches English as a language only, and all other branches of learning in the vernacular. This plan has been supported by the whole weight of the authority of the Educational Department, but it is excessively unpopular. All the managers of all the Anglo-Vernacular Schools hate the rule, and strive to evade it, or to violate it whenever they can. They send their sons to school solely to learn English; they wish them to speak English as much as possible, and they grudge every hour in which instruction is imparted in the verna Lay Sermons, p. 62. + Quoted in Quain's Defects in General Education, p. 70. Bengal Public Instruction Report, 1857-58, Ap. A., p. 48. During the writer's visits to vernacular schools under native management, he has sometimes heard children repeat English poetry of which they did not understand a single word. The fact that it was unintelligible to the children, seemed of no consequence. § Madras Public Instruction Report, 1856-57, pp. 21, 24. cular language. Hence all the time given to History, Geography, Arithmetic, and Bengalee is considered time wasted."* European managers of Schools, in many cases, have not sufficiently consulted the wishes of the people in the course of instruction. Home models, formed on abstract principles, have been followed. The late Mr. Gover says: "A low class school on the English fashion and of the official pattern, omits very much the natives justly count valuable, and especially contains no machinery for teaching such necessary things as native accounts, petitions, letters, and other concerns of ordinary daily life. On the other hand, it teaches arithmetic in better fashion. It almost universally neglects writing, or separates it from reading and composition, but is superior in geography."+ Some branches which the people esteem greatly are not taught, while in lieu of them they receive geography which they regard as useless. This is one reason why in Mission Vernacular Schools in Madras one anna a month can with difficulty be obtained from the pupils, while the average fee in native schools is six annas. In teaching reading and arithmetic, the aim should be to adopt every thing valuable in native methods, adding to them whatever western experience may dictate, 2. Instruction in the Laws of Health.-H. Spencer says, "As remarks a suggestive writer, the first requisite to suc cess in life is to be a good animal;' and to be a nation of good animals is the first condition to national prosperity." Even in England there is still lamentable ignorance among the masses with regard to the simplest principles of sanitary science. Professor Huxley remarks, "If any one is interested in the laws of health, it is the poor workman, whose strength is wasted by ill-prepared food, whose health is sapped by bad ventilation and bad drainage, and half whose children are massacred by disorders which might be prevented." Much more is such information necessary in India. Efforts are now being made by Government to enforce sanitary regulations. Next to the imposition of new taxes, these are perhaps what the people most dislike in our rule. They are looked upon as arbitrary freaks, or part of that "eternal hurryscurry" in which Englishmen delight, to be evaded wherever it * Bengal Public Instruction Report, 1860-61, Ap. A., p. 31, § A phrase used by a native paper. It is amusing to read the construction sometimes put upon our conduct by the people. Sir George Campbell has, very properly, sought to improve the physique of the Bengalis. The Moorshedabad Patrika has the following reflections on the subject: "All the pupils of Berhampore College spend the afternoon in wrestling and other gymnastic exercises. They then return to their homes and eat a little, then lie |