RECASTING INDIAN EDUCATION

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 41, 12 November 1919, Page 7

RECASTING INDIAN EDUCATION

DRASTIC PROPOSALS. • The Report of the Calcutta University Commission, recently received in London, is. savs the "Times]" the most complete and authoritative survey of the problems of Indian secondary and university education ever issued, and is by far the most important pronouncement made thereon since the famous dispatch of 1854, under which Government created a properly articulated system of education from the primary school to the university: The keynote of the recommendations, is that satisfactory reorganisation of the university system of Bengal (and in this, as in most other educational respects, conditions are similar in other provinces) depends primarily upon a radical reorganisation of the system of secondary education. Most of the English high schools are under-equipped, and the staff underpaid, and they are unduly dominated hv the ill-designed matriculation examination. The main remedies proposed are that the stage of admission to the university should be (approximately) that of the present intermediate instead of that of the present matriculation. The duty of providing training at the former stage should be transferred, to new institutions to bo known as intermediate colleges. There should bo two secondary school examinations, the first to bo taken at the end of the high school stage, at the normal ago of 10, or in special cases at 15; arid the second, approximately eorrese ponding to the present intermediate, but much more varied in its range, to be taken at the end of the intermediate college course at the normal age of eighteen. Success therein should constitute the normal test of admission to university courses. The regulation and supervision iof the new system should be in the hands of a new body, to be known as the Board of Secondary and Intermediate Education, with a salaried president appointed by Government, but with a majority.of non-official members. The details of this important scheme were summarised in our "Educational Supplement." Sir Michael Sadler and his (colleagues found the university systolic of Bengal "fundamentally defective in almost every aspect." The Commission recommend the organisation of the teaching resources which exist in the city of Calcutta on a co-operative basis in such a way as to create a real leaching university. Tho colleges should abandon the ideal of being self-contained and self-sufficient, to which the existing system has tempted them to cling, and should be prepared to co-operate with one another and with tho university. The project of a university at Dacca should be carried into effect nt the earliest possible moment, and n(; the mufassal (up country) colleges there should he gradual concentration of resources for higher teaching at a. few points. The duration of tho degreo course should be three years after tho intermediate stage. One of the most interesting chapters proposes an entirely new constitution for Calcutta University. The report proposes a system which will combine a proper representation of public opinion and of all the interests concerned with the maintenance of a proper degree of' influence ami authority for the best, expert opinion, whilo properly providing for the supervisory authority of Government. Under this scheme there would be a salaried fnil-time Vice-Chancellor, with the pay and status of a High Court Judge; a treasure, honorary; a widely representative court; a small executive council of 10 members: and an academic council of £0 to 100 members, including' representatives of all constituent colleges and of all grades of teachers, which should be responsible for regulating tho teaching work of the university. The report recognises that'the scattered colleges in (he mufassal will be deeply affected by the main features of these proposals, and it would be a disaster if the whole body of mufassal degree students were drawn into Calcutta and Dacca. The best solution will ultimately be that by a judicious concentration of resources a few of these collegos should be encouraged and hctaed .gradually to develop into more highly organised and semi-independent institutions, and ultimately, perhaps, into distinct universities, whilo others should become intermediate colleges. The proposals involve a recurring annual expenditure of Rs.6o lakhs (.£433,000).