EMPIRE EDUCATION

Evening Star, Issue 19455, 13 January 1927, Page 13

EMPIRE EDUCATION

flil IMPERIAL PROBLEM Kill FOR GOOD TEACHERS The Imperial Conference has had to tackle many difficult problems in the course of its meetings (writes R. J. H. Sidney, F.R.G.S., in the ‘Daily Telegraph’). Nothing, however, could well be more important than the subject of education, upon which the whole future of our Empire is bound to depend. Those who travel widely are always surprised not only at the comparative ignorance of stay-at-homes about Imperial problems, but at the water-tightness of the various portions of the Empire. It is probable that a really wide knowledge of distant lands can only be obtained by visiting them, and one could wish that there was as great a desire among Englishmen to travel and see the various portions of the Empire as there is among colonials and others to see England. Wembley was all very well, but it only could give a partial picture of the lands upon whose prosperity depends our very future. There will have to be a great deal more effort in the direction of exchange of pupils and teachers before what is at present a blurred picture becomes a living reality in the minds of strangers. In this article I shall be concerned to stress the need for competent teachers throughout our dominions and colonies, to say something about the disastrous mistakes which wo have perpetrated in India and elsewhere, and to make some suggestions for our newer colonies and protectorates, in which an educational policy is only just being built up. PENSION RIGHTS. To begin with, we shall never have efficient education anywhere in the Empire until we have a trained body of teachers who, besides being keen on their job. are in love with the people among wuom their lot is cast. In the past there has been a distinct difficulty in getting any hut the youngest teachers to emigrate, simply because their seniors were liable to lose all their pension rights, had to start once more at the bottom of the ladder, and no amount of previous experience was taken into consideration. Luckily all this is being slowly altered. An Act has been passed which safeguards the pension rights of the individual; but even this does not neoesarily attract senior men where they are wanted, because it is more expense for the local authority to employ an experienced man, and there is also a good deal of jealousy locally about the importation of onL.Jers. Until this is altered there are many parts of the Empire which will continue to be in a bad way so for as their teaching staffs are concerned. Then, again, once a man has left England, it is very often difficult for him to gain fresh employment when he returns home; he is considered a back number, and is not generally wanted. This does not seem to have been fully appreciated by Dr M. J. Rendall, in a recent letter to the Press on this subject. “My suggestion,” says Dr Rendall, “is that some our best teachers-to-bo, public school men with high aims and good degrees, either before starting their career _ in England or after a few years’ service at home, should do their best for the Empire by seeking a post in some school abroad either for one, two, or three years.” Yes, but does not the writer realise that very probably the teacher will want to stay where he is, and that_the local authority, if it values his services, will try its best to keep him?

A SPLENDID IDEAL. This interchange of teachers throughout the Empire is a splendid ideal, but it has to be worked out w-'J' carefully in practice or it may result in more harm than good. Tho writer has mot one master who has been spending I a year or so in England before re- i turning to his school in Australia, and he has not been at all favorably impressed by what he has seen of the English school in which he has been teaching. This is unfortunate, but thesahie impression might easily be gathered by an Englishman who went to a school in Australia.—and especially by the young teacher without much experience, and with only tho memory of his own public school to guide him. And yet, as wo have seen, the difficulties before an experienced man on leaving his homeland are very great, and in only a few places is there reciprocity in regard to pensions. Not enough, in’ my opinion, has been made of teachers other than those who are English or of European stock. Why should it not be possible for members of other races—and I know many of them, and they are excellent teachers—to serve for a few years in some of our own schools? This would give them an invaluable knowledge of the English boy, and, incidentally, the English boy would soon learn to appreciate the qualities of the men of the overseas Empire where later on his own life would perhaps be spent. At present this is almost impossible owing to tho fact that tho chances of training for the average teacher in many parts of the Empire are scandalously inadequate, the facilities for a proper education outside the larger dominions being almost negligible. And yet this should bo one of our sternest endeavors, so to teach the natives of the countries which we are at present governing that one day they may take the business itno their own hands. The constant importation of Europeans is never going to solve the problem. One who was for many years in the Indian Educational Service—Mr Mayhow—has written a hook which, though it condemns roundly the whole service, has been recommended by the Government of India to be read throughout the Pnninsuln. This shows a broadmindedness all too rare in Government circles, and betrays tho dissatisfaction felt _ by Government with tho system as it exists at present. Tho groat fault with the education in India, and elsewhere _ throughout the Empire— South Africa and Malaya being notable examples—is its too exclusive concentration on the written word as against tho practical lesson. Mr Ford, in his school, makes the boys have one week in tho school and two in the shop alternately ; and he has a waiting list of 5,000; ft is a pity that we cannot so alter our methods that we can combine theory and practice a little more. Again, too, tho type of literature which has to bo studied by the Indian’boy is all wrong; he is fed on English models about which he can appreciate nothing; his own literature is loft almost stagnant and untouched. Another drawback is that no religion is introduced into his school life, so that > there is a definite lack of the one impulse which would make him into a lively and capable student. Again, tho examinations are too much based on European models, many of which have long outgrown their usefulness. The question is a vast one, and it is good news to hear that in West Africa tho problem is being tackled somewhat differently, as the present writer has been informed by the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies. Mr Ormsby-Gore recently laid the foundation stone of a largo college on the Gold Coast, where a complete training for life will be attempted, the pupil being taken in at the age of eight years and staying at school until ho has really learnt how to earn his living at tho age of about sixteen or seventeen. I was fold also of that wonderful man who, having made such a success of Kandy—how is it that education in Ceylon is so highly developed, some authorities saying that it is a hundred years ahead of India? —has now gone to West Africa, and has been given carte blanche by the Government to build his own schools, staff them, and draw up his own curriculum. A P.OSSIBLB SOLUTION. Perhaps the solution of tho jvhoio

problem lies in 4 this, that we should try to attract *the best men we can, and then give them carte blanche to go ahead. But there are not many Governments that will dare to do this; they rather fear the experimenter and prefer to stick to the general orders governing each project that may be brought forward. For example, how can a system thrive which makes the schoolmaster obey the same rules as the engineer, the policeman, the doctor, and others—that makes no difference between the various professions, and that, while allowing that the medical profession must be headed by a doctor, allows any Civil servant who may be next in seniority to become Director of Education ?

There will be no real solution of the problem which affects all parts of the Empire, and especially the smaller colonies and protectorates, until the Colonial Office has sat down and done some hard thinking on the subject. In the past too much has been left, necessarily, to local guidance; this in the future should no more be tolerated, for it is going to lead to worse evils than we can imagine at present. Already there is growing up an unemployable class, fit to be clerks and nothing else, to whom even the English language is almost a hindrance, for it makes the possessor of that one acquirement think that he is placed above his fellows. Hitherto education has been encouraged because the Government needed clerks and others to run the subordinate civil and clerical services. Now that the stock is adequate Government is beginning fo say: “We can’t necessarily educate more than we can employ. You must go elsewhere.” But is this just? Can you say to a person whom you have taught to read five chapters of a book: “You can read no more; chapter sis and the succeeding chapters are not for you? ” Obviously you cannot. And yet none of these things can be don© efficiently by the local Government, which is far too busy to be able to see the wood from the trees; the services of experts are needed, who shall report to the Home Government, which afterwards will frame some definite policy suitable for all. The supply of local text-books, the writingup of histories of the countries concerned, the making of local geographies suitable for pupils in distant lands—all these are vital necessities, and yet in how few colonies will one find that these subjects have been tackled? Finally, if the dominions and colonies are ignorant of England, how much more are we ignorant of them ? One of the best-paid educational services in the world—that of Malaya—is many European officers short, mainly because few teachers know of the possibilities offered in that young and growing land. And this is only one example of many. Certainly_ we may serve the Empire by proceeding overseas, but first we must know something of the place to which we are going. When we have got there, too, let us have a freer hand so that our efforts are not nullified by swathing bands of red tape. Fulfil these conditions and no one will have cause to grumble that young Englishmen are afraid to venture to the most distant parts of the Empire.