Education During Modern Period

Education During Modern Period

Education Under British Rule

First Phase (1758 – 1812) :

 The British East India Co. showed very little interest in the education of its subjects during this period, the 2 minor exceptions being :

1.                   The Calcutta Madrasah set up by Warren Hastings in 1781 for the study and teaching of Muslim law and subjects.

2.                   The Sanskrit college at Varanasi by Jonathan Duncan in 1792 for the study of Hindu Law and Philosophy.

•           Both were designed to provide a regular supply of qualified Indians to help the administration of law in the courts of Co.

Second Phase (1813 – 1853) :

•           Due to the strong pressure exerted on the Co. by the Christian missionaries and many humanitarians, including some Indians, to encourage and promote modern education in India, The Charter Act of 1813 required the Co. to spend rupees 1 lakh annually for encouraging learned Indians and promoting the knowledge of modern science in India.

•           Two controversies about the nature of education arose during the part of this phase. They were :

•           Whether to lay emphasis on the promotion of modern western studies or on the expansion of traditional Indian learning?

•           Whether to adopt Indian languages or English as the medium of instruction in modern schools and colleges to spread western learning?

•           These 2 controversies were settled in 1835 when Lord William Bentinck (with the support of R.M. Roy) applied English medium.

•           In 1844, Lord Hardinge decided to give govt, employment to Indians educated in English Schools. The success was thus assured (of English education). It made good progress in the 3 presidencies of Bengals Bombay and Madras where the number of schools and colleges increased.

•           Three other developments were :

1.                   A great upsurge in the activities of the missionaries who did pioneer work in quite a few fields of modern education.

2.                   Establishment of medical, engineering and law colleges, which marked a beginning in professional education.

3.                   Official sanction accorded to education of girls (Lord Dalhousie, in fact, offered the open support of govt.).

•           The Govt, policy of opening a few English schools and colleges instead of a large number of elementary schools led to the neglect of education of masses.  To cover up this defect in their policy, the British took recourse to the so – called ‘Downward Filtration Theory’ which meant that education and modern ideas were supposed to filter or radiate downward from the upper classes.

•           This policy continued till the very end of British rule, although it was officially abandoned in 1854.

Third Phase (1854 – 1900) :

•           The Educational Dispatch of 1854 was also called Wood’s Dispatch (after Sir Charles Wood, the then President of Board of Control, who became the first Secretary of State for India).

•           It is considered as the Magna Carta of English Education in India (forms a landmark in the history  of modern education in India).

•           It rejected the ‘filtration theory’ and laid stress on mass education, female education and improvement of vernaculars, favoured secularism in Education.

•           Creation of Education Departments in the provinces of Bombay, Madras, Bengal, N.W. Provinces and Punjab in 1855; Organizations of Indian Education Service in 1897 to cover the senior most posts.

•           Establishment of universities of Calcutta (Jan 1857) Bombay (Jul 1857), Madras (Sep 1857), Punjab (1882) and Allahabad (1887).

•           Lord Ripon appointed Hunter Commission (under Sir WW Hunter) :

1.                   It recommended that local bodies (distt. boards and municipalities) should be entrusted with the management of primary schools.

2.                   Also said that govt, should maintain only a few schools and colleges; others to be left to private hands. Fourth Phase (1901 – 1920) :

•           Lord Curzon appointed a Universities Commission under Thomas Raleigh (Law member of the Viceroy’s Executive Council) in 1902, and based on his recommendations Indian Universities Act of 1904 was passed.

•           It enabled the universities to assume teaching functions (hitherto they were mainly examining bodies), periodic inspection of institutions, speedier transaction of business, strict conditions for affiliation etc.

•           Criticized by nationalists for its tightening govt, control over universities.

•           In 1910, a separate department of Education was established at the Centre.

•           The Saddler Commission was appointed by Lord Chelmsford to review the working of Calcutta University (2 Indians: Sir Ashutosh Mukherji and Dr. Ziauddin Ahmed.). Main recommendations were:

•           Secondary Education by a Board of Secondary education and duration of degree course be 3 yrs.

•           7 new universities were opened (Total 12 now). They were : Banaras, Mysore, Patna, Aligarh, Dhaka, Lucknow and Osmania.

•           Kashi Vidyapeeth and Jamia Milia Islamia were established.

•           University course divided into pass course and Honours.

Fifth Phase (1921 – 1947) :

•           Came under Indian control officially, as it became a provincial subject administered by provincial legislature. Thus, expansions started everywhere.

•           Increase in number of universities (20 in 1947); improvement in the quality of higher education (on recommendations of Saddler Commission); establishment of an inter – University Board (1924) and beginning of inter collegiate and inter – university activities.

•           Achievement in women’s education and education of backward classes.

MACAULLAY MINUTES  

The historian, essayist, and parliamentarian Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859) served as a member of the supreme council of the East India Company from 1834 to 1838, where he oversaw major educational and legal reforms. The "Minute" was written as a rebuttal to those council members who believed that Indian students should continue to be educated in Sanskrit and Arabic as well as English.

  Macaulay rejected the claim of Sanskrit and Arabic on the following grounds ;

Ø  English is the key to modern knowledge.

Ø  It stands eminent among the languages of the west.

Ø  It is the language of the ruling class in India.

Ø  It would bring about renaissance of learning English.

By getting the recommendation approved in total, Macaulay could gradually anglices the whole of India. In 1845 English became the official language of the country.

Wood’s Despatch

It is known to us that the Charter of the East India Company had to be renewed after every twenty years. Accordingly while renewing the Charter in 1833 the British Parliament increased the sum of money to one million yearly from the one lakh in 1813 to be sent on education in India. When the time for renewal came in 1853, education in India had come to suffer numerous problems. The directors of the company decided to lay down a definite policy for education in India. Therefore, it became necessary to make a comprehensive survey of the entire field of education. As such, a Selection Committee of the British Parliament was set up in order to institute an enquiry into the measures for their reforms. The Committee studied the issue thoroughly and reported that the question of the Indian education should not be ignored and its development will not be in any case harmful to the British Empire. The suggestions of the Committee were favourably considered by the Board of Directors. Sir Charles Wood was the president of the Board of Control. Therefore, the declaration issued on July 19, 1854 was known as “Wood’s Despatch”, although it is said that the Despatch was written by the famous thinker John Stuart Mill, a clerk of the company at that time. On the basis of the recommendations of the Wood’s Despatch, new educational policies were formed.

                                                                              Aims and Objectives of Educational Policy: The

Despatch first throws light on the aims and objectives of educational policy of the Company in India. It gave highest priority to the responsibility of Indian Education overall other responsibilities of the Company. The Despatch had the following objectives in view:

a)                  To impart Western knowledge, information about the western culture to the Indians.

b)                 To educate the natives of India so that a class of public servants could be created.

c)                  To promote intellectual development and also raise the moral character of the young generation.

d)                 To develop practical and vocational skills of the Indians people so that more and more articles could be produced and also to create a good market for consumption of those goods.

 Department of Education: The Wood’s Despatch, for the first time, recommended the creation of a Department of Public Instruction in each of the five provinces of Bengal, Bombay, Madras, the Punjab and the North Western provinces. The head of the Department would be called the Director and he was to be assisted by a number of inspectors. The D.P.T. had to submit an annual report to the government about the educational progress in his province.

 Expansion of Mass Education: - Another major recommendation of the Despatch was expansion of mass education. It was observed that the common people were deprived of educational opportunities and therefore much emphasis was given on the increase of setting up primary, middle and high schools. The Dowaward Feltration Theory as proposed earlier was discarded and in its place importance to primary education was given. Elementary education was considered to be the foundation of the education system.

 Establishment of Universities: - The Despatch recommended the establishment of universities in the three Presidency towns of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. The universities were to be modeled after the London University and these were to have a senate comprising of a Chancellor, a Vice-Chancellor, and fellows who were nominated by the Government. The Universities would confer degrees to the successful candidates after passing the examinations, (of Science or Arts Streams) conducted by the Senate. The universities were to organize departments not only of English but also of Arabic, Sanskrit and Persian, as well as law and civil engineering.

                                                                             Grant - in-aid system: - The Wood’s Despatch

recommended the sanction of a grant-in-aid system in the Indian educational system. To educate the large number of people of India was a difficult task and so the grant-in-aid system was adopted by the government. Grants were given to those schools and colleges which satisfied the conditions given below  a)The schools must provide secular education.

b)The school management should run the school well.

c)The school should agree to state inspection from time to time.

d) The schools should follow any rule prescribed by the government for the regulation of the grant.

e)The school must charge fees from the students.

Grants were given to the schools for increasing the salaries teachers, construction of school buildings, granting scholarships to students, improving conditions of literaries, opening of science department etc.

                                                                                                                                   Teaching of Language: - The Wood’s

Despatch gave importance to teaching of English, but at the same time, it also stressed on the teaching of Indian languages. The Despatch realised that any acquaintance of European knowledge could be communicated to the common people and that could be conveyed to them only through learning their own mother tongue. Therefore the Despatch clearly stated that Indian languages as well as English should be used as media of instruction.

 Education of Women: - The Despatch recommended that the government should always support education for women. The wood’s Despatch stated, “The importance of female education in India cannot be over rated; and we have observed with pleasure the evidence which is now afforded of an increased desire on the part of many of the natives of India to give a good education to their daughters. By this

means a far greater proportional impulse is imparted to the educational and moral tone of the people than by the education of men”. The Despatch also encouraged the private enterprises to promote women education.The schools for girls were to be included among those to which grants-inaid would be given.

                                                                                                                                     Training of Teachers: - The Wood’s

Despatch recommended the establishment of teacher training schools in each of the provinces. There should be training schools for teachers of engineering, medicine and law. The qualified teachers should be given better pay scales. The Despatch further emphasized on the provision of scholarships to the teachers during their training period.

 Professional Education: - The Wood’s Despatch encouraged professional education. It recommended the establishment of medical, engineering law and other institutes of professional education. The Despatch stated that in order to develop vocational efficiency of people and also to make people realise that the British rule was progressive. Another reason for the encouragement of vocational education was to control the problem of unemployment.

                                                                                                       Introduction       of       network      of        Graded

Schools all over India: - The Wood’s Despath recommended the establishment of a network of graded schools all over the country. At one end were the universities and the colleges, then the high schools followed by the middle schools and the bottom of the middle schools and at the bottom of the network were the primary schools, both government and indigenous. Both the Anglo-vernacular and vernacular schools were to be included in the same class. This system was recommended in order to enable an individual to receive higher education after completing the different levels of schools education.

Merits of Wood’s Despatch

Æ   The Wood Despatch started a new era in Indian education system by clearly defining objectives of education.  It made the Government realise the importance of education for the people.  It presented a comprehensive scheme of education embracing primary, secondary and higher education.

Æ   It recommended the creation of a separate Department of Public Instruction in five provinces and appointment of a Director to head the Department.

Æ   The       principle          of         Downward

Filtration Theory was discarded by the

Wood’s Despatch and it encouraged the promotion of mass education; it recommended the establishment of indigenous schools.

Æ   By the grant-in-aid system many schools were benefited and the quality of education improved and private organisations were encouraged to open new schools.

Æ   The Despatch encouraged higher education by recommending the establishment of universities in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras.

Æ   The Wood’s Despatch emphasized on the necessity of vocational education.

Æ   The Despatch recommended the importance of establishing teacher training institutes to improve the quality of teachers and also improves their conditions and salaries.

Æ   The Despatch recommended scholarships for the poor and deserving students.

Æ   Language teaching was encouraged by the Despatch; as a result, regional languages and classical languages were taught in the schools.

Education         Under   The       British Administration

Hunter Education Commission, 1884.

           In late 1881 William Hunter was appointed to conduct an Education Commission into the state of education in India. The Hunter Commission published its detailed report in 1884 and its focus was to explain the failure of Charles Wood’s Education Dispatch of 1854 and to recommend reform. The principal objective of Wood’s Dispatch had been to spread government and mission education to the broader population in India. However, by the early 1880s, Westminster had become concerned that this had not happened quickly enough and there was evidence that education departments in India were restricting earlier efforts of expansion. This was especially so concerning ‘lower’ schooling in rural areas and by the late 1870s most government funding was being directed to middle and upper schooling in the principal cities and towns of the subcontinent. Wood’s clever administrative strategies had not worked well, largely because of the shock of the rebellion of 1857, government budget cuts in 1869-70 and Calcutta’s policy of administrative ‘decentralisation’ in 1871.

           

   By the 1880s it was clear further attempts at administrative fiat alone were not going to work. More information was needed by government from those closely involved in education in the field. This was especially so if primary education was to be rejuvenated and expanded. As a result Hunter and his commissioners embarked on a wide-ranging exercise in gathering evidence from indigenous, European and missionary stakeholders in 1882. The hearings were conducted in the major cities across India and they lasted for two weeks in each province. A lengthy set of questions was asked of each witness and cross-examination by commissioners was permitted. Many petitions and memorials were also presented to the commissioners. This process represented the most thorough and possibly the most genuine attempt by the British in the nineteenth century to understand the failings of European education on the subcontinent.

        The hearings in each province were meticulously recorded, bound and published. The separate final Hunter report of 640 pages, which draws together the information of the provincial reports, is reproduced on this site. The hand of the raj archivist is evident in the way the report is organised. The summary ‘history’ of education in each province before 1882 is mostly the European story and British constructs regarding caste and language pervade the report. But the information concerning indigenous schooling in Chapter 3, the complex institutional structure of government schooling in subsequent chapters and the relationship of this schooling system with outside bodies and government instrumentalities is detailed and rich. The powerful fiscal and legal regulation at work at the national and local level is also documented. Education for girls is discussed throughout and the dissenting views of commissioners are recorded on pages 603-622. Finally, Chapter 13 outlines the formal recommendations of the commission. A second layer of recommendations targeted problems peculiar to each province. Each provincial Secretariat was then required to write a formal response about how it intended to implement reform and to report two years later about its implementation. Hartog Committee

       The Hartog committee was appointed to enquire the organisation of various aspects of education in India and to give its suggestions for its over all improvement and progress. In the words of the Committee, “They were required to report on the organisation of education, on almost every point that organisation needs reconsideration and strengthening, and the resolutions of the bodies responsible for the organisation of education need readjustment.” It made recommendations in regard to primary secondary, higher and also some other aspects of education. The major recommendations are  

Defects of Primary Education   The Committee pointed out the following special difficulties in the path of progress of primary education

The Committee realised that the majority of the Indian population reside in villages. Hence primary education is more a rural problem than an urban one. In rural areas school units are usually small, adequate staffing is more expensive, the conditions of living are not attractive to teachers, needs for supervision and inspection is much greater and it is more difficult to secure regular and prolonged attendance of children.

      The Committee found that the villagers were poor, illiterate and conservative and unwilling to send their children to schools. The general economic conditions of the villagers were also unfavourable to the spread of mass education.The villages were scattered, roads and means of communications were very bad. Physical and climatic conditions were also not favourable for education.The Hartog committee noted that there were many inaccessible and economically backward areas where primary education had not been encouraged.

         As villages did not have hygienic conditions, epidemic often broke out which affected the regularity of attendance of the children. Besides, agricultural work was also responsible for poor attendance. Children had to help their parents in agriculture and the parents found that if they sent their children to schools, their work would suffer.

        The committee also found very serious barriers of caste, religion and communal feelings making the expansion of primary education complicated.Another big challenge is found by the Committee on primary level, is Wastage and

Stagnation:

          According           to         the       Committee ‘wastage’ meant premature withdrawal of children from school at any stage before the completion of the primary course. By

‘stagnation’ the committee meant detention in the same classes for more than one academic year. Regular promotion of the students to the next higher class is interrupted resulting in the withdrawal of the student from school learning. The committee had highlighted the following causes of wastage and stagnation in primary education

v    As most of the parents are illiterate children don’t find suitable environment to retain their literacy.

v    The committee found that 60% of the primary schools were single teacher school.

v    The teachers are not trained and regular inspection of schools was not possible due to inadequate number of inspectors.

v    The method of teaching employed by the teachers was unscientific and stereo typed and the curriculum was not scientific.

v    Many of the schools were temporary and short lived. There were certain schools that did not hold their sessions regularly.

Recommendations for Improvement:

After describing the defects of primary education Hartog committee condemned the policy of its hasty expansion and recommended concentration on consolidation          and      qualitative improvement. Its main recommendations were

Planning to make primary education compulsory: Primary education should be made compulsory, but there should be no hurry about it. Environment and circumstances of the locality should be carefully studied while making education compulsory

Quality Development: Policy    of consolidation should be adopted and haphazard expansion should be dropped. Qualitative development should be made instead of increasing the number of primary schools.

Duration: The minimum duration of the primary course should be of four years.

Timetable: The time table of the schools should be drawn up in accordance with the environment and the circumstances of the schools.

Curriculum: The curriculum of primary schools should be liberalised. It should be based on the needs and conditions of village life.

Standard of teachers: Standard of the primary teachers should be improved. Training institutions should have better equipment and efficient staff. Refresher courses should also be arranged from time to time. Salary conditions of the service should be made attractive.

Reduction of wastage and stagnation: Special attention should be given to the lowest class in primary schools and determined effort should be made to reduce the large extent of stagnation and wastage that prevail therein.

Government inspection: The inspecting staff of the Government should be considerably strengthened both in quality and quantity.

Centres for rural welfare: Primary schools should serve as centres for rural uplift works, medical relief, adult education, mass literacy, sanitation, recreation etc Finance: The Hartog committee opined that primary education should be a national concern and imperial Government should not entirely withdraw from the field of educational finance. It should provide necessary funds to meet financial deficiencies in the interest of India as a whole.

Sargent Report

       In the middle forties the Government of India realised that it could no longer be indifferent to the problem of education of the Indian people and there was the need of bringing about radical reform in all aspects of Indian education. As the British became hopeful of its victory in the Second World War, it directed its attention to do something for the Indian people in the field of education. So it advised Sir John Sargent, the Educational Advisor to the Government of India, to prepare a comprehensive scheme of education for educational reform in India. For the purpose, the government formed a Committee of Enquiry with 22 members.

ttee was submitted to the Central Advisory n 1944. The Board accepted it in ‘toto’ and nt. The scheme was known as ‘Sargent s prepared by John Sargent. It is also known visory Board of Education’ and also as the reconstruction in India. This scheme has a as the first attempt to develop a National . The report of the Committee consisted of from pre-primary to university education. It plan for the future educational reconstruction osed every problem critically and had given s. It deals with almost all types of education dia. This was the first report that present a

cation in our country at that period of time_. at in a period of not less than 40 years, the will be made equivalent to that of England. It ons, the implications of which may have far

ecommendations of the committee are ;

•           Pre-primary education for children between 3 to 6 years of age.

•           Universal, compulsory and free primary or basic education for all children between the ages 6—11 (junior basic) and 11—14 (senior basic).

•           High school education for six years for selected children between the years 11—17.

•           Degree course for three years beginning after the higher secondary examination for selected students

•           Technical, commercial, agricultural and art education for full time and part time students, girls schools are to teach domestic science.

•           The liquidation of adult illiteracy and the development of public library system in about 20 years.

•           Full provision for the proper training of teachers.

•           Educational provision be made for the physically and mentally handicapped children.

•           The organisation of compulsory physical education.

•           Provision be made for social and recreational activities.

•           The creation of employment bureaus.

•           The creation of department of

Education in the centre and in the states.

•           The use of mother tongue is to be used as the medium of instruction in all high schools.

Basic Education – 1937  

        The word ‘Basic’ is derived from the word ‘base’ which means the bottom or the foundation of a thing upon which the whole thing rests or is made o stand Mahatma Gandhi wanted to make the foundation of the educational edifice strong. It is with this objective that he put forward this scheme. This scheme of education is based on the national culture and civilisation of India. It aims at making a child self-reliant by enabling him to use his acquired knowledge and skills in practical affairs of life. Basic education has close relationship with the basic needs and interest of the education as the child is the focal point of education. The central point of this scheme is some handicraft, whose teaching will enable the student to solve the problems of his livelihood and at the same time develop qualities of good citizenship. In Gandhiji’s view, sound education must be rooted in the culture and life of the soil and therefore he strongly pleads for relating education to the environment.

       Gandhiji’s definition of education gives an insight into his philosophy of education. Now, what is education according to Gandhiji? By true education he means an all-round drawing out of the best in child and man, body, mind and spirit. For Gandhi mere literacy is not the end of education not even the beginning. It is only one of the means by which man and woman can be educated. Therefore, he attaches little value to literacy in his scheme of education.

Gandhiji was a practical educational philosopher and an experimentalist to the core. His experiments with truth and education were the instrument for the realisation of his ideal in life. In several of his educational experiments he tried to translate his philosophy-into achieving the reality of the evolution and establishment of an ideal society. His educational system is the dynamic side of his entire philosophy. Gandhiji keenly wanted to create a new social order based on truth and non-violence. This can be brought about only through a silent social revolution. He believed that revolutionary change in the educational system can help to bring this silent social revolution. The scheme of Basic Education does not stand for mere technique, it stands for a new spirit and approach to all education_.

The main Features of the Scheme are ;

Free and compulsory education : Gandhiji wanted education to be free and compulsory for all boys and girls between the ages of seven to fourteen. He evolved a scheme of education which would be in harmony with the culture and civilisation of the Indian people and which would solve the problem of mass education in a practical             way.

Education Through Craft : The basic idea of this scheme is to impart education through some craft or productive work. Craft work helps the child to acquire sensor and motor co-ordination and to appreciate the value of honest labour. Gandhiji was of the opinion that the method of training the mind through village handicraft from the beginning as the central focus would promote the real, disciplined development of the mind. The advantages of making craft as the centre of education as listed by the Zakir Hussain Committee are as follows—

•               “Psychologically, it is desirable, because it relieves the child from the tyranny of a purely academic and theoretical instruction against which its active nature is always making a healthy protest.”

•               “Secondly, the introduction of such practical productive work in education, to be participated in by all children of the nation will tend to break down the existing barriers of prejudice between manual and intellectual workers harmful alike for both.”

•               “Economically, carried out intelligently and efficiently, the scheme will increase the productive capacity of our workers and will also enable them to utilise their leisure advantageously.”

    “From educational point of view, greater concreteness and reality can be given to the knowledge acquired by children through craft as knowledge will be related to life.