CHAPTER X.
EDUCATION.
CENSUS STATISTICS — Education by religions and taluks. EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS — The Rája's College at Vizianagram — The Mrs. A. V. Narasinga Rao College — Upper Secondary schools —Lower secondary schools — Other public schools — Sanskrit schools— Schools for girls — Schools for backward classes.
THE separate Appendix to this volume gives the more important of the statistics of the state of education in Vizagapatam according to the census and the returns of the Educational department. The census figures showed that the number of the people in the Agency who could read and write was less even than the miserable average for all the three Agencies (one per cent, of the inhabitants), and that the dwellers in the plain taluks were considerably more illiterate than the people of any other district in the Presidency. Only three people in every hundred of the latter can read and write and only four girls in every thousand. This district has always been a byword for its illiteracy. The Úriya Bráhman takes less kindly to letters than his Tamil- and Telugu - speaking fellow-castemen, and the Telugu Bráhmans are already so liberally provided with posts as scribes and Levites to the numerous zamindars, and with whole and minor inams granted them by the ancestors of these gentlemen, that they have little need to trouble themselves to pass examinations qualifying for Government service.
Some of the hill folk have been reported to believe that if a highlander dares to learn to read and write his eyes will drop out and his head burst into a thousand pieces, but the usual attitude is mere apathy and is typified by the Khond who asked 'What's the good of education? Will it bring me food ? 'Hill villages often consist of only a hut or two, and are scattered and distant from the schools; hill school-masters are seldom the best of their class and are usually ignorant of the hill languages; and the inspecting staff displays little anxiety to visit the hills frequently. In 1905 Government approved certain proposals to remedy matters made by a conference of the local officials chiefly concerned,[1] but it is too soon yet to say what results will follow. Meanwhile the Khond is commercially at the mercy of the wily Sondi and the cringing Dombu.
Telugu is the language chiefly known by the few who are literate. In the plains eleven per cent, of these people could read and write English at the time of the last census, and in the Agency three per cent., but this latter figure is made up almost entirely of officials.
Of the followers of the three chief religions, the Christians of both sexes are the best educated, then come the Musalmans, and the Hindus bring up the rear. Of the various taluks Vizagapatam naturally contains the largest number of literates and Vizianagram the next largest. Golgonda is the most backward, actually ranking below the most advanced of the purely agency taluks, Gunupur.
The district boasts two colleges; namely, the first-grade institution maintained by the Rája at Vizianagram and the second grade Mrs. A. Y. Narasinga Rao College at Vizagapatam.
The former of these began as a school in 1857, when it contained two branches, one for Bráhmans and Kshatriyas and the other for boys of other castes. These were amalgamated in 1859; nine years later a matriculation class was opened; in 1877 the institution was made a second-grade college; and in 1883 it was raised to the first grade. An inscription on the foundation stone of the southern extension of the main building shows that this was laid by Lord Wenlock in October 1894. The Rája bears the whole cost of the institution, at present about Rs, 16,000 per annum. Some 80 youths, almost all of them Bráhmans, are reading in the college classes.
The Mrs. A. V. Narasinga Rao College at Vizagapatam originated in a school called 'the Anglo- Vernacular school' which was founded in 1860 by Mr. Grant, Inspector of Schools (subsequently Sir Alexander Grant, Director of Public Instruction, Bombay),Mr. E. Fane, Collector of the district from 1859 to 1862, M.R.Ry (afterwards Mahárája) G. N. Gajapati Rao and M.R.Ry.C.Venkatasvámi Náyudu. The leading zamindars of the district, especially Vizianagram and Bobbili, and Mahárája Sir Gajapati Rao contributed liberally towards the school for many years. In 1878 it was raised to the status of a second-grade college and affiliated to the Madras University, and its name was then changed to 'the Hindu College.' In 1892 the late M.R.Ry. A. V. Narasinga Rao of Vizagapatam, who had married into the Godé family referred to on p. 219 below, bequeathed a lakh of rupees (besides a building fund of Rs. 15,000) for a college to be called after his wife, and the managing committee of this bequest took over the Hindu College on 1st April 1899 as a basis for the construction of such an institution. An imposing new building of stone is being now constructed to house it. A hostel for 50 students has already been opened. About 50 boys, most of them Bráhmans, are reading in the college classes.
Both these colleges contain upper secondary departments, that attached to the latter of them having as many as 450 boys on its rolls. There are five other schools of that grade for boys; namely, the municipality's high school at Bimlipatam, the two kept up in Vizagapatam by the London Mission and the Roman Catholic Mission, the Mahárája's school at Bobbili (founded in 1865), and a private institution — the Ripon Hindu Theological school at Vizianagram, The London Mission school arose from the amalgamation, in 1845, of their smaller institutions. That of the Catholic Mission is known as St. Aloysius' and its 180 pupils are practically all of them Europeans, Eurasians or Native Christians. The staff consists of seven European priests, four Brothers and two lay teachers, the industrial and technical classes are a special feature, and the institution boasts a band and a cadet corps 60 strong. The Mahárája's school at Bobbili accepts no aid from public funds.
English lower secondary schools number twelve, of which one is supported by the Anakápalle municipal council; eight, those at Narasapatam, Yellamanchili, Kasimkóta, Chódavaram, Pálkonda, Jeypore, Gunupur and Párvatípur, are kept up by the local boards; one, at Sálúr, is managed by the Lutheran Mission there; another, at Bimlipatam, belongs to the Canadian Baptists; and the twelfth, at Vizianagram, is managed privately. The two last receive no aid from Provincial or local funds. The two schools in the Agency are shown in the official returns as being specially maintained for aboriginal and hill tribes, but of their 280 pupils none appear to belong to either of these classes.
Government maintains training-schools for masters at Vizagapatam and Gunupur, and one for mistresses and a medical school at Vizagapatam. Several of the schools have technical classes, those at St. Aloysius' teaching telegraphy, shorthand, type-writing and freehand drawing.
Sanskrit or Véda schools numbering 21 and costing Rs. 5,000 annually appear in the official returns. Chief among them are that maintained by the Rája at Vizianagram, in which 60 students are taught at an annual outlay of Rs. 3,000, and that at Sálúr referred to on p. 307. It is interesting to note that in several villages in the district the ancient system of imparting instruction in the Védas still survives, the Bráhman teacher receiving the pupils into his house, supplying them with food and otherwise treating them as members of his own family until they have reached the requisite stage of erudition, and requiring them, in return, to discharge certain minor duties about the house.
The most advanced school for girls in the district is that belonging to the Roman Catholic Mission and located in the striking-looking building erected by Bishop Clerc opposite the Waltair railway-station. In this and its branch in the fort, 180 girls are under instruction by about a dozen nuns and several lay teachers. The classes go up to the matriculation standard, and besides the day school there is a large boarding establishment and a special school for pupils whose parents can afford to pay for separate accommodation, all located in different parts of the spacious building. There are also seven lower secondary vernacular schools for girls in different parts of the district, the two largest being those for caste girls kept up by the London and Roman Catholic Missions in Vizagapatam and Vizianagram respectively, both of which contain over 200 pupils.
Besides the Jeypore and Gunupur schools already referred to 130 primary schools are maintained in the Agency specially for hill tribes. Of the 2,700 pupils in these, 30 per cent, are reported to belong to those classes. The highlanders, as has been already stated, do not take kindly to books, and the danger is that the schools will be attended less by them than by the sons of the alien or lower castes who cheat and overreach them, and will result, not in the enlightenment of the backward races, but in conferring additional intelligence on that section of the population which already preys upon them more than is good. About 1,000 'Panchamas' are under instruction at schools kept up specially for their kind. The percentage of scholars to the population of these people of school-age is, however, lower than anywhere in the Presidency except on the conservative west coast.
- ↑ G.O., No. :367, Educational, dated 31st May 1905,