It provided very wisely for the development of elementary education, with the object of "conveying to the great mass of the people, who are utterly incapable of obtaining any education worthy of the name by their own unaided efforts, useful and practical knowledge, suited to every station in life." A most admirable recommendation. It was, however, abandoned. Indeed, in July 1911 it was officially stated in the House of Commons that 80 per cent of the children of India are still "outside education." As the boys alone, of school-going age, number 16,000,000 at the present date, the widespread nature of native ignorance may be gathered.
Relinquishing, then, the systematic instruction of the masses in anything, we confined our education mainly to literary subjects, to be taught through the medium of the English tongue. For that purpose it may be supposed that we should have needed masters who understood our language and ways of thought. Yet out of 127 "colleges" to-day, there are 30 with no Europeans at all on the staff, 16 with one, 21 with two, and so forth. In the secondary schools it is even worse. Altogether, in the early years of this century, the total number of Europeans under government engaged in educational work has numbered barely 250, whilst that of natives engaged in similar work in colleges and secondary schools has been over 27,000. The Director-General of Education himself recently denounced the whole status of the latter teachers
