552 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



technical schools like that devoted to the cotton industry in 

 Bombay or a general engineering school like that at Seebpore. 

 In Madras, however, an original attempt was made to create 

 a demand for technical education by providing facilities for 

 the examination of students in a great variety of technical 

 and industrial subjects. The scheme was modelled on the 

 lines of the examinations of the Science and Art Department 

 and of the City and Guilds of London ; it has proved of little 

 value, though it has supplied convenient tests of the training 

 given to pupils in trade and elementary engineering schools. 



The only practical outcome of these early attempts was to 

 strengthen the staff and improve the equipment of the existing 

 engineering colleges at Roorkhee, Poona and Madras, where 

 Indians are trained for the various branches of service in the 

 Public Works Department. Unlike Seebpore, where most of 

 the students find employment in the industrial undertakings 

 of Bengal, these institutions are intended to supply the very 

 considerable demands of the provincial Governments, native 

 states and district boards for men to carry on the current 

 engineering work of the country in connection with railways, 

 road and bridges, irrigation, buildings and general municipal 

 work. Mechanical engineering is not entirely neglected but 

 it is regarded as subordinate to civil engineering, hence probably 

 the limited degree of success hitherto attained by Indian 

 engineers in the practice of a profession which calls for an 

 intimate acquaintance with the materials and methods employed 

 in construction. For a long time these colleges were not 

 very popular, notwithstanding the fact that a number of well- 

 paid Government appointments were guaranteed to the students 

 who completed full courses of instruction ; of late years there 

 has been a great change, the competition at the entrance 

 examinations being now very keen. Apart from the too early 

 specialisation in favour of civil engineering, the work done in 

 these colleges suffers from the defective previous training of 

 the students ; but little improvement can be expected so long 

 as the general education of the country is dominated by the 

 Universities. The reforms which have been introduced, since 

 the report of the Universities Commission, have done some- 

 thing to raise the general tone of Indian education but they 

 have done little or nothing to render it of a practical character. 

 It seems almost certain that another educational system is 



