THE BORDERLAND OV SCHOOL AND COLLEGE. 211 



road whose milestones were recognised from the " School Elemen- 

 tary " to the B.A. ; and the imposition of any restrictions would 

 merely have been the holding- back of clever boys from their natural 

 course of advancement. 



The first step towards reform came when the educational au- 

 thorities limited the grant for higher education and prevented it 

 from being granted for students below the first matriculation class. 

 Later on the essential step was reached of treating all work below 

 the matriculation as school work. The senior classes of the col- 

 leges were divided from the junior, and became at last University 

 Colleges for matriculated students. For the first time in their 

 history it was possible for them to confine their efforts to the work 

 of higher education. From this time, then, we must date the birth 

 of true University Colleges and of actual High Schools, which — 

 whatever their names may be — do not aspire to send in pupils for a 

 B.A. degree, though the " Intermediate " has remained a matter 

 of conflicting claims. 



This parting of High School from University College took place 

 at different dates in various parts of South Africa. Little had 

 been accomplished before 1895, and we may probably place the 

 average date of the change several years later. When we remem- 

 ber, therefore, that it is less than 15 years since the B.A. student 

 was merely the senior school-fellow of youngsters who were 

 struggling with the " three R.'s," there is no possible reproach to 

 the teachers of South Africa in the statement that the boundary 

 line has not yet been established between School and College work. 



During the same years the development of primary and 

 secondary schools has begun to reveal the fact that school work 

 is something more than the path from the kindergarten to the 

 bachelor's degree. The value of many subjects is at last being 

 estimated with reference to the production of a man, even when 

 they show no tendency to stimulate the growth of a precocious 

 graduate. Drawing, music and geography can do little towards 

 the production of Masters of Arts; while the woodwork of boys or 

 the needlework and cookery of girls will be found to have as little 

 connection with purely academic distinction. 



After all it is a man that we want to produce, fitted for success 

 in colonial life ; and not a young Mandarin, trained to pass ex- 

 aminations and gain employment as a Civil Servant. From this 

 point of view we must emphasise and not minimise those sides of 

 school training which have least bearing upon examination success 

 or upon the production of precocious undergraduates. One criti- 

 cism which the schoolmaster most frequently hears from his candid 

 friends is a complaint of the poor elocution of his pupils. " Why 

 do you not teach your boys to speak? Not one in a hundred is 

 fit to read out a legal notice in a law court, and none of them will 

 ever be sucessful orators." This is most deplorably true. All we 

 can say is that we do our best with the juniors, but that elder 

 boys are too busy with examinations ahead of them to spare time 

 for anything which does not pay in marks. 



