338 Report 8. A. A. Advancement of Science. 



you handicap our children by compelling them to learn in a foreign 

 language, and then make them compete with Europeans a,t the same 

 examinations ; and why are we deprived of all Government assistance 

 towards secondary education 1 " At the same time he suspects any 

 change in the subjects of the present curriculum, lest it might pre- 

 judice the political privileges he shares with Europeans, not recognising 

 that a course might be prescribed which would be equivalent in standard, 

 though not identical, with that drawn up for Europeans. 



Again, our present methods are charged with defying certain 

 recognised principles of educational science. That in teaching a child 

 one should proceed from the known to the unknown is almost a truism 

 in modern pedagogy. But, it is stated, this is precisely what is not 

 done and what cannot be done under the present system, which, by 

 prescribing for the raw Kafir child the same code as that drawn up 

 for the white pupil, ignores the fundamental difference in language, 

 home surroundings, previous ti'aining, customs, traditions and heredi- 

 tary instincts existing between each. Thus the school has no connecting 

 link with the native pupil's past environment. Reading, arithmetic, 

 writing belong to a world wholly foreign to the one he knows, and, 

 taught through the medium of a foreign language, are meaningless to 

 him. From the first he is plunged into a state of mental chaos from 

 which he is seldom delivered, and, unable to understand and assimilate 

 the ideas taught, he is satisfied to store his memory with the words 

 employed. He is thus encouraged to imagine that to speak the white 

 man's language is to possess the white man's education, and later, that 

 to pass the white man's examinations, which he does by again cramming 

 his memory with words, facts and rules, is to be on an equality with 

 the white man. 



It has been further pointed out that a system of primary education 

 under which more than 90 per cent, of native pupils leave school without 

 being able to read with pleasure or write intelligibly, either in English 

 or the vernacular, is obviously imperfect, and all the more so when, in 

 addition, it fails to stimulate their intelligence, to form their character, 

 or to fit them for their proper sphere in life. 



This may seem extreme language to use, but I am only reproducing 

 what has l:)een stated and written publicly by well-known educationists 

 having practical experience t)f nati\e work. 



That the consensus of missionary opinion is not in favour (jf the 

 present system has been shown by the resolutions passed at recent 

 missionary conferences. What the missionaries complain of cliietly is 

 that under existing conditions the pressure of work and methods of 

 inspection inevitably have led to crannning, and that no time is left for 

 true education ; that the worst features of the examination craze are 

 to be seen in native Training Schools ; that Government requirements 

 do not include any moral or religious instruction, and that, as a result, 

 these are neglected. Pupils, having passed their Teachers' or School 

 Higher examination, go out to the world without the faculty of wonder 

 or reverence in their souls, ignorant of the value of life and unfitted for 

 responsibility through lack of moral grit. 



