Section TIL— ANTHROPOLOGY. ETHN'OLOGY. EDUCATION, 

 HISTORY. MENTAL SCIENCE. PHILOLOGY. POLITICAL 

 ECONOMY. SCIOLOGY AND STATISTICS. 



President of the Section : — H. Gunn/M.A. 



TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER 28. 



The President delivered the following address : — 



THE PROBLEM OF RURAL EDUCATION. 



There are numerous educational questions in South Africa which 

 urgently call for consideration, but one of the most pressing — though 

 it has probably received less attention than any — is that of providing 

 the children in the more sparsely populated parts of the country 

 with an adequate education which is at the same time adapted to 

 their future requirements. The provision of a comprehensive 

 system of education for its people makes serious demands upon the 

 resources of even the richest State, and it is naturally the most 

 populous centres that receive the earliest and the closest attention, 

 because it is in them that the problem can be most efficiently and 

 economically dealt with. The greater the commercial or the 

 political importance of a centre, the easier it is to secure the interest 

 and support of its inhabitants for the establishment and develop- 

 ment of institutions which not merely provide for their own im- 

 mediate needs but which are calculated to improve their position 

 and enhance their importance. We accordingly find that in some 

 at least of the leading centres of population there is a sufficient 

 supplv of schools of various types, providing not only for elementary, 

 secondary and technical education, but for education of a University 

 standard as well. Questions do arise regarding these schools, 

 but they concern not so much their establishment or maintenance 

 as the efficiency of their work and the suitabihty of their curricula. 

 Even in the smaller towns and villages there exist schools which are 

 comparatively well equipped and staffed with a view to providing 

 a general, and in some cases even a liberal education. But when 

 we pass beyond these and consider the rural parts of the ; ountry, 

 we find, as a rule, that not only is the provision for elementary 

 education seriously inadequate, but that even where it does exist 

 it is ill-adapted to the special requirements of the pupils. Indeed, 

 it would appear that rural schools are looked upon everyvv-here as 

 the lowest rung in the educational ladder, and that it is considered 

 somewhat idealistic to expect the country child to recei\'e an 

 equality of opportunit}' v\'ith his town brother. 



This is especially true in the case of South Africa. Our towns 

 and villages are provided with schools which are generally speaking 

 efficient. In these the children are able to obtain a good g meral 

 education, and any improvements which are needed lie m the 

 direction of more skilled teaching, and of a more adequate equipment 

 and a wider curriculum. As regards the country districts, however, 



