464 NATIVE EDUCATION IN THE TRANSKEl. 



Blythswood 



Lovcdale 



Totals 43 47 -17 47 67 



Table IV shows the exact position to date of the extent of 

 industrial education. One is tempted to enquire whether the 

 deplorable condition of industrial education is due to the fact 

 that certain sections of the community fear the competition of 

 native labour, and so facilities are withheld in order that the 

 natives may not be in a jxisition to compete. 



So humiliating an attitude surely must be dismissed from 

 our minds, and one prefers to think that the unsuccessful policy 

 is due to the practical difficulties. 



3. -AGRICULTURAL. 



At present the only instruction in all our native school sys- 

 tem, which even borders on agricultural education, is the course 

 of Nature study recently introduced into the Training Institu- 

 tions. If our curriculum were based on the accejjted principle 

 of proceeding from the known to the tmknown it is difficult to 

 see how we could avoid teaching agriculture in our native 

 schools. The child coming from a heathen home is acquainted 

 with the cattle and goats and sheep and their ways, and has 

 often, if he be a boy, led the oxen when his father was plough- 

 ing. The girls, on the other hand, would have helped their 

 mothers in the work of hoeing the lands. Starting them from 

 the cattle fold and the mealie garden much might be taught. 



The need for industrial training is great, but the need for 

 agricultural training is greater. The continued increase of the 

 native population dare not be lightly treated, and it is essential 

 that we should teach the native peoples how to get the best 

 results from the limited amount of land available ; and a wise 

 dis.semination of knowledge in. and through, our schools will 

 accom]>lish more at slight expense than other costly schemes in- 

 volving the establishment of agricultural colleges. In any case, 

 the agricultural colleges might well have a place of their own in 

 the scheme of higher education. 



In connection with this subject it is interesting to observe 

 that in other parts of the world agriculture is actually included 

 in the school curriculum. In his report on " Agricultural Educa- 

 tion in Australia." Dr. C. F. Juritz informs us that, in addition 

 to agricultural liigh schools in the State of Victoria, the subject 

 is taught in the Primary Schools. 



What everyone intcrcslcd in the future of South .Xfrioan agriculture 

 should realise in this connection, is that in Victoria no effort is spared to 

 enlist the child's ideas and inclinations on behalf of agricultural pursuits. 

 from the very earliest age possible. 



