4jS NATIVE EDUCATION IN THE TRANSKEl. 



aiifl Cc'rfccl still less to be bothered with the none too pleasant 

 duty of urgino- his ])eople to fulfil their obligations. 



In i)assing, however, it should l)e mentioned that this extra- 

 ordinarv state of affairs still exists even unto this day in the 

 Colony ]jroper, for there is no machinery in the Ciskei com- 

 parable to that in the 'IVanskei. Several efforts have been made 

 to secure some competent authority in the Ciskei with powers to 

 deal with the raising of a rate at least for educational pur- 

 poses, and it is to be hoped that something will be done along 

 those lines in the near ftiture 



The \alue of this suggestion will be at once seen when we 

 studv the accompanying tables relating to the efifect of the 

 General Council system on Native Education in the Transkei. 

 For one thing, it has, of course, and c|uite naturally, attracted 

 the best teachers to the Transkei. In consequence, the 

 standard of work has been mucli imj)roved, and this imj^rove- 

 ment is reflected in the better ([tialified teachers which the Train- 

 ing Institutions are turning out, because they have better material 

 to work on. The Instittitions then.iselves are not only much 

 improved within recent years, their numbers increasing both in 

 point of attendance, and also in the numbers of Institutions. In 

 fact, the whole system of Native Education in the Transkei has 

 been materially improved in most respects, and stands as an 

 illustration and exani])le for all our native territories in the 

 Union. 



In order to make the comparison as complete and exact as 

 possible two tables (IX and X) are here given. The first is 

 taken from the minutes of the Commission on Native Education, 

 and the second is conijiiled from of^.cial sources^as are all the 

 tables in this i)a|)er. 



It will be noted, in the first instance, that in the districts 

 under the jurisdiction of the Council the average percentage 

 attending school is double that in non-Council areas. In the 

 second table the first point to be observed is that only four dis- 

 tricts are now outside the District Council system. The obvious 

 inference is that the system .so manifestly commended itself to 

 the people that they willingly accei)ted the responsibilities of 

 entrance in order to secure the privileges ; and of these, perhaps, 

 the fir.st is education. The four districts which remain without 

 the magic circle are the most backward districts of heathen 

 Pondoland, and their entrance is now only a question of time. 

 How backward these districts really are is revealed by the fact 

 that only y per cent, of the children available attend schools, 

 re])resenting an increase of 5.S jier cent, in eleven years ! 



The average ])ercentage of attendance for all Council areas 

 is ;^2 jjer cent. 



Alongside the.se figures it is of value to show the percen- 

 tages as from certain districts in order to see what number of 

 children may be regarded as available for school attendance. 

 Thus in 1907, in N(|amakwe district, 14.7 per cent, of population 

 were attending school, and 2g per cent, of j)opulation were be- 



