286 



NATURE 



[JULY 23, 1891 



TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN INDIA. 



CIR AUCKLAND COLVIN, the Governor of the North- 

 "^ Western Provinces of India, has issued an exhaustive 

 minute on technical education in that country, in which the 

 various steps towards the introduction of this system of instruc- 

 tion are summarized. The minute naturally refers chiefly to the 

 North- Western Provinces, but is in fact a summary of what has 

 been done elsewhere. It seems that the idea of introducing 

 technical education in the North-West Provinces, where there 

 has hitherto always been a steadily increasing demand for Uni- 

 versity education, was first mooted in September 1885, when 

 the attention of the local Government was called to the Madras 

 scheme, which aimed at promoting instruction in industrial arts 

 and manufactures by offering grants-in-aid to encourage the 

 teaching, in schools so aided, of technical science, arts, and 

 handicrafts, and by testing that teaching by a system of public 

 examinations. Nearly a year later the Home Secretary to the 

 Government of India drew up a note on the subject generally, 

 pointing out that there was room for improvement in this branch 

 of education in the great north-west, and inquiring what was 

 being done. The Director of Public Instruction replied that 

 the question of establishing Faculties of Medicine and Engineer- 

 ing was under consideration in the Allahabad University, and 

 also certain preparatory courses of study, while it was proposed 

 to refer the question of agricultural and veterinary schools to the 

 Local Records Department. In January 1888, Colonel Forbes, 

 replying to questions addressed to him regarding instruction in 

 engineering, said he considered that the practical instruction 

 gained by natives in the large railway workshops at Allahabad, 

 Lucknow, and Lahore, and at the Government workshops at 

 Roorkee, was decidedly bearing fruit in the direction of enabling 

 natives to take intelligent and independent control in these 

 branches of technical industry. The railway and Government 

 workshops he considered were the real technical schools so far as 

 this branch of instruction was concerned, and there was no 

 need, therefore, for the Government to establish technical 

 engineering schools. Facilities might be given to selected 

 students at the middle and high schools to go through a four or 

 five years' course at these workshops, but more than that he 

 held was unnecessary. Colonel Brandreth, the Principal of 

 the Thomason College, was unfavourable to any school for 

 technical education for the youthful masses, but would 

 provide special opportunities for exceptional young men, 

 though such opportunities ■ need only be limited in number. 

 "For the higher grades of engineering, I think the ordinary 

 liberal education with a scientific knowledge is most suited, 

 until a man is of an age to know his mind, and elect for 

 the profession, when there should be a strictly technical educa- 

 tion for a limited time, two or three years, followed by a careful 

 apprenticeship on works." The late Colonel Ward contended 

 that facilities should be given at the Roorkee College for 

 practical instruction, in addition to the present theoretical 

 course. " If such a technical practical class were formed at 

 Roorkee, students from the schools might be allowed to attend 

 it without going through the College theoretical course." Later 

 on, the Director of Land Records and Agriculture sent in an 

 opinion on the subjects immediately referred to him, and advo- 

 cated nothing more than the creation of a normal school for 

 survey only, at Cawnpore or Lucknow, suggesting also the 

 establishment of small scholarships for the maintenance of boys 

 in training at the various workshops in the provinces ; of an art 

 school at Lucknow ; and of agricultural and veterinary schools 

 or classes in high schools ; and he proposed that drawing should 

 be made compulsory, competency to teach drawing being pre- 

 scribed as an essential qualification in all teachers in middle and 

 high class schools. And finally, the Inspector-General of Civil 

 Hospitals reported against the proposal to teach up to a higher 

 standard than that of the hospital assistant class. Then, in 

 March 1888, the Director of Public Instruction forwarded a 

 second report adverse to the establishment of a school of art at 

 Lucknow, and pointing out further that, however desirable was 

 the proposal to introduce drawing into public schools, there were 

 no funds available for the purpose. At the close of the year the 

 Director forwarded a resolution, on the part of the Senate of the 

 Allahabad University, to the effect that any steps to establish a 

 College for training medical practitioners would at present be 

 premature. At this point, says the Times of India, in discussing 

 Sir Auckland Colvin's minute, the cold water current ceased. 

 In the February of last year the Director of Public Instruction 



NO. II 34, VOL. 44] 



forwarded a minute by the Allahabad Senate, it which it "was 

 decided to establish a Faculty of Engineering, degrees being con- 

 ferred on men who had passed at least a three years' theoretical 

 course at a properly constituted Engineering College or school. 

 On this subject Sir Auckland Colvin no.v reports that, so far as 

 he is able to gather, the only place at which engineering can be 

 studied in the North-West Provinces is Roorkee. The Public 

 Works Department, he adds, is of opinion that if degrees are to 

 be conferred by the Allahabad University the Roorkee certificate 

 must be abolished, and the Department prefers Roorkee certi- 

 ficates. In thi-i dilemma the resolution of the Senate has not yet 

 been forwarded to the Government. Then the establishment by 

 the University of a special examination of "a commercial and 

 practical character," aiming apparently at forming a sort of 

 training class for technical education, still remains under con- 

 sideration. The general conclusion, Sir A. Colvin thinks, 

 is thit, on the whole, opinion points to nothing more urgent or 

 pronounced than the expediency of giving greater facilities for 

 obtaining instruction in the subordinate grades of practical 

 engineering, and in the handicraft of the artisan. Sir Auckland 

 Colvin then sums up the subsequent papers on the subject, relat- 

 ing to the offer of the British Indian Association, in July 1887, 

 to establish and maintain, at a cost to the Association of Rs. 500 

 per month, a school of industry in one of the Wingfield Manzil 

 buddmgs ; the announcement of Munshi Imtiaz Ali of additional 

 individual subscriptions, reaching Rs. 17,440 per annum ; to the 

 speeches of Sir Alfred Lyall on the subject ; and to the draft rules 

 forwarded by the British Indian Association. 



Sir Auckland next devotes himself to a consideration of the 

 systems of technical instruction at work in Bombay and Bengal. 

 From a careful study of the facts and the more or less volumin jus 

 papers in which they were originally enshrined, he proceeds 

 to define what is meant by technical education so far as it is 

 applicable to the North-West Provinces. Technical education 

 in Europe he illustrates by Mr. Scott Russell's words : "It is 

 necessary that each individual shall, in his own special profession, 

 trade, or calling, know more thoroughly its fundamental principles, 

 wield more adroitly its special weapons, be able to apply more 

 skilfully its refined artifices, and to achieve more quickly and 

 economically the aim of his life, whether it be commerce, manu- 

 factures, public works, agriculture, navigation, or architecture ; " 

 and by an extract from Mr. Kirkham's report, in February 1889, 

 to the Bombay Government : " The general principles that the 

 real technical school is the actual workshop — that actual work- 

 shops are only called into existence by capital operating in ac- 

 cordance with its own law— that this training, so far as it can be 

 given in schools or colleges, must be, in the main, preparatory 

 and disciplinary, and that the improvement of science teaching 

 all round, and the spread of a practical knowledge of drawing, 

 are the indispensable preliminaries of any form of practical 

 training." But however unanimous the authorities may be so 

 far as the principle of the matter is concerned, directly they come 

 to the practical details there is, as Mr. Kirkham admits, every 

 degree of diversity of opinion, and every system is of course bound 

 in a way to differ from every other system, just as the leading 

 industries of different districts differ. Apart from this, however, 

 the Bombay system was found to be far too elaborate for the 

 North-West Provinces. From Bengal Sir Alfred Croft wrote a 

 very practical and sensible letter, condemning the abolition of 

 the Seebpore workshops, and urging that the primary point, 

 so far as engineer students were concerned, was to learn how 

 to use their hands. He also quoted Mr. Spiing, who says there 

 can be no question as to their superiority for public works employ- 

 ment if the men have gone through the course of manual training. 

 " An engineer who has learned to use his hands is, other things 

 being equal, an all-round better and more useful man than one 

 who has not." Sir A. Croft goes on to further condemn the 

 removal of the Seebpore shops from the point of view of the 

 need of the mechanic class. "It may be freely admitted and 

 taken as proved that the maintenance of the shops is undesir- 

 able from the point of view of the Public Works Department. 

 But it is no less clear to me that the interests of that Depart- 

 ment are in this matter antagonistic to those of technical educa- 

 tion ; and that the deliberations of the Committee have been 

 chiefly governed by regard to the former." The Government, 

 however, remained in principle unmoved ; but happily in practice 

 they agreed with the Director of Public Instruction, and the 

 Government of India followed suit ; thus establishing a very 

 important principle in regard to technical education. Armed 

 with all this experience, and conceding for the moment the 



