504 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—L. 
THE EDUCATION OF BACKWARD PEOPLES :— 
Mr. S. Rivers-Smits, C.B.E. 
We must decide what is worth while teaching and what is not, and whether our 
accepted standards of knowledge can be applied in the early stages of the evolution 
of a system of education suitable to a backward race. 
The first essential would appear to be a resynthesis of knowledge, with its natural 
corollary of a generous reconsideration of the content of the syllabus and the fullest 
elasticity in its interpretation and application. 
Knowledge to be of value must be vital. Our problem narrows down to a decision 
as to the criteria by which the knowledge of any particular group can best be measured, 
with the view of discovering natural aptitudes and the possibility of linking occupations 
and traditions with civilisation and progress. 
An appreciation of the native point of view is not attainable in a moment and as 
the result of casual association during the routine of administrative work. The wide 
gulf between the social codes and the race prejudice with which the European is 
hedged about make the establishment of a working confidence a task of great 
difficulty. 
A careful economic survey should precede the formulation of education policy, 
and anthropological and ethnological research should go hand in hand with educational 
development. Economic demand has to be met, and does not wait on the results of 
scientific research, but, just as trades need the aid of science in the development of 
industry, so must education look to the scientist to co-operate in the evolution of 
education for backward races. 
African music and African crafts are worth preserving, but suffer neglect owing 
to the conviction that everything European must be better by virtue of the superiority 
of the ruling races. The mechanisation of modern life increases the difficulties of the 
educationist. Never before has a nation experienced such a violent sociological shock 
as that experienced by the races of Central Africa. 
The same mental processes which produce urban immigration in industrialised 
countries operate in undeveloped Africa. The education problem is largely to protect 
the native against himself. The schools must harbour and refine native culture and 
native lore, and reflect all that is best in native social and artistic life. Educational 
aim must be the reorientation of outlook and the creation of confidence in the 
permanency and the capacity for development of native culture. The educationist 
must have confidence in the qualities of the African and his capacity to fit in to a more 
ordered society. 
The task is beyond the capacity of the educationist unaided. He has not the 
leisure to conduct the research necessary to avoid the pitfalls which await the 
unimaginative and the uninformed. Close co-operation between the field worker 
and the teacher will clear the path of educational progress and free the future from 
the litter of the mistakes of the past. 
Major H. A. Harman, D.8.0.—Some Difficulties and Inconsistencies in the 
Education of the Backward Peoples of Africa. 
African education is full of dangers, difficulties and inconsistencies. In a fuller 
recognition of the value of the native teacher, and in framing all systems so that he 
is the channel to his people, lie the means of avoiding or overcoming these difficulties. 
The material of education comprises first the so-called intelligentsia and their 
children ; second, the children at present in primary schools of all types; and third, 
the masses of children and grown-ups in villages still untouched. 
The motive for giving or requiring education is different in each group. So, too, 
is the form of education sought or given. Among the forms may be recognised: that 
subservient to a particular form of religion or necessary if adherents are to be kept 
and new converts obtained; that based on the training of character; the purely 
vocational, whether due to a transient or persistent need for clerks and artisans, or 
prompted by a desire to keep the people of an area engaged on its staple industry or 
occupation, or to give them a new and suitable occupation; that aiming at the 
provision of future rulers from among the existing ruling class or of leaders from 
among all classes; and, lastly, the aimless type. 
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