191 O.J The Third Indian Science Congress. 



XCIX 



36 millions are of the school-going age. Tims only 20 per cont of those 

 ot the school-going age receive any education at all. Of these 7* million 



f. £Jf S ' , out l million Proceed to secondary education and about 

 w,000 reach a University career. 



In judging of these figures in relation to the agricultural industry it 

 should be borne in mind that the percentage of scholars is much higher in 

 the urban than in the rural areas and also that a very large number of rural 

 scholars never get more than a mere smattering of the most elementary 

 education ; so that educational efficiency in rural areas is very much lower 

 than the official returns of general education would indicate. Much ha 

 been done in recent years to improve our system of education, especially in 

 its relation to agriculture, and the subject may be said to have received an 

 unwonted measure of attention. In 1901 an important conference was 

 held at Simla presided over by Lord Curzon which led to a complete 

 overhauling of the existing educational machinery. A policy of reform 

 was then started, the vitalizing influence of which is felt to this day. A 

 department of education was created with a member of council in charge. 

 Money grants were increased and they have still further increased, as a 

 result of keen interest taken by the present Viceroy Lord Hardinge who 

 has made education a special object of his attention. Thus the total 



expenditure which in 1901 was 4 crores, to-day is over 10 crores. The 

 number of pupils in 1901 was 3J millions, to-day it is 7| millions. 



Agricultural and rural education have had quite a fair share of 

 attention, and the need which exists for connecting the teaching of the 

 schools with our chief industry has been and still is fully recognized. 



\vn 



success one would have wished. 



The occasion when agricultural education first seriously engaged the 

 attention of Government and the people was in 1904, when the policy for 

 improving the agricultural industry was started by Lord Curzon. At 

 nrst it was the intention to restrict efforts to improving the industry 

 itself, but later, influenced no doubt by the examples of advanced 

 schemes abroad, the Government elaborated a policy under which not only 

 research and experiment, but agricultural education proper, formed an 

 important and integral part. Large sums of money were devoted to the 

 erection of agricultural colleges in nearly all the Provinces. Syllabuses 

 were prepared by the Board of Agriculture and the Colleges were 

 empowered to grant a diploma of Licentiate of Agriculture. At first 

 signs of success were not wanting. Candidates freely offered themselves 

 for admission and there was found no difficulty in filling the colleges. 

 However, as time rolled on, a decline in admissions became perceptible 

 until the year 1913 when, in some colleges, the position became acute and 

 the matter was brought up for consideration before the Board of Agri- 

 culture. The proceedings of the Board in that year indicate the general 

 failure of the schemes drawn up in 1906 and 1908. The cause of this 

 failure would appear to be explained in one of the resolutions which stated 

 ** that the general standard in the Matriculation or University Entrance 

 Examination does not provide a sufficient basis to enable a student to 

 take full advantage of the higher instruction obtainable in the existing 

 agricultural colleges in India" and the Board recommended that a 

 general higher education is necessary in all students admitted to such a 

 course. In other words, it would appear that the standard of general 

 education in the country was too low to afford suitable material with 

 which to man colleges of such an advanced type as those which had been 

 set up by the Agricultural Department. In fact the colleges as educa- 

 tional centres were ahead of the times — primary and secondary education 

 was too backward. Consequently the Board suggested a compromise by 

 lowering the standard of the college curriculum to meet existing conditions 

 and expressed its approval of a two years' preliminary practical course, 

 which had been prepared for the agricultural college at Coimbatore as an 

 1 introduction to the more advanced course. Many of the colleges have 



