36 
Magazine  of  the  School  of  Agriculture. 
the  need  for  Technical  Education  just  at  this 
stage  ? How  is  it  shown  ? And  then  only  having 
proved  that  it  is  necessary  or  even  desirable 
should  the  next  question  be  considered,  how, 
when,  to  whom  and  by  whom  should  Technical 
Education  be  given  ? 
We  have  already  seen  that  in  England  and 
America  the  necessity  for  technical  instruction 
arose  from  four  causes  chiefly : (1)  the  introduction 
of  machinery  to  supplant  hand  labour ; (2)  the 
abolition  of  the  old  system  of  apprenticeship ; 
(3)  the  demand  for  trained  heads  and  skilled 
hands  in  factories  and  workshops  to  keep  pace 
with  the  constantly  changing  conditions  of  pro- 
duction and  distribution,  and  to  protect  national 
interests  against  foreign  competition ; (4)  the 
recognition  of  the  necessity  for  scientific  in- 
struction of  a practical  character  for  the  highest 
classes  of  workmen.  But  here  in  Ceylon  which 
is  fully  quarter  of  a century  at  least  behind 
the  rest  of  the  world,  where  is  the  pressure  from 
altered  conditions  of  labor,  where  are  the  factories 
which  need  the  trained  intelligence  and  superior 
skill  of  scientific  workmen  trained  in  a technical 
school,  where  the  apprentices,  the  artisans,  the 
workmen,  the  foremen  who  are  likely  to  join 
a technical  class  ? Only  the  other  day  we  read 
in  a local  paper  how  a Ceylonese  lad  who  had 
gone  through  a thorough  practical  traning  as  a 
fitter,  and  with  good  testimonials  applied  in  suc- 
cession to  each  of  the  four  factories  here  (the 
only  four  which  exist  at  present)  which  were 
likely  to  need  the  services  of  a fitter,  only  to 
be  informed  in  each  instance  that  his  services 
were  not  required.  1 can  quite  understand  it. 
Each  of  these  factories  trains  up  j ust  as  many 
hands  as  it  needs  for  subordinate  work  and  in- 
dents for  foremen  and  managers  from  Europe. 
Can  any  Technical  School  or  workshop  give  the 
same  training  as  that  which  the  prentice  lads 
now  receive  in  the  Government  Factory  or 
(Railway  Yard?  Will  the  Government  outlie 
private  firms  who  conduct  the  two  principal 
manufacturing  establishments  here  cease  to  en- 
gage men  not  for  the  highest  posts  only,  but 
even  for  the  subordinate  offices  in  these  factories 
once  a Technical  School  is  established  here  ? Will 
the  scientific  departments  of  the  Government — 
the  Surveyor-General’s  Department,  the  Tele- 
graph Department,  the  Public  Works — employ  the 
locally-trained  pupils  in  preference  to  the  men 
who  are  now  got  out  from  England  ? It  is  to 
be  hoped  so,  for  it  is  not  at  all  likely  there  will 
be  many  vacancies  for  them  in  private  engineer- 
ing firms. 
But  perhaps  it  may  be  said  that  that  is  not  the 
class  of  pupils  for  whom  the  Technical  School  is  to 
be  started — not  Engineers  and  Foremen  and  Con- 
structive Machinists  whom  the  School  will  turn 
out,  but  a humbler  class  for  the  lower  grades  of 
industrial  work.  Be  it  so  ; but  if  so  let  that  fact 
be  fully  understood,  and  it  will  give  rise  to  no 
heart-burning  and  disappointment  hereafter.  But 
there  arises  the  question  why,  if  that  be  the  only 
object  of  a Technical  School,  should  the  Govern- 
ment interfere  with  the  existing  arrangements  in 
the  Government  Factory  and  the  Railway  Yard. 
No  workshop  training  in  a Technical  School  could 
give  the  pupils  the  same  opportunities  for  acquir- 
ing the  knowledge  and  skill  and  dexterity  to  be 
derived  from  the  special  training  which  obtains 
in  these  establishments  at  present  under  the  sti- 
mulus and  pressure  of  work  which  has  to  be 
completed  in  limited  periods  of  time. 
Again,  it  has  been  suggested  that  the  Technical 
School  may  do  good  and  useful  work  in  improving 
and  developing  the  trades,  like  the  Industrial 
Schools  in  Kandy  and  Haputale  and  at  Wellawatte. 
Perhaps  so.  On  this  point  I would  rather  not 
venture  an  opinion.  It  should  be  remembered, 
however,  that  the  only  Schools  of  the  kind  which 
exist  in  Europe,  known  as  Trade  Schools,  or  Ap- 
prenticeship Schools,  arose  from  the  failure  of  the 
old  apprenticeship  system,  while  here  it  continues 
in  full  force  to  this  day,  nurtured  by  the  caste 
systems  which  prevail,  and  the  tendency  to  recog- 
nise craftsmanship  ns  an  hereditary  talent.  Be- 
sides, the  same  deep-rooted  caste  prejudices  which 
exist  among  the  Sinhalese  and  Tamils,  and  the 
foolish  ideas  which  prevail  among  certain  classes 
of  the  Burgher  community  about  “ genteel  ” and 
“ low  ” employments,  doomed  as  they  are  to 
disappear  under  more  enlightened  views  from 
the  extension  of  education  among  the  masses, 
have  yet  to  be  taken  into  account  in  any  experi- 
ment made  in  this  direction.  It  should  be  remem- 
bered also  that  in  England  trade  is  never  taught 
in  any  Technical  School,  because  it  has  been  found 
by  experience  that  the  instruction  given  in  a 
school  workshop  under  the  best  circumstances 
can  never  compete  with  the  training  given  in  an 
actual  trade  workshop.  Three  elements,  it  has 
been  well  said,  enter  into  the  formation  of  Manual 
Skill — Speed,  Order  and  Accuracy.  Now,  in  no 
school  workshop,  where  the  stimulus  of  pressure, 
for  production  to  keep  pace  with  the  demand,  is 
wanting,  can  excellence  of  workmanship  combined 
with  rapidity  of  execution  be  expected,  nor  those 
habits  of  order  and  accuracy  in  the  practice  of 
trade  where  economy  of  time  and  division  of 
labor  are  essential  conditions.  Again,  as  far  as 
practical  knowledge  and  skill  go,  and  even  beauty 
of  workmanship,  1 believe  our  carpenters  and 
masons,  our  jewellers  and  cabinet-makers,  our 
basket-weavers  and  lace-manufacturers  can  hold 
their  own  with  any  foreign  workmen.  Their 
chief  defects  arise  from  the  imperfection  of  the 
tools  and  materials  which  they  use,  from  too 
slavish  an  adherence  to  the  traditions  of  their 
art,  from  ignorance  of  the  scientific  principles 
which  underlie  the  operations  of  their  craft,  from 
inability  to  adapt  themselves  readily  to  the 
constantly  changing  demands  of  fashion,  and 
generally  a want  of  inventive  genius  and  artistic 
taste.  In  all  these  respects  a Technical  School 
may  be  able  to  introduce  great  improvements, 
provided  the  right  sort  of  teachers  could  be  pro- 
cured and  the  right  class  of  pupils. 
Again,  the  establishment  of  an  Art  School  has 
been  proposed  as  a possible  solution  of  thedifficulty. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  in  a short  time  more  when 
Drawing  is  made  an  obligatory  subject  here,  as  it 
should  be,  and  as  it  is  according  to  the  Revised  Code 
in  England,  Drawing  masters  will  be  required  to  a 
very  great  extent,  far  beyond  what  local  talent 
could  supply  at  the  present  time.  And  the  Techni- 
cal School  will  be  fulfilling  a very  useful  function  if 
it  could  only  facilitate  in  this  way  the  training  of  Art 
teachers  for  the  Elementary  Schools.  Mr.  Leland, 
the  great  American  educational  reformer,  whose 
success  in  the  management  of  Infant  Manual 
Training  Schools  has  been  almost  phenomenal,  has 
