Education in Malaya . 
1. INTRODUCTION. 
I N 1823, twenty-three years before any annual 
grant towards education was made in England 
Sir Stamford Raffles laid in Singapore the 
■foundation-stone of the Institution that bears his 
name to-day. On behalf of the East India Company 
he endowed it with a grant of $300 a month and a 
large area of valuable land, endowments dissipated 
as the years went by. The Institution was to have 
literary and moral departments for Chinese, Malays 
and Siamese and a scientific department for the 
common advantage of the several colleges that 
might be established. It was a fine ideal but un- 
doubtedly it was in advance of the time and the 
races of Malaya were not ready for such a sudden 
introduction to higher education. In 1827 the 
Bengal Government decided to apply the grant 
solely to the establishment of elementary schools. 
And not until December, 1837 was the Institution 
used for its founder's purpose. At first there 
were English, Malay and Chinese classes. Malays, 
however, displayed “ apathy and prejudice against 
receiving instruction ” and the Chinese pupils fell 
away, so that these two branches were closed. 
The subjects taught in the English branch were: 
English, arithmetic (including book-keeping), his- 
tory (which comprised outlines of ancient history, 
together with histories of Greece, Rome, England, 
and India), chronology, natural history and philo- 
sophy, geometry, mensuration, trigonometry, the 
use of globes, writing and drawing! From 1844 
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