( 3 ) 
of science, the provision of a College for the sons 
■of Malay Chiefs, the difficulty of getting suitable 
masters, the question of Government support, all 
these are problems that have cropped up in later 
days, and some of them are still unsolved. 
Missionary enterprise, especially, has been res- 
ponsible for the opening of many schools in the 
Colony, that have passed long since into the limbo 
of frustrate schemes. But this short sketch cannot 
deal with individual schools, Government or aided, 
past or present, in Colony or Malay States, except 
such as happen to be peculiarly implicated in the 
evolution of the educational system of Malaya. 
The growth of that system may be traced broadly 
In (a) the gradual provision of an efficient Education 
Department, (b) the increasing financial encourage- 
ment given to Government and Aided Schools, mainly 
as a result of the representations of that Depart- 
ment, and ( c ) in the development of the curriculum 
of the schools, on lines of greater specialization and 
higher proficiency. 
2. GROWTH OF THE EDUCATION 
DEPARTMENT. 
In 1870, shortly after the Colony came under the 
Colonial Office, a Select Committee of the Legislative 
Council was appointed to enquire into local education. 
It found “ a great number and variety of schools 
in the Colony, some purely educational, others com- 
bining charity with education,” “many under the 
control of the Roman Catholic clergy, but all, 
apparently, having a system of their own, unchecked, 
as a rule, by Government supervision.” Lack of 
