CHAPTER XXIII 
EDUCATION 
Education has been and is a source of very con¬ 
siderable perplexity to those responsible for it. It may 
be presumed that there is nothing very peculiar about 
this fact. Part of the price that the pioneers in a 
white colony in process of formation have to pay, lies 
in the hard choice of either parting from their children 
or in seeing them grow up but imperfectly educated. 
In British East Africa the problem is, however, 
unusually complicated owing to the variety of Residents 
and their several claims. There are the innumerable 
native tribes, all with divers tongues. They certainly 
show no special desire for education, but we have a 
duty towards them, and possibly that duty includes the 
putting before them of at least the chance of betterment. 
Then we have the Indians, who clamour loudly for 
teaching, and, further, for teaching in the vernacular. 
For anything which he can get for nothing the Indian is 
always ready. Then, again, we have the Boer, who 
firmly and insistently demands to be taught in Dutch. 
Finally, there is the white Colonist, who wants 
and must have the best facilities for education which 
the finances of the Protectorate can afford. The con¬ 
flicting claims of these various classes is bad enough, 
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