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guide, philosopher and friend" to the group of villages to which he is posted. In technical matters, his knowledge is meant to enable him to direct the villagers where to go for advice rather than to give that advice himself. This system of village guides is part of an organisation in the Gurgaon district which has as its aim the general uplift of the rural community. The scheme embraces the work of every department of Government engaged in rural areas; it seeks to assist in securing the adoption of the advice of the expert by a well-planned propaganda campaign; it depends for its success on the enlistment in the cause of every one willing and able to assist, official or non-official, and more especially of the people themselves whose welfare is in the balance. Lecture, song, drama, magic lantern, cinema, and even the loud speaker are made to contribute what they can to arouse the people to a realisation that they themselves are largely responsible for their own undesirable condition. The attention of the villagers is thus attracted. Side by side with the propaganda campaign, there are provided facilities for those who wish to try the advice so tendered. Good seed, selected bulls, ploughs, well-gear, quinine, inoculation, and so on, are readily available. Co-operative societies, adult schools, domestic economy classes and every other means calculated to assist the spirit of service and self-help are at hand. Everything useful is brought within easy reach of those who need it. The chief value of this scheme, in our eyes, is its illustration of the great benefit which accrues from an all round effort at village improvement by everyone interested.

Next to making some one individual resident in the village itself responsible for advising the villagers, where to go for advice and how best to utilise their own skill and resources in improving the amenities of the village in their spare time, we attach most importance to linking the villages with the social life of the town. We consider that this can best be effected by social workers organised in societies like the Seva Sadan Society of Poona. Such organisation facilitates continuity of policy and steady pressure over a long period, both of which are required if permanent results are to be obtained. The universities also have an obligation and a great opportunity to assist in the work of rural development both on the economic and educational side. In particular, they might institute and organise economic surveys. In the Punjab, there is a Board of Economic Enquiry which is a non-official body consisting of officials and non-officials interested in economic studies. The establishment of such a Board in other provinces would give university students of economics ample opportunities for socio-economic enquiries under capable direction.

We would also refer to the Punjab Central Rural Community Board. The personnel of this Board is largely official but it is linked with a rural community council, set up in each district of the province and predominantly non-official. Each council is assisted in its work by the attendance of representatives of the various departments concerned with rural development, namely, educational, agricultural, veterinary and co-operative officers. The intention is that each district

community council should co-ordinate the propaganda work of all these development departments.

Sufficient experience has not been gained to pass an opinion on the practical efficiency of these councils. We are not, therefore, in a position to say to what extent this organisation may be suited to the needs of other provinces. The scheme certainly combines the advantages of both the official and the private type of organisation. This experiment deserves, therefore, the close attention and consideration of workers in other provinces. In our opinion, the movement will gain in power for good if it develops a women's side to its activities. The establishment of a women's institute in a village would supply a centre for educational and co-operative activities as well as for mother and infant welfare work and might remove the present obstacles to the employment of women teachers in village schools.

Local public opinion in favour of particular measures can also be organised by the formation of co-operative Better Living societies. The possibility of facilitating the settlement of village disputes by local arbitration organised on a co-operative basis also calls for careful consisideration. There is a general awakening of public interest in the depressed classes. The most efficient means of effecting any improvement in their condition lies, in our opinion, in education and the consequent inculcation of self-respect and self-help. In no field of rural work have private organisations a greater opportunity for usefulness.

No enquiry into the rural economy of India with a view to the CHAPTER XV XV oF promotion of the welfare and prosperity of the rural THE MAIN REPORT. classes would be complete without a careful survey of the existing systems of education, their suitability to village conditions and their influence.

Education is a transferred subject. For administrative purposes, educational institutions are divided into two classes, those recognised by the departments of education and those which are not so recognised and are, therefore, not inspected by government agency. Over British India as a whole, institutions that are recognised are six times as numerous as those unrecognised. Sixty-five per cent of these recognised institutions are privately managed, though subject to government inspection, and, of the remainder, thirty-three per cent are managed by district boards and municipal councils and two per cent are under direct government management. The importance of those under government management is out of all proportion to their number. It is unnecessary here to describe the legislation which governs the educational functions of local bodies in the different provinces. It will suffice to say that the most important additions to this legislation in recent years have been Primary Education Acts, one of the main objects of which has been to empower local bodies to introduce compulsory primary education in selected areas.

So far as the general mass of the agricultural population is concerned, primary education and the attainment of literacy are the main considerations. In this connection, the following statistics are of interest. In 1921-22,* the percentage of scholars in the primary stage, in both recognised and unrecognised institutions, to the total population of school-going age (viz., 15 per cent of the total population) for the whole of British India was 32.2 males and 7 6 females. The percentage distribution of scholars, in 1925-26, in recognised institutions (no figures are available for non-recognised schools) was for males 87.1 in the primary stage, 8.8 in the secondary, 3.2 in special schools† and 0·9 per cent in the universities. For females, the corresponding figures were 95.2, 3.6, 1.1 and 0.1 per cent. At the census of 1921, the percentages of literacy for persons 20 years of age and over were 18.3 for males and 1.9 for females. The percentages for males ranged from 62 per cent in Burma to 8.9 in the United Provinces and for females from 11.8 per cent in Burma to 0.7 per cent in the United Provinces and Bihar and Orissa.

While the proportion of children of school-going age attending primary schools is still disappointingly small, it is increasing with some rapidity. A large proportion of those who attend these schools do not, however, remain at them long enough to ensure their reaching the

Statistics are not available which could enable this information to be given for a later year.

† Special schools consist of technical and industrial schools, normal and training schools, commercial, medical and reformatory schools, schools for adults, schools for defectives, etc.

minimum standard of literacy and no definite information is available as to the extent to which those who reach this standard relapse into illiteracy. For this failure to achieve more rapid progress in primary education various reasons are given and we suggest directions in which improvements are possible.

Our enquiries have left us firmly convinced of the great importance to rural development in India of the spread of literacy amongst women. There are indications of an awakening interest in this direction. But progress is slow and we would suggest the desirability of demonstrating in striking fashion the value to the community of the education of its women, particularly in its effect upon the spread of lasting literacy amongst the young. Steps to this end might be taken fully by recording the educational history and subsequent development of children of typical cultivating families in which the mother is literate, while like particulars of illiterate homes in the same neighbourhood and conditions of life should be tabulated for the purpose of comparison with their more fortunate neighbours. It is essential, however, that the families chosen should be of entirely rural condition and not urban. Where no literate homes of the cultivating classes are available, we think a definite effort should be made to impart literacy to a certain number of young mothers selected where conditions are most suitable and where no similar experiment has been tried before. We have little doubt that the result of this comparison will show a markedly stronger tendency on the part of the literate parent both to send the children to school and to keep them there till literacy, which the mother has come to value has been fairly achieved.

We think that the trouble and expense involved in the collection of the necessary facts will be amply repaid if, as we anticipate, the result is to provide convincing propaganda which can be used to demonstrate in ways that all will understand the true relation between female literacy and the spread of general literacy.

We consider that, if teaching is to be efficient, the training of the teacher must be improved and there must be an increase in the number of trained teachers. If possible, female teachers should be provided for small children for it is the experience of all countries that they are best qualified for such work. Although we realise that financial consideration may militate against the provision of a second teacher for the small primary school, we consider that a minimum staff of two teachers should be the ideal to be aimed at. Teachers in primary schools should be drawn wherever possible from amongst those who are familiar with rural life and the text-books should deal with every day objects familiar to the pupil and have a rural tone. The faculty of observation should also be developed by occasional school walks through neighbouring cultivation. If the teacher happens to be a keen and well-informed gardener or has qualifications for teaching nature study on sound lines, he should be encouraged to impart his knowledge to such of his pupils as are willing to learn. A stimulus in this direction might be given to the teacher by a supplement to his pay. But a pretence of teaching agricultural methods to boys five to ten years old, whether theoretically

in the guise of nature study or practically in school gardens, should be avoided.

We are convinced that the progressive adoption of the compulsory system is the only means by which may be overcome the unwillingness of parents to send their children to school and to keep them there till literacy is attained. The provision of a sufficiency of trained teachers and of suitably equipped buildings must, of course, precede the enforcement of compulsory school attendance. Finance also imposes a limitation. Uniform progress cannot therefore he expected. But in all provinces (except Bengal where a Primary Education Bill is under consideration) legislative sanction exists for the introduction, at the discretion of local authorities, of compulsory education in rural areas. In all the provincial legislation on the subject, the onus of proposing the establishment of a compulsory area is placed on the local body concerned with primary education. The first essential for the spread of primary education is, therefore, to bring public opinion to realise that efficiency can only be secured by the introduction of the compulsory system. In the Punjab, the only province in which any measure of success in introducing the compulsory system can be said to have been achieved, the co-operative movement has been brought to bear on this problem. One hundred and fifty-eight societies with a membership of 7,000 parents pledge themselves under penalties to keep their children at school for four years continuously or until the completion of the fourth standard.

Within recent years, the question of adult education has assumed some prominence, notably in the Punjab and Bengal and to a lesser extent in Bombay. In the Punjab, the movement has in the main received its stimulus from the Co-operative Department. It is to co-operative societies and associations of public spirited individuals, interested in rural development, rather than to direct government agency that we must look for any marked advance in this direction. We consider, however, that there may be a case for Government assisting co-operative societies by a pro rata contribution from provincial revenues to the funds which a society has been able to raise privately.

Immediately above the primary school comes the secondary schoolvernacular middle and Anglo-vernacular schools. The boys attending these schools are ordinarily from ten to fourteen years of age. The next stage is the high school-the stepping stone to the intermediate colleges and universities. Boys attending these are from thirteen to seventeen years of age. In 1925-26, there were 9,867 middle and high schools with 1,583,000 pupils. According to the last estimate made (1922), some half-a-million boys who are attending primary classes attached to secondary schools have, however, to be deducted from this number in order to arrive at the correct number of boys undergoing secondary education. Our concern with secondary education is the extent to which, and the manner in which, agricultural education can best be given in secondary schools. This subject has been much discussed. The divergencies of opinion in regard to it have led to the evolution of two