CABE, 13TH MEETING 1947

 PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRTEENTH
 MEETING OF THE CENTRAL ADVISORY
 BOARD OF EDUCATION IN INDIA.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRETEENTH MEETING OF THE CENTRAL ADVISORY BOARD OF EDUCATION IN INDIA.

Held at Bombay on 9th, 10th and 11th January, 1947.

At the invitation of the Bombay Government the Central Advisory Board of Education in India held their thirteenth meeting at Bombay, on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, January 9th, 10th and 11th 1947. The standing Committees of the Board met on January 8th. The following members were present :-

CHAIRMAN.

The Hon'ble Mr. C. Rajagopalacharya, Education Member.

EX-OFFICIO.

Sir John Sargent, C.I.E., M.A., D.Litt., Educational Advisar and Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Education.

NOMINATED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Ph. D., D. Sc., Bar-at-Law.

The Right Rev. G. D. Barne, C.I.E., D.D., V.D., Bishop of Lahore.

Rajkumari Amrit Kaur.

Rao Bahadur Sir. V. T. Krishnamachari, K.C.I.E., Prime Minister, Jaipur State.

Gaganvihari L. Mehta, Esq., M.A., Calcutta.

Mrs. Renuka Ray, B. Sc., Econ. (London).

Dr. (Mrs.) Malini B. Sukhtankar, M.B. B.S., J.P.

Lady Premilila V. Thackersey.

Sardar Ujjal Singh, M.A., M.L.A. (Pb.)

ELECTED BY THE LEGISLTIVE ASREMBLY.

Dr. Ziauddin Ahmad, D.Sc., M.L.A., Vice-Chancellor, Aligharh Muslim 'University.

Satya Priya Banerjee, Esq., M.L.A.

Jagannath Das, Esq., M.L.A.

Tamizuddin Khan, Esq., M.L.A.

NOMINATED BY THE INTER-UNIVERSITY BOARD, INDIA,

Khan Bahadur Dr. M. Hasan, M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.), Bar-at-Law, Vice- Chancellor, University of Dacca.

REPRESENTATIVES OF THE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENTS.

Assam.

The Hon'ble Srijut Gopinath Bardolai, M.A., B.L., Premier and Minister for Education.

J. A. Lais, Esq., O.B.E., Director of Public Insturction

Bengal.

Khan Bahadur A. M. M. Asad, M.A., Director of Public Instruction.

Bihar.

Rai Bahadur Ram Saran Upadhyaya, Secretary, Basic Education Board.

Bombay.

The Hon'ble Mr. B. G. Kher, Prime Minister for Education.

R. P. Patwardhan, Esq., B.A. (Oxon.), I.E.S., Director of Public Instruction.

C. P. & Berar.

The Hon'ble Mr. S. V. Gokhale, Minister for Education.

Dr. V. S. Jha, Ph.D. (Lond.), Director of Public Instruction.

Madras.

The Hon'ble Sri T. S. Avinashillingam Chettiar, Minister for Education.

N.-W. F. P.

The Hon'ble Mr. Mohd. Yahya Khan, M. A., Minister for Education. Khan Bahadur Shah Alam Khan, M.A., LL.B., Director of Public Instruction.

Orissa.

S. C. Tripathi, Esq., M.A. (Cantab.), I.E.S., Director of Instruction.

Punjab.

G. C. Chatterjee, Esq., M.A. (Cantb.), I.E.S., Director of Public Instruction and Secretary to Government, Education Department.

Sind.

Shamsul-Ulema Dr. U. M., Daudpota, M.A., Ph.D., Director of Public Instruction.

United Provinces.

Rai Bahadur Chuni Lal Sahney, M.Sc., Director of Public Instruction.

REPRESENTATIVES OF THE INDIAN STATES.

Nawab Azam Yar Jung Bahadur, M. A. (Cantab.), Minister of Education, H. E. H. the Nizam's Executive Council, Hyderabad-Deccan.

Dr. Mohan Sinha Mehta, M.A., Ph.D., Bar-at-Law, Diwan of Banswara.

Diwan Bahadur T. C. M. Royan, M.D., Minister for Education and Public Health, Mysore.

BY INVITATION

Sir Angus Gillan, K.B.E., C.M.G., Director, Empire Division of the British Council, London.

Brig. S. P. P. Thorat, D.S.O., Secretary, Indian National War Memorial Academy, Defence Department, Government of India.

P. M. Advani, Esq., M.A., BSc., Principal School for the Blind, Karachi.

SECRETARY.

Dr. D. M. Sen., O.B.E., M.A. Ph.D. (Lond.), Deputy Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Education.

The following members were unable to be present owing to illness or other reasons:-

The Hon'ble Mian M. Ibrahim Barq., Minister for Education, Punjab.

The Hon'ble Khan Bahadur Saiyed Muazzamuddin Hosain, Minister for Education, Bengal.

The Hon'ble Pandit Lingaraj Misra, Minister for Education, Orissa.

The Hon'ble Pri Ilahi Buksh Nawazali, Minister for Education, Sind.

The Hon'ble Sri Sampurnanand, Minister for Education, United Provinces. The Hon'ble Acharya Badri Nath Verma, Minister for Education, Bihar. Sachivottama Sir C. P. Ramaswamy Aiyar, K.C.S.I., K.C.I.E., LL.D., Diwan of Travancore.

Frank R. Anthony, Esq., M.L.A.

Dr. J. C. Chatterjee, M.A., D.Litt., M..L.A.

Sir Maurice Gwyer, K.C.B., K.C.S.I., D.C.L., LL.D., Vice-Chancellor, Delhi University.

Sir Mirza Mohammad Ismail, K.C.I.E., O.B.E., President, H. E. H. the Nizam's Executive Council.

Rai Bahadur R. C. Kak, Prime Minister, Kashmir.

The Hon'ble Diwan Bahadur Sir K. Ramunni Menon, M.A. (Cantab.), LL.D., Member, Council of State.

Diwan Bahadur Sir A. Lakshamanaswamy Mudaliar, B.A., M.D., F.R.

C.O.G., F.A.S.C., Vice-Chancellor, University of Madras.

The Hon'ble Pandit P. N. Sapru, Member, Council of State.

Rao Bahadur Dr. S. R. U. Savoor., M.A. (Cantab.), D.Sc., I.E.S., Director of Public Instruction, Madras.

Mr. P. F. S. Warren, B. A. (Cantab), A. M. I. C. E., M. I. E. (Ind.).

2. At the opening of the session, the Hon'ble Mr. B. G. Kher, Prime Minister and Minister for Education, Bombay, welcomed the members of the Board. He said :-

" It is a genuine pleasure to me to extend to you on behalf of my Government a heart welcome, to -Bombay for your 13th meeting.

It was, indeed, fortunate for this Province that your Board accepted its invitation to hold its Annual meeting here. Bombay is the first City of India and it is in this City also that we find the early beginnings of modern education in India. I am sure you will find much here that is new in the field of education and that the Government here will get the benefit of your views and suggestons in its new experiments.

Your last meeting was held at Mysore and I am sure you must be carrying happy recollections of that beautiful City as I do. It is not too much to say, I believe, that to be in and to go about Mysore is itself an educative experience. I am afraid you are going to miss several of the amenities and conveniences which Mysore could offer you. Indeed, I am conscious of some of the inconveniences to which you might be put in this highly congested City, but if a warm and cordial welcome from this Government could make up the loss, I assure you have it in the amplest measure.

I hope you will all agree with me if I say that a very bitter and sharp challenge con fronts all those nations to-day, the life and Government of whose people is based on essentially democratic values. If we are to meet this challenge which confronts us, a challenge to our whole civilisation, of which the recent war was the symbol and. the sad culmination. it is equally true that we will have to meet it with all the energy at our command.

The proper and the only way to meet this a challenge is so to fashion our social and national institutions, including our educational system, that they create those cultural values on the realisation of which we have, all set our heart. Our educational system must be so framed as to aid in the task of creating these values. This van be done only if those concerned with education in this country as in others, face this task with knowledge faith and will. Our educational system must provide for the development and utilisation of all the latent energy in the children and the young people of this country. This, of necessity, implies that there must be a genuine equality of educational opportunities for all. If we are genuine in our support of these principles, as I am sure we all are, we Must bring into existence an educational system which will enable us to create all those values for which we are striving to day, but which will not at the same time, be an impediment in the way of our progress.

In the Province of Bombay, as your are probably aware, when the Congress Ministry was last in office, we brought into existence a number of Boards dealing separately with primary education, secondary education, physical education, adult education, etc. It was necessary to co-ordinate the activities of these Boards, but the task was left unfinished as we left office in 1939. We have come back to our task and have now formed a Provincial Council of Education on which are represented the respective Chairmen of the several Boards with the Minister of Education as the Chairman of this Council. The Council will meet every quarter and assist the Minister of Education in all aspects of educational development. I look forward to the useful assistance, this Council will give me, with great hopes.

I need hardly dilate here on the importance of physical education Your are all aware of its importance. The very first step which we took when we came to office in 1937 was to appoint a Physical Education Committee and to give effect to its recommendations, chief among which was the starting of an institution for physical training. This was started 8 years ago and I am happy to say that it has continued well and has had a very enthusiastic response from the public. The Government of Bombay lately appointed another Physical Education Committee, which has just submitted its report. You all probably have been supplied already with copies of the said Report. You will no doubt visit the Institute for Physical Training at Khandivlee during your stay here.

Basic education was also one of the subjects which the last Congress Ministry had dealt with. Here, in Bombay, we have a number of Basic Schools and also abat 150, Schools with agriculture as the basic craft. We are planning for the introduction of basic education in all the Schools and as a preliminary step, we propose to start soon with craft training in all Primary Schools. During our discussions here, we will no doubt consider the problems which arise in the introduction of the basic method on a wide scale

Adult Education likewise was one of the important subjects and the last Congress Ministry did What it could to start this movement. The Bombay City Adult Education Committee was then brought into existence and have already made about one lakh of illiterate adults illiterate. Government has now sanctioned a complete 10 years' scheme for adult literacy in the City of Bombay. The problem of adult literacy in the rural areas is of necessity to be worked out on different lines and we will soon address ourselves to that work in earnest.

India has no joined the graet democracies of the world. She occupies today a very important position in the work. I am sure you all are proud of our achivement at the United Nations, Organisation and of the representatives of India, who were responsible for our sucess. The future for us is very bright but we will all have to work for it to the last ounce of energy in each of us. The system of education which we evolve here must necessarily be of vital importance to us in our work and our action in the field of education will have to be brisk as well as vigorous.

It is a matter of great encouragement and pride that we have as our Chairman the Hon'ble Mr. C. Rajagopalachariar. It is rare to find a combination of a powerful intellect and a genius for practical working. We have this rare combination in the Hon'ble Mr. C. Rajagopalachariar. I am sure his sharp intellect, wide experience and ability to-work out his ideas will aid up in our deliberations and in the achievement of our goal.

Now let me once again thank you all for accepting our invitation and extend to you A warm welcome.

I am. very happy that His Excellency the Governor of Bombay, Sir John Colville, who has long experience of dealing with educational and other problems, has agreed to inaugurate this Conference. I shall now request him to do so.

3. His Excellency the Rt. Hon'ble Sir John Colville, G. C. I. B., T. D Governor of Bombay, then inaugurated the Session. He siad:-

"Mr. Rajagopalachari, Mr. Prime Minister, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my privilege to echo the welcome so ably given to the Central Advisory Board of Education by Mr. Kher. I am happy indeed that this meeting should be held in Bombay and privileged that I should be asked to take part in the opening ceremony. As you have heard from the Prime Minister's speech Bombay intends to be in the forefront in the matter of education in the years which lie ahead. If I may use a simile, which, I trust is a happy one, I hope the Gateway of India will be the geteway to great knowledge. If that is to be so it is all the more fitting and helpful that, this meeting of the Central Advisory Board should take place here.

The Central Advisory Board has in its nearly twelve years of existence since its reconstitution in 1935 covered the entire field of education in the various reports it has prepared The most important of these is the one post-war education development in India, popularly known as Sargent Report, on which the majority of provinces are basing their future plans of expansion.

Subjects like basic and adult education, development of higher scientific and technical university education, have received careful consideration and other aspects allied to educational activities including social and recreational activities do not go unattended. The present agenda incudes the proposal to establish a national cultural trust for India.

Education is the very foundation of national development in all directions. Thet Indian Science Congress which has just held its meeting and was inaugurated by Pandit. Jawaharlal Nehru is dealing with problems related to the scientific development and research work in that field. Other branches are busy with their own development. It is the 'pre-eminent function of the Central Advisory Board to coordinate, the activities in, in all individual spheres and maintain proper balance between them. It is but proper, that scientific and technical subjects, which have not hitherto received due attention in India should take their rightful place in the modern work. Humanities and social sciences however must continue to receive proper attention. It is the education of the whole man which must be and is the objective of such a Central Board.

I confess to some nervousness in addressing so erudite and cultured a body, for, though I possess a university degree-a modest Honours degree in History of Cambridge-it came to me in circumstances which reflected more merit on the patriotic and generous disposition of my mother university than on any ability of mine. The University authorities in England decided in the war of 1914 that undergraduates who had passed tow parts of their Honours exam could be deemed to have passed the third part also if they had proceeded on active service ; and so it was that in a muddy trench in Flanders I received a letter with the magnificent seal, of the University on it awarding my degree ! But there is another reason which perhaps might give me a little more confidence in speaking, to a body like yours, and that is that I am a Soot ; for we in Scotland have for long prided ourselves on our system of education and I was Secretary of State for Scotland in charge of the Department of Education for a time. We have a small peculation of only five millions, but with becoming modesty I may claim that we have penetrated to the far corners of the earth, and by policy of infiltration-not by any means confined to the British Commonwealth-have carved out a place in Finance, Business and Engineering and many other spheres. And I pass to you the idea that if five million so equipped can percolate to the ends of the earth, what could 400 million do when in the fullness of time India's, educational policy is fully developed. I am not prepared to agree with Dr. Johnson who said that the Soot left his own land because it was poor and inhospitable. You know he is famous saying that " the fairest prospect for a Scotsman is the road to England !" Our natural resources were, and are, limited, but it is to the immense pains taken over education over centuries that I attribute any success that has come along.

You have met here today to discuss educational problems. You who are all experts in the subject, will hardly need me to point out to you its importance to the well being' of this country politically, economically and spiritually, but I should like to offer a few points for your consideration. I shall not be so venturesome as to claim to make any forecast about the details of the new constitution for India that the present Consatinent Assembly will work out, buy it is safe to say that in any constitution in the modern world the ballot box must play a very important part and I do not thick that India's will be any exception. That means that Governments of the future will have to act according to the wishes of the electorate and persuade the people of the rightness of their convictions or resign and make room for alternative Governments. In a democratic country therefore it is of the first importance to form an electorate which is capable of taking the right decision. I am not prepared to admit that the opinion of the majority is necessarily always right though it may be expedient to follow it. For expediency and rightness to coincide you must have an electorate which is capable of basing its decisions on sound principles and with reasoned thought. What a great part education must play in the future-whether looked at from the point of view of politics or economics or from any other angle! Stress to-day is laid mostly on primary education, and that is, I grant, of first class importance you must have a firm foundation to build on. But I, say earnestly and, I hope, without risk of offence, be sure that that foundation is firm and that in attempting the immense task of building quickly you do no lay such a light and insecure foundation that the whole fabric will be unsafe. In other words, though quantity must be an aim do not forget quality. The eradication of illiteracy is a paramount need; but to be merely literate is no target to set, for a literate person may be no more able to form sound opinions than an illiterate person unless he knows what to read and how to assimilate knowledge. I believe that truth is attainable only by the faculty of being able to criticize and appraise not only untruths but half-truths-and that is not a process that comes in a day. Therefore, I suggest that though wider primary education is the immediate and crying need of this country-and figures can readily be produced to show that of the present literate population a very high proportion goes on to Universities-I do urge that the standard and quality of secondary and higher education should not be sacrificed. Ladies and Gnetlemen, it is easy to offer advice : more difficult to translate it into practice ; but you have to-day a gathering of enthusiastic educationists and experts such as has seldom been seen before in this great City, I earnestly trust that your deliberations will be successful and that this Board will add yet Another achievement to its fine record of work.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRTEENTH MEETING OF THE CENTRAL ADVISORY BOARD OF EDUCATION IN INDIA.