in Calcutta, is going to create intimate association between teachers and students in Calcutta, is going to improve the physical, moral, and intellectual environments of student life in Calcutta.

Are the students worse off than the general population?

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We say

In reading the description of the houses in which students live, we should bear in mind that these houses are not in the least more insanitary or more over-crowded than those in which people in Calcutta of the same class to which the students belong live; on the contrary, in the case of a very large proportion (perhaps a majority) students coming from the mofussil, their Calcutta lodgings are better than than their paternal houses in the country. this from personal experience both as student and professor in Calcutta. We have no fear that anybody will be able to contradict this statement of ours. In fact our students cannot afford to live in better houses, or in fewer numbers per house; their condition in this respect can improve only with the improvement in the economical position of their parents and guardians, or if either Grvernment, or some munificent friends of education, build hostels in sufficient numbers and charge from them only nominal rents. The want of suitable hostels can be removed in the course of a few years, if the sum of Rs 9,00,000 placed last year at the disposal of the Government of Bengal towards the provision of Collegiate hostels, be made an annual grant by the India Government with such increment as may be necessary. The India Government offices in Calcutta which would be vacated may be utilised in this direction, just as similarly vacated offices in Dacca are proposed to be made over to the Dacca University.

As for improved and adequate superintendence, this also depends on improvement in the pecuniary position of the University and the Colleges, which Government can bring about.

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Regarding the moral danger to which the students are exposed we find that though students cannot attend the Congress political conferences, they are free, even when living in College hostels, to attend theatres where prostitutes are actresses; that

European officials and their wives, whose examples students imitate, do not hesitate to attend nautches and other entertainments by public women; that many streets along which students have to walk in going to and returning from their colleges, are infested by public women, whom the Government have not made any strenuous endeavour to remove elsewhere; that, unlike Japan and other advanced countries, India has no law to prevent juvenile smoking and drinking, &c. We hope as the Viceroy is sincerely desirous of improving the morals of students, he will have his attention drawn to these matters. Mere profession of anxiety for students' morals cannnot bring about good results.

In this connection, it should not be forgotten that, though like many big cities, Calcutta has its degrading features, the opportunities which young men enjoy here of coming under elevating influences are nowhere else surpassed in India.

Dacca is not a more sanitary town than Calcutta. So that could not have been a reason for choosing it for making an experiment in the direction of teaching and residential Universities. As to its moral condition, we personally know nothing. But this we know that Prof. Russell once reported to the University that he found at Dacca some students living in a house in a part of which prostitutes also were living. Calcutta is bad enough, but we think there is nothing in Calcutta to parallel this item in the surroundings of student life in Dacca.

Educational Progress in East Bengal as a Reason.

The Viceroy says that since 1906 E. B. and Assam has made great progress in education, and his new proposals are meant to continue the same rate of progress. With this desire for progress we heartily sympathise. But we are not convinced that the achievements of the E. B. and Assam Government have been in any way exceptionally striking. Let us consider some educational statistics, taken from The Gazette of India, February 17,1912. Bengal from 1906-07 to 1910-11 scholars in Arts Colleges increased by 3128; during the same period the corresponding increase in E. B. and Assam was 1221. As a teaching

In

university has to do with collegiate education, this comparison does not prove that East Bengal is fitter for a teaching university than West Bengal. In Bengal during the same period the percentage of male scholars in public institutions to male population of school going age increased from 26.8 to 311, the corresponding figures for E. B. and Assam being 296 and 30'3; showing that progress has been both lower and slower in the latter than in the former. In high schools Bengal shows an increase of 14517 and E. B. and Assam 17212 scholars. In female primary education E. B. and Assam has made more striking progress than Bengal, but for keeping up this progress neither a teaching university nor a special educational officer for East Bengal is required. Taking both male and female scholars in all kinds of institutions of all grades, the increase has been in Bengal 249,201, and in E. B. and Assam 168,614. In Bengal primary schools have increased by 1475, in E. B. and Assam they have decreased by 239.

If we

Coming to expenditure we find that from 1906-07 to 1910-11 the increase in total expenditure on educaton from public funds has been in Bengal Rs. 1,458,000, and in E. B. and Assam Rs. 1,077,000. confine ourselves simply to provincial revenues, the increase in Bengal has been Rs. 1,349,000, and in E. B. and Assam Rs. 902,000. If we include all sources, public and private, the increase in Bengal has been Rs. 4,408,000, and in E. B. and Assam Rs. 2,181,000. Regarding private colleges, the Viceroy said:

I need only point out that when the new province was formed not a single private college was in receipt of Government aid, while Gevernment was spending less than 1 lakhs in aiding private institutions. In 1910 there were four aided colleges, and Government spent over 3 lakhs in aiding private institutions.

It should be borne in mind that during the period referred to, the Government of India has, through provincial Governments, helped all needy private colleges in all provinces, to enable them to fulfil the requirements of the new universities Act, and that

that the enforcement of the New University Regulations almost synchronised with the formation of "the new province." If "the new province" has spent more in aiding private colleges, of which we are not sure, that is because some institutions had to lose their independence, and it

was necessary as a preliminary to bestow on them a compensating advantage. advantage. For instance, we learn from the Resolution on the General Report on Public Instruction for the year 1910-11, in E. B. and Assam, that a capital grant of one lakh of rupees and a recurring grant of Rs. 1,200 a month were given to Braja Mohan Institution, Aswini Babu's College at Barisal.

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We wish to be fair to the E. B. and Assam Government, but at the same time we must not be unfair to the Bengal Government. From the figures we have given above (which we hope are comprehensive than those supplied by the Viceroy), it is clear that the Bengal Government, to put the case in a mild from, has not been less attentive to education than the E. B. and Assam Government. What ground is there then for the apprehension that the Bengal Government will neglect education in the Dacca, Rajshahi and Chittagong Divisions unless a University be founded at Dacea and a special educational officer there keeps watch in that town? We must bear particularly in mind that from April next the ruler of Bengal will rule over the five divisions of Burdwan, Presidency, Rajshahi, Dacca and Chittagong, whereas up till now he was responsible for the seven Divisions of Bhagalpur, Patna, Tirhut, Chota Nagpur, Orissa, Burdwan and Presidency. If the Bengal Director of Education could manage seven divisions not less creditably than his E. B. brother, why should he fail to do so with only five divisions?

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Therefore, the apprehension that unless educational educational bifurcation be carried education will suffer in East Bengal, appears to us absurd and entirely groundless.

The Case of the Musalmans.

Musalmans form two-thirds of the population of East Bengal. If the province does not suffer educationally Musalmans also will not suffer. Still as it is said that they expressed their alarm to the Viceroy, let us examine their case briefly. The total male Musalman population in "the new province" is 1,02,51,228. Out of this large number only 287 (in 1910-11) were in were in College. The total Hindu male population is 62,75,527. Out of this number 2131 were in College (in 1910-11). Let thinking

Muhammadans judge whether under the circumstances a teaching University at Dacca can be meant particularly for their benefit. Of the Musalman male population of the three East Bengal Divisions, 7 out 8, roughly speaking, are absolutely illiterate. To believe that a teaching University is the most urgent educational need of such a population requires more credulity than we possess. Schools, particularly primary schools, are more necessary for them than anything else.

University or Schools, which more
Urgently needed?

We take the following passages from the East Bengal and Assam Government Resolution on Public Instruction for the Feb. 14, year 1910-1911, published 1912 :

on

The Director again comments on the deplorable condition of high and middle English schools. No marked general improvement will be possible until funds can be made available for the introduction of the approved comprehensive scheme for the reform of secondary education.

No comments are needed on the above.

The year 1909-10 showed a decline in the number of boys in primary schools in marked contrast to the large rise of previous years. The decline has been arrested, the figures for 1910-11 showing a net increase of 3,200. This rise is however very small and it leaves the total figure below that, recorded in 190809...the reports of the Inspectors show that the main causes of decline were rightly stated in the resolution on the Report for 1909-10, viz., the previous inclusion in the roll of ephemeral schools with no substantial claim to be classed as public institutions and the withdrawal of aid from a certain number of schools with a view to concentrate funds on the improvement of better institutions......no school should be closed without adequate consideration. It must always be remembered that even rudimentary and imperfect education is better than none at all, and, while the improvement of schools and the removal of children from bad schools to good are most desirable objects, care must be taken not to leave children wholly without means of obtaining elementary instruction. Boards are often in a difficult position since the funds at their disposal do not suffice for the support even of the better schools and the more widely they distribute their aid the more inadequate their funds become to secure decent teaching in any of the schools under their control. All indications tend to show that primary education would spread much more rapidly if funds could be spared to aid more schools and to aid all schools more adequately.

In the light of these extracts the question which forms the heading of this note can be easily answered. To strengthen our case, we may add that in West Bengal, i.e., in

the two divisions of Burdwan and Presidency, there are 294 High Schools; whereas in East Bengal, i.e., in the three divisions of Dacca, Rajshahi and Chittagong, there are only 179 Schools. This also shows that in that part of the country schools are needed more than anything else.

Details not yet settled.

The questions of the scope of the Dacca University and of the position of the special educational officer are among the many which will be left Over for the new Governor of Bengal to consider and advice,...

So said the Viceroy to the Deputation. The supporters of the scheme have been therefore too much in a hurry in their felicitations, as nobody yet knows what shape the whole scheme will take.

It would have been well if nothing at all had been decided without previously consulting the autonomous Governor of Bengal and the public he would have to deal with. Let us hope, however, that Lord Carmichael will do his part of the work in right liberal and democratic fashion, by allowing the public opportunities to have their say on the subject before sending up his recommendations to the Government of

India.

"Personal or Political Interests.' In conclusion the Viceroy said :--

I am hopeful that the large issues of educational policy on which the future of India so greatly depends will be viewed with a wide out-look and apart from personal or political interests.

We submit that educational and political interests are interdependent, particularly in a dependent country like India, and that political interests are not in the least negligible or unworthy of being safeguarded. Personal interests should certainly not warp our judgement in the discussion of public affairs. In the present instance, however, the mention of personal interests was uncalled for. For at present there is not and cannot be any proprietory college, all college incomes going to the maintenance and improvement of the college. If it be said that the opposition has been raised in the interests of the Calcutta Colleges, our reply would be: (1) these interests are not personal but public interests; (2) the Calcutta Colleges will not suffer owing to the new proposals, for years to come, because it will

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