Education Commission of 1883.  Stress was equally laid upon it by the Resolution of 1904 under Lord Curzon, who already, in 1902, had caused additional grants, amounting to more than a quarter of a million sterling, to be given to provincial Governments for the purpose.  Under Lord Minto’s administration Government seemed at one moment to have gone very much further and to have accepted at any rate the principle of free education, for in 1907 the Finance Member conveyed in Council an assurance from the Secretary of State that “notwithstanding the absence of Budget provision, if a suitable scheme should be prepared and sanctioned by him, he will be ready to allow it to be carried into effect in the course of the year, provided that the financial position permits.”  It was rather unfortunate that hopes should be so prematurely raised, and it would surely have been wiser to consult the local Governments before than after such a pronouncement.  For when they were consulted their replies, especially as to the abolition of fees, were mostly unfavourable, and this year also Government, whilst expressing its good will, felt bound to defer any decision until the question had been more fully studied and the financial situation had improved.

The present situation is certainly unsatisfactory.  In 1882 there were 85,000 primary schools in India recognized by the Educational Department which gave elementary education to about 2,000,000 pupils.  In 1907, according to the last quinquennial report, the total attendance had increased to 3,631,000; but though the increase appears very considerable, the Director-General of Education had to admit that, assuming progress to be maintained at the present rate, “several generations would still elapse before all the boys of school age were in school.”  And Mr. Gokhale’s resolution applies, at least ultimately, to girls as well as to boys!  Now in British India—­i.e., without counting the Native States—­the total number of boys of school-going age on the basis of the four years’ course proposed for India would be nearly 12 millions, and there must be about an equal number of girls.  The total cost to the State according to the estimates of local Governments would be no less than L15,000,000 per annum, whilst non-recurring expenditure would amount to L18,000,000.  The fees at present paid by parents for primary education, which is already free in some parts of India and in certain circumstances, make up only about L210,000 per annum.  The whole of the enormous difference would, therefore, be thrown upon the Indian taxpayers, who now have to find for primary education less than L650,000 per annum.  Even Mr. Gokhale does not, of course, propose that this educational and financial revolution should be effected by a stroke of the pen, and one of his Hindu colleagues held that, it would be contrary to all Hindu traditions for parents to avail themselves of free education if they could afford to pay a reasonable sum for it.