द ब्यूटीफुल ट्री: १८वीं सदी में भारत की स्वदेशी गुरुकुल शिक्षा (धर्मपाल)

parts of the country of which this might be said. I told Mr Gandhi that my interest in primary education in India was no new thing; and that when as a member of the Sadler Commission I had seen Mr Montagu and Lord Chelmsford in 1918 I had told them both that although university reform was perhaps the most urgent matter, the problem of primary education was the fundamental one for India, although I could not advise on it then. I said that India had probably not yet found the solution of the problem of giving the agricultural labourer an education that would make him a more efficient cultivator without making him want to be a clerk, but that the Punjab, under the inspiration of the late Mr Richey whose work had been carried on by Sir George Anderson, had made great strides in the last ten or fifteen years. I described the system adopted in Punjab and Mr Gandhi said he had heard of recent progress in that province. I then told him that Bombay had probably the most efficient schools in some ways under the system initiated by Dr Paranjpye, but that the complete transfer of control to local bodies by his successor had unfortunate results, as so many district boards were more interested in politics than in education of which they knew very little. I next told Mr Gandhi that I could not accept his suggestion that universal primary education must necessarily be very remote, and that my Committee had estimated than an additional recurring expenditure of about 19 crores would bring about 80 percent of boys and girls into the primary school system. Mr Gandhi then asked me if I thought that primary education would be much use unless the children went on to middle schools. I said that was the next step that would follow, and that I regarded the encouragement of vernacular middle schools as of the greatest importance not only for the sake of the children, but because they produce the primary teachers. I said that I was sorry that Bengal despised vernacular middle schools and insisted on English teaching middle schools. We then spoke of girls’ education and I quoted the opinion of my Committee that in all schemes of expansion priority should be given to the claims of girls. Mr Gandhi said that he entirely agreed, but he asked himself whether primary education would make girls better mothers. Mr Gandhi said that he had not read the Report of my Committee. I asked him if he would like to do so on his journey back to which he said yes and I promised to send him a copy. (These notes were dictated on December 2nd and December 4th) 367