77
9. A considerable sum is expended by the Colony on so-called industrial education in two special schools called the Technical. School and the Trades School. The organization follows on general lines that of the Training College Superintendent, who is
and
is under the control of a
a drawing master in the Royal College, and receives an additional salary of Rs.5,000 for this special The total of the two schools is Rs.40,000, including Rs.9,300 which represents the cost of reduced railway tickets to apprentices
work.
and
cost
and students who attend these two schools. In addition to this expenditure Rs.14,000 is allotted to industrial education is expended mainly on the cost of apprentices in mechanical engineering who are attached to the Plaines Lauzun Workshops.
The Technical School is a half-time school where boys are given general education and in addition receive half-time instruction in carpentry. This school can also receive pupils from other Primary Schools who wish to take an extra two hours' carpentry course. The Trades School is a whole-time school for carpenters, masons, tinsmiths, and blacksmiths. There are eighty pupils to whom allowances are paid which, together with the cost of two foremen, amount to Rs. 11,512 a year.
We recommend that these Industrial Schools should be abolished. They form no part of the general educational system of the Colony and their disappearance will have no practical effect. They certainly obtain pupils, but this is natural when a system of allowances is provided. They are in themselves bright and pleasant institutions, and we have no reason to think that
C
cannot
many years' service who are still working as monitors and probationers. The fact of their being debarred from promotion
but be disheartening their duty but who have had no opportunity of attending the Training School." The Acting Superintendent
to officers who have always done
change
in
has made proposals
School
the nature of the Training
of more normal type
for
so
that
for
a complete
it may become
the purpose of training are already
a Training College in educational method teachers have carefully considered this proposal and
support
effect
a
it.
new
In the first
enterprise
place
for
the Training College would
taken
in
the
present financial
that the creation
results.
action
of
In
our
who
we
do
not
in service.
We
we are not able to
think
that
what
is
in
under this proposal the functions of be totally changed-should
crisis,
and
secondly
of a new Training College would
far more good might
opinion
the Superintendent
on practical lines
by
taking teachers
training
theoretical.
for
and
we
be
be
under-
not
feel
justified by
do
be done by the personal his Inspecting Staff, correcting
of the teaching
and giving them a special
the mistaken methods
away
from
six months
The number
by the Inspectors
that
at
present
the
which
is
it
their schools
lines which inevitably
schools
is
on of quite practicable,
staff
standard at recommend, therefore, should be
College
on
abolished
entirely
of
so
and
small
we
the Primary Schools could really benefit the Training
that
and
different
that
lines
the
from
that
are
has
staff, than
would be
direct
action
not persuaded
reached the
this training.
College,
proposal
should
not
to
be
as
it
create
carried
We
now exists,
a
out.
Training
But they cannot be regarded
they are not well managed.
as educational necessities. There
is no lack of carpenters in Mauritius and there is no evidence of need for further special training. The standard of the Technical School and the age of the pupils give no ground for thinking that a carpenter more effective than if a
the result
is
the production
for
it.
of
boy finds his apprenticeship in an ordinary carpenter's shop. The same considerations apply to masons, tinsmiths, and blacksmiths. The demand for such training is stimulated artificially by the allowance, its result is problematical and the Government cannot afford to pay
We prefer the system followed at Plaines Lauzun Workshops for training apprentices. There is also a work- shop under the Public Works Department in which furniture is made for Government use; this workshop can be used and in fact for the training of apprentices, who would receive a rate of pay during their apprenticeship equivalent to the value of the work is performed. With this object in view, we recommend of the provision of Rs. 14,000 in Item 25 of the Estimates of the Schools Department should be retained, but that all other expenditure on the Technical and Trades Schools and on
is used
which
that
the balance
special travelling facilities should be stopped.
282
Page 360Page 361
283
78
10. The savings which would result on these proposals are as follows:-
Examination allowance to Superintendent
Rs. 1,000
Examination allowance to Chief Clerk
Schools Committee allowance
300
120
Senior Inspector of Schools
7,500
Allowance to Superintendent, Technical Instruction
5,000
Principal, Training College
9,000
Male Assistant, Training College
4,800
Female Assistant, Training College
3,950
Head Teacher, Technical School..
3,500
2 Carpentry Inspectors
2,640
420
4,000
4,500
900
1,716
13,897
1,076 9,292
1 Messenger
Head Instructor, Trade School
3 Foremen
Technical School Assistant
Other charges, Technical School
Other charges, Trade School
Other charges, Training School
Railway services to Trades and Technical Schools
Total Rs.73,611
We note that the Government charge against the department for services rendered by the Railways is Rs.25,000; after discon- tinuing the system of reduced tickets to the apprentices there re- mains a demand of Rs.8,059 for tickets to schools, and Rs.1,670 for travelling allowances of the Inspectors. The allotment of Rs.25,000 (less Rs.9,292) is excessive and can be reduced to Rs.10,000. We note also that it may be possible to reduce the allotment of Rs.4,000 for travelling expenses in view of the aboli- tion of the post of Senior Inspector of Schools and Superintendent, Technical School. On the other hand an estimated revenue of Rs.2,000 from the Trades School will now be lost.
The economies which we propose involve scarcely any counter- charges for pensions. The Senior Inspector and the Principal of the Training College can return to the staff of the Royal College from which they were drawn and on which there are vacancies. The Male Assistant of the Training College has reached pensionable age and can be retired in the ordinary course. The Head Teacher, Technical School, is entitled to a pension of Rs.1,750 if he is com- pulsorily retired, and his gratuity and those of the Head Teacher, Trades School, and Female Assistant, Training College, would amount to Rs.12,666. But there are vacancies in the department and it should be possible to absorb these few officers.
We anticipate a net saving of Rs.75,000.
79
(b) The Royal College and School.
11. Believing as we do that one of the chief needs of Mauritius is a system of general primary education on simple lines, we are disposed to agree with the view of one of our witnesses that the Royal College, with its Laureateship or English Scholarship, has unduly dominated education. The extraordinary scheme of examinations to which the normal interests of the Primary Schools are sacrificed and the equally remarkable and generous system of scholarships are pointers to the Royal College, and at the College the centre of interest is the Laureateship which enables a boy, who will ordinarily be the son of well-to-do parents, to obtain higher education in Europe at the cost of the State. The existence of such a prize within the reach of the few must divert attention from the education of the many. We could not be surprised that many of our witnesses, who were themselves educated within the fascination of the Laureateship, regarded popular education as wrong in principle and a waste of public money, yet found no criticism for the State Secondary Schools, which annually spend Rs.283,800 and also provide Rs.46,000 for the Laureates, but which receive no more than Rs.50,000 in fees.
We have no intention of disturbing a historical institution like the Laureateship, although its cost is heavy and its real public value is, we believe, small, and we are not prepared to find any large savings at the expense of the Royal College and School, on which the higher education of Mauritius to a very large degree depends, and which are responsible to take only one side-for training the recruits for the Civil Services. But we feel that the scholarship system has led to some exaggeration of standards; we look on the Royal College rather as a training ground for the ordinary boy and we deprecate any policy of restricting entries on the ground that boys are at present coming to the College who are not worth a public school education.
12. One of our witnesses has challenged the number of masters, but we cannot agree that it is in this that the exaggeration of standards is expressed. In addition to the Rector there are twelve masters and twelve assistant masters, according to the nominal cadre, and these have to teach all the ordinary subjects of educa- tion to 339 boys of ages varying from ten to twenty years. It hardly needs a study of the time-table to reinforce our conclusion that this number is not more than adequate for the work which has to be done. It is true that the masters have time for private tuition, but this does not prove that any one master could take more forms or more subjects with any satisfactory result to himself or to the boys.
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