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the newly-opened Kadoorie Agricultural School at Tulkarem, the appointment of a special instructor on the staff of that school, the establishment of a hostel for the students, the award of scholarships, and expenditure on the improvement of school gardens.
(d) MR. MAYHEW drew attention to the Report of the Colonial Films Committee circulated with the papers for the meeting. They would find in it suggestions regarding ways in which the services of this Committee might be used for the development of the cultural and educational use of films in the colonies.
(e) He also drew attention to a preliminary announcement that had just been placed before them regarding a Conference to be held in April between educationists at home and overseas. The list of names on the Advisory Council which had approved of the Conference included three members of the Advisory Committee. It was proposed to circulate information regarding this Conference to Directors of Education overseas, as it was thought that officers on leave might like to take advantage of this opportunity for discussing general educational topics with Home educationists and educationists from other parts of the Empire. Though the Conference dealt essentially with Christian education, it would cover many topics concerned with education generally,
(f) Sir Edward Denham, now Governor of British Guiana, had asked that thanks might be communicated on his wife's behalf and his own to the Advisory Committee for their kind appreciation of their work in the Gambia. This appreciation had been recorded at the Committee's meeting of the 19th June.*
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(g) He stated that replies had been received from all Colonial Governments to whom, on the recommendation of the Advisory Committee, a questionnaire had been addressed regarding the delegation of educational powers to local authorities. summary of the information thus obtained was being prepared for the use of the Committee.
(h) The Advisory Committee's Memorandum on English Reading Books had been Communicated by the Secretary of State to all Colonies where there was a large number of non-English-speaking pupils, as well as to educational publishers and other bodies likely to be interested. In addition to the 800 copies thus circulated, 238 copies had subsequently been asked for, many of the requests coming from the West Indies, where the Memorandum had also been found useful.
(1) MR. MAYHEW (in Mr. Vischer's absence reported that Mr. Rivers-Smith was due to retire from his post of Director of Education, Tanganyika Territory, early in the coming year. The heads of the local Catholic missions had asked the Government to use their influence to prolong his services until the educational scheme had gained full strength and maturity. They had been informed in reply by the Government that His Excellency was gratified to receive this testimony to the value of Mr. Rivers-Smith's services, but would not feel justified in standing in the way of his desire to take a well-earned pension on completion of more than twenty-five years' public service in Africa.
() As regards the London Club for African Students he stated that a meeting of various persons interested was held under the chairmanship of Sir Percy Nunn on Wednesday, the 15th of October, and an Organizing Committee was set up to endeavour to get the club started. It appeared that Mr. Lapido Solanke, the Secretary of the West African Students' Union, had obtained promises of some support for a club, and it was considered essential to obtain his co-operation. He was shortly returning to this country. There was likely to be an annual deficit on the club of between £1,500 and £2.000. and initial expenditure of some £5,000 or £6,000 would probably be necessary. Means of obtaining this money were now being considered, and it might be necessary to issue a public appeal. The African Governments were expected to make annual contributions in the neighbourhood of £1,000 a year.
(k) Action had been completed by the Colonial Office on the previous recom- mendations of the Committee in practically every instance.
4. Annual Report of Kenya Education Department, 1929. THE CHAIRMAN informed the Committee that the Annual Report of the Kenya Education Department for 1929 had been circulated and that he understood some members wished to comment on it.
SIR JAMES CURRIE drew the Committee's attention to certain passages on pages 7 and 8 regarding the Policy of Missionary Assistance" and "Native Aspirations." He considered that the Report was a very challenging document and that it ascribed to the Committee an educational policy which the Committee had never held. In
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support of this view he read a note on the subject prepared by Mr. Mayhew. He had also received a letter to a similar effect from Lord Lugard. This letter was read to the Committee.
MISS BURSTALL associated herself with the protest raised by Sir James Currie. THE CHAIRMAN said that no statement had ever been made by the Committee which would justify Mr. Scott's views.
With regard to a point raised in Lord Lugard's letter to the effect that the Kikuyu tribe had quarrelled with the Missions generally on the matter of female circumcision, he thought that in fact they had quarrelled only with the Scottish Mission and that the influence of the Church Missionary Society had not been weakened at all.
MR. PARKINSON was in no doubt, from other reports to which he drew attention, that the Kenya Government had correctly understood the policy of the Committee, and it was therefore, unlikely that the Director of Education should misunderstand it; and he had wondered whether the mis-statement in the paragraph referred to could be due to bad drafting. In reply to a question by Sir James Currie, he said that the practice of female circumcision was part of initiatory tribal rites, and he summarized briefly the Government policy in the matter.
MR. OLDHAM said that the policy as stated by Mr. Scott was not the policy advocated by the Missions who were entirely in favour of the policy laid down by the Advisory Committee. It might be that his mistake had arisen owing to the fact that before going to Kenya. he had had long experience in the Transvaal where the educational policy was that all educational work should be done by Missions.
The best Missionary opinion was in favour of the recognition andi, as far as possible, the retention of native customs, but in regard to the extreme form of female circum- cision there was a body of competent opinion which held that it was a barbarous custom which ought to be discouraged in every possible way.
After some further discussion it was decided that Mr. Mayhew and Mr. Parkinson should together draw up a statement regarding the policy of the Committee for imme- diate communication to the Government of Kenya, and that copies of the statement should be circulated to the Committee, for information at their next meeting.
5. Form of Annual Education Reports.-SIR GEORGE MAXWELL referred to the circulated abstracts of the Trinidad and Hong Kong Reports, and considered it unfor- tunate that the suggestions of the Committee (relating to the form and content of Annual Education Reports) had not been communicated to Colonies which were not participating in the Advisory Committee's affairs. The whole aim and object of the suggestions made was that the reports of all the Crown Colonies should be uniform. If a certain number of Colonies was omitted, the value of the co-ordination and of the statistics available fell to the ground. He suggested that the Secretary of State should be invited to send a copy of the Committee's suggestions for such Education Depart- ment Reports to all non-participating Colonies.
He also pointed out that Hong Kong, which had received the suggestions, had not complied with them.
MR. MAYHEW explained the objections to sending the suggestions to non-partici- pating colonies. So far as Hong Kong was concerned, it was decided that Mr. Mayhew should write privately to the Director of Education.
6.
The Development of Indigenous Art in Tropical Colonies. Memoranda on this subject by Mr. Ainsworth and a covering note by Mr. Mayhew relating to the views of Professor Rothenstein and Mr. Stevens had been circulated to members of the Committee.
PROFESSOR ROTHENSTEIN informed the Committee of his experiences as a member of a Selection Committee of the Board of Education, appointed to select a candidate for the direction of art in the Straits Settlements. The cultural obligations of this country were very great and should take an important place in our responsibility for the Colonies.
MR. STEVENS emphasized the difficulty of carrying out the proper research work on indigenous art in the Colonies. It could only be done in school holidays, owing to the fact that an officer attached to one particular institution would at other times be fully occupied by his ordinary teaching duties. He pointed out that there were two attitudes towards art teaching-the academic attitude and the experimental attitude; for the subject of indigenous art, the experimental attitude was the better one.
In education, any change took two or three generations to work out. There were still schools in the Gold Coast which the new influence had not yet reached.
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