§ SIR MANCHERJEE BHOWNAGGREE (Bethnal Green, N.E.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India if he will state the present number of technical, industrial, and Art schools or classes in India; the annual expenditure incurred by Government in maintaining the same; and what proportion such number and expenditure bear to those of colleges and schools of general education.
§ LORD G. HAMILTONMy hon. friend will find such figures as can be given, with a very full discussion of their bearing and effect in pages 248 to 281 of Mr. J. S. Cotton's Report on the progress of Education in India, 1892–93 to 1895–97, which was presented to Parliament in 1898. There may have been some progress since 1897, but I apprehend that the pressure of famine and plague in a large part of India has not admitted of increased expenditure on this object as a whole. My hon. friend will see from Mr. Cotton's remarks that it is not possible on the figures available to give separately the number and cost even of wholly technical institutions, inasmuch as many of the technical schools are grouped in the returns with other schools under the head of "Special Schools." As regards classes, the report shows that in every province attention is paid to the teaching of practical subjects, which may be described as preparatory technical in- 231 struction, in both primary and secondary schools. It is not, however, possible to show separately the expenditure in teaching these subjects, or the number of pupils attending the classes.