10. Mr. MacCALLUM SCOTTasked the Under-Secretary of State for India what action the Government of Madras propose to take on the Resolution to amend the provisions of the Madras Grant-in-Aid to secondary schools which was moved in the Madras Legislative Council on 15th February last by the hon. Mr. T. V. Seshagiri Aiyar, the representative of the University of Madras in that body, and carried by twenty-one votes to nineteen; whether, in the last quinquennial Report of the Director-General of Education in India, it was stated that the amount of Grant given by the Government of Madras to secondary schools did not keep pace with the expansion of education; and will he state what action has been taken to meet this criticism?
§ Mr. MONTAGUAs regards the first part of the question, the Madras Government have been unable to act upon a Resolution which would alter fundamentally the established principles of their Grant-in-Aid scheme and code. The code as it stands admits of increased Grants-in-Aid to secondary schools, and the question of increasing these Grants is now being considered. As regards the second part of the question, the quinquennial Report for 1902–07 stated that in Madras and Bombay the total expenditure on secondary schools (not the amount of Grants from Government) had not up to 1907 kept pace with the increase in the number of pupils. The Government expenditure on secondary schools in Madras has increased steadily. In the year 1908–09 a sum of £9,000 was spent; the Budget Estimate for next year amounts to over £29,000.