§ Mr. H. Hyndasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he will appoint a specially qualified staff to press forward mass education work in Africa, 182W in view of the overburdening of existing education departments with other work.
§ Mr. George HallWhatever detailed local arrangements may be made in the different African Colonial territories for the organisation and encouragement of mass education and of campaigns against illiteracy, it is essential that such work should be carried out in close liaison with the education departments of the territories. It is not, however, contemplated that the full additional burden imposed by such work should be borne by the existing staffs of these departments. Some African Colonial Governments have already appointed special mass education officers; and I have no doubt that all would welcome the services of men or women with special qualifications for such work.
In the wider sense of the term " mass education " covers a considerable range of activities designed to raise the social and economic level of the Colonial peoples and, to this extent, it may be said that every additional appointment to such departments as the Department of Agriculture or the Social Welfare and Medical and Health Departments increases the numbers of trained staff, whose efforts will promote the aims of mass education. I am doing, and will continue to do, all I can to help Colonial Governments to recruit the best possible staff in all these fields. The whole question is at present under consideration by the Mass Education Sub-Committee of my Education Advisory Committee.