Of course where the surveyor has before him more elaborate tables prepared for some board, he can serve all purposes best by keeping those tables carefully and sending copies of them to those who may be interested. Our hasty division into primary and higher than primary is only designed to save trouble in those districts where no elaborate distinctions and definitions have been made. If it is desirable for purposes of comparison to reduce tables from different parts of the world to a common basis, so long as the tables supplied from any part do not contain less than the tables here suggested, the comparison can easily be made, for what it is worth.
We begin then with the educational work done in the station district as designed to meet a distinct educational need. The first tables, therefore, correspond to the first evangelistic and medical tables and set forth the quantitative extent of the educational work in relation to the area and to the population.
_______________________________________________________________
| | | Number of |
| | Number of | Secondary or | Remarks and
District.| Area.| Primary Schools.| Middle or | Conclusions.
| | | High Schools.|
_________|______|_________________|______________|_____________
| | | |
| | | |
_________|______|_________________|______________|_____________
————-|———|————————-|———————|———————
_________________________________________________________________
| | | Propor-| | Propor-|
| | Number | tion | Number | tion |
| Popula-| of | to | of | to | Re-
District.| tion. | Primary | Popula-| Higher | Popula-|marks.
| | Teachers.| tion. | Teachers.| tion. |
_________|________|__________|________|__________|________|______
| | | | | |
_________|________|__________|________|__________|________|_______
Here it will be noted that whereas in the area it is the number of schools which is considered, in relation to population it is the number of teachers, because in the area the point of importance is the accessibility of the schools; whilst in relation to the population it is the number of teachers which reveals to what extent the population is served.
Then similar reasons to those which led us to take into account the non-missionary medical assistance in the area force us to consider the non-missionary education. If we are to consider scholastic education as a need of the people at all, we must acknowledge that the presence of Government or private schools makes a great difference to the situation, and if an appeal for medical missions ought to be affected by the presence or absence of non-missionary medical assistance, equally ought an appeal for educational missions in any area to be affected by the presence or absence of non-missionary educational facilities.
It may be true that if the aim of educational missions were defined as the provision of educational facilities under Christian influence, the presence of non-Christian educational facilities, in proportion to their magnitude, might be a challenge to Christians to increase theirs. On this basis the mission would deliberately compete with Government schools where Government schools were strongest. But if the mission is designed to supply a liberal education for Christians, the presence of Government schools does not necessarily induce competition. We might well ponder the question put by a Christian convert in India, when discussing the use of educational missions by the missionary societies: "Hindus," he said, "are not deterred from sending their children to Christian schools by the fear that they will cease to be Hindus, and do the societies think so little of our religion that they are afraid that our children would cease to be Christians if they attended a Government school?" Whatever answer we give to that question, in either case the existence of non-Christian schools is a serious and important factor in the situation.
We therefore inquire into the non-missionary educational work done in the area. We are well aware that in many cases the surveyor will find it difficult to supply the required information, and may be driven to make an estimate; but the information ought to be provided for any true and just administration of educational mission funds, and estimates must be here regarded as at the best a poor substitute, though under existing circumstances perhaps a necessary one.
_____________________________________________________________________
| | |
| | |Propor- | Higher | | Propor- |
|Primary| |tion of | or |Teach-| tion of |Re-
|Schools|Teachers|Teachers| Second-| ers. | Teachers|marks.
| | |to Popu-| ary | | to Popu-|
| | |lation. |Schools.| | lation. |
——————————————————————————————————-
Missionary| — | — | — | — | — | — | —
——————————————————————————————————-
Non- | | | | | | |
Missionary| — | — | — | — | — | — | —
——————————————————————————————————-
Then we need to consider the extent to which the educational efforts of the mission are used to meet the needs of the better educated and of the more ignorant. This will be revealed by the average attendance in the different classes of schools.