శిక్షణ కళాశాల మరియు విద్యా వ్యవస్థ

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VII

THE TRAINING COLLEGE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

The circumstances which led Training College have been described in Chapter VI. design of the new institution was to provide the Mission with duly qualified agents. had Mission very a necessarily They were selected as young men by the missionaries, and were put through classes into which boys of a much lower age are now admitted. to be schoolmasters. village possession of knowledge, had mainly to determine the selection of these teachers. is remarkable how successful the results often But it A number were. these of catechists, although their educational attainments were no more than is signified by the primary examination, a test which is now passed by boys of the same social class at the age of twelve or thirteen, and which is the con- dition of entrance to the institution at Nandyal. these men have been successful not only as village school- masters, but in a wider sphere, and have taken quasi- pastoral charge of circles of 131

opening the to the of The The ^'^^^. teachers, The first teachers in the imperfect education. Then they were sent out and Character, not the have agents be to risen Yet congregations, and village

K2

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MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

132 some have been true leaders of men. something to be said formal training which the early missionaries gave. The factor in the situation which caused the Mission to determine to open a training institution was the need of a yearly supply of new teachers. has been a feature of the Telugu Mission for fifty years, and for the whole of that time the supply of teachers to new congregations has been a difficulty. for teachers have been refused, and which have asked many thousands of Christians have, for lack of teachers, been turned away. It is a great loss not to have a teacher ready when he is There is a critical moment in the history of a wanted. give them the village when to means to add a good congregation to the Church. they are really ready, they must not be kept waiting too long, or the enthusiasm may be their final loss to the Church. constant supply of teachers had been felt for years, but it was not till 1883 that to open a training institution. The material out of wliich mission agents were to be Mission- made was contained ^ools. ' Mutyalapad, the other gathered the pick of the boys from the elementary schools These schools at that time were sixty- in the villages. The in number. six not advance beyond schools does In the boarding-schools, however, the boys are carried up to the primary examination, which

There is evidently personal and for the more less Steady expansion Many villages persons who become wished to teacher they ask for When will pass away and the result The need of a the Mission was in a position in two boarding-schools, one at Kalasapad. these were In at education given the in village very low a stage. is conducted by

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"IVAANVN "TOOHOS HOIH THI

SRNR

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Evangelising the Telugu Country

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tHE TRAINING COLLEGE a Government official, and that a boy is allowed, by Government high school. The aim of the new institution at Nandyal was two- first, to educate the Christian boys of the Mission fold : up to a higher level than had hitherto been possible secondly, those to give Mission a theological training. The best boys who pass the primary been carried out. examination in the preparatory boarding-schools are each year sent on to Nandyal. is proportioned to is nominal, cases it is from sixpence to a shilUng a month, and this includes food, clothing, and books, as well as education. At Nandyal the boy passes from one class to another until it is clearly seen that his intellectual limit has been There is no reason, except the boy's own in- reached. capacity, to make him quit the school until the matricu- lation examination has been passed. case in which a boy's scarcely been a single would have justified his going to college Thus no through the school. by poverty from debarred Mission is education for which he may be fitted. in the high school he stops, service he for mission vocation After a course theological side. years, on passing the necessary examinations, he is ready to begin work as a mission agent. With an open educational road, such as this, before every Christian viUage boy, some may feel surprise that

133 is only after passing this it enter a rules, to ; and to be agents in the destined Both these aims have The cost to their fathers, which In many their means. Hitherto there has abilities after passing Christian boy in the any degree of At whatever stage if he appears to have a is passed over to the least two there of at

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MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

134 more results, of a kind that may be called brilliant, have Account has to be taken, however, not been attained. of the drawbacks, unpreventable so far is concerned, which lie in the boy's way. our schools might remark on the disproportion between the age of the average boy and the standard of the class That is only a symptom in which he is. He comes, it may be, from a home in which difficulties. father, mother, and perhaps all his relations are illiterate, and where any sort of encouragement to learn is absent. There is no idea of the advantage of beginning young the contrary, as the wage-earning age is low, as soon as he turns six or seven he begins to go out with the cattle of the village and thus earns a little grain or some coppers. The temptation to such poor people to break into the time that he ought to be at school is great. means he gets on and is taken into a boarding-school, then only his regular education may be said to begin. that time he is probably nine or ten years old. heredity is to be added to the adverse forces it is difficult to say, but boys from those classes in India which in past generations have been educated, usually surpass the others. estimating to this fact, The tradition of study in a boy's family puts training. him in a position of advantage. intellectual standard of our no doubt that the and we may hope tians rising, is progress like generations three of whate\er wipe out required to exists.

as the Mission A visitor to of the boy's ; on If by some By Whether Brahmans, such as is difficult, however, in It of early eliminate the effects Nevertheless there is Chris- only two that or present will be the handicap present at

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CENTRE. JUNIOR THEOLOGICAL CLASS. REV. S, GNANAMUTHU

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A Telugu Priest: the first student of Nandyal to be ordained

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THE TRAINING COLLEGE

is now time It trace to educational the Nandyal Training College, institution, It dates from 1884, when Mr. Britten was instructed to open a training institution. the earliest centres of the Mission determined for good reasons. the whole Mission. was, It branch Mahratta Southern the of both Mutyalapad and Kalasapad were at considerable distances from any railway. Society was giving up Nandyal land and buildings were for sale, there was an opportunity work beginning at once, of therefore bought. In this building, on October 3, 1884, the S.P.G. Train- College was It began with twenty-three opened. ing students, some of whom were married. school in the eyes of the Government was not yet that a high school, but, as it was then called, that of a of This meant that it did not take pupils middle school. beyond the seventh standard. a high school, three more classes, each normally occupy- ing a year of the student's time, had to be added beyond This level was reached in 1889. the seventh standard. From year students that in eligible to enter for the matriculation examination of the All the first candidates for the ma- Madras University. triculation were Hindus, and the first Hindu matriculate It was not passed in 1889. Christian matriculate was secured. were two, of whom one was ordained and is now working

135 of our chief Nandyal the history jggff*' Nandyal was not one of its choice was but ; It was fairly central for the new on moreover, whereas Railway, As the London Missionary as a centre, and their and was property the The status of the Before it could be called class were the highest the that 1897 first till In that year there

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MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

136 as an Indian pastor in that up 1910 the high here to of whom forty-nine matriculates, Christians. An essential part of the scheme was the theological This was opened in 1885, and, though it has never side. been large, its influence on the Mission has been great. Out of the 328 students who, up to 1910, had passed out the high school, nearly 200 had passed through the of In theological addition, classes. who had not had a regular course in the high school were trained in another branch of the theological department, which had to be opened temporarily in order to meet the urgent needs of the Mission. now employed by the Mission a large and increasing proportion have been thoroughly grounded in the prin- faith on the theological side of of the Christian ciples the Nandyal Training College. It is interesting to trace the steps by which the college became possessed of its present fine buildings. was started in 1884 its buildings were of quite a tem- The main porary character. a church with mud walls and thatched roof, number : a school building, and a bungalow for the principal. teachers and married students mostly occupied a long The schoolrooms were used for line of thatched huts. classes by day and dormitories by night. answered the purpose of a dining-room. were found for a sick-room and a dispensary. classes were added to the high school they were pro- vided with rooms in the principal's own house, where

We may the Mission. state has produced school have been nineteen students eighty-four Out of the 250 teachers When it buildings were three in The A verandah Two rooms As senior

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THE TRAINING COLLEGE

were taught by day and they theological class found space for itself at various times A portion of the ground outside had in both buildings. been already set apart for a graveyard, whilst another portion became the gymnasium and recreation ground. Not only were the buildings inadequate, but the site suffered from serious disadvantages as healthy and was to annual subject between two tributaries of the Kundu river, immediately on the bank of the northern and larger of the two. the rainy season the school compound sometimes became an In during island. 1890, bungalow alone remained above water. with the town of Nandyal was sometimes cut off for days together, and this caused much interruption in the school Only a footpath, leading over one of work. water-courses, led to the railway quence was, that a member of the Mission, having gone to the station, might find his return cut off by the flood and would have to make a detour of six miles in order Following upon the floods would come to return home. the Altogether the fever. years of great sickness and trouble to the missionary and the school. Such a state of things was never intended to be per- manent, and want of means alone prevented a change. At last the money necessary to secure a new site and to put up adequate buildings came—mainly in two ways first, by a generous gift by Mr. J. Andrew, a member of second, by a donation from the the Indian Civil Service ; By 1891 a large and excellent piece Marriott Bequest.

137 slept by The night. it was very un- stood floods. It In a the principal's flood, Communication the two The conse- station. were years 1884 to 1891 : 1891.

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MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

138 of ground, quite near the railway station, and between it and the town, had been bought, and the building of a new and permanent school was begun. The summer i8gi brought an unusually severe of The epidemic cholera. of in the compound persons several was decided to remove the school to the new site at once. school classrooms was Only the block of this had to become school, dormitory, chapel, principal's residence, and hospital. When the cholera was already been sunk. principal went back to live in the old compound, and till his own house was ready, in later found a lodging, missionary's bungalow. the district a verandah of the new school, exposed to sun, rain, and dust, had to serve as a dining-hall for the students. after another the different buildings were proceeded with, it was some years before the whole was but The present occupants of the school, in their comfortable quarters, realise little of the hardships endured by their predecessors. Every part of the college buildings was constructed The most lasting materials were as solidly as possible. used, in order that the Mission, in years to come, might be saved the ever-recurring expense of repairs. An excellent gray stone was available for the walls which, with the red bright-coloured tiles Wood was used as sparingly as possible, combination. greatest power and that only the of attacks of white ants. the give the grounds of the college a pleasant appearance.

Mission was attacked, and whereupon died, it finished, and well had Fortunately, a good the over, For a long time One finished. roof, made a tasteful of the resistance to of No pains were spared to

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AT THE WELL, NANDYAL.

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The dispensary, Nandyal

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THE TRAINING COLLEGE

The greater part was inclosed with a living thorn hedge quite a rarity in that country, and trees were judiciously planted which now form shady avenues. due to the foresight and perseverance of Mr. Britten. The old buildings of the school were entirely aban- doned and everything that new buildings was taken away. work of the chapel was taken out and a new chapel of exactly similar proportions erected in the new compound. Little remains now on the old site of the school to catch visitor beyond broken walls and heaps the eye of the One pathetic of stones. remains in a small inclosed space of ground the gravestones of L.M.S. workers who have long since passed to their rest. Nowadays the Church of the Holy Cross makes the This was dedicated in 1905, when Mr. College chapel. Inman was It does not stand in the com- principal. pound of the college, but in another large piece of ground that has been acquired on the other side of the road. Here equally available is it including the small girls' school, and for the residents of The church is built of gray granite the Nandyal parish. and is provided with a tower, which, together with its situation in the midst of a considerable piece of open ground, makes it a conspicuous object for a long distance is fitted up in a simple but The interior round. The clergy and choir have seats of the kind tive style. in English churches, and a few other usual but the great mass of the provided ; is general throughout our Telugu Mission,

139

AU

this was could be utihsed in the The whole of the wood- reminder days bj^gone of containing primary for the school, effec- seats are congregation, as sit on mats

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MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

140 This method requires rather more floor on the floor. than English space the really too spacious needs to be large in order to take in the crowds that on the greater festivals attend Service at church. the Since Mission improvement has taken place which adds to its value. The road running past the Training College and between the two pieces of mission land has become the high road from the town of Nandyal to the railway station. ' high road ' exactly fits it, for the whole road has term been built up to such an elevation, and \vith such deep trenches on both sides, as to render mersion during the rains. been bridged, and communications, therefore, between the mission college, the town, and the station Furthermore, the importance of Nandyal uninterrupted . itself has been growing. it only with the line from Bombay formerly connected to Madras, has now been continued to Bezwada, where it joins the line from Madras to Calcutta development proceeds, the junction for yet another branch line. Our readers will probably want to be told a Course of study at about the courses of study followed in the educational Nandyal. institution of the Mission, for which purpose we can best begin with the theological two have years' class teaching is given to them in Telugu. the Bible and the Prayer Book, and more particularly the

but method, church the is the ordinary congregation. for It this their central began occupy site, one to this The it secure from sub- The water-courses have also are now The branch railway, which ; and as railway it is intended to make Nandyal little The students of this class. and continuous training, all They study chiefly

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ea (PE SDNY x. - 'NOISSIN NHATAL SYHHOVIL HHL "IVAANVN "IOOHDS HOIH dHI ।। »

A

। j 360,

QE

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Girls' Boarding School, Nandyal

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THE TRAINING COLLEGE

miracles and parables of our Lord, on which so much of their future teaching to their congregations will be based. They are the trained in and in the methods of giving rehgious instruction, and on Sundays, are also, teaching. (if we leave on one side for the moment In the schools the religious instruction, which will be spoken of later) the courses of study run very much on the same lines as in EngHsh schools. In the elementary village schools not much more than reading, writing and arithmetic is attempted, and object lessons of a very simple kind are The staff generally consists of one teacher given. number of boys and girls varies from twelve to twenty, three placed, perhaps, in girls from these schools but a only small schools, schools can get even one scholar each in any one year into the boarding-schools. There are now five primary boarding-schools in the Mission, one at each of the older mission centres. when complete—for some are in process of formation wiU contain four classes and have a staff of at least four The curriculum teachers. elementary English school. classes, English—which our readers will remember foreign language to the children—^begins to be taught. The boys stay three or four years in the school, the girls The best boys every year are selected, as a rule longer. according to the number of vacancies for each district, to be sent to Nandyal.

141 reading Scripture public of and preaching practised in ; the The best boys and classes. are taken into the boarding- proportion the of village Each, an that to similar of is But the two highest in is a

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MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

142 The high school contains six forms, through which the boy must normally pass, spending one year The curriculum each. in mathematics, science, history, geography, and drawing. A course so like that pursued in English schools needs The ^° comment, except on one point which is often over- En^Hsh English. looked by English critics of Indian education. it by the English language. place occupied in is nothing quite like this in the schools of England even in those schools where a foreign language, such as French or Latin, is taught, it is not looked upon as more than on a level with to make design it medium of thought and of education. The education of the child is shaped so is otherwise. that Enghsh may finally be the medium both struction and of examination. the Indian universities our to readers, viz. English literature, but in mathematics, science, history, and the philosophy Enghsh books and lectures. whatever it be, which qualifies a student to enter the uni- versity, must provide a guarantee that he can follow Enghsh lectures and use English fluently in reading and To pass this examination is the goal of every in writing. high school boy, and the energies of teacher and pupil, even in the early stages of the boy's career, are directed Our Christian boys begin English at least to this end. two years before passing the primary examination. While these Telugu boys already receive some at school still

all of includes Telugu, English, It is the There for ; subjects, and there is no other native tongue as the the replace But in India it of in- The peculiar feature of is probably already well known merely not instruction that in through given entirely is like, The examination, therefore,

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THE TRAINING COLLEGE

their instruction and answer questions on paper in a of language differing from their own vernacular widely than French does from English. Some of the disadvantages of the system are obvious. The interest of the student It is impossible for him to make things to one subject. such progress through the medium of a foreign language as could be made through students are sometimes lost to branches of learning, for fitted, by which they are but a system which has grown up mastery of English ; as this has to meet a definite need of the country cannot The pohtical circumstances of India easily be changed. it—the Government first gave rise to British birth to be the heads of departments. for them to control far easier English-speaking subordinates than their own use, on

part,

Government framed the system of education in the instance to supply their own needs. tended to become fixed and unalterable. demand in all subjects for Enghsh books and hardly any for vernacular books. To this day, in the higher branches is not instruction of learning, There is the additional the vernaculars. of an advanced book in India the circulation is not great enough to pay. vernacular therefore, we have being, But present system. it progresses, a change in the India and of the vernaculars must come.

143 far more is diverted from all other Good his mother tongue. a to get failure sufficient required men of It was affairs with the help of by an imperfect Thus the of the vernacular. first Then the system There was a to be obtained through difficulty that in any For the time to make the the best of be doubted cannot as that, of English position

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MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

144 is easy to see how missions gain, as well as lose, It by this excessive attention to English. for missionaries to go out from England to necessary build up and guide the Church in India, so long wiU it be easier for them to exercise mistakes there exists if It is not right, nor is it the practice, to make agents. the knowledge of English a substitute for character or ; but the assistant who can speak English is experience undeniably useful in administration. more educated the of clergy, English opens the door to a vast world of helpful literature, and this in itself is no small gain. The amount of success achieved in this one direction is really remarkable, for it is indeed proportionate to the The Indian schoolboy knows that nearly all the effort. higher careers are closed to the man who is ignorant of Enghsh, and he is therefore supremely eager to learn it. As he advances, the young student at diminish, and the more imbibes his ideas through and from EngUsh sources. he may deplore the underlying educational scarcely refuse to admit the fact that the assimilation by India on so vast a scale literature is one of the most striking phenomena in the country. A few words are needed to give our readers some idea Religious teaching of the rehgious teaching given in our schools. in the schools. village schools the teaching is necessarily of the simplest kind, and is mainly given through the short collections

So long as it is effective control and to avoid a body EngUsh-speaking of Moreover, for the and the agents, especially for rather than incentives increase college more and English language the The candid critic, much as policy, can of the English language and In the

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wmj'^^n^.

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The S.P.G. girls' day school, Kurnool

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THE TRAINING COLLEGE

of Old Testament and New Testament stories published in Telugu by the Christian Literature Society. boarding-schools these books continue to be used, but in the higher classes the children are taught direct from the They also learn the Church Catechism by heart. Bible. In the high school the syllabus of progressive one extending right up through the school. By the time a boy has passed through the six forms, he has been taken through most of the historical books of the Old Testament, the Gospels, the Acts, and several of the epistles of the New Testament, and a considerable part of the Prayer Book. Religious instruction occupies one In forms I and II it is given in Telugu hour daily. forms III and IV, partly in Telugu, partly in English and in forms V and VI, wholly in English. may fairly be claimed that this side of the boy's edu- cation compares well with that given in the schools of England. The course of instruction given to the non-Christian The Nandyal primary school boys is easily explained. may be taken as an example. the primary school is given from the collections of Old and New Testament stories mentioned above. non-Christian boys and Christian classes of the primary But in the rest together. high throughout the school, taught separately from Christian. in every form the material for study consists of one Old Testament book and one Gospel. one half-hour a day. Athletics do not take the prominent place at Nandyal

; 145 In the religious teaching is a in ; Altogether it The teaching throughout In the lowest taught are school and boys are non-Christian high school In the Instruction lasts for Athletics.

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MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

146 whiich they occupy however, football are, The masters occasionally. is an open-air gymnasium where the There trained in the English fashion. It need hardly be Food. arrangements for feeding and sleeping are At Nandyal the food kind. with a smooth stone floor, and the boys sit in Hues on the Every boy has before him a plate and a mug, floor. and the food is served on to each plate. the food consists of a kind of pudding made of two kinds of millet, ragi and cholam. is varied with rice and meat. days it according regulated food is equal to the best that the boys would get at home, but is of the same kind. therefore the boys' development After the meal the boys do their own washing up. sleeping arrangements Dormi- tories. large dormitories with stone sleeping mat to be spread in his own place, and a cloth with which to cover all night lessens the snakes and scorpions. The Mission has always been most careful to maintain Christian Teachers. with ^^^ intention founded—that it should be a training Therefore, although non-Christians Christian teachers. are admitted the to in such a degree as to prevent limited

and English Cricket in schools. played, and hockey regularly of the school play tennis. are bo5''s all our schools the said that in of a simple in a room is served out On most days On festivals and other fixed The quantity is the This boy's requirements. to It is given without stint, and is as good as possible. The There equally are simple. are Every boy has a floors. A lantern kept burning liimself. of intruders in the shape fear of Nandyal which was the College institution for their numbers high school, are the Christian

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FTOVIJ-ONINWIMS THI THI 0d "IOOHOS HOIH "IVAANYN

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A group of communicants that have come into Nandyal for the Christmas Celebration

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THE TRAINING COLLEGE

element being swamped. from were Christians 125, non-Christians 78. : and Mohammedans are to be found among the A similar proportion Christians. In the to masters. all masters are Christians. been has not possible it for the teaching of certain portions At the present time the Christian masters number, the non-Christian also getting a full supply of Christian masters of the predominance of the Christian schools, in spite community as whole a throughout India. In part very large number of educational institutions kept up by Christians—so large a number that they more than absorb the whole supply of trained Christian teachers. At Nandyal the difficulty may be expected to as more of our own students become available for posts in the school. all the non-Christian boys are day While at present boys, by far the greater number of the Christian boys are The Christian population of Nandyal boarders. large, and therefore the number of Christian day boys must remain very hmited. mainly on depends the Nearly all the boarders have been sent by their ships. districts and, when respective mission return to are teachers, about Generally work. the same number leave. and

147 the numbers In 1910 Both Hindus non- is aimed at in regard primary our all the schools In school, however, the high masters Christian find to of the curriculum. are in six The difficulty of six. for Christian recognised education, in is is no doubt due to the it diminish is not The number boarders of funds available scholar- for to be qualified same those to to districts twenty-five enter each year, This supply does not,

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MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

148 ful] demand of the mission districts ho^\ e\'er, meet the teachers. for As has been indicated, not many of the Christian boys the abihty possess or advantages to pass the do so, more than one course is open. these expected, in return are also Mission, and serve the to higher the Mission posts in

S.P.G.

Theological College number, and, after a thorough theological training there, they may be ordained. in the Nandyal high school is open a medical course Telugu the posts in outside, but the Mission would gladly wel- filled from its own come some of pupils, fill them. to The Training College has been fortunate indeed to pass through twenty-seven years without many changes Mr. Britten, its founder and first prin- of management. cipal, was enabled to govern it for eighteen j^ears. in 1904 he left it to take the pastoral charge of a district, fell to Mr. the post principal of the same time the charge retain at mission district, and to discharge the duties of secretary to the Central Committee of the Telugu Mission. theless he successfully carried on the college relief when, a great in 1907, arrived from England and took charge. must suffice here to say that, from

have enjoyed early sufficient To those who matriculation. Like all the others for their education, after further training some The are open to them. at Vepery takes a certain There masterships are also matriculates. Again, for The them. medical to have been Mission hitherto if they were qualified When He had to Inman. of the Nandyal Never- ; but it was the Rev. R. Bird

A. F.

Of the latter it his long previous

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THE TRAINING COLLEGE

experience private school of brought a professional skill hope missionaries could proved especially useful Madras the policy in through rapid changes.

149 work he England, in to which few among the which and has to attain, a time when educational at been going has Presidency