14

EDUCATION.

of grants to those Mission schools which conformed to the
rules made by the Commission for the choice of text books.
Unfortunately the rules were framed in such a way that the
Roman Catholics, the largest Missionary body, were unable
to conform to them.
After twenty-five years it was found that the Central Commission,
 in spite of considerable expenditure of money, had
done very little for the spread of education in rural districts.
Over 80 per cent. of the population of Ceylon is a rural
population. In 1863 a Special Commission of Inquiry was
appointed : its report led to the abolition of the Central
Commission and the establishment of a Department of
Public Instruction under one official. the Director, responsible
 only to the Governor.
This step was taken in 1869, the first Director being
Mr.J 8. Laurie, who was succeeded almost immediately by
Mr. W. H. Sendall, now Sir Walter Sendall, G.C.M.G, Sir
Walter Sendall, who was not only a distinguished scholar,
but had had several years’ experience as an Inspector of
Schools in Ceylon, must be regarded as the originator of all
the best work that has been done in Government elementary
schools. He started from the first principle, that if education
is to be of real value it must be given by those who have
been properly trained for the work; in other words, it is
useless to startschools unless you can provide teachers, His
first step was to get Government to establish a Normal
School in which men could be trained as teachers both for
English and for vernacular schools. To this institution the
Department owes all the best of its elementary teachers and
most of its Sub-Inspectors of Schools. As teachers became
available Government schools were established. In 1869
there were only 61 of them; in 1884 their number had
risen to 431, with 27,677 children attending them. The new
schools were in almost all cases vernacular schools in rural
listriets.
Unfortunately the policy which established the Normal
School was not adhered to. The coffee disease brought times
of trouble to Ceylon, and the revenue was in danger. Something
 had to be thrown overboard ; the Government English
schools were among the first things to go, and the Normal
School soon followed. Its place was taken by two small
training schools, in each of which five vernacular teachers
were trained under the best Sinhalese masters available.
But even for vernacular teachers these were a very poor
substitute for the old Normal School ; the students had no
longer the senge of membership of a great institution, nor
the stimulus given by contact with a highly trained staff. It