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THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION IN THE [BRITISH] COLONIES 19241961


CLIVE WHITEHEAD
a a

Western Australia

Available online: 28 Jul 2006

To cite this article: CLIVE WHITEHEAD (1991): THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION IN THE [BRITISH] COLONIES 19241961 , Paedagogica Historica, 27:3, 384-421 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0030923910270301

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ARTICLES

385

THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION IN THE [BRITISH] COLONIES 1924-1961

CLIVE WHITEHEAD, Western Australia

A cynical postcolonial age should probably not judge too harshly the long-range contributions of this committee or the spirit in which it went about its work.'

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This article traces the origins and influence of the Advisory Committee on Education in British colonies. Established fo advise the British Government, the committee met on a regulr basis for thirty-seven eventful years (19241961). During that time British coloniai policy underwent momentous changes. When the Committee first met British rule extended to all continents and encompassed a vast multitude of diverse races and cultures. By the time the Committee met for the last time in June 1961, the Empire was fast disappearing in the wake of decolonization. The Second World War acted as the catalyst for a fundamental reassessment of British coloniai policy. Nowhere was this more clearly reflected than in changing educational priorities in the colonies affer 1945. The Advisory Committee played a key role in this process as illustrated in this account of its activities.

Snow blanketed London's streets on the morning of Wednesday 9th January 1924, when the Advisory Committee on Native Education in British Tropical Africa met for th first time at the Coloniai Office (CO) in Whitehall. WAG.Ormsby-Gore, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for th Colonies, presided over a gathering of fourteen people,

'John W. Cell (Ed.), By Kenya Possessed (Chicago, 1976) p. 64.

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comprising the nine original members of the Committee and five permanent CO officials.2 Few of those present could have foreseen that within five years (January 1929) the Committee would be renamed the Advisory Committee on Education in the Colonies and that its brief would encompass virtually all aspects of educational development and extend to most of Britain's colonies. Thereafter, it would grow both in size and stature to become arguably the most prestigious, if not the most influential, of all the colonial advisory committtees before its eventual demise in the summer of 1961. Its activities spanned a total of thirty-seven crucial years (1924-61) of British colonial rule during which it met on no less than 289 occasions3 at a variety of venues but almost invariably on the morning of the third Thursday in the month. Excluding permanent CO staff, almost 150 distinguished men and women served on the Committee. They included members of parliament, senior university academics, school inspectors, local education officers, clerics, prominent headmasters and headmistresses, principals of teachers' Colleges, former members of the Colonial Service, including four governors, and several prominent journalists. The activities of the Committee, which roughly spanned the period from the end of the Great War to the onset of Harold Macmillan's "wind of change" speech at the start of the 1960s, provide a unique insight into the changing nature of British attitudes towards colonial education policy. This essay traces that change through a brief history of the Committee. The Committee began its life at a time of transition in modern British history. In early December 1923, Stanley Baldwin had fought a general election and lost. Two weeks after the initial meeting of the Advisory Committee, Ramsey MacDonald formed Britain's first Labour Government but it was shortlived and Baldwin was back in power with a strong Conservative majority before the year was out. When the Committee first met in January 1924, the British people were fast becoming aware that the First World War had marked the passing of an era and a way of life that was lost forever: "There was no sudden revolution, but the spirit of change pervaded everything, the old traditions were quickly wilting, people talked of "pre-war" prices and customs as if they were part of another world. And indeed they were".*

Minutes of the Advisory Committee on Native Education in British Tropical Africa. 3 The original Advisory Committee on Native Education in British Tropical Africa met 47 times. The subsequent Advisory Committee on Education in the Colonies met on 242 occasions making a combined total of 289 meetings. Within this essay meetings are cited separately either before or after the reconstituting of the Committee. 4 John Montgomery, The Twenties. An Informal Social History (London, 1957) p. 41.

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Inflation - the great enemy of the middle class - was fast becoming a fact of everyday life, and income tax was 4/6d in the 1. On a brighter note, the first British mass-produced cars were Coming off the assembly lines at Cowley for those who could afford them. At the same time, however, unemployment exceeded one million and for many working class families, especially in the north of England, strikes and grinding poverty were the harsh realities of life. Many took the opportunity to emigrate. Thousands, less fortunate, sought temporary escape from their fate in the absorbing weekly struggle for national football supremacy between Cardiff City and Huddersfield Town. From hindsight it is clear that the Great War also altered the balance of power in the world but that change was not readily apparent in the 1920s. The British Empire was still popularly believed to be "the most powerful bulwark in the world against th spread of discord"5 and a British passport was still widely respected. Four months after the first meeting of the Advisory Committee, an impressive British Empire exhibition was opened at the Wembley exhibition complex in north London, at a cost in excess of 10 million. There were displays from all parts f the Empire and throughout the summer months many thousands of Londoners soaked up the atmosphere engendered by exotic and far away places with strnge sounding names. The nine original members of the Advisory Committee provided an impressive array of talent and experience. Ormsby-Gore (1885-1964), then aged thirty-nine years, was the youngest of those present. A product of Eton and New College, he was destined to enter the House of Lords in 1938 as Lord Harlech. He first entered parliament in 1910; saw war service in Egypt, and in 1917 became Private Secretary to Lord Milner. Subsequently, he was a member of the British delegation to the Permanent Mandates Commission in Paris. In October 1922, after an extensive tour of th West Indies, he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the CO. Throughout his politicai career he maintained a strong interest in colonial affairs and played a decisive role in the events which preceded the first meeting of the Education Advisory Committee.' The Anglican and Roman Catholic Missions were represented by The Rt. Rev. A.A. David (1867^1950), Bishop of Liverpool,7 and the Rt. Rev. Monsignor M.J. Bidwell (d. 1930), Chancellor of the Diocese of Westminster," respectively. David, formerly an outstanding Classical

lbid., p. 113. Ormsby-Gore was subsequently the 4th Baron Harlech. Who Was Who, VI (London, 1972) pp. 492-493. 7 Who Was Who, IV (London, 1952) p. 290. 8Who Was Who, III (London, 1947) p. 111.
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scholar at Oxford, had spent much of his early career as a headmaster, first of Clifton College (1905-09) and later at Rugby (1909-21). Ecclesiastical duties were to prevent him from attending committee meetngs on a regulr basis and he withdrew in 1926. Bidwell, by contrast, had spent his early career working in the Vatican Secretariat in Rome and proved to be a regulr and enthusiastic member of the Committee until his death in 1930. The third representative of the missions and certainly the most influential was J.H. Oldham (1874-1969), variously described as a missionary, an ecclesiastical statesman, and a "busy-body of genius".9 Born in Bombay but educated in Scotland and later at Trinity College, he had intended to join the Indian Civil Service but a religious conversion led him to return to India in 1897 as a missionary under the auspices of the Scottish YMCA. He was invalided home after three years and thereafter pursued his religious studies in both Scotland and Germany but he was never ordained. The turning point in his career carne in 1910 when he was appointed Secretary to the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference. He proved a great success and was duly appointed Secretary of the Continuation Committee. Thereafter, he rapidly became the Chief spokesman and a trusted adviser of all the missions in their negotiations with British colonial governments. In 1921, he became the Secretary of the International Missionary Council. For many years he was also the editor of the International Review of Missions. He maintained a lifelong interest in education and played the key initiating role in establishing the Advisory Committee. He remained a member for thirteen years and made an important contribution to most of the Committee's publications during that time. He was also a brother-in-law of Alee Frser, the first Principal of Achimota College, Britain's educational showpiece, established in the Gold Coast in 1926. The remaining committee members were no less impressive. Lord Lugard (1858-1945)10 had spent a lifetime as a soldier and colonial administrator, first in Hong Kong, where he established the university, and latterly in Nigeria, where he served as Governor-General during the First World War. For many years he served as the British Representative on the Permanent Mandates Commission. In 1923, he published The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa" unquestionably the most influential book on British colonial policy in the 1920s. He too, retained

Sir Ralph Furse, Aucuparius (Oxford, 1962) p. 124. For a summary of Oldham's career see Who Was Who. VI. p. 853. 10 Margery Perham, Lugani. The Years of Authority 1898-1945 (London. 1960). See also Who Was Who, IV, p. 705. ir F.D. Lugard. The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa (London. 1923).

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a life-long interest in education and played an important role in establishing the Advisory Committee, of which he remained a member until his retirement in November 1936. Sir Michael Sadler (1861-1943)12 was widely regarded as the foremost educational spokesman of his generation. A product of Rugby and Trinity College, he spent much of his Professional career first as a university professor and then as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds. In 1923 he became Master of University College, Oxford. He also served as a member of the Royal Commission which examined secondary education in Britain in 1893-95 and later as President of the Calcutta University Commission 1917-19. Sir James Currie (1868-1937)13 was a visionary who had no sympathy for the Missions and what he termed their "subsidized soul snatching".14 Educated at Fettes College and Oxford, he served jointly as Director of Education in the Sudan (1900-14) and the first headmaster of Gordon College, Khartoum. He also had a deep interest in tropical agriculture and was a Director of the Empire Cotton Growing Corporation. Outspoken by nature, he served continuously and with distinction on the Advisory Committee until his death in 1937. Sir Herbert Read (1863-1949),15 a product of Brasenose College, Oxford, had spent most of his working life at the CO. When the Advisory Committee first met he was a Deputy Permanent Under-Secretary. He was no expert on educational matters but he had served for almost nineteen years as the Chairman of both the Colonial Survey and the Colonial Advisory Medicai and Sanitary Committees. He attended the first five meetings of the Education Advisory Committee before leaving England to become Governor of Mauritius (1924-30). The final member of the original committee was the Secretary, Hanns Vischer (1876-1945)." Born and educated in Switzerland, he later studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, before joining the Colonial Service. He was a gifted linguist and eventually serving as Directorof Education in Northern Nigeria (1908-18). He was notthefirst choice, however, for the Position of secretary. Initially, Oldham had been keen to recruit the Welsh-born Dr Jesse Jones, the author of the Phelps-Stokes report on education in West Africa, but Jones had become an American Citizen and was, therefore, considered unsuitable. The second choice was Dr CT. Loram, the well-known South African

"Richard Aldrich and Peter Gordon, Dictionary of British Educationlsts (London, 1989) pp. 216-217. "w/?o Was W/70, III, p. 319. 4 Remark pssed by Sir Christopher Cox in private conversation with the author (November 1979). " r / j e Colonial Office List (London, 1925) p. 733. ie W/70 Was W/JO, IV, p. 1185.

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educator - th Bishop of St. Albans referred to him as an ass, "and a self-satisfied ass at that"17- but Loram declined th position for financial reasons.18 H.S. Scott, a subsequent Director of Education in both th Transvaal and Kenya, was also considered but it was Vischer who was final ly chosen after Oldham had overcome strong Opposition from Lugard." Almost immediately after taking up his appointment, Vischer visited East Africa as th CO representative on th second PhelpsStokes Commission. He had a genuine knowledge of African conditions and impressed th CO with his admirable judgment but Oldham, who worked closely with him for many years, always had his reservations.20 He remained Secretary, and after 1929, Joint-Secretary of th Committee until his retirement in December 1939. The origins of th Advisory Committee have been fully examined elsewhere.21 In brief, th idea appears to have originated with Oldham who foresaw that when th First World War ended, British colonial governments in Africa would inevitably assume a more prominent role in developing and directing education. Oldham was anxious to preserve long-established mission interests and thought that th best means of doing so was to promote a policy of partnership between th missions and colonial governments similar to that arrived at in India in th nineteenth Century. He made his position clear in a letter to th Rev. W. Meston in May 1923.22 He pointed out that in Africa th missions were absolutely at th mercy of governors and directors of education, who might have anti-missionary or bureaucratic tendencies, whereas in India th missions had been protected since 1854 by a Charter which recognized th piace of private educational agencies.23 His whole object in working towards th formation of an advisory committee was to guard against such dangers. Oldham expressed similar sentiments

17 Bishop of St. Albans to J.H. Oldham, 1.8.1923, in: Joint International Missionary Council/Conference of British Missionary Societies Archives [IMC/CBMS]Box219. 18 J.H. Oldham to th Bishop of Liverpool, 7.11.1923, IMC/CBMS Box 219. 19 F.S. Clatworthy, The Foundation of British Colonial Education Policy (Michigan, 1971) p. 39. "These were expressed in a letter to Qrmsby-Gore in 1931, when th CO was seriously considering retrenching one of th two joint-secretaries of th Advisory Committee. "He [Vischer] has an entirely unsystematic mind and scarcely does a stroke of th kind of work that needs to be done. The plain fact is that... if Vischer is th sole secretary ... th Committee will sooner or later fall to pieces." J.H. Oldham to Ormsby-Gore, 4.9.1931, IMC/CBMS Box 219. 21 Clive Whitehead, "Education Policy in British Tropical Africa: th 1925 White Paper in Retrospect", History of Education, X (1981) 3, pp. 195-203. J.H. Oldham to th Rev. W. Meston, 9.5.1923, IMC/CBMS Box 219. "Oldham expressed similar sentiments to th Rev. G.T. Manley, th Secretary of th Church Missionary Society, 4.5.1923, IMC/CBMS Box 219.

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to Professor John Adams, the former Principal of the London Day Training College. There was, he stated, a twofold object in setting up a committee: "First, we wish to secure some definition of the relation between State and private effort in education in the African colonies such as we have had in India for threequarters of a Century. Secondly, we want some body set up which would give serious study to the Problems of education. So far as I am aware no one at the present time atthe Colonial Office is seriously thinking aboutthis."24 Concern for mission interests in the education field was first voiced at the Edinburgh Conference in 1910 but the onset of war delayed any major initiatives. Thereafter, as Secretary of the International Missionary Council, Oldham was intimately involved in negotiations with th CO regarding future educational initiatives in Africa. He was convinced that co-operation between the missions and colonial governments would be greatly facilitated by a common education policy but before that could occur it was necessary for the British Government to clarify its position regarding th future development of education in the colonies. ldham took the matter up with th CO early in 1923, soon after plans were announced for an Imperiai Education Conference." The British, unlike th French, had no uniform or centrally directed colonial education policy. Schooling was traditionally entrusted to the Christian missions but each colony was free to make its own arrangements. There was, however, widespread concern in Whitehall and elsewhere about anti-British sentiment generated in India by the uncontrolled expansion of English-medium academic schooling during th late nineteenth Century and thereafter. This had resulted in the emergence of a "babu" or semi-educated class which uniformly aspired to government or "white-collar" employment. Unfortunately, openings for this type of work were severely limited, and many young unemployed Indians vented their frustration by blaming the British Administration for their fate. Colonial administrators in Whitehall and elsewhere voiced varying opinions on many issues but on one thing they were agreed; they were determined to avoid a re-occurrence of what was freely admitted to have been a major mistake in education policy in India.28 In the early 1920s, the remedy seemed to lie in adapting education to suit th locai environment s practised in some negro Colleges in North America in th late nineteenth Century.27 This policy was strongly supported by both Oldham and Lugard and

25J.H.

Oldham to Professor John Adams, 15.5.1923. IMC/CBMS Box 223.

Clatworthy, The Foundation of British Colonial Education Policy, p. 17. Ca/cutta University Commisston, 1917-19, Report, 1 (Calcutta, 1919)

esp. Part One, Chaps. III and IV. Also Sir Philip Hartog, Some Aspects of Indian

Education Past and Present (London, 1939). K.J. King, Pan-Africanism and Education (Oxford, 1971).

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endorsed by the first Phelps-Stokes Commission in its report on education in West, South and Equatorial Africa published in 1922.2* Oldham's approach to th CO in 1923 was welcomed by Ormsby-Gore who suggested that he prepare a memorandum on the subject for consideration at a forthcoming Conference of African goverriors. Oldham obliged and the document was duly considered at the socalled "Derby Day" meeting of governors on 6 June.29 Oldham highlighted the extent of the mission contribution to schooling in the African colonies - in most instances at least 90 per cent of children who received any form of schooling were educated in mission schools - and the urgent need for future co-operation between missions and colonial governments if maximum use was to be made of limited resources. The policy of the Indian Government, as set down in the Educational Despatch of 1854, was recommended as the basis for an effective partnership. The Despatch had laid th foundation for a national System of education "not in the sense that every school was to be managed by the State, but in the sense that the State was to exercise an efficient control over the whole". Thereafter, the expansion of schooling had relied mainly pn private initiative liberally aided by grants-in-aid from the government. Oldham claimed that the arrangement had resulted in the rapid spread of schooling throughout India and fostered a laudable spini of locai initiative. He also claimed that co-operation between the missions and th state had provided an effective safeguard against the rigidity and uniformity traditionally associated with bureaucratically-managed schools and encouraged experimentation. He likewise, stressed the importance of a religious basis to education in Africa to guard against moral degeneration. To facilitate a Joint policy, Oldham recommended th establishment of Joint advisory boards in each of the African dependencies and the creation of a CO advisory committee, based in London, to direct the overall development of education in British Africa. Ormsby-Gore and the governors who were present at th meeting were enthusiastic about th memorandum - Oldham had seen to that30 and agreed to form an advisory committee. The more delicate matter of future education policy was deferred for consideration by the new

Education in Africa. A Study of West, South, and Equatorial Africa by the African Education Commission (New York, 1922). Education Policy in Africa. See also Clatworthy, The Foundation of British Colonial Education Policy, pp. 20-33, and Whitehead, "Education Policy in British Tropical Africa", p. 197. A study of Oldham's extensive correspondence during this period suggests that much behind-the-scenes activity went into the preparation and acceptance of the Memorandum. For details see Clatworthy. The Foundation of British Colonial Education Policy, pp. 20-33.

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committee. Oldham and Ormsby-Gore clearly played key roles in establishing the committee but the support of men like Sadler, Lugard, Sir Hugh Clifford (Governor of Nigeria), Sir Gordon Guggisberg (Governor of The Gold Coast), and Dr Randall Davidson, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who were all present at the historic June meeting, should not be underestimated. Guggisberg later claimed that the Advisory Committee was a safeguard against the educational crank. He also thought it comprised a body of men whose names guaranteed that the welfare and progress of the native races would take precedence over all other considerations.31 Ormsby-Gore later asserted that the first of the two Phelps-Stokes reports on education in Africa, whch strongly recommended a policy of partnership between the missions and the British Government in developing African education, also figured prominently in the decision to establish the Committee." He might also have added that Jesse Jones, the author of the report, and Oldham were dose friends and that Jones had also been present at the June meeting." At the inaugurai meeting of the Committee, Ormsby-Gore highlighted some important issues for future consideration.3* Foremost was the impact of Western civilisation on the people of Africa. He stressed that the Colonial Secretary was responsi ble for the good government and progress of the non-self-governing portions of the Empire which comprised about fifty million people, four-fifths of whom were Africans. The impact of Western civilisation on people who had never, on their own initiative, produced a written language, was bound to have important consequences. He also referred to past mistakes in Indian education policy and expressed the hope that similar errors would be avoided in Africa. He then spoke of the rising demand for education already evident in Africa, and identified two problems that needed to be resolved before embarking on a major expansion of schooling. The first concerned the financing of education. Hitherto, it had been left to the missions but it was likely that colonial governments would become increasingly involved in the years ahead. The financial question was also closely related to the second problem, the future relationship between the missions and colonial governments. Ormsby-Gore believed that any attempt to educate Africans which took no account of religion would be doomed to failure. Sir James Currie added a third problem - that of the

Minutesof the3rd meeting of the Advisory Committee, 30.4.1924. Speech by Ormsby-Gore at farewell dinner for Dr. Thomas Jesse-Jones, 30.3.1925. See also speech by Ormsby-Gore 25.7.1923, House of Commons
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Parliamentary Debates, pp. 167,104. 33 Clatworthy, The Foundation of British Colonial Policy, p. 32.
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Minutes of the 1st meeting of the Advisory Committee.

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Moslem religion in relation to native education, especially in Nigeria and East Africa. Other pressing problems that Ormsby-Gore might have mentioned included how, and to what extent colonial governments should invade the educational field? Who should determine the content of education? What policy should govern the medium of instruction to be used in schools? Were Africans to be educated for continuing Subordination or for eventual self-government? And finally, were they to be educated as individuai or as members of communities? And what sort of communities? These were the matters that were to dominate the Committee's agenda in the inter-war years. The Committee's specific terms of reference were: "To advise the Secretary of State on any matters of native education in the British Colonies and Protectorates in Tropical Africa, which he may from time to time refer to, and to assist him in advancing the progress of education in those Colonies and Protectorates."35 Accordingly, Ormsby-Gore thought that the best policy for the Committee to adopt in the initial stages would be a piecemeal or ad hoc approach i.e. to deal with problems as and when they arose. Nowhere is there a clearer Statement of the essentially pragmatic nature of British colonial administration. The Committee's first major concern was to appoint a headmaster for Achimota, the new educational showpiece that Governor Gordon Guggisberg was intent on establishing in the Gold Coast. The Rev. A.G. Frser, who was Oldham's brother-in-law and the Headmaster of Trinity College, Kandy, Ceylon, was the successful candidate.38 Currie would have preferred a lay appointee but as Elfis, a CO officiai in the Gold Coast Department, remarked, it was very difficult to attract Europeans to educational appointments in the colonies unless they were fired with religious zeal. He added that it had been almost impossible to recruit a suitable Director of Education for the Gold Coast.37 Ormsby-Gore agreed with Currie that the state of education in the Gold Coast was deplorable but pointed out that the Iow salaries and existing methods of promotion deterred real educational leaders from leaving the United Kingdom.38 Lugard claimed that the state of education in the Gold Coast was akin to that in all the West African colonies. He thought the main Problem was the dearth of qualified native teachers.39 Guggisberg attended the third meeting of the Committee and endorsed Lugard's

Memorandum on the Advisory Committee on Native Education in British Tropical Africa (London, 1927). ^ . E . F . Ward, Frser of Trinity and Achimota (Accra, 1965). 37 Minutesof the 3rd meeting of the Advisory Committee, 30.4.1924. "ibid 39 lbid.

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remarks. He claimed that most Africans educated abroad sought legal and medicai careers on their return. He hoped that Achimota would help to overcome the shortage of teachers.40 At the same meeting Sadler raised the question of which language of instruction was to be used at the school. He and Oldham were strongly of the opinion that it was best to use the vernacular with young children. The problem of private venture or "hedge" schools was also discussed. It was clear that some kind of control over the opening and conduct of schools was needed but no firm conclusions were reached.41 At the fourth meeting of the Committee Sadler spoke of the need to make Provision for teaching in the colonies to count for superannuation purposes for British teachers and agreed to prepare a memorandum on the subject.42 Education in Uganda, and in particular the future of the government technical college at Makerere, was also discussed at length. The basic issue was whether to spend money on converting Makerere into a training college for literary and vocational native teachers or to Upgrade existing mission primary schools. This, in turn, highlighted the need to formulate a native education policy for the Protectorate as a whoie in order to replace Indians in administration and government Service. By the sixth meeting the need was fast becoming clear for a Statement of the broad principles of educational policy which should guide African governments as they assumed a more positive role in administering education in their respective territories. Lugard offered to prepare such a Statement and the Committee readily endorsed his Suggestion.43 There is strong evidence to suggest that an initial draft of such a policy Statement had already been circulated to members of the Committee before the meeting at which it was agreed that Lugard should prepare a Statement.44 Discussion at subsequent meetings about education in Kenya, Tanganyika, Southern Nigeria and Nyasaland, teachers' superannuation, and the education of girls, reinforced the need for such a Statement. Lugard's memorandum was formally approved at the Committee's twelfth meeting in March 1925, together with a recommendation that it be sent to the Secretary of State

40

ibid.

Action was soon forthcoming on this matter. The Imperiai Education Conference (1923) had supported Sadler's idea in principle and amendments to both the English and Scottish Teachers' Superannuation Acts were passed early in 1925, allowing for a maximum of four years full-time teaching in the colonies to be inckided for pensionable purposes. "Minutes of the 6th meeting of the Advisory Committee 6.10.1924.

>id-

*4Clatworthy, The Foundation of British Colonia! Education Policy, p. 84.

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for printing as a Command Paper. Archival evidence highlights the strong tnfluence that Oldham played in drafting the document.45 Education Policy in British Tropical Africa" has traditionally been thought of as one of the principal landmarks in the evolution of imperiai policy this Century but it has also been suggested of late that its importance has been exaggerated.47 The real significance of the Statement lay less in the educational principles that were outlined and more in the officiai recognition that it gave to the Missions as partners of the state in providing schooling in the colonies. It was no accident that the memorandum began by stating that "Government welcomes and will encourage all voluntary educational effort which conforms to the generai policy" and later that "Co-operation between Government and other educational agencies should be promoted in every way". Officiai sanction was also extended to the policy of grants-in-aid to schools and to the centrai importance of religious teaching and moral instruction in schools. Oldham clearly got on paper what he had sought for the missions from the outset. The Statement placed a strong emphasis on the principle of adapting education "to the mentality, aptitudes, occupations and traditions of the various [native] peoples", conserving as far as possible ali sound and healthy elements in the fabric of their social life. The adaptation principle had its roots in negro education in the U.S.A. and was strongly advocated by both Phelps-Stokes reports on education in Africa.** It also had anthropological backing and provided an acceptable alternative to the policy adopted in nineteenth-century India, where the uncontrolled spread of academic English-medium schooling led to disastrous politicai consequences. Shaping education to conform with native rather than European culture was also in line with the policy of Indirect Rule, the main politicai strategy of British colonial policy during the inter-war years.49 The adaptation principle was destined to be the subject of sustained criticism from Africans and Europeans alike, who claimed

"Oldham Correspondence file, IMC/CBMS Box 219. "Education Policy in British Tropical Africa, Cmd. 2374 (London, 1925). Whitehead, "Education Policy in British Tropical Africa". ' The first report is cited in note 28 above. The second report was Education in East Africa. A Study of East, Central, and South Africa ... (London, n.d.). For the American background to the adaptation principle see K.J. King, "Africa and the Southern States of the U.S.A.: Notes on J.H. Oldham and American Negro Education for Africans", Journal of African Hstory, X (1969) 4, pp. 659-677. ' For more details of Indirect Rule see Ronald Robinson, "European Imperialism and Indigenous Reactions in British West Africa 1880-1914", in: H.L. Wesseling (Ed.), Expansion and Reaction (Leiden, 1978): Sir F.D. Lugard, The Dual Mandate: Lord Hailey, An African Survey (London, 1938).

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that its primary purpose was to stall African economie, social and politicai development.50 It also proved to be based on a fallacious theory of culture contact. As Philip Foster demonstrated in Ghana, the "jig-saw puzzle" theory of cultural adaptation, whereby the best of the old and the new are fused together, didn't work in practice.51 It is true, nevertheless, that the CO was confronted with a major problem after the First World War of how to help native peoples to cope with ever increasing contact with European civilisation without encouraging rapid detribalisation and a cataclysmic disintegration of indigenous culture. There were no simple answers. The Advisory Committee on Education supported the ideal of integrated Community progress, wherein education should cement and strengthen those elements in African society which would enable it to adjust to the modern world without losing its soul but what that meant in practice was never made clear. The 1925 Memorandum also advocated increased government expenditure on education, including the establishment of Education departments, and favourable terms of employmeht to attract high calibre staff. The preservation of superannuation rights for British teachers was speeifieally mentioned. The study of vernacular languages and their use in junior schools and the writing of vernacular textbooks suitably adapted to African conditions was also advocated. A greater emphasis on the training of native teachers and the use of Visiting Teachers to aid existing teachers was also emphasized, as was the need for a thorough and reliable System of school inspection. Technical and vocational training and a greater emphasis on the education of girls and women were also singled out for speeifie mention. Overall, the Memorandum was designed to provide a series of broad principles as guides to action but officials on-the-spot were expected to retain their traditional right to interpret them as they saw fit in the light of locai conditions. In practice, the late 1920s and 1930s were years marked by financial stringency, chronic staff shortages, and ever-growing African pressure for more traditional English medium academic schooling. As a consequence, education policies in colonial territories were frequently reduced to a matter of expediency rather than the practicai endorsement of high-minded principles. Much of the Advisory Committee's work in the late 1920s and thereafter was concerned with elaborating on the generai principles as outlined in the 1925 Memorandum. In April 1925, the Committee held the first of several discussions on the training needs of Education Downloaded by [Institute of Education] at 13:30 08 December 2011

Udo Bude, "The Adaptation Concept in British Colonial Education", Comparative Education, XIX (1983) 3, pp. 341-355. 51 "Philip Foster, Education and Social Change in Ghana (Chicago, 1965) p. 165.

50

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Officers recruited for work in the colonies. The eventual outcome was the establishment in 1927 of a special training course for missionaries and in 1928 of annual courses for newly recruited Education Officers at the London Day Training College. These were introduced at the direction of the Principal, Sir Percy Nunn, who also became a member of the Advisory Committee. Other generai subjects discussed included the medium of instruction in native schools, textbooks (many African schools were using books published in the late nineteenth Century), the Problems of recruiting European staff, and the teaching of biology in native schools. These were interspersed with extended discussions of various aspects of education policy in each of the African dependencies and regulr monitoring of their annual reports. A second memorandum British Education Staff in Africa, which embodied the Committee's recommendations for the recruitment and training of Education Officers and their conditions of employment, was circulated to African governments in November 1925.52 A third memorandum On the Use of the Vernacular in Native Education, which outlined the Committee's tentative views on a very difficult question, was also circulated to Governors in May 1927, with a request for comment from ali those with actual experience of native education.63 Strong support was expressed at the Colonial Conference in 1927 for extending the Committee's brief to include ali areas under the direct administration of the CO. This Suggestion was acted upon and the Committee was reconstituted and renamed the Advisory Commission on Education in the Colonies with effect from January 1929." To cope with the increased workload, the Committee was enlarged by the appointment of a Joint Secretary and two additionai members. The new Joint Secretary was Arthur Mayhew. A product of Winchester and New College, where he achieved a Double First, Mayhew served in the Indian Education Service as Director of Instruction in the Central Provinces (1903-22) before becoming a Master at Eton." Once again there is strong evidence to show that Oldham played a major role in Mayhew's appointment.58 Oldham was not entirely satisfied with Vischer's performance as Secretary. He got on well with people, spoke several languages fluently, and was widely respected within the CO but in Oldham's opinion he had a disdain for memoranda and written reports.

"Education Staff in British Tropical Africa (1925). British Tropical Africa, the Piace of the Vernacular in Native Education (1927). The Constitution, Aims, and Methods of the Advisory Committee on Education in the Colonies (1930). is The Dominions Office and Colonial Office List (London, 1933) p. 720. "Clatworthy, The Foundation of British Colonial Education Policy, pp. 5253.

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Hopefully, Mayhew would ensure that the Committee was kept better informed of contemporary events. Oldham worked hard behind the scenes to obtain Mayhew's appointment, even persuading him to rescind an application for the post of Director of Education in Kenya in favour of the Joint Secretaryship of the Advisory Committee. When he was eventually appointed he undertook to edit a new CO sponsored education Journal Oversea Education and assumed responsibility for the affairs of all non-African territories. He was to travel widely throughout the 1930s reporting on education in a variety of colonial territories as well as attending two major education Conferences at Yale (1934) and Honolulu (1936) where he lectured on British colonial education policy and practice. He was also the author of The

Education of India (1926)57 and Education in the Colonial Empire

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(^SS), 5 * which immediately became the standard work on the subject. A perusal of CO files bears ampie testimony to his insightful comments and high Standing as an educator and critic amongst permanent staff in Whitehall. The reconstituted Committee comprised all the previous members, includihg two women, Miss Sara Burstall, the former Headmistress of Manchester High School for Girls, and Miss A.W. Whitelaw, a New Zealander, who was Headmistress of Wycombe Abbey School and later Head of the Education Department at Selly Oak Colleges. Both had joined the original Committee in 1926. Others who joined the expanded Committee included Sir George Maxwell, who had recently retired as Colonial Secretary of the Federated Malay States, and Will (later Sir Will) Spens, the Master of Corpus Christi College, who was subsequently Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University. In the 1930s the membership of the Committee varied more than in its early years as long-standing members retired and deliberate efforts were made to promote an annual turnover of some members to ensure that the Committee received fresh ideas and new perspectives. The functions of the Committee remained "solely advisory". The specific terms of reference included advising on schemes for the improvement of education specificai ly referred to the Committee by the Secretary of State; making recommendations to the Secretary of State on any matters relating to Colonial Education that the Chairman of the Committee considered suitable for discussioni and keeping abreast, in

S7 A.I. Mayhew, The Education of India: a Study of British Educational Policy in India, 1835-1920, and of its Bearing on Native Life and Problems in India Today (London, 1926). M A.I. Mayhew, Education in the Colonial Empire (London, 1938).

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a variety of ways, of the progress and needs of education in the Colonies.59 Approximately nine months after the first meeting of the newly constituted Committee the Wall Street crash occured and the world was soon plunged into economie chaos. When the Advisory Committee was first established, its expenses were met by contributions from the various African dependencies. Initially, contributions were set at 1/600th of a colony's total educational expenditure. A similar arrangement was carried over to the new Committee in 1929 but with the onset of a worldwide economie depression the Committee's financial base began to be eroded as colonies either terminated or reduced their contributions. For example, Fiji withdrew its financial support completely in January 1931. The growing financial crisis carne to a head in 1933. The Secretary of State decided on drastic cuts in the Committee's expenses to take effect from 1 January 1934, which would have resulted in the retrenchment of one of the Joint Secretaries.60 Mayhew, literally fighting to save his job, took the initiative and wrote to Dr F.P. Keppel, President of the Carnegie Corporation, to ask for financial assistance for the Advisory Committee on the grounds that it "and its joint secretaries" provided the nucleus for a unique bureau of research into oversea education. The appeal was successful and his job was saved at the eleventh hour but once again there is strong evidence to suggest that it was Oldham, rather than Mayhew, who played the decisive role in persuading Keppel to provide financial assistance.61 The Carnegie Corporation made funds available "to enable the staff to continue their work during a time of exceptional difficulty and not merely to reduce the Charge on Colonial budgets". At Oldham's personal request, a grant of $5000, equivalent then to 1000, was made in 1933, followed by a similar amount in 1934. Thereafter, further grants of $5000 in 1935 and 1936 and a final grant of $10,000 in 1939, brought the total funds received to $30,000 or 6000 in six years.82 The financial crisis of the early 1930s highlighted the deeply entrenched hostility that many permanent staff in the CO seemingly felt towards advisory bodies and their staff. Oldham, in particular, was fearful that the permanent staff of the CO would use the economie depression as an excuse to wind up the Advisory Committee. He mentioned his fear to Ormsby-Gore but was assured that the Committee's future was not threatened. Nevertheless, Ormsby-Gore

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The Constitution, Aims and Methods of the Advisory Committee on Education in the Colonies (1930) p. 2.
Mayhew and Vischer were both paid 1500 p.a.

1Clatworthy, The Foundation of British Colonial Education Policy, p. 59.

"CO 859/1/1201(1939), Public Record Office, Kew.

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could understand Oldham's concern: "The existence of these [advisory] committees was an innovation in my time at the office, and many of the permanent staff never became reconciled to their continuance and I can well believe that there is an internai drive to get rid of all advisory committees, the advisers (who are not members of the Home Civil Service trade unioni), secretaries, etc.'*3 Meanwhile, the work of the Committee continued unabated. In September 1929, a memorandum on English reading books for nonEnglish-speaking pupils was produced, which sought to promote closer cooperation between colonial Departments of Education and British publishers.84 This was followed in February 1930 by a further memorandum on the aims and methods of language teaching in the colonies, which advocated the use of the vernacular in junior schooling. It also advocated the use of language as a means of harmonizing cultures rather than to subordinate native culture by using English as the sole medium of instruction in schools.85 The French, by contrast, insisted on the use of the French language as the sole medium of instruction in all their schools.68 The subject of grants-in-aid occupied much of the- Committee's attention in the early 1930s as part of a general endorsement of the principle outlined in the 1925 policy Statement. A memorandum on the subject was finally approved for generai publication in April 1933.87 Aided schools were to be subject to government control and inspection but the utmost elasticity was to be allowed in school management practices and curriculum offerings to preserve the principle of variety in schooling. The precise details and formulae to be used in providing grants to voluntary schools were to be determined by locai circumstances. The Committee recommended that expenditure on the teaching staff should be the main criterion for the award of grants in preference to school attendance or examination results. The educational functions of locai authorities was a further subject arising from the 1925 Memorandum which absorbed much of the Committee's time before a final report was agreed upon in December

83 Ormsby-Gore to J.H. Oldham, 1.9.1931, in: J.C.E. Greig, Decision-Making in Educational Administration: a Comparative Study of the Gambia and Malawi during the Period 1925-1945 (Doctoral dissertation, London, 1978) p.
16

^Memorandum on the Preparation and Selection of English Reading Books for Non-English-Speaking Pupils (1929). *sPreliminary Memorandum on the Aims and Methods of Language Teaching in the Colonies (1930). For more detail on French policy see Paul Crouzet, "Education in the French Colonies", in: Year Book of Education (New York, 1931) pp. 269-565. "Memorandum on Educational Grants-in-Aid (1933).

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1933." The main thrust of the report centred on the need for African and other indigenous peoples to be consulted in formulating education policy and expanding schooling. Strong support was also expressed for the appointment of more Africans to advisory boards and Councils although officiate on-the-spot were slow to respond. Government approvai of a report on compulsory education in May 1933, which advocated the principle of "voluntary compulsion", was also the cuimination of much work by the Committee.69 Unfortunately, depressed economie conditions were not conduetive to the insertion of compulsory clauses in educational legislation although Malaya, Ceylon and Tonga were cited as examples where the principle was being applied successfully. A perusal of the Minutes of the Committee in the 1930s highlights the rieh diversity of subjeets that were discussed. Besides the regulr review of annual. education reports from the colonies and the Constant stream of colonial governors and senior education officials who addressed the Committee when on leave, the Committee also examined a varied mosaic of educational problems in colonies as far apart as Uganda, Nigeria, British Guiana, Mauritius, British Honduras, Malaya, the West Indies and Fiji.70 In November 1933, the Committee considered the draft report of a sub-committee headed by Sir James Currie, which examined the idea of establishing university Colleges in Africa.71 The Chairman, Sir Robert Hamilton, thought it was the most important matter to come before the Committee as far as African education was concerned." The report, which recommended the creation of regional universities in the colonies, reeeived the blessing of the Committee but it proved to be a

"Educational Functions of Locai Bodies in the Tropical African Dependencies" (1934). "Compulsory Education in the Colonies" (1930). "The IMC/CBMS Archives, Box 222, contains the Minutes of the Advisory Committee for the period. from January 1924 to November 1936. The Public Record Office at Kew also has copies of the Minutes in CO 879/121 (January 1924 to January 1929); CO 885/31 (January 1929 to March 1931); CO 885/33 (April 1931 to December 1933); CO 885/41 (March 1934 to June 1939). There isthen a gap in the PRO records for the period July 1939 to December 1940 but these Minutes are contained in the Papers of the late Sir Christopher Cox (CP) which have yet to be released for generai use. Minutes of the Advisory Committee for the perjpdfrom 1941 to June 1961 are to be found in CO/987/1 to 8 Inclusive. ""Report of the sub-committee appointed to consider the educational policy underlying paragraph 19 of the Report of the Conference of Direotors of Education of Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda and Zanzibar, held at Zanzibar in June 1932", in: Eric Ashby, Universities, British, Indiati, African. A Study in the Ecology of Higher Education (London, 1966) pp. 475-481. Minutes of the 49th meeting of the Advisory Committee, 21.12.1933.

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decade ahead of its time. When it was considered by the West African Directors of Education at their annual Conference in 1935, they concluded that the establishment of a university was a distant prospect and need not concern them in the immediate future." Fortunately, the idea was kept alive by the Advisory Committee which subsequently played a decisive role in persuading the CO to establish a commission, in 1943, under the chairmanship of Lord Asquith, which recommended the setting up of university Colleges in West Africa and elsewhere." If the 1925 White Paper was the chief landmark of the Advisory Committee in its early years, the Memorandum on the Education of African Communities^ published in 1935, must surely rank as the Committee's most noteworthy contri bution in the years leading up to the outbreak of war in 1939. Once more, Oldham played a major role in drafting a document which argued that native African schools in rural areas could only contribute fully to social and economie progress if they were linked to a wider concern for Community development.78 The generai aims of education were the same as those outlined a decade earlier: to raise the standard of living of the bulk of the people and to provide necessary technical and vocational training; but recent experience of work in rural African communities convinced the Committee that the definition of education needed to be expanded beyond the confines of the traditional school classroom. Schooling was to be linked with improved health, agriculture, technical skills and social cooperation to produce the equivalent of thriving rural peasant communities. It was the only practical future for most Africans that members of the Committee could foresee. Some might earn a livelihood from European mining and manufacturing activities and develop an urban culture but the vast majority would have no choiee but to remain ensconced in their traditional rural lifestyle. The Memorandum clearly endorsed the adaptation principle which figured so prominently in the 1925 document. The purpose of education was not to facilitate the destruetion of traditional society but to rejuvenate it by creating a healthy and prosperous peasant class. Western knowledge was to be used to improve the locai environment and rural living Standards rather than to create a disdain for tradition and a yearning for European culture. Hindsight suggests that it was a utopian Vision. Africans were fast determining their own fate and like
"Clive Whitehead, "The "Two-way Pull1 and the Establishment of University Education in British West Africa", Hstory of Education, XVI (1987) 2, p. 122. "Report of the Commission on Higher Education in the Colonies, Cmd. 6647 (London, 1945). ^Memorandum on the Education of African Communities (London, 1935). Clatworthy, The Foundation of British Colonial Education Policy, pp. 140-141.

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Indians half a Century earlier, they not unnaturally sought the type of literary academic education that Europeans prized so highiy. The pace of economie and social change in Africa also quickened in the 1930s, amidst a growing volume of criticism of colonial ruie which stemmed from Africans and Europeans alike.77 No one then could foresee how rapidly the colonial era would draw to a dose after 1945 but it is now clear that by the mid 1930s it was already too late to preserve African culture from the relentless march of progress. The 1930s saw many of the original members of the Committee leave the scene. The Rt. Rev. Bishop Bidwell died in 1930; Sadler and Miss Whitelaw both retired in 1932, followed by Lugard, Oldham and Nunn in 1936; Currie died in 1937, and Miss Burstall retired in 1938. In February 1939, Malcolm MacDonald, the Colonial Secretary, deeided to appoint a full-time Educational Adviser and to dispense with the Services of Vischer and Mayhew.78 Both had contracts which expired in December 1939; both were over the retirement age of sixty - Vischer was sixty-three and Mayhew sixty-one - and Vischer's health had been deteriorating. The last of the Carnegie grants was also due to expire at the end of 1939. The main reason for the change, however, appears to have been MacDonald's determination to respond positively to the chorus of criticism being levelled at British colonialism by the late 1930s and, in particular, to introduce younger men and fresh ideas into government.79 The decision to appoint a full-time CO officiai as Educational Adviser was also doubtless influenced by the publication of Lord Hailey's African Survey in 193880 and his endorsement of the idea although MacDonald had seemingly already made his decision before Hailey discussed the matter with the Advisory Committee at its meeting in May 1939.81 Hailey claimed that education was the only aspect of British colonial ruie in which a policy had been laid down but that no definite steps had been taken to ensure that it was systematically carried out. As a result there were great variations in method and in the quality of work done in the dependencies. He saw a need for some means of co-ordination and suggested an Educational Adviser who could travel regularly and offer advice to officials on-the-

"Penelope Hetherington, British Paternalism in Africa 1920-1940 (London, 1978). In a Minute, Eastwood, a CO officiai, mentioned a meeting between the Secretary of State and his Undersecretaries held on 5 February 1939, at which it was agreed to appoint an Educational Adviser as from 1940. CO 859/1/1201 (1939). D.J. Morgan, The Origins of British Aid Policy 1924-1945, 1 (London, p. xiv. Hailey, An African Survey. "Minutes of the 94th meeting of the Advisory Committee.

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spot as the Agricultural Adviser had been doing successfully for the past decade.82 Meanwhile, there was much activity going on behind-the-scenes. Eventually, at the Advisory Committee's meeting in November 1939, it was announced that Christopher Cox, who had recently returned to Britain after two years as Director of Education and Principal of Gordon College in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, had been appointed as Educational Adviser to the CO."3 Cox's appointment proved to be a decisive turning-point in the history of the Committee. The war ushered in a major reassessment of all aspects of British colonial policy, including education, which greatly extended the scope of the Advisory Committee's activities and its membership, but it was, above all, Cox's unique qualities of leadership and the uniformly high regard feit for him within all branches of the CO which ensured the Committee's continued existence throughout the important post-war period of educational development in the colonies that preceded the dissolution of the Empire. Ormsby-Gore always emphasized that the Committee was essentially a medium for the exchange of information and experience between colonies rather than a policy-making body. That view was endorsed by H.S. Scott, a former Director of Education in Kenya, when he reviewed the Committee's work in 1937.64 He commented on the absence of any generai education policy for the colonies. In the previous twelve years the Committee had produced a variety of memoranda on key educational issues which outlined many of the principles which it was thought should govern the development of education in the colonies but the Committee had not covered the whole ground. Instead, its work had been "piecemeal, almost spasmodic". This, he attributed to the Committee's terms of reference which restricted its activities to the consideration of questions directly referred to by the Secretary of State. Lord Hailey thought otherwise as did Sir Donald Cameron, a former Governor of Tanganyika, who attributed the slow progress in implementing a uniform policy to the long-term nature of educational change and the frequent movement of colonial administrative staff."

"ibid. M Minutes of the 99th meeting of the Advisory Committee, 16.11.1939. For details of Cox see Clive Whitehead, "Sir Christopher Cox: An Imperiai Patrician of

a Different King", Journal of Educational Administration and History, XXI


(1989) 1,pp. 28-42. e4 H.S. Scott, "Educational Policy in the British Colonial Empire", The Year Bogkof Education 1937 (London, 1937) pp. 411-438. "Minutes of the 94th meeting of the Advisory Committee, 18.5.1939.

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The reluctance of the CO to impose any specific policy on the dependencies stemmed from the strong tradition of deferring to the opinions of "men-on-the-spot". This meant that the interpretations put upon the Committee's pronouncements by individuai governors and their senior officials varied considerabiy from one colony to another. It was Arthur Mayhew, writing about education in the colonies in the late 1930s, who provided the best assessment of the link between the work of the Advisory Committee and any concept of a colonial education policy. He claimed that the Secretary of State was not anxious to adopt too definite a policy. Instead, he was content with a few basic assumptions and Statements of generai principles and was not unduly perturbed if those principles were adapted with the utmost elasticity to suit locai conditions.68 Throughout the inter-war years the Advisory Committee endeavoured to clarify those guiding principles. By the outbreak of war in September 1939, the Committee had examined a wide array of educational issues. In some instances the Committee had published documents outlining its views. At other times matters were dealt with by means of confidential memoranda circulated to colonial governments. Viewed collectively, these might conceivably have constituted the framework of a common colonial education policy but they were invariably couched in language that gave ampie scope for modification to suit locai conditions. It is also true that the Committee's pronouncements were frequently received with a marked degree of scepticism by colonial officials working in difficult conditions in remote corners of the globe.87 In any assessment of the work of the Advisory Committee during the inter-war years it must be remembered that education was in a very rudimentary state in most of Britain's colonies after the First World War. Government departments of education were either non-existent or only recently established, and most lacked professional expertise. Moreover, mission schooling, much of which was of dubious quaiity, was already well-established throughout the colonies. Most colonial governors and their officials aiso viewed education as an item of consumption rather than investment which diverted scarce resources from other more pressing needs. It was not surprising, therefore, that when Directors of Education were appointed, they and their fledgling departments were accorded something alike to "Cinderella" status in most colonial administrative hierarchies. The prolonged years of financial depression in the 1930s, coupled with the widespread belief in the need for each colony to be financially self-sufficient, also made it

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*7Comment passed by W.E.F. Ward, Deputy Educational Adviser to the CO (1945-56), in private conversation with the author.

^Mayhew, Education in the Colonial Empire, p. 33.

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difficult to promote educational development from London. Even Directors of Education had to admit the existence of equally, if not more, pressing calls on inadequate public revenues. Their cause was not made any easier by the almost universal belief in the long term nature of British colonial rule. If the Empire was destined to last well into the next Century, there was surely limitless time ahead in which to develop education. Attitudes towards education in Britain itself were also significant in shaping officiai attitudes towards the expansion of colonial schooling. During the inter-war years it was not considered necessary for more than a smal Proportion of the British population, namely the rieh and the talented, to reeeive anything more than an elementary education. Nor should it be forgotten that amongst the ranks of the unempioyed in Britain in the 1930s there were many who had attended grammar schools and universities. Contrary to the belief of many contemporary critics of colonialism, officiai attitudes towards educational development in the colonies were also influenced by a genuine concern for the future wellbeing of indigenous eultures and the deleterious impact of western civilisation.88 This was coupled with the salutory experience of nineteenth-century India where the rapid proliferation of Western schooling was blamed for the widespread emergence of a disaffected "babu" class and politicai agitation against British rule. The result was a not unnatural tendency to proeeed cautiously in developing education in Africa much to the chagrin of many modern armchair critics. Moreover, the problem was by no means confined to education. In the 1920s and 30s, British colonial policy in generai appeared to lack both direction and conviction as administrators grappled with the question of whether or not to encourage greater contact with European civilisation and hence run the risk of possible tribal disintegration or to endeavour to preserve the respective eultures of the motley collection of peoples living under their jurisdiction. The strength of locai govemment, and especially the decisive influence of individuai governors, not all of whom were supportive of education, also played a significant role in determining whether or not the Advisory Committee influenced the progress of colonial schooling. Contemporary critics frequently overlook the fact that most of the senior colonial officials of the 1920s were the produets of late nineteenth-century middle-class society and schooling and that their attitudes towards the education of indigenous peoples were necessarily coloured by that experience.

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Ronald Robinson, The Trust in British Central African Policy 1880-1939


(Doctoral dissertation, Cambridge, 1950).

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Finally, in any assessment of the Advisory Committee's impact on education in the inter-war years, it is important to appreciate the sheer size of many colonial territories. There were few roads worthy of the name, minimal financial resources, an acute shortage of trained Professional staff, and alien cultures to understand and accommodate. Ali too frequentiy modern critics fail to appreciate the limits of what was possible at the time. Instead, they tend to condemn uncritically the shortcomings of British colonial rule from the vantage point of some sixty years of hindsight, including the onset of global war in 1939 and the rapid demise of coionial rule in its wake. One cannot seriously hold the politicians and officiai? who shaped British colonial policy during the inter-war years, including those who served on the Advisory Committee on Education, accountable for not having forseen such events. Within six months of Cox's arrivai at the CO, the Government passed the first of the Colonial Development and Welfare Acts which heralded the start of a far-reaching reappraisal of British colonial policy generaily, and a new and important phase in the work of the Advisory Committee.*9 The Act made Provision for an annual expenditure of up to 5 million on approved development and welfare schemes over the next decade and a further 1/2 million annual expenditure on research into colonial development. Colonies were also to be encouraged to prepare long-term development plans and to submit them to Whitehall for approvai, together with requests for financial assistance. Vetting the educational components of these plans was to become a major aspect of the work of the Advisory Committee in the immediate post-war years. One might have expected that the Committee's activities would have diminished during the wr years but the reverse was true. There was an initial period of uncertainty until the threat of invasion receded and the Committee met less frequently until mid-1944, but Cox subsequently referred to the war years as a period of "seething ferment" in the Committee's history.90 Colonial Development and Welfare policy required the seal of United Kingdom Professional approvai and much of the Committee's time and energy was increasingly taken up with vetting grants for educational purposes after 1943, but the Committee was equally involved in the development of higher education in the colonies," the education and welfare of women and girls,92 the

"Statement of Policy on Colonial Development and Welfare, Cmd. 6175


(London, 1940). "Minutesof the 242nd and final meeting of the Advisory Committee, 8.6.1961. "whitehead, "The Two-way-pull".

^Report of the Sub-Commlttee on the Education and Welfare of Women and Girls in Africa (London, 1943).

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recruitment and training of women Education Officers,93 plans for educational development in the West Indies arising from the Royal Commission of 1938-3994 (a special West Indian sub-committee was created), and in promoting the concept of "mass education" or what was later termed "Community development".BS Cox also made several extensive tours of the African territories during the war to gain first hand knowledge and this was relayed in detail to the Committee. The Committee's role in the events which led to the setting up of the Asquith,98 Elliot97 and Irvine98 Commissions and the subsequent development of university Colleges in West and East Africa, the West Indies and Malaya, was undoubtedly the high point of the war years but it is important to note that the Committee's interest in higher education in the colonies dated back to Sir James Currie's report of 1933. The Second World War dramatically changed the balance of power in the world and rendered invalid most of the assumptions upon which British colonial policy had been based. British imperialism was subjected to both American and later world (United Nations) criticism and CO officiate were obliged to rethink the basis of colonial policy. As Arthur Creech Jones remarked, "the war brught a quickning and a greater sense of purpose into the whole colonial scene".99 Before 1939, British colonial administration had been concerned primarily with the concept of "good government" or the preservation of law and order and sound financial management.100 The war generated a new policy of social, economie and politicai "progress" in which the theme of "partnership" carne to dominate CO rhetoric.101 The Colonial Development & Weifare Act was the means by which this new approach to colonial policy was to be implemented. The strohg emphasis on social development was to have important implications for education and ushered in a new and exciting phase in the life of the Advisory Committee.

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"Sub-Committee Report on the Recruitment and Training of Women for the Colonial Education Service", Advisory Committee paper 5/1943.

"West Indies Royal Commission 1938-1939, Cmd. 6174 (London, 1940). 9 Mass Education in African Society (London, 1943). Report of the Commission on Higher Education in the Colonies, "Report of the Commission on Higher Education in West Africa, Cmd.
6655, HMSO 1945.
M Report of the West Indies Committee of the Commission on Higher Education in the Colonies, Cmd. 6654 (London, 1945).

"Minutes of the 122nd meeting of the Advisory Committee, 20.5.1943.

'J.M. Lee, Colonial Development and Good Government (Oxford, 1967). ""j.M. Lee and Martin Petter, The Colonial Office, War, and Development Policy (London, 1982).

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The war years saw significant changes in the composition of the Committee but some of the older generation remained. These included Edmund Burney, a former HMI; Sir Donald Cameron, the former Governor of Nigeria and Tanganyika; Professor Fred Clarke, the Principal of the London Institute of Education; Major Church and Arthur Creech Jones, both Labour MPs, the latter destined to become Parliamentary Undersecretary and Chairman of the Committee after the generai election in August 1945; Julian Huxley, the noted scientist; and Bishop Myers, the Roman Catholicrepresentative. Newcomers included Sir George Anderson, a former Director of Public Instruction in the Punjab, who died in 1943; Prof. H.G. Channon, Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Liverpool, who played such a pivotal role in the events that led to the Asquith Commission on higher education in the Colonies;102 the Rev. H.M. Grace, formerly Principal of Achimota College; Professor W.M. Macmillan, the outspoken critic of British Imperialism in the 1930s; Professor B. Mouat Jones, a member of the Commission on Higher Education in East Africa in 1937; Dr Margaret Read, Head of the Colonial Department at the London Institute of Education; Miss Margery Perham, an Oxford don and an authority on British administration in Africa; and H.S. (later Sir Herbert) Scott, a former Director of Education in Kenya. Arthur Mayhew continued to edit the Journal Oversea Education until the end of 1945 and then rejoined the Committee as a private member in his own right. Hanns Vischer was knighted in 1941 but died shortly before the war ended in Europe. Lord Lugard likewise died in April 1945. In the same month, W.E.F. Ward, a foundation staff member at Achimota College and later Director of Education in Mauritius, was appointed to assist Cox as Deputy Education Adviser at the CO. He took over the editorship of Oversea Education in 1946 and served for many years as a United Kingdom representative at United Nations and U.N.E.S.C.O. Conferences as well as regularly attending Advisory Committee meetings and being deeply involved in its activities. He also wrote most of another Advisory Committee report on education for citizenship in Africa,103 published in 1948. Finally, in August 1945, the Labour Party won a resounding victory at the first post-war generai election and Creech Jones, who had served on the Advisory Committee continuously since January 1937, became Parliamentary Undersecretary of State and Chairman of the Advisory Committee. Fourteen months later he succeeded G.H. Hall as Colonial Secretary. His appointment and that of Andrew Cohen, as Assistant Undersecretary in

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10Z m

Channon's role is detailed in Ashby, Univeraities, British, Indian, Afrlcan,

^ 206-207.

Education for Citizenship in Africa (London, 1948).

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Charge of African affairs at the CO, was to usher in the start of a major reappraisal of colonial policy and an important new chapter in the history of the Advisory Committee.104 There is evidence that the resentment long feit by some permanent CO officials towards advisory committees in generai, and the Education Committee in particular, was still present during the war years. I.J.S. Seel, a permanent officiai minuted as follows in August 1942: "The membership of the Advisory Committees is impressive from the point of view of Professional standng. But the members are usually either exColonial Officers, who cannot divest themselves of an interest in the fields over which they once ruled, or theorists (academic or otherwise) who tend to regard all probiems referred to them as potential subjects for a thesis. This, coupied with the tendency to split up into SubCommittees, seems to result in a position where little can be obtained in the way of advice except after microscopie examination and considerable argument. [Men on the spot want quick answers] ... the technique of the Advisory Committee, as Isee it, is, having made ah exhaustive survey of the ground, to get out a blue-print for an elaborate bridge on a scale often quite out of proportion to the traffic in view. This often results in exasperating delays or, sometimes, if the locai Directors are keen, in their going ahead without waiting for the Advisory Committee to propound its solution. When the blue-print is aecompanied - as has been allowed to happen - by an intimation that no assistance from the C.D.W. Fund can be expected unless it is aeeepted, deplorable misunderstandings are inevitable."105 Seel went on to suggest the need for prompt advice on points raised by locai Directors, from experts "not by reference to a Committee of enthusiasts but from the Secretary of State's own advisers". He also suggested that Advisory Committees should meet less often and be regarded as the means of keeping respective colonial advisers up-todate rather than be expected to produce "a continuous stream of dissertations on this and that, to be inflicted on men who have exaeting practical probiems to overcome". He concluded by saying: "We ought to do something to repress this tendency to present Colonial Governments with advice, based on the opinions of armchair critics, where in many cases it is neither wanted nor appreciated; or where advice is asked for, to spend so much time in elaborating it that it is outof-date by the time it is fortheoming". Sir Arthur Dawe, Assistant Undersecretary in Charge of the Africa Division, who regularly attended meetings and on occasions acted as chairman of the Advisory

1M

R.D. Pearce, The Turning Point in African British Colonial Policy 7938-

1948 (London, 1982). 105 Minute, 28.8.1942, CO 967/10.

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Committee on Education, strongly supported Seel's view. There is far too much eye-wash and paperasserie", he minuted, "and not enough solid administrative achievement".108 Sir Charles Jeffries, who was also an Assistant Undersecretary and a member of the Committee during 1941-2, strongly disagreed with both Seel and Dawe: "Mr Seel's portrait of an Advisory Committee is almost entirely imaginary. It certainiy bears no resemblance to the Medicai Committee, nor, so far as I know, to the Agricultural, Penai or Labour Committees. It may perhaps be accepted as a caricature of the Education Committee, but it is rather an unjust caricature of that body. Certainiy the Education Committee is the only one which can be accused of producing 'paperasserie"1.107 There is little doubt that Seel's criticism was levelled principally at the Education Advisory Committee. Fortunately, not everyone shared his views. At the meeting held in December 1945, Creech Jones, by then the Parliamentary Undersecretary, spoke of the immense value of the Committee's contribution to the development of education in the Colonial Empire. The Committee had behind it, he claimed, an extraordinary record of achievements. Many members had served on important Commissions and the Committee's advice on long term educational programmes for the colonies had been invaluable.108 With Cox, rapidly emerging as an outstanding educational adviser, and Creech Jones, destined to become Colonial Secretary, both strongly supportive of the work of the Advisory Committee, its future in the immediate postwar years was assured. In late 1946, Creech Jones initiated a reappraisal of colonial policy in Africa under the direction of Cohen and Sir Sydney Caine, the head of the Economie Department at the CO.109 In February 1947, the CO formally advised all African Governors that the principle of Indirect Rule was being abandoned in favour of a democratic System of locai" governments in which western educated Africans would be expected to play a leading role.'10 Historians still debate when the policy of decolonisation was formally deeided upon in Whitehall, and by whom, but this initiative clearly marked a decisive shift in British colonial policy which had important ramifications for education." 1 The latter were speit

Minute, 31.8.1942, CO 967/10. Minute. 15.9.1942, CO 967/10. Minutesof the 139th meeting of the Advisory Committee, 20.12.1945. 109 C0 847/36/47238(1947). 110 Pearce, The Turning Point in Africa, p. 148. 111 There is an extensive literature on this subjeet. See in particular Lee and Petter, The Colonial Office, War and Development Policy: Pearce, The Turning Point in Africa; John Flint, "Planned Decolonization and its Failure in British Africa", African Affairs, 82 (1983) 328; and John Darwin, "British Decolonization since 1945: A Pattern or a Puzzle?", The Journal of Imperiai and
107 108

108

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out in a paper presented at the Conference of African Governors held in London in November 1947." 2 Ward and Cohen worked on the initial draft which was later scrutinised by the Advisory Committee. The contrast between the 1947 Statement and the Memorandum of 1925 highlighted the fundamental change in policy that characterised the immediate postwar years. After 1918, coloniai administration lacked direction and purpose and officials both in the CO and on-the-spotwere only beginning to grapple with the problems posed by a growing demand for schooling in Africa and elsewhere. By 1947, the CO was intent on promoting the rapid social, economie and politicai development of the colonies, and Cohen, in particular, was anxious to use education as a means to hasten the process. The Statement prepared for the November Conference was designed primariiy to show how British financial aid might best be used to promote education in the coloniai setting. As in the past, no attempt was made to lay down a speeifie education policy to which all colonies should subscribe but, rather, to highlight the broad aims of future development policy and their educational implications. Education was to be expanded as rapidly as posible to facilitate both the desire and the capacity for development. Qualitative deficiencies in schooling were readily acknowledged; in particular, the dearth of trained teachers, overcrowded and poorly construeted school buildings, irregulr school attendance, the prevalence of overage pupils in classes, outdated curricula, and a preoecupation, especially at the secondary level, with cramming for examinations and a consequent incapacity for independent thought. The immediate aim of British policy should be to use Coloniai Development & Weifare aid to expand higher education including university Colleges, technical and vocational institutes, secondary schools and teachers' training Colleges, rather than to promote universal primary education. Africa, it was asserted, could not afford to waste the abilities of those fit for higher education if future Independence and national development were to be sustained. The teaching of English was also to be aecorded a high priority together with a greater emphasis on the education of girls. The immediate postwar years were some of the busiest in the Committee's thirty-seven years' history. All the colonies submitted education development plans of one sort or another and the Committee duly examined and commented upon them but the flurry f activity proved to be but a passing phase. By the early 1950s the Advisory Committee's heyday was over. As Cox remarked at a committee meeting in September 1951, "in the majority of territories the time was

Commonwealth History, XII (1984) 2. "'"Education Polioy in Africa", CO 847/37/47242(1947).

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past when policy could be dictated from London in the educational field" - if it ever was.113 Constitutional changes in most territories after 1945 saw a growth in responsible government which resulted in greater locai control over domestic affairs, including education. The Gold Coast led the way. By 1952 it was virtually self-governing, nevertheless, Sir Charles Jeffries, the Deputy Permanent Undersecretary, informed the Advisory Committee that the Gold Coast Government would still welcome comment on the educational aspects of its Accelerated Plan of Development. In spite of the recent constitutional changes the Committee was assured that its Services were as much appreciated then as in the past.114 Both during and after the war the work of the Committee was closely linked to the activities of Christopher Cox and the small team of assistant educational advisers that he gathered around him at the CO. The advent of air travel enabled Cox and Freda Gwilliam,115 in particular, to make regulr visits to many of the colonies during their frequent tours of duty which often extended over several months. They regularly informed the Advisory Committee at first hand of educational developments throughout the Colonial Empire and received, in return, valued comment and advice on generai matters of policy. As time passed, it was only to be expected that the initiative in framing education policy would shift to the colonies themselves and that Cox and his team should develop ever closer personal and working ties with Directors of Education and other government officials who were actively engaged in implementing education policy. The formation of other committees also reduced the rnge of the Advisory Committee's interests. In March 1946 the Inter Universities Council for Higher Education in the Colonies met for the first time and subsequently relieved the Advisory Committee of responsibility for overseeing the development of university education. In late 1949 all other forms of higher education in the Colonies became the responsibility of yet another new advisory committee whose brief included colonial Colleges of Arts, Science and Technology (C.O.C.A.S.T.). At the same time the Mass Education sub-committee of the Advisory Committee also broke away to form a new advisory committee in its pwn right - the Mass Education (Community Development) Committee. In each instance the membership of the new committees included several existing or former members of the parent Advisory Committee.
" 3 Minutesof the 19ist meeting of the Advisory Committee, 20.9.1951. "4Minutes of the 196th meeting of the Advisory Committee, 8.5.1952. '"Clive Whitehead, "Miss Freda Gwilliam (1907-1987): A Portrait of the 'Great Aunt' of British Colonial Education", to appear in The Journal of Educational Administration and History (1991)

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The high point in the Committee's postwar activities was the Colonial Education Conference held at Cambridge in September 1952, which was attended by more than 150 colonial educators and officials from the African territories.116 The Committee worked closely with the CO in preparing for the Conference and Sir Philip Morris, the ViceChancellor of the University of Bristol and a former member of the Committee was chosen to chair the event. Thereafter, however, the Committee gradually waned in importance as the process of decolonisation gathered momentum. The first signs of the Committee's ultimate demise were apparent soon after the Cambridge Conference. In December 1952 Canon R.W. Stopford, a member of the Committee since 1946 and a former Principal of Achimota College, wrote to the Secretary about the future role of the Committee."7 He pointed out that until 1949 much time had been spent considering Development Plans and annual reports "but with a decreasing sense of the value of what we were doing". Increasingly, he feit that only those in the field - both Africans and Europeans alike - could really deal with the details of colonial education policy. "The fact that the [sub-] Committees have become increasingly hesitant in making criticisms and offering suggestions is itself a recognition of this." Likewise, he thought there was merit in circulating annual reports to the Committee but little value in discussing them in detail. As to the Committee's future role he thought it could act as an important link in keeping educators in the Colonies in touch with recent thought and practice in the United Kingdom by means of personal contacts and periodic Conferences. It could also review the generai development of education policy in various territories and cali attention to any lack of proportion or balance. For example, he still thought there was a need for a Professional body to emphasize the importance of education for women and girls and adult education. The Committee could also concentrate its attention on some of the fundamental questions underlying educational work everywhere, e.g. teacher training and the post-primary curriculum, without necessarily suggesting remedies. The Committee could also produce occasionai reports to help clarify thinking. On the composition of the Committee he would say only that the amount of notice taken of the Committee's future pronouncements would depend more and more upon its "Professional reputation", and not upon its being an advisory body to the CO.

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"'African Education. A Study of Educational Policy and Practice in BrtishTroplcalAfrica (London, 1953).
Canon R.W. Stopford to Secretary, Advisory Committee, 9.12.1952, CO 987/17.
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The Committee's future was discusseci at some length at the 200th meeting in December 1952."8 Prior to the meeting the Secretary distributed a historical note on the Committee's work since its inception."' It highlighted the fact that the first five years of the Committee's life (1924-29) had coincided with a great expansion in African education. Departments of Education were established in Uganda, Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia, and in other territories existing departments were reorganised and greatly expanded. In those days the Committee was Virtual ly the sole source of Professional advice; "consequently, the influence of the Committee was exceptionally great". Since then a strong and rapidly growing body of Professional knowledge and skill had been established in most colonial territories, and in many cases colonial governments were virtually in complete control of their social Services. It was suggested that the Committee's main role in future might be to act as a bridge between those engaged in educational work at home and overseas. The Committee debated its future at some length. The Secretary, R.J. Harvey, a former Director of Education in Zanzibar, referred in particular to the widespread growth of responsi ble government, the emergence of a body of Professional opinion in the colonies, and the changed composition of the Committee. Originally the members of the Committee were drawn from a variety of backgrounds including exgovernors. Nowadays, he remarked, the Committee was entirely Professional in its membership. Moreover, it was first and foremost a Professional body givng advice to its own profession. Sir Charles Jeffries thought that the Committee might in future become more akin to "a panel of experts" who could be drawn upon either individually or collectively for advice or to serve on ad hoc committees. The Chairman, The Rt. Hon. Henry Hopkinson, agreed. He thought the Committee was getting more like the Medicai Committee. A.L. Binns, the Chief Education Officer for Lancashire, expressed the highest regard for colonial educators. There was little the Committee could do for them, he thought, but keep them abreast of the latest developments in the United Kingdom. Those "on-the-spot" had unrivalled practical knowledge and experience. Professor Margaret Read spoke of the need to preserve educational links between colonies which were in danger of dissolving as politicai development gathered pace. Christopher Cox agreed with her. There was a danger, he said, that colonies would become educationally isolated without cross-fertilisation. That, he thought, was grounds enough for the continued existence of the

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"8Minutes of the 200th meeting of the Advisory Committee, 11.12.1952. '""Historical Note on the Advisory Committee on Education in the Colonies", Advisory Committee paper 29/1952.

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Committee. He also expressed concern lest the Committee should become merely a panel of experts. The Committee's future role would depend greatly, he believed, on how it was fed information. The Chairman was not anxious to reach any final decision on the matter at the meeting but he did emphasize the importance of maintaining direct contact between the colonies and the United Kingdom in educational thought and practice and the need to preserve a delicate balance between too much interference in locai matters and "pulling out" altogether. The discussion was inconclusive but Cox was clearly not anxious to disband. the Committee at that stage. In a summary Statement compiled after the meeting it was asserted that colonial territories were increasingly seeking advice on specific Professional matters rather than generai poiicy. In earlier years it had been possible for the Advisory Committee to lay down broad lines of poiicy but this was now increasingly difficult because of colonial constitutional changes.120 The Committee was destined to meet for a further eight years but its influence clearly waned and it met less frequently. At the same time Cox and his team of advisers remained as busy as ever travelling regularly and offering advice. The future of the Advisory Committee was again considered in 1955. Ward wrote to Cox, who was in South Africa at the time, to say that Hopkinson, the Minister for Colonial Affairs, had suggested two proposals for the future of the Committee.121 The first was to invite all the Commonwealth High Commissions to appoint representatives. Ward's reaction was that the Committee had never been constituted on an ex-officio basis. the second proposai was to "get the Committee back on the rails again" by making it spend less time "hearing lectures" and more time in advising the Secretary of State. Ward had minuted that the Committee could not give good advice unless it did hear lectures. He hastened to assure Cox that he had advised that no action should be taken until Cox returned to London. In May, Cox wrote confidentially to Professor B.A. Fletcher about the future of the Committee.122 Fletcher had joined the Committee in 1952 after serving as a member of the East and Central African study group (1951-52) that produced one of the two reports considered at the Cambridge Conference.123 Since 1941 he had been Professor of Education at the University of Bristol and was a recognised authority on

"Note on the work of the Advisory Committee arising from the 200th meeting", Advisory Committee paper 10/1953. 121 W.E.F. Ward to Sir Christopher Cox, 8.2.1955, Cox Papers (CP) file 1053. 122 Sir Christopher Cox to Professor B.A. Fletcher, 11.5.1955, CP file 14. 123 "A Study of Educational Poiicy and Practice. East and Central Africa", Advisory Committee paper 21/1952.

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colonial education.1" Cox told him that the question had been raised "in high quarters" as to whether it was worthwhile to continue with the Committee now that self-government in the colonies had reached a point at which there was relatively little room for advice by the Committee to the Secretary of State, and the day for issuing encyclicals, invaiuable as they once were, and for Professional ly vetting locai programmes was over. He added that the Minister was considering the replacement of the Education Committee by a panel of individuai consultants, a move which he strongly opposed: "I realise there has been a great change in the role which the Committee can nowadays usefuily fili, but I believe that sessions consisting primarily of discussions initiated by talks from visiting Directors (or from Advisers returning from tour) are doubly useful, a) in enabling the Director to focus on his own work and to discuss it with an interested and sympathetic audience, and b) in 'educating' United Kingdom Professionals who initially probably have no colonial experience when they first join the Committee, with the result that they are much more valuable as consultants either to us in London or on missions to the field because of their Advisory Committee experiences. While [sie] in any case e) they help to widen the circle of those interested in colonial education." He also mentioned the value of the Committee in helping to recruit suitable expatriate staff for colonial education appointments. There is no record of Fletcher's reply but Cox successfully staved off the Committee's demise for another five years. Towards the end of its life the Committee was preoecupied principally with technical education, including a special Conference held at Oxford in July 1958,12S the first Commonwealth Education Conference also held at Oxford a year later,128 and growing AngloAmerican educational cooperation in Africa.127 As the number of monthly meetings declined the number of apologies for non-attendance grew, on some occasions to as many as half the Committee. Even Cox realised that the end was in sight. In November 1957 he wrote to his dose friend Sir Philip Morris, who had chaired the Cambridge Conference in 1952, to say that he saw no point in his rejoining the

*He was the author of Education and Colonial Development (London, 1937). i2S Oxford Conference on Technical Education in Overseas Territories (London, 1958). '"fleporf of the Commonwealth Education Conference, Cmnd 841 (London, 1959). 12? E.J. Murphy, Creative Philanthrop^ Carnegie Corporation and Africa, 1953-1973 (New York, 1976).

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Committee in the immediate future. "I am bound to say", he wrote, "that its [the Committee's] opportunities for influence diminish".128 By the end of the 1950s most of the colonial territories were firmly in command of their own educational destinies and Independence loomed not as some remote distant possibility but as an increasingly imminent event. The CO had long since ceased to make education policy; Cox and his advisers were in dose and regulr contact with all the colonial territories, and there were signs of growing American interest in education in Africa. The First Commonwealth Education Conference also heralded the onset of a new era in which British financial, technical and material aid would increasingly be made available to Commonwealth and former colonial territories alike on the basis of a free association of independent states. In February 1960, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan delivered his memorable "wind of change" speech to the South African Parliament in Cape Town. In it he recognised the forces of African nationalism and signalled Britain's intention to dismantle its colonial empire.129 The future of the Advisory Committee hung precariously in the balance. Twelve months later, in March 1961, if was announced that a new Department of Technical Co-operation was to be established which would absorb the diminishing educational responsibiiities of the Colonial Office. Cox and his team of advisers were to be transferred to the new department. The Advisory Committee was duly informed of the proposed changes at its regulr meeting in April.130 The Bill, establishing the new department, was before Parliament when the Advisory Committee met on the morning of 8th June in Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, for what proved to be its last meeting.131 Administrative reorganisation had cast doubt on the Committee's future but at the time no one knew for sure whether the 242nd meeting would be its last. Thirteen Committee Members and fifteen govemment officials were present. The Chairman, the Parliamentary Undersecretary, apologised for his absence due to the West Indies Conference. Twelve other members of the Committee also sent their apologies.132 At the outset Cox commented on the impending administrative changes and the likelihood that the Committee was meeting for the last time. He then reviewed the Committee's history and the way its role had changed in recent years with the rapid growth of education Systems in

^Sir Christopher Cox to Sir Philip Morris, 20.11.1957, CP file 19. 1Z9 Brian Lapping, End of Empire (London, 1985), pp. 13-14. 13C Minutes of the 241st meeting of the Advisory Committee, 13.4.1961. 131 The Billbecarne lawon 22 June 1961. 132 Minutes of the 242nd and last meeting of the Advisory Committee, 8.6.1961.

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the Colonies and the onset of self-government. He concluded by paying a special tribute to Miss M.P. Barker, who had served as the Committee's Assistant Secretary since its inception in 1924. According to the Minutes she had only ever missed one of the 242 meetings'33 and her memory, whether of documents or of individuai members and their idiosyncracies, had never failed. Thereafter, the meeting proceeded with the regular reports from sub-committees and an extended discussion of the outcomes of a recent Commonwealth Conference on the teaching of English as a second language. Finally, Sir James Robertson, formerly Rector of Aberdeen Grammar School and a leading Scottish educator, paid a tribute to the work of the Committee over many years. During his long association with the Committee, extending back to 1946, he claimed he had never heard an ungenerous, reactionary or flippant remark about the future of the colonial territories from any committee members or CO staff. Indeed, in his experience, the Committee had always exhibited a very devout and earnest concern for the well-being of the people overseas. He thought the point was worth emphasizing at a time when the CO was much maligned. On that note the meeting concluded and with it a chapter in British colonial history. Unfortunately, the human interplay of committee meetings is largely lost forever but occasionally there is a glimpse in Cox's correspondence. Evidently the Rev. Grace thought Creech Jones frequently raised politicai issues in discussion at committee meetings "for sheer devilment".134 On one occasion Mr. Burney was reported to have given a masterly display of chairmanship in his handling of Sir George Maxwell, who had evidently arrived at a meeting prepared to do battle but went away oozing kindness and goodwill.'35 Miss Barker likewise reported to Cox: "I hear that Sir George Maxwell has been well handled at the Sub-Committee (not manhandled as he deserves) and that he is practically mollified."138 As with ali committees, some members impressed more than others. In a series of confidential comments on some of the committee members of 1951, the Rev. LB. Greaves was said to express the view of the Protestant missions with knowledge and moderation; Dr. G.B. Jeffery was a regulr attender at meetings and very interested; Dr. Margaret Read put in a lot of hard work and displayed a wide knowiedge of colonial education; while A.L. Binns didn't talk much but

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133 She was absent from the 215th meeting held in March 1955 due to an attack of influenza. 134 T.R. Rowell to Sir Christopher Cox, 8.6.1943, CP file 893. 135 T.R. Rowell to Sir Christopher Cox, 6.7.1943, CPfile 893. 136 Miss M.P. Barker to Sir Christopher Cox, 2.7.1943, CP file 891.

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what he did say was very much to the point. Edmund Burney, one of the oldest members, was faithful and hard working "but not very bright". Sir Philip Morris, who carried great weight on the Committee, was tenacious but inclined to pontificate. However, amid the verbiage he produced some very sound ideas, particularly on teacher training. J. Robertson, "one of the Committee's outstanding members", displayed a deep knowledge of Scottish education. Sir Graham Savage was becoming more interested and better in attendance, while Professor Lester Smith did not talk much but was "very sound" as was Canon R.W. Stopford, to whom the Committee owed a great deal.137 The Second World War clearly proved to be a decisive watershed in modern British colonial history. The principle of Indirect Rule and economic self-sufficiency were abandoned during the war years. Thereafter, financial and material aid was increasingly made available by the United Kingdom to promote the economie and social development of the colonies. After the war the pace of constitutional change also quickened as self-govemment became.an integral part of colonial policy. Education policy underwent a similar transformation. The principle of adaptation and the relatively Iow priority aecorded to educational development in the 1930s was abandoned after the war in favour of a rapid expansion of academic secondary and higher education and officiai recognition of the need to work closely with western educated Africans and Asians alike in promoting self-government. As the process of dismantling the colonial empire gathered momentum, Cox and his team of advisers became involved in a race against time to provide an adequate supply of skilled manpower to sustain Independence. The history of the Advisory Committee highlights the contrasting nature of colonial educational policy before and after the war and the vital supporting role that the Committee played in the transformation. The Committee, likewise, provided an important and enduring element of continuity during a period of thirty-seven years which witnessed dramatic changes in world politics and the demise of Britain's colonial empire. To posterity the Committee left a unique legaey of achievement, global educational experience and documentation whiph, as Professor Celi suggests, a cynical post-colniai age should not dismiss lightly.

137 Comments on some of the more outstanding members in "Note on the Advisory Committee" from the Secretary R.J. Harvey, CP file 344.

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