Chapter V.

THE EEMEDY.
It is evident that steps must be taken to remedy the existing state of affairs. The solution undoubtedly lies in the institution of secondary schools. Convinced aa I am, however, that secondary schools are necessary, I am equally confident that to start them at the present moment would do more harm than good. In the first place, we have not got enough Africans sufiiciently highly educated to staff efficiently the primary schools alone. Secondly, if these secondary schools are to produce leaders they must be residential schools where character-training takes the first place in the curricu- lum; and here there is at present a total deficiency of Africans qualified to undertake the work. We have, as a matter of fact, one or two schools of a secondary nature run by the missions. They are under-staffed at present ; to increase the number with inadequately trained African staffs would be mischievous ; to staff them with suitable Europeans appears to be financially impossible.
There are others who hold that the solution of the educational problem of the Gold Coast lies in the formation of a university. My remarks on secondary schools apply here with even greater force. Like the secondary school the university must come in due course, but the time is not yet ripe for it. Even if we combined with other West African Colonies, I believe that we should not find enough sufficiently educated students to fill it at this particular period. There can be no doubt whatever but that a university is the eventual solution ; no
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educational system i^ould be complete without it any more than it would be complete without secondary schools.
Accepting the fact that we must eventually provide both secondary schools and a university, I will sketch the steps to be taken, always remembering that our chief task to-day lies in increasing the efficiency of education in our primary schools sufficiently to ensure a flow of suitably educated scholars to the higher insti- tutions of to-morrow. It is obvious, therefore, that the first step to be taken is to raise the educational standard of African teachers for the primary schools. Our present supply comes from the Government Training College and similar seminaries conducted by the Scottish and Wesleyan Missions. All of these have one serious defect ; the students are chiefly drawn from the primary schools ; they are taught to be teachers without having the necessary foundation of education, or they are given higher education of a sort at the same time as being taught to be teachers ; in neither case is the result satis- factory. The system is rotten at the core; the only point that can be urged in its favour is that it is better than the old system by which boys from the primary schools were trained there as pupil teachers.
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What is really required is an institution at which our future teachers can obtain a higher education before actually learning how to teach. A good secondary school would suffice, but we could not afford at present to staff both it and the Training College with Europeans. Some time must necessarily elapse before an institution of the above nature, whatever actual shape it may take, can turn out a sufficient number of teachers to supply our
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demands. Until teachers are forthcoming it might con- ceivably be argued that no further efforts to provide* a higher education for other Africans should be made. It is highly important, however, that we should, as soon as possible, provide some facilities for higher education locally, so as to obviate the necessity for Africans pro- ceeding to England. The latter must necessarily be possessed of ample means, but besides them there are a large number of exceptionally capable boys who have passed the higher standard in primary education and are unable to meet the expense of obtaining their further- education in Europe. To neglect the higher education of these is unfair to them; in addition, it is uneconomical at a period when Government urgently requires suitably educated Africans to fill appointments in the Govern- ment Service ; for wherever one turns one is faced by the necessity to fill appointments with Africans possess- ing a better education than it is at present possible for them to obtain. Practically every one of our Depart- ments has vacancies which an African suitably qualified in education and character could fill with advantage to the service.
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I have heard it urged that Government should direct its energies in the field of education to the wider exten- sion of practical training in the various crafts, and that it is not necessary at present to provide higher education for the natives of this country. While agreeing with the advisability of extending practical training, I most emphatically disagree that the time is not ripe for the provision of facilities for higher education. Leaving out of consideration the large number of youths who leave school before reaching Standard III or Standard IV — and who may be said to have only the merest
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smattering of education — ^we have in this country two general classes of educated persons, namely, the great and steadily growing class who have completed their primary education at the Government or mission schools ; and a numerically small class of Africans who have been sufficiently wealthy to obtain their higher education in England. There are undoubtedly individuals who come half-way between these two definitions, but practically there is a very wide gap between the two classes men- tioned. The disadvantages attending the existence of a gap of this nature are so important as to merit full consideration.
Writing some fifteen years ago on Egyptian educa- tion, the late Lord Cromer makes some remarks on the subject of secondary education that may well serve as a solemn warning to us. He points out that the intel- lectual phase through which India is now (1907) passing stands before the world as a warning that it is unwise to create too wide a gap between the state of education of the higher and of the lower classes in an Oriental country governed under the inspiration of a western democracy. He points out that high education cannot and ought not to be checked or discouraged, and that the policy advocated by Macaulay is the only policy woithy of a civilised nation. If, however, it is to be carried out without danger to the state, the ignorance of the masses should be tempered with the intellectual advance of those who are destined to be their leaders.
Dealing with another aspect of the question, Lord Cromer points out that it is neither wise nor just that the people should be left intellectually defenceless in the presence of the hair-brained and empirical projects which the political charlatan, himself but half-educated, c
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will not fail to pour into their credulous ears. In this early part of the twentieth century there is no possible general remedy against the demagogue except that which consists in educating those who are his natural prey to such an extent that they may, at all events, have some chance of discerning the imposture which but too often lurks beneath his perfervid eloquence and political quackery."
Lord Cromer's words apply with great aptness to this country. In spite of the existence of one or two educa- tional institutions of a secondary nature, the intellectual gap between the African who has completed his educa- tion at an English University and the semi-educated African of our primary schools is dangerously wide. No one is more ready than I to sympathise with the legiti- mate aspirations of the African for advancement and for a greater share in the government of his country, but if we are to help him to do this, if we are to protect the masses from the hasty and ill-conceived schemes of possible local demagogues, we must hasten as rapidly as our means will allow to fill up the gap between the two classes.
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Our first step in filling this gap will be taken this year in the building of Achimota College. This will be an instifiition at which the African youth will receive, first and foremost, character-training of such a nature as will fit him to be a good citizen ; and secondly, the higher education necessary to enable him to become a leader in thought, in the professions, or in industry among his fellow-countrymen, the vast majority of whom must remain for many years in a primitive state as regards education. The nature of the higher education
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given will be such as to fit the student to take up those further special courses which ane necessary for any profession, and will include provision for this purpose during the last year or two of the student's residence. The aim of the college will be, in fact, to develop a boy's character sufficiently, and to give him enough education to take his share in the work of dealing with the problems attending the evolution of a primitive race.
Achimota, as I see it, will be more of the nature of a university college than of a secondary school. It has been suggested that this is putting the cart in front of the horse — that we should have our secondary schools first and our university college afterwards. Theoretically the suggestion contains some truth, but in view of the chief factor in the educational situation at the moment — namely, the entire absence of suitable African teachers for secondary schools — the arrangement may be regarded as a practical and satisfactory compromise pending the introduction of an extended secondary school system of education. It is therefore obvious that one of the first tasks of Achimota will be to give general education and technical training to the teachers on whom we must rely for staffing our secondary schools and for improving our primary schools sufficiently to render the former a suc- cess. This task can be carried out without detriment to the higher education of those African students destined for other walks in life.
Achimota College is the stepping-stone towards the university which it is the ardent desire of the Africans to have, and which it is the undoubted duty of the Government to take a share in giving as soon as, but not before, the time is ripe. Further, there is no reason whatever why Achimota should not itself expand into a c*
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university when it has done enough to enable sufficient secondary schools to be started. The buildings are well laid out in grounds with ample room for expansion, and the design and architecture are modern and dignified in appearance. In planning the administration it has therefore been thought advisable to consider the prospect of the College eventually becoming a University. Such a reservation as to its future does not affect the organisa- tion and administration for the intervening period; but, in view of the great cost of providing the highly quali- fied staff required by a university, it is more than likely that when the time comes the people of the Gold Coast will not be the only ones who will welcome the idea of a university in West Africa.
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If Achimota College does become a university it should be endowed and managed by a Board independent of Government. For this reason it would be inadvisable to place it under the control of the local Education Department. From the very beginning Achimota should be entirely independent and should be organised and administered in such a manner that it can, when the time comes, be transferred to the control of whatever board or authority that, by then, may be considered the most suitable to take charge of the university into which it will blossom.
For the present, therefore, it is proposed that the College should form a separate and special department of Government. Its finances should be dealt with by the Treasury and audited in the usual manner, but its internal economy and administration should be entirely in the hands of a carefully selected headmaster, who should be directly responsible to the Governor.
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The system of administration above outlined should not interfere with any co-operation or co-ordination of efl:ort that may be required between the College authori- ties and the Education Department. The latter will remain in charge of the present system of education, with which its hands are already over-full, and will in due course take over any secondary schools that may be started. On the other hand the Education Department will lose its present Training College for Teachers, which must naturally be absorbed in Achimota for economy and efficiency in education and training.
I do not think that any useful purpose would be served by my going into further details of the organisa- tion of Achimota College at the present moment. It may, however, be interesting to give here a general description of the College. The site is in open country, on hills about 200 feet above sea-level, overlooking Accra at a distance of some eight miles. A branch motor road, three miles long, has been constructed from the Accra-Nsawam road to the site, passing the quarry and siding at Achimota on the Accra-Coomassie Rail- way. An extension of the Accra Water Supply has been completed to the site, so that both water and stone are available for building. The lay-out has been made in the centre of a block of land of four square miles. The outer half-mile is being planted as a firewood reserve and will act as the " Outer Bounds " of the College; the " Inner Bounds " consist of an iron fence which has already been constructed two miles in length, including the site of the buildings.
The College will be built so as to permit of indefinite expansion. The first instalment of buildings consists of an administration and classroom block; an arts, crafts, and laboratory block; eight houses for sixty students
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each, with headmasters' quarters attached to each; a dining'-hall block; and about twenty other quarters for masters and general stalf. Excellent sites are being- cleared for extensive playing fields, as games will form an important item in the school life; and future plans include the provision of more house-blocks and quarters, an assembly hall, a gymnasium, and a swimming bath. Arrangements have been made for the construction of a sanitary market at Achimota. All sewage will be water-borne, and a sewage farm possibly started. The buildings will be lighted from the Accra power station.
The building of the College should be completed by the end of 1926. We have, therefore, over two years ahead of us before we need engage all the staff; but this is by no means too long a period if we are to secure the right men. The appointment of a headmaster at as early a date as is possible, consistent with careful selec- tion, is, however, a matter of importance. He must have plenty of time to become acquainted with local condi- tions and to draw up the curriculum and general organi- sation of the College. In doing this he will naturally have at his disposal tlie recommendations of the Educa- iionists' Committee and the experience of the local Education Department and Missionary Societies, but it is essential that he should have some preliminary and personal experience of the African, whose higher educa- tion he will have to control. I would be the last to fail to acknowledge the devoted and painstaking manner in which the Educationists' Committee has applied itself to the task of investigating the requirements of the new College, but I believe that my readers will concur in my opinion that fresh blood and new ideas will render doubly valuable the recommendations that the Committee has made.
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Especially will this be the case if the new headmaster is oue who has liad previous experience and success in dealing with native races. I believe that the Gold Coast is fortunate in having- secured as headmaster for Achimota a man who gained, in long experience in 'Eastern countries, the full confidence of the native races »vith whom he dealt. Further, it is not impossible that the Africans of the Gold Coast will have a representative on the staff in the person of a distinguished member of their own race.
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