Chapter VII.

THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN.
I will now turn to a subject of the utmost importance to the progress of the local races, namely, the education of women. As my readers are aware, in the early stages of the evolution of any race from primitive to more advanced conditions there is a rooted objection to the education of women. This idea exists even to-day in the Gold Coast, but I am glad to say that, judging from the school returns it is gradually being overcome. Although during the present period of dearth of teachera the policy is to deal with the utmost caution with the expansion of our primary schools, the question of female colonisation is of such importance that additions are being made this year.
The 1920 Educationists' Committee recommend the formation of a Training College for Women Teachers to provide the staS for our Girls' Schools and to replace the men at present in charge of infant classes. In forming the 1922 Committee their attention was epecially drawn to this recommendation, and they were asked to consider the question of co-education generally, and especially the provisions at Achimota of a block of buildings in which women students could live under the care of their mistress and take part in the general classes of the College.
From conclusions arrived at by the Committee, it appears that they are not wholly opposed to the intro- duction of co-education provided that it begins in the primary schools and is not started in the first place in
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schools where the age is higher. They express the hope that, if this is done gradually, the time will come when Achimota can open its doors to girls and boys who have already been brought up side by side to show chivalry and respect to one another. In coming to their conclu- sions, the Committee gathered the views of nineteen witnesses representing different races, denomination, sexes and professions. These witnesses were chiefly concerned with the concrete case of co-education at Achimota. Four chiefs and the representatives of three religious denominations were totally opposed to it. Two African lawyers were opposed to it, except under stringent con- ditions. Three female teachers and the headmaster of a mission secondary school were opposed to it. Three male and two female witnesses, including all the African women witnesses, expressed their approval of co-education on principle, and think the experiment worth trying under stringent conditions.
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The opinions of the witnesses and the conclusions of the members of the Committee cannot be lightly disre- garded, for they were all either Africans themselves or Europeans who live in daily contact with Africans. On the other hand the objections stated are those which have been faced and overcome by every European country. It is possible that the time is not ripe, and that the Committee is right that we should begin at the bottom and not at the top. On the other hand, so great is the importance of educating the women of the Gold Coast, I cannot but feel that we should take the slight risk that will be run by combining the higher education of the sexes at Achimota, a risk that in my opinion is no greater than that in the daily life of the present phase of evolution of a primitive people. In view, however,
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of the consensus of native and European opinion against it, it is arguable whether we should be justified in adopt- ing this course at the moment, although I personally believe that public opinion will become more enlightened in the course of the next few years, and that before Achimota is opened we shall be building a women's block. In the meantime the Government schools will continue, as they do now in the smaller towns, to hold mixed classes, and I hope that the mission societies will encourage a similar course in their schools.
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As in the case of the education of boys, the Gold Coast can get useful lessons on female education from Egypt. In his book, " Modern Egypt," the late Lord Cromer narrates how the " upper class Egyptians were not merely indifferent to female education ; they were absolutely opposed to it. They did not want the woman to be educated. Even when Girls' Schools were with much difficulty established, parents in the first instance sent their daughters to school reluctantly and took them away early," just as was the case until yesterday in the Gold Coast. He goes on to say that the younger genera- tion of men are beginning to demand that their wives should possess other qualifications than those hitherto considered necessary. This is a remark which applies with great force to the Gold Coast, for nothing more detrimental to the progress of this race can be imagined than the present system of educated husbands and illiterate wives. Africans are realising this more every day, indeed to such an extent that I believe we are enter- ing on a new era. As Lord Cromer says about Egypt, " there is good reason for supposing that, where educa- tion has made progress, the age of marriage has risen
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and that, in consequence, tlie girls are allowed to remain longer than heretofore at school."
Speaking of the problematical results of the system adopted in Egypt, Lord Cromer winds up with what is the last word on the subject of female education when he writes that " whatever the results may be, this much is now well-nigh certain — that the European reformer may instruct, he may explain, he may argue, he may devise the most ingenious methods for the moral and material development of the people .... but unless he proves himself able not only to educate and elevate the Egyptian woman he will never succeed in conferring on the Egyptian man in any thorough degree the only European education which is worthy of Europe.'* I commend these remarks to all who have the interests of the people of this country at heart, for there can be no real civilisation if the women of the race are left uneducated.
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Chapter YIII.
TECHNICAL AND TRADE TRAINING.
Character training is as important a factor in ihe happiness and success of the artisan's life as in that of the highly educated barrister, in spite of the fact that the greater the learning the greater the opportunity and the capacity for doing harm unless knowledge is backed up by character. Character counts for so much that the artisan-student should be given the chance of acquiring it as much as his wealthier brother who is entering the professional classes.
When the Accra Technical School, with which I deal later in this chapter, was started, our haphazard system of technical instruction was rectified ; but, as the majority of the students were " day-boys " and there was no European housemaster, there was practically no character-training. In addition, the school, valuable though it had proved, was soon found to be too small to exert more than a limited influence on the general mass of artisans.
In considering the remedies for these defects another and more important aspect of technical training called for drastic action ; this was the contempt with which the literate African, educated — usually semi-educated in a primary school, clad in European clothes, regarded all forms of manual labour. There were exceptions, but so few as not to count. So great and widespread was this contempt that it infected the whole of our primary schools. To go into any school in the Gold Coast less than five years ago and ask the boys the question : " What are you going to be when you leave school?"
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was to receive the answer from ninety out of a hundred, "A clerk, sir " — or "A teacher," for the vast majority of teachers had as little notion of the dignity of labour as the clerks.
To-day this answer comes from less than forty out of a hundred scholars. A steady campaign has been conducted against the desire to be clerks, but I do not suppose that the efforts made would have met with success had two steps not been taken, namely, practical proi paganda in the schools to show and warn the students that the clerk market was overstocked, and raising the standard of " English " in the Civil Service examina- tion. The result of the second step was lamentable as far as the number of successful candidates was con- cerned, invaluable as revealing the defects in our teachers and the whole existing system of education.
The next three steps in fighting the evil were (1) to make artisans out of educated Africans — thus invading the sacred precincts of the clerk ! — (2) to extend the facilities for technical instruction throughout the country, and (3) to introduce character-training. We therefore planned four junior trade schools (1) for partly educated boys, (2) in different parts of the country, and (3) of a residential nature. At the time, although money was plentiful, the financial outlook was gloomy and caution necessary ; it was the period of trade depression following the post-war boom. Four head-chiefs came to the rescue, cleared the forest from the sites, built the schools of mud-bricks and wooden tiles, and levelled the playing fields. The names of these chiefs, Ofori Atta of Akim Abuakwa, Otu Ababio II of Abura, Osai Bonsu of Mampon, Ashanti, and Alaffan of Yendi, should go down to posterity, for, opened early in 1922^
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all tlie schools have proved successful. They^ are the forerunners of others ; successive classes will gradually erect the permanent buildings in the course of their training; and a continual stream of artisans who can earn their living, know how to grow their own food, and appreciate the pleasures of book reading will begin to flow from these centres over the country in 1927.
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The importance of these junior trade schools merits a short description of them. Each school is a boarding school, organised entirely on Boy Scout principles, with a European house-master, where boys who have passed at least Standard IV in the primary schools are trained as carpenters, metal workers, concrete workers, bridge and culvert builders, and roadmakers. Every boy is also taught to grow his own food. As each class enters the school it becomes a troop of Boy Scouts and is divided into patrols. Each jjatrol lives in its own dormitory and has its own mess table. The troops and patrols are commanded by their leaders with the object of develop- ing initiative, responsibility, and the sense of leadership. The spirit and conduct of Boy Scouts is taken as the standard of character at the school; if a boy fails to maintain the conduct and spirit of a Scout his character is not considered sufficiently good to justify his reten- tion in the school. Each boy in due course becomes capable of earning money for the good of his troop by his own work in the workshops. He is also able to earn pocket money varying from Id. to 3d. per diem. The staff of masters consists of African teachers and trade instructors specially selected from the Training College for Teachers and Technical School respectively. These African masters take part in the games, which are made a conspicuous feature of school life.
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The boys parade for all meals and work under their own leaders with a view to developing leadership and a sense of responsibilitj^ in the latter, and discipline and punctuality in the former. As the schools were only started in 1922 it has, up to now, been necessary to pro- vide funds for feeding- the boys. Each year, however, the sum has grown less, and in 1926, when the gardens have been brought into full bearing, each school will be practically self-supporting as regards food. The good spirit of these schools is most apparent, and the regular hours for feeding, work, and games have resulted in a marked improvement in the physique and health of the boys. More than one-half of the time is devoted to trades, the remainder to food-larming and such literary instruction as will carry the boy on from where he left his primary school and until he can appreciate reading and understand the necessary drawings, calculations, and bills connected with his trade.
The object of these schools is to turn out a good, if not a highly skilled, craftsman who will be able to earn a living in the country, and who will take away with him ideas of sanitation — an important subject in the curriculum — and the general conduct of life that will in due course spread among the people around him. The most promising craftsmen will be selected to undergo further courses for skilled craftsmen and instructors at the central Technical School, where the discipline of a residential school under a good house-master will still be enforced, and also in the workshops of the Railway and Public Works Departments. Particularly promising boys with a good standard of education will be given opportunities for further advancement by means of scholarships to Achimota College with a view to quali- fying for the higher branches of mechanics and engineering.
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The Accra Teclinical School, to which I reierred at the beginning of this chapter, was started several years ago for the training of carpenters and metal workers. At first it consisted of a mixture of day students and boarders, and the instruction was practical and neces- sarily of an elementary nature. It has gradually developed into a residential school run on Boy Scout principles, with a house-master in residence. Concrete work and electrical fitting have been added to the sub- jects taught. The standard of education on admission is higher, and it has been found possible to introduce a certain amount of theoretical training. The future role of the school has been definitely fixed : as the trade schools take effect the Technical School will develop into a central finishing school in handicrafts. It will turn out skilled carpenters and mechanics, will furnish instructors for the trade schools and prisons and for the praciieal work that will gradually form part of the curriculum of primary schools, and will be the training groimd for the workshop education of Achimota students entering the engineering profession.
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With regard to teclinical training of a higher nature, most remarkable success lias been achieved by the Survey School for Africans, which was started in 1920 and which is already turning out good surveyors and draughtsmen. The value of this school in providing the Survey Depart- ment with a large African staff is an example of the method by which it is hoped to obviate the necessity of large and expensive European staff's in all the Govern- ment Departments. The present Survey School will in due course be moved to Achimota to enable the students to acquire the better general education that should be necessary for Government and licensed surveyors.
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The Agricultural Training Centre for AJricans, which was for long conducted under adverse conditions at Aburi, has now been fully established at Coomassie as a boarding school under a house-master. Training in character as well as in education and agriculture cart therefore now be carried out at this school, which at pre- sent also includes the foresters of the Forestry Depart- ment. In due course arrangements will be made by means of scholarships for intending African agricultural and forestry officers to enter Achimota.
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The A eterinary Department has a small school for training African veterinary dispensers in the Northern Territories. The good effect of this school has already been felt during the periodic outbreaks of cattle disease.
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A valuable, if limited, amount of training of sanitary inspectors, dispensers, and nurses has been carried out in the Medical and Sanitary Departments during the past four years. This training has been greatly improved by the opening of the Gold Coast Hospital at Accra, to which it is proposed in due course to add an organised school of health ond a medical school, an institution which is described in the next chapter. ,
In addition to the training facilities above described, railway classes for locomotive drivers and mechanics, motor classes for drivers, and road foreman classes have all been conducted on an organised system by the depart- ments concerned, and a large amount of useful training of mechanics has been effected by the mining companies.
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