The fees at present paid by parents for primary education, which is already free in some parts of India and in certain circumstances, make up only about L210,000 per annum.

The whole of the enormous difference would, therefore, be thrown upon the Indian taxpayers, who now have to find for primary education less than L650,000 per annum.

Even Mr.Gokhale does not, of course, propose that this educational and financial revolution should be effected by a stroke of the pen, and one of his Hindu colleagues held that, it would be contrary to all Hindu traditions for parents to avail themselves of free education if they could afford to pay a reasonable sum for it.
But even if the state of Indian finances were likely within any appreciable time to warrant an approximate approach to such vast expenditure, or if Government could entertain the suggestions made by Mr.Gokhale for meeting it, partly by raising the import duties from 5 to 7-1/2 per cent, and imposing other taxes, and partly by wholesale retrenchment in other departments, the financial difficulty is not the only one to be overcome.

Model schoolhouses could no doubt be built all over India, if the money were forthcoming, instead of the wretched accommodation which exists now, and is so inadequate that in the Bombay Presidency alone there are said to be 100,000 boys for whom parents want, but cannot obtain, primary education.

But what of the teachers?
These cannot be improvised, however many millions Government may be prepared to spend.