There is an even greater deficiency of good teachers than of good schoolhouses, and, in some respects, the value of primary education still more than that of secondary education depends upon good teachers--teachers who are capable of explaining what they teach and not merely of reeling off by rote, and imperfectly, to their pupils lessons which they themselves imperfectly understand.

The total number of teachers engaged in primary education exceeds 100,000, but their salaries barely average Rs.8 (10s.

8d.) a month.

So miserable a pittance abundantly explains their inefficiency.

But there it is, and a new army of teachers--nearly half a million altogether--would have to be trained before primary education, whether free and compulsory, as Mr.Gokhale would have it, or optional and for payment, as others propose, could be usefully placed within the reach of the millions of Indian children of a school-going age.
In this as in all other matters, the Government of India cannot afford to stand still, and will have to take Indian opinion more and more into account.