Colonial Rule: Expansion, Administration and Impact› Colonial Education, Orientalism and Archaeology
Regarding Wood's Dispatch, which of the following statements are true?
- 1. Grants-in-Aid system was introduced.
- 2. Establishment of universities was recommended.
- 3. English as a medium of instruction at all levels of education was recommended
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
Answer a.
Statements 1 and 2 are correct, 3 is wrong (option a). Wood's Despatch of 1854 introduced grants-in-aid and recommended universities, but it wanted English only for higher education and the vernaculars at the school level. Sir Charles Wood, President of the Board of Control, sent the Despatch of 1854, called the 'Magna Carta of English education in India'. It asked the Company to take responsibility for mass education (rejecting the downward-filtration idea), set up a Department of Public Instruction in each province, and proposed a graded system: vernacular primary schools, Anglo-vernacular high schools, affiliated colleges, and universities in the Presidency towns modelled on London University; Calcutta, Bombay and Madras universities followed in 1857. It introduced a system of grants-in-aid to encourage private schools, and stressed female education, vocational training and teacher training. On language it was explicit: English as the medium for higher studies, Indian languages for school-level teaching. Statement 3 claims English 'at all levels', which contradicts the Despatch.
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