Report of the Committee on the Secondary Education Bill 1940

REPORT OF THE SECONDARY EDUCATION BILL COMMITTEE We the members of the Committee appointed by the Syndicate to consider and report on the Bengal Secondary Education Bill 1940 have the honour to submit the following report :— The University has been asked from time to time to express its opinion on the question of a Secondary Education Board. [...] Financial In the first place there is no provision in the Bill for adequate funds to be placed at the disposal of the proposed Board for the improvement3 of schools in general and of the salaries and prospects of teachers in particular. [...] But the Board as contemplated in the present Bill will be entirely under the control of Government as will appear from the points noted below (vide Sections 18 32 35 45 46 47 and 51 of the Bill) :"7 1. With regard to the question of finance the Bill provides that not only the Budget is to be passed by Government but that the Board will not have the power of incurring any expenditure without [...] It deprives the University of its right to prepare the syllabus and curriculum and to select and publish texbooks for the Matriculation Examintion while leaving the conduct of the Examination in the hands of the University. [...] The absence of even a general outline of the coditions to be fulfilled by Institutions in order to obtain recognition and approval by the Board has raised doubts in the minds of the public as to the real intentions of the framers of the Bill.14 From what has been stated above it will be manifest that the Board as envisaged in the Bill will fail to command the confidence of large classes and sec