Between 1870 and 1881 free and compulsory
education was established, and in 12 years the attendance rose from 43.3
to nearly 100 per cent. There are now 6,000,000 children in the schools
of England and Wales out of a population of 40 millions. Japan, before
1872, had a proportion of 28 per cent. of children of school-going age in
school, nearly 10 over our present proportion; in 24 years the
percentage was raised to 92, and in 28 years education was free and
compulsory. In Baroda education is free and largely compulsory and the
percentage of boys is 100 per cent. Travancore has 81.1 per cent. of
boys and 33.2 of girls. Mysore has 45.8 of boys and 9.7 of girls. Baroda
spends an. 6-6 per head on school-going children, British India one
anna. Expenditure on education advanced between 1882 and 1907 by 57
lakhs. Land-revenue had increased by 8 crores, military expenditure by
13 crores, civil by 8 crores, and capital outlay on railways was 15
crores. (I am quoting G.K. Gokhale's figures.) He ironically calculated
that, if the population did not increase, every boy would be in school
115 years hence, and every girl in 665 years.
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