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 CHAPTER X.

EDUCATION.

— Education by religions and taluks. — The Rája's College at Vizianagram — The Mrs. A. V. Narasinga Rao College — Upper Secondary schools —Lower secondary schools — Other public schools — Sanskrit schools— Schools for girls — Schools for backward classes.

THE separate Appendix to this volume gives the more important of the statistics of the state of education in Vizagapatam according to the census and the returns of the Educational department. The census figures showed that the number of the people in the Agency who could read and write was less even than the miserable average for all the three Agencies (one per cent, of the inhabitants), and that the dwellers in the plain taluks were considerably more illiterate than the people of any other district in the Presidency. Only three people in every hundred of the latter can read and write and only four girls in every thousand. This district has always been a byword for its illiteracy. The Úriya Bráhman takes less kindly to letters than his Tamil- and Telugu - speaking fellow-castemen, and the Telugu Bráhmans are already so liberally provided with posts as scribes and Levites to the numerous zamindars, and with whole and minor inams granted them by the ancestors of these gentlemen, that they have little need to trouble themselves to pass examinations qualifying for Government service.

Some of the hill folk have been reported to believe that if a highlander dares to learn to read and write his eyes will drop out and his head burst into a thousand pieces, but the usual attitude is mere apathy and is typified by the Khond who asked 'What's the good of education? Will it bring me food ? 'Hill villages often consist of only a hut or two, and are scattered and distant from the schools; hill school-masters are seldom the best of their class and are usually ignorant of the hill languages; and the inspecting staff displays little anxiety to visit the hills frequently. In 1905 Government approved certain proposals to remedy matters made by a conference of the local officials chiefly concerned, but it is too soon yet to say what results will follow. 160