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Unit 3 : Education in India during British Period: Macaulay’s Minutes, Wood’s Despatch and Hunter Commission

(iii) The ..................... period of British education is famous for documents like character Notes
Act of 1813, Macauley Minute and Wood’s despatch.
(a) first (b) second (c) third (d) last
(iv) The Wood’s education despatch is of immense historical significance and contained
............ paragraphs and deals with several questions of great educational importance.
(a) 100 (b) 200 (c) 300 (d) 400
(v) The dispatch took the idea of .............. for INdian universities.
(a) France university (b) Cambridge university
(c) Oxford university (d) London university

3.4 Hunter Commission (1882)

Hunter Education Commission: The Hunter Education Commission was the first commission
set up to look after the education system in India. It was entrusted with the responsibility to
review and recommend measures to improve the system.
Hunter Commission officially known as the Indian Education Commission, 1882, was the first
Education Commission in the history of modern India. The Government of India, prior to the
recommendations of the Woods Dispatch, appointed a Commission under the chairmanship of
W.W. Hunter. The Hunter Commission was named following the name of the chairman, W.W.
Hunter.
The Hunter Commission was entrusted with the charge to review the state of education in India
and to recommend necessary measures for further progress. The other consideration, which
prompted the government to appoint the commission, was to enquire into the propaganda
carried on by the English missionaries that the educational system in India was not following
the recommendations of Woods Dispatch. The chairman, Hunter, was instructed that the motto
of the commission was to reorganize the Indian educational system in such a way that the
different branches of public education could move forward together and with equal importance.
The principal object therefore was to enquire the state of elementary or primary education in
India. Also the means to develop and improve the condition of elementary education was
given a special emphasis by the Hunter Commission appointed by the Government of India.
However the Commission was mostly confined in the enquiry of the primary and the secondary
education. The general working procedure and the educational process of the Indian universities
was excluded from the charge of the Hunter Commission.
The Hunter commission visited all the provinces of the then India and passed a lot of
recommendations in order to extend and improve the state of education. The Commission
emphasized that the special care should be taken by the government for the propagation and
the improvement of the primary education. It was declared by the s Commission that the
primary education was essentially aimed for the masses and hence should be provided in the s
vernacular language. The subjects of educations should fit them for their position in life. While
the private enterprise was to be hailed at all stages of education, primary education was to be
provided without reference to the local co-operation. The commission recommended that the
power of controlling the entire system of primary education should be transfer to the district
and the Municipal Boards. According to the recommendations of the Commission, the local
Boards were only empowered to levy for the educational purpose.
The Hunter Commission apart from the state of primary education also emphasized the
condition of secondary education prevailed in India during the 19th century. For the secondary
education, a principle was laid down by the commission. According to the commission, there
should be two divisions - literary education leading to the Entrance examination of the university
and the other is the practical kind of vocational training. The Vocational training would lead
the students to build up their career in the commercial field.

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