Education in the Gilbert
p. 54 · Read in the full issue
and Ellice Group
ANEW scheme for the improvement of native education in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony has been arranged between the London Mission ary Society, the Sacred Heart Mission and the Government, states the Annual Report (1938-39) of the Director of Edu cation (Captain F. G. L. Holland, M.8.E.).
Formerly, Mission natives trained and educated as pastors had charge of the Gilbertese village schools; but the Gov ernment was of opinion that they were not being adequately trained to act as teachers and therefore introduced a new method in 1930. This was suspended four years later.
The new scheme, which will operate for 10 years, allows the Missions to carry on the training over a period of three years, instead of twelve months as pre viously. Teachers’ salaries will be raised and more school equipment provided.
Pupils attending the schools affected by the scheme number 5,000, practically three-quarters of the school-going popu lation of the Colony, and the Director of Education believes that an uplift of native life will follow the provision of better-trained teachers.
Statistics published in the Report show that during the year nine Euro pean children and 6,819 natives received tuition in 236 schools, and that £4,500 was spent on education. A new Bana ban school on Ocean Island was com pleted in April last, at a building cost of £7,000.
In a preface to the Report, Captain Holland declares that education in the Colony owes a debt of gratitude to Dr.
Hiram Bingham, pioneer missionary in the Gilbert Islands. With his wife, Bingham landed at Apaiang in 1857 and commenced work for the American Board of Foreign Missions. They brought with them a native teacher from Hawaii and later induced several more Hawaiian teachers to settle in the Northern Gilberts. Bingham retired from field work in 1868, and devoted his remaining years to literary work in the Gilbertese language. His translation of the Bible, issued in 1893, is -a treasure of Gilbertese diction, which marked and fixed the literary language. His diction ary, containing 12,000 words, is still the standard reference to-day.