ABSTRACT
Sir Stamford Raffles was as far ahead of his time in his ideas on education as in other things. In 1823, twenty-three years before any public grant for education was made in England, he laid the foundation-stone of what he intended to be a great liberal educational institution in Singapore and gave it a considerable endowment, which was afterwards allowed to fall into abeyance by his successors. For both racial and religious reasons they distrusted education for girls above the tender age of nine or so, up to which they are allowed to mix with the small boys in the village school—if there is one—in any Muslim land. Malay elementary education—which is for the great majority their only definite instruction—is dominated by this Training College. The European Inspector in each State is aided by Malay Assistant Inspectors, and below them there are visiting and group teachers, all Malays, to help the masters in the numerous and often remote village schools.
