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2. MEDICAL SCHOOLS.

       The first medical school in India was established at Calcutta in 1822.
Similar schools were started in Madras in 1835 and in Bombay in 1878
Since this time the number of Medical Schools has increased rapidly and
there are now 18 Government and 9 non-Government schools in British
India training a class of medical men and women known as Licentiates or
Sub-Assistant Surgeons. Several schools began as Unani and Ayurvedic
teaching institutions but all of them have abandoned this system. During
the 1937-38 session there were 6,492 students in these schools; 973
students qualified during 1936-37.

       2. Preliminary education standard.—The minimum educational qualifica-
tion required for admission is usually Matriculation or an equivalent
standard. The value of a higher preliminary education is however recog-
nised and preference is generally given to applicants who have passed the
I.Sc. examination. The medical schools in Bombay and Sind have
definitely decided to admit only those students who have passed the I. Sc.
examination. The annexed Table 'F' (page 148) shows the proportion of
applicants with I.Sc. qualification to the total number of applicants for
admission during 1937.

       3.General Sprawson's notes.—In 1935 Major-General Sir Cuthbert
Sprawson, C.I.E., Director-General, Indian Medical Service, wrote some
notes on the Medical Schools of India. As they are as valuable today
as when they were written they are reproduced below.

       "There are 27 medical schools in India, they are under provincial or
other local control with but little centralising influence and the staff of
one school have no direct knowledge of what is being done in distant
schools outside their own province. No one can have visited many of
these schools without being struck by the difference in standard amongst
them, by the variations in buildings, equipment and staff. There is much
more difference between the best and the worst medical school than there
is between a good medical school And a medical college affiliated to a
University. The reason for this is not difficult to see. There have been
stronger centralising and equalising influences at work among Uni-
versities and Medical Colleges than among Medical Schools. For
one thing the medical colleges have of recent years had more attention
paid to them and by reason of their past association with the General
Medical Council of Great Britain a minimum standard for higher medical
education has been arrived at a standard that it will be the work of the
Medical Council of India to sustain and improve. The standard of edu-
cation in medical schools is under the eye of provincial medical councils,
who consider local needs; but these schools are without any central co-
ordination. Whether such co-ordination is necessary or not, it is advisable
that the various schools should have some knowledge of what the schools
in other provinces are doing and some means of comparison. It has been
suggested that a single inspecting body should visit the schools and report
on them. Since these 27 schools are placed all over India, such inspection