What's the job of any railways in the world?

...To run trains, not run schools. Indeed, other than India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Uganda, there is no other place where railways run schools

G Huddleston was Chief Superintendent of East Indian Railway. In 1906, he published a book (publishers were Thacker, Spink and Company, Calcutta), History of the East Indian Railway.  One of the chapters is titled “Hill School”. East Indian Railway Company (EIRC) was set up in 1845 and built many lines we know about. On December 31, 1879, the government bought/nationalised EIRC, but lines were leased to EIRC (till 1919) so that the company could continue to run trains on them. The first paragraph of the chapter states, “On the purchase of the undertaking by Government on 1st January, 1880, it was, as already explained, found that a sum of over four lakhs of rupees remained at credit of the Saving Bank and Fine Funds; the former representing profits on working and the latter the unexpended accumulations of fines levied from the staff.” How was this money to be spent? How about a school “for the education of the children of the European and Eurasian employees”? “The Company had already provided and subsidised schools at each of the large stations in the plains, both for the domiciled and the native staff, but there was a demand, on the part of the former class, for the benefits of a hill climate for their children during the hot season.” (a) There was some surplus money. (b) There were schools in the plains, but European employees wanted a hill climate for their wards.

“There were existing scholastic institutions at such of the hill stations as Darjeeling, Mussoorie, Naini Tal, Murree, and Simla which might have served the purpose, but either the character of endowments, or the scale of fees levied, debarred the larger proportion of the servants of the Company from obtaining the advantage of these schools and it was felt that the only feasible arrangement was to secure a purely railway school, under the absolute control of the principal officers of the Company.” (c) Hence, it wasn’t that schools didn’t exist in hill climates. But EIRC wanted control over admissions and fees. Therefore, an estate known as Oak Grove was purchased and this is the Oak Grove School (Jharipani, Mussoorie), still run by IR (Indian Railways). Oak Grove School started in 1888. The school’s current website tells us, “Oak Grove School was the product of coming together of three of the greatest gifts of Nineteenth century – Indian Railways, Hill Station and Public School Culture.” (d) Huddleston’s account also suggests there was an element of rivalry behind EIRC setting up Oak Grove.

On December 31, 1879, the government bought/nationalised EIRC, but lines were leased to EIRC (till 1919) so that the company could continue to run trains on them

In 1886, North Western State Railway (NWS) was formed by merging several railways. This included Scinde, Punjab and Delhi Railway (SPD) and SPD had a school at Fairlawn near Jharipani, functioning since 1870s. If SPD could have a school, why not EIRC? But once Oak Grove started to function, NWS found it unviable to run Fairlawn. Fairlawn was merged with Oak Grove in 1894. (e) What about the wards of NWS employees? Huddleston tells us about the system that was worked out. The costs of such students studying in Oak Grove were partly paid by employees and partly subsidised by NWS.  Huddleston doesn’t tell us why EIRC couldn’t have tried this out with “existing scholastic institutions”, instead of setting up its own school. Did you read a recent report about schools run by Southern Railway? After April 2019, Southern Railway will no longer run such schools. Students can study elsewhere, including private schools, and Southern Railway will pay the costs. This is just like the Fairlawn-Oak Grove idea. Existing teachers in these railway schools will be absorbed elsewhere.  What’s the job of any railways in the world? To run trains, not run schools.

Other than India (this means Bangladesh and Pakistan too) and Uganda, I know of no other place where railways run schools and in all four countries, such schools remain. In India, I think there are 600 railway schools now. (This is a rough guess. That number includes austerity type primary schools, that is, schools with a single teacher.) This doesn’t mean only wards of IR employees study there. Almost 60 per cent of the students are from outside the IR system. Nevertheless, let’s ask the following questions. Railway schools were primarily established for wards of European and Anglo-Indian employees, because “European” schools weren’t around. Is this still an important objective? In the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, whose responsibility is school education? The reach of school education has spread. Rare is the place that is deprived of access to a school. If there is such a place, it is always possible to set up a Kendriya Vidyalaya there, without IR having to set up a school. Let me end with a quote from a report to the Secretary of State in Council for India on Railways in India. “There cannot be a doubt that European children who are allowed to remain in the plains of India until they reach maturity will be reduced to a feeble and flaccid condition, and that a second generation would degenerate still more... Where Europe is out of the question, attention will naturally be turned to one of the hill stations, as a more suitable place than the stifling towns of the plains, for the purposes of training children of this class.” This report is from 1877. Is the 1877 environment still relevant? Given the resistance to the Southern Railway idea, some people seem to think so. 

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The author is chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. Views are personal