Sadler Commission

The Calcutta University Commission of 1917

The next important stage was the appointment of the Calcutta University Commission in 1917 under the Chairmanship of the late Sir Michael Sadler. 

This Commission went into the question of secondary education and held the view that the improvement of secondary education was essential for the improvement of University education. 

The Commission made the following important re- commendations:

• (i) The dividing line between the University and Secondary courses should properly be drawn at the Intermediate examination than at the Matriculation Examination.
• (ii) The Government should, therefore, create a new type of institution called the intermediate colleges which would provide for instruction in Arts, Science, Medicine, Engineering and Teaching etc; these colleges were to be run as independent institutions or to be attached to selected high schools.
• (iii) The admission test for universities should be the passing of the Intermediate examination.
• (iv) A Board of Secondary and Intermediate Education, consisting of the representatives of Government, University, High Schools and Intermediate Colleges be established and entrusted with the administration and control of Secondary Education.

• The Sadler Commission Report was a comprehensive one and many of the universities in India implemented its suggestions.
• It was also for the first time that a Commission had recommended the attachment of Intermediate Classes to the high schools and the setting up of a Board of Education to control High School and Intermediate Education.