Frederick Gordon Pearce (24 March 1892 – 1962) was an English

educationist Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education also fol ...

who served in India and

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. He is regarded as the founder of the Indian public school movement.

Educational philosophy

Pearce was deeply influenced by the ''Teachings on Education'' of the philosopher

Jiddu Krishnamurti Jiddu Krishnamurti ( ; 11 May 1895 – 17 February 1986) was an Indian Philosophy, philosopher, speaker, writer, and Spirituality, spiritual figure. Adopted by members of the Theosophy, Theosophical tradition as a child, he was raised to fill ...

and was a proponent of a scheme of "New Education". He helped found the Indian Boy Scout Movement, later subsumed into the Scout Movement of India on

Baden-Powell Lieutenant-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, ( ; 22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941) was a British Army officer, writer, founder of The Boy Scouts Association and its first Chief Scout, and founder, with ...

's request, with

Annie Besant Annie Besant (; Wood; 1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was an English socialist, Theosophy (Blavatskian), theosophist, freemason, women's rights and Home Rule activist, educationist and campaigner for Indian nationalism. She was an arden ...

Career

Pearce worked with several well known public residential schools in India. He served as the Director General of Education for

Gwalior Gwalior (Hindi: , ) is a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; It is known as the Music City of India having oldest Gwalior gharana, musical gharana in existence. It is a major sports, cultural, industrial, and political c ...

and helped convert the

Scindia School The Scindia School is a residential boys’ school established in 1897 and situated in the Gwalior Fort in Gwalior, India. Initially called the Sardar’s School, it primarily served the sons of Indian royals and nobles. In 1933, the school bega ...

founded by the

Maharaja of Gwalior The Gwalior State was a List of Maratha dynasties and states, state within the Maratha Confederacy located in Central India. It was ruled by the Scindia, House of Scindia (anglicized from Sendrak), a Hindu Maratha Confederacy, Maratha dynasty. ...

into a residential school. During 1921 to 1923 he was the principal of

Mahinda College Mahinda College is a Buddhist boys' school in Galle, Sri Lanka. The school was established on 1 March 1892 by the Buddhist Theosophical Society led by Colonel Henry Steel Olcott. As of today it is a National school (Sri Lanka), national school whi ...

, a

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

boys school in

Galle Galle (, ; , ) (formerly ) is a major city on the southwestern tip of Sri Lanka, south of Colombo. Galle is the provincial capital and largest city of Southern Province, Sri Lanka and is the capital of Galle District. Galle was known as ''Gi ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. He also served as Secretary to the Ministry of Education in

in the late 1940s, a position he resigned to become the Principal of

Rishi Valley School Rishi Valley School is an Indian boarding school, founded by the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti. The school has a holistic approach to education in the spirit of Krishnamurti's pedagogical vision. Community service and extracurricular activitie ...

. His innovations there included attempts to involve children in farming, tailoring the curriculum for individual students and scrapping the system of annual examinations and the practice of ''asthachal''. He served as Principal of the Rishi Valley School for a decade from 1949. Following his resignation from the school, Pearce founded the Blue Mountains School at

Ootacamund Ooty (; officially Udagamandalam (), anglicized: Ootacamund , abbreviated as Udagai, ) is a town and municipality in the Nilgiris district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located northwest of Coimbatore, and is the headquarters of N ...

in 1961. Pearce was also closely associated with the establishment of the Netarhat Vidyalaya in

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in East India, eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north ...

and his contributions to education were gratefully acknowledged by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Rajendra Prasad Rajendra Prasad (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician, lawyer, journalist and scholar who served as the first president of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian National Congress during the Indian independen ...

Books

Pearce authored numerous books and pamphlets including ''Footprints in the Sands of Time'', ''Sonnets of a Schoolmaster and other verse'', ''A round of Rajput Tales'', ''The Coconut Lands of Southern India'' and ''The dawn of freedom''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearce, Frederick Gordon British educational theorists History of education in India 1962 deaths 1892 births English Theosophists Principals of Mahinda College, Galle