In 1882, Lord Ripon organized the Hunter Commission under William Wilson Hunter. William Wilson Hunter was the statistician, a compiler and a member of the Indian Civil Service, who later also became Vice President of Royal Asiatic Society.
He was appointed as a Magistrate in the Bengal Presidency in 1862, and form there only he started compiling the local traditions and records.
He published “The Annals of Rural Bengal” and “A Comparative Dictionary of the Non-Aryan Languages of India” but his best known work is “The Imperial Gazetteer of India” on which he started working in 1869. The work appeared in 9 volumes in 1881.
In 1882 as a member of the Governor General in Council he was appointed he chairman of the Commission on Education.
The Hunter Commission brought out the neglect to the primary and secondary education in the country.
After considering the different aspects of education in general and primary education in particular the Commission submitted its voluminous report nearly of 700 pages with various important suggestions for the future progress of education.
A brief account of the recommendations of the commission is given below:
The commission recommended that the responsibility for the Primary Education must be given to the Local Boards and Municipal Boards.
There should be literary and vocational training in secondary education.
The commission brought out inadequate facilities available for the female education in the country.
Special attention should be paid towards development of education among Muslims.
The recommendations were partially implemented and there was a slow growth in the number of the secondary schools in the country.
This significantly reduced the British element in elementary education. In 1882, the Punjab University was established which lessened the burden over Calcutta University.