Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/104

44 the amount usually gained by independent school-masters who receive from ten to twenty rupees a month for 103 or 150 boys. One case is mentioned where the teacher earned from thirty to forty rupees a month, his school containing 300 boys. In 1817, the practice was adopted of attaching a Pundit as a superintendent to every three schools, and they were all under one head Pundit. The introduction of printed books of an entertaining and instructive kind and the possible generation of some small taste for reading, seem to be the chief benefits that can have resulted from the establishment of the Chinsura schools. The system of instruction in the six schools retained by the Diocesan Committee will probably be the same as that pursued in the other schools already noticed of the same Committee.

A School Society exists at Chinsura, apparently in connection with the Bengal Auxiliary Missionary Society, whose report states that there are three schools for boys at that place having about 300 scholars in attendance. The progress of the boys is said to be very pleasing, but I have not met with any other details respecting them, as the Chinsura School Society does not appear to publish separate reports of its proceedings.

Native Female Schools.—The first attempt in Bengal, and I suppose in India, to instruct Native girls in an organised school was made by Mr. May in this district in 1818. In that year he opened a girls’ school, I believe, at Chinsura, but it offered so little prospect of success, that its continuance was discountenanced by Government.

There appears to have been formerly a Bengalee female school at Hugly, which has recently been removed to Chinsura. The number in attendance is from 21 to 25, and it is said to afford more encouragement to perseverance than any female school previously established at that station. This probably refers to the unsuccessful attempt in 1818 by Mr. May. The expense of the present school is said to be considerable, but it cannot be reduced without injury to its efficiency. Perfect confidence is not expressed as to the result. Time only, it is said, will prove whether the benefit will eventually be adequate to the sacrifice. This school appears to be in connection with the Chinsura School Society and thereby with the Bengal Auxiliary Missionary Society.

Native female schools were begun by the Serampore Missionaries at that settlement in 1823, and there are now two in operation, one called the central school containing 138 girls, and a second called the Christian village school containing 14. After being able to read, the children are exercised in the catechism and in writing on palm-leaves, and read the child’s first book, conversations between a mother and daughter, the history of the Bible, and Æsop’s fables in Bengalee. They are next taught to write in copy-books, and read the New and Old Testaments, the Indian youth’s magazine and Pearson’s geography. They are also made