Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/134

74 their own children, very few would be able to read and write. Even with this assistance Dr. Buchanan is of opinion that not more than one-sixteenth of the men born in this district acquire these accomplishments.

The Persian schools are nearly as much frequented by Hindoos as by Mahomedans, for the Persian language is considered as a requisite accomplishment for every gentleman, and it is absolutely necessary for those who are candidates for offices in the courts of law. The number of pupils in the district is very small, and most of the people of any rank or wealth have their children instructed by private tutors who are procurable on the most moderate terms. The studies usually pursued are forms for correspondence, process of law, and legendary tales. The Hindoostanee would appear to be only colloquially known to the population, and the people of higher rank teach their children to speak a high style of it, consisting almost entirely of Arabic and Persian terms. Although Mahomedans form the majority of the population, and the Hindoostanee is generally understood, yet it is not taught in any school nor spoken by the common people who have either adopted or never relinquished the dialect of Bengal.

Dr. Buchanan expresses the sound and judicious opinion that no considerable improvement in the education of Indian youth can be hoped for until each popular language has obtained some books fitted to render the common people wiser and better. He adds that the books wanted for this district should be composed by Mahomedans, who are the majority of the people, and are most in want of instruction.

Elementary School not Indigenous.—The wife of a Missionary in connection with the Serampore Mission has established a boys’ school at Sadhamuhal in this district, where every previous attempt of the kind had proved abortive. She has had a regular attendance of full 20 children, and her continual superintendence has secured a very gratifying progress in the scholars. At the beginning there was only one boy in the place who was known to be able to read, but now the whole of the first class read the New Testament, and a number more are advancing to the same degree of proficiency.

Indigenous Schools of Learning.—Of the twenty-two sub-divisions of the district, there are fifteen without any schools of learning, and the remaining seven have only sixteen schools. Most of the teachers possess lands which enable them to provide for their own subsistence as well as that of their pupils, and they receive gifts from all Hindoos of any distinction. There is, however, no necessity for a person who holds these lands to instruct youth, and when the celebrity of a teacher has procured large grants of land, his heirs, although they continue to enjoy the estate, are not bound to teach. They may retain the high title of Pundit without