Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/206

146 at which he would leave school, and the progress he had made in the course of instruction; and finally the books, if any, read in the school, and the works, if any, written by the teacher. To ascertain the state of domestic and adult instruction, another form was prepared including the following particulars, viz., the number of families in each town or village; the name, religion, caste, and principal occupation of the head of each family; the number of persons in each family, male and female, above fourteen years of age, the number, male and female, between fourteen and five, and the number, male and female, below five; the number of families in each town or village giving domestic instruction to the children, and the number of children in each such family receiving domestic instruction; the number of persons of adult age in each family who had received a learned education; the number who, without having received a learned education, knew something more than mere reading and writing, whether Bengali or Hindi accounts, the Persian or the English language, or any two or more of these; the number who could merely read and write; and the number who could barely decipher or write their own names.

Having prepared the necessary forms, my first purpose was to visit every village in person and ascertain its exact condition by actual inspection and inquiry in direct communication with the inhabitants. This course I found liable to several objections. The sudden appearance of a European in a village often inspired terror, which it was always difficult, and sometimes impossible, to suduesubdue [sic]. The most influential or the best informed inhabitant was sometimes absent, and it required much labor to enable others to comprehend the object of my visit. Under the most favourable circumstances the time consumed in explanations for the satisfaction of the villagers caused such delays as would have ultimately constituted a serious objection to the efficiency and economy of the investigation.

The first measure adopted to facilitate and expedite the inquiry was the employment of waqifkars, or agents of intelligence and local experience, whom I sent before-hand into the surrounding villages to explain to the inhabitants the nature and objects of the inquiry, and thus to prepare them for my arrival. These agents were furnished with written forms which were fully explained to them, and which they were required in like manner to explain to those to whom they were sent. The effect of this arrangement was good, for I often found the inhabitants fully prepared to understand my object and to give me the information I sought.

Still the necessity I imposed on myself of visiting every village in person was a great drawback on the despatch with which I was desirous of conducting the investigation, in so far as that object could be attained consistently with efficiency. It next occurred to me that my pandit and maulavi, whom I had hitherto