Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/335

Rh means. The examiner, by the survey which has been already made of the district, is acquainted with the names, places of residence, and qualifications of all the school-masters in every thana, and by means of perwannahs, letters, and personal visits he will make known to them in still greater detail the intentions of Government, and the subsidiary arrangements by which he purposes to carry those intentions into effect.

The subsidiary arrangements will be variously modified by the circumstances of different districts and by the judgment and experience of different examiners. The object should be to bring the benefit as much as possible within the reach of the people with the least sacrifice on their part of time, labour, and money in travelling. For this purpose the examiner may fix on some central point of two or three contiguous thanas, at which he will invite all the school-masters of those thanas to meet him at a certain date. He will there explain to them verbally and at length, what he had before stated to the same persons in writing, that he had in charge from Government certain copies of a book, one of which he was prepared to give to any school-master, or to any person proposing to act as a school-master, who should, either by the written or verbal testimony of his neighbours, appear to be of respectable character, and who should engage to appear with it again at the same place six months thereafter; that the names, ages, castes, and places of residence of the receivers and those testifying to their character would be inscribed in a register; and that at the time and place appointed an examination of the receivers would be held, and rewards bestowed on those who should be found competent in the knowledge of its contents and in the capacity of explaining them.

The nature of the rewards to be bestowed will require much consideration. Money-rewards of three or six rupees to the teachers according to their proficiency might be promised, and the effect would no doubt be great and immediate, but I am inclined to recommend that in the first instance at least they should be withheld. If the plan can be made to work efficiently without money-rewards, the advantage in point of economy is obvious; and although that is a very inferior consideration with reference to a single district or division, the effect will be far from unimportant on a large scale by leaving in the hands of Government the means of giving general extension to the plan without weighing too heavily on the resources of the State. Another advantage will be in the greater simplicity of the plan without the suspicions, the wranglings, and the opportunitesopportunities [sic] and imputations of corruption and compromise between the Government examiners and the native teachers that may arise out of money-payments. Still further, by dispensing with those payments, the teachers will be thrown entirely on their own qualifications and on the support of parents for success in their