Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/344

284 rupees 60 per annum. The proposed endowment in this case should be worth thirty rupees yearly; and it might consist of thirty bighas of land worth one rupee per bigha, or fifteen worth two rupees, or ten worth three rupees, or seven and a half worth four rupees, per bigha, or of any greater or less number of bighas of one quality or of different qualities of land, the entire value of which should not exceed thirty rupees per annum. The village school-master would thus have one-half of his income secured to him in a form that would in general admit of considerable improvement, and in a form, too, the most gratifying to his self-respect and the most conducive to the respect of the little community of which he is a part; while he would have to look to that community to supply the remaining moiety, either in fees or in perquisites, or in any other form which they might choose to adopt, as a mode of remunerating him for the instruction of their children.

No endowment should be created, no trust should be exercised without checks against mal-appropriation and mal-administration. I, therefore, propose that all those landowners, tenants, and house-holders who have petitioned for a school-endowment and nominated and recommended a candidate shall constitute a village-school association acting by a committee under known regulations for the inspection, superintendence, and control of the village-school, the committee to be chosen by the general body of village-constituents and reported to the district committee. When a vacancy occurs, three-fourths of those who constitute the village association shall have the power of nominating a successor, which nomination, accompanied by the necessary proofs of the amount of support it has received, shall be reported to the district committee, and through that committee confirmed by the general committee. The endowment will be held only for life or during good behaviour, and on deprivation or death it will revert to the educational fund of the State until the appointment of a successor. Deprivation will take place on complaint of not less than one-fourth of the landowners, tenants, and householders of the village, the sufficiency and validity of the complaint being ascertained by the actual investigation of an ameen or agent deputed by the district committee for the purpose, and his decision being confirmed by that committee after perusing the recorded evidence of both parties and the report of the ameen on the whole. To obtain the means of estimating the utility of every school compared with the actual wants of the village population, and to keep up a general control and superintendence over the village school association, and through that association over the village school and school-master, a list of children belonging to the village above five and below fourteen years of age should be required every year or every half year from the village association by the district committee and transmitted to the general committee, together with a list of daily attendance at the school to be signed by the master and