Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/361

Rh qualified they will make up for many deficiencies elsewhere; but nothing will compensate for the absence of intelligence, energy, honesty, and discretion on their part. They should be competent to understand and appreciate the object of Government, and to engage in promoting it with zeal untainted by fanaticism and with calmness that shall not degenerate into apathy. They should be thoroughly instructed in the subject-matter of the series of school-books, and possessed of integrity and firmness to require, in resistance both to the reproaches and blandishments of unworthy candidates, the degree of qualification which shall alone entitle to reward and distinction. The emoluments of the office should be fixed at such an amount as will present an immediate object of ambition to the class from which the examiners will chiefly be drawn; and they should be so graduated as to afford the prospect of promotion, and thus stimulate to the discharge of duty and operate as a check upon misconduct or neglect. With these views I have proposed that the examiners should receive for the first four years of service a consolidated allowance of 150 rupees per month, and I now add that they should receive for the second four years a corresponding allowance of 200 rupees per month, and for the third four years 250 rupees per month, after which an examiner shall be eligible to be appointed an inspector of a division with a consolidated allowance of 500 rupees per month. Promotion from one grade to another should, of course, be made to depend on good conduct in the preceding grade; and it should always be given, if possible, in the same district and division. No arrangements will afford security in every case against the possibility of malversation, but those now proposed will, I should hope, in most instances command the honourable and industrious exertions of qualified natives.

Having noticed the objections to which the measure may be deemed liable, and the difficulties with which it may be attended, I must be permitted to advert to some of the advantages by which it is recommended.

The primary advantage is the coincidence of the plan with all existing institutions of education. It introduces the metropolitan organ of Government, the General Committee of Public Instruction, to new and higher duties than any which have yet engaged its attention, but to none inconsistent with those which it has hitherto discharged. The district English schools or colleges and the vernacular departments attached to them will be extended, their scholars multiplied, and their efficiency increased. The native schools will have a new life infused into them, the qualifications of school-masters and the attainments of scholars will be raised, and a more anxious desire will be produced amongst parents that their children should enjoy this improved instruction. The plan does not come into collision with indigenous elementary schools, or with the interests of the teachers. On the contrary, it