Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/362

302 enlists them all in the race of improvement and establishes the most friendly relations with them. The leading idea upon which the plan is framed is that of building on the foundations which the people themselves have laid and of employing them on the scaffolding and outworks, so that when they shall see the noble superstructure rising, and finally raised complete in all its parts, they will almost, if not altogether, believe it to be the work of their own hands. The plan will thus maintain the most perfect congruity with existing national institutions, and at the same time admit of the gradual expansion and improvement which European civilization demands.

Another recommendation of the plan is the simplicity of the means employed. The examiner with his books and his public examinations is the prime agent, both giving and prolonging the impulse. For this purpose he will not, as in other cases, have to follow the school-masters and the scholars into their villages, their huts, and their school-rooms; to reprove into order and quiet the noisy irregularity of the teacher; to guide in detail the desultory labors of the scholar; and to stimulate to some effort or sacrifice the stolid ignorance of the parent. If the plan work at all, it will make parents, scholars, and school-masters all alike ambitious to earn the distinctions and rewards which it holds out. It contains within itself a self-acting principle which only requires to be directed and controlled.

It is, perhaps, an effect of this simplicity, but still a separate and distinct advantage, that the plan, whether tried on a large or on a small scale, and whether fully successful or not successful to the extent anticipated, can be productive only of good unmixed with evil. It may be introduced into new districts as they are found prepared for it, or it may be discontinued without injury or injustice in any district where it has been found to work unsatisfactorily, provided always that all promises and engagements shall be faithfully performed. The good done will be certain, and Government may either extend, contract, or abandon the plan without embarrassing any native institution, but on the contrary leaving those who have been influenced by it with an increased power of self-dependence.

Instead of considering the expense an objection, the plan will be found economical when compared with the completeness and diffusiveness of the effect. The expense of a school is made up of various items, the cost of a school-house and its furniture, the pay of the teacher, the price of pens, ink, leaves, paper, and books, and if the institution is a Government one, the charge for superintendence. In ordinary cases much of this apparatus produces no distinct or appreciable result. Of any given number of scholars, say 100, who engage in a particular course of study, perhaps not more than 50 generally acquire a satisfactory proficiency.