Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/84

24 the alphabet upwards. They were taught reading, writing, spelling, grammar, and arithmetic, and the plan on which the duties of the school were conducted was nearly similar to that of an English school. In order to afford sufficient time for the boys to acquire a considerable knowledge of Bengalee before they began to learn English, no pupil was admitted into the school above eight years of age. The scholars were promoted to the Society's English School or to the as a reward for their proficiency in Bengalee, the study of which they were required to continue until they acquired a competent knowledge of the language. This attention to the cultivation of the language of the country, the chief medium through which instruction can be conveyed to the people, was a highly gratifying feature in the operations of this Society; and an additional advantage of the school at Arpuly was the example which it afforded to the whole of the indigenous schools. The best proof of the estimation in which it was held by the Native inhabitants of the neighborhood, was the frequent earnest solicitation received from the most respectable Natives to have their children educated in it.

It is deeply to be regretted that the operations of a Society, conducted with so much judgment and success, should be thus cripped and curtailed.

The Calcutta Diocesan Committee of the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts has several elementary schools in the neighborhood of Calcutta. The following is a synopsis of their number, and of the average daily attendance at each, extracted from the last report (1834.)