Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/92

32 which occur from time to time, affords considerable encouragement to the boys in the indigenous schools. In 1829 three of the young men who had received their education at the Hindoo College at the expense of the School Society, on leaving the college were engaged as English teachers in the Society’s own school for which they were eminently qualified, and others have obtained respectable employment in Calcutta. The Society’s scholars are said to rank among the brightest ornaments of the college.

In prosecution of the same views the Committee of the School Society in 1823 established an elementary English school, entirely under its own management, to teach reading, writing, spelling, grammar and arithmetic, the vacancies in which are filled by pupils selected from the indigenous schools for their proficiency; and those again who afterwards prove themselves particularly deserving are in due course removed for superior education to the Hindoo College to which this elementary school is intended to be preparatory. It was hoped that this school would excite the emulation of the Native boys, and that by raising the qualifications for admission, and thus inducing parents to keep their children longer than usual at the indigenous schools, it would have the effect of increasing the emoluments and respectability of the Native teachers. This object appears to have been in some measure attained, for in the report of 1829 it is expressly stated that several instances have come to the knowledge of the Society’s superintendence, in which the observance of the rules of admission has afforded considerable advantage to the Native teachers of the indigenous schools, by encouraging the boys to remain longer with them and thereby increasing their emoluments. In the above mentioned year the school contained about 120 boys who, besides the usual elements of reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic, acquired a considerable knowledge of the English language and its grammatical construction, could translate with some degree of correctness, had a good acquaintance with Grecian, Roman, and English history, and with the leading facts of geography, together with the political divisions of Europe and Asia. It was at that time deemed expedient to improve the means of instruction by employing a greater number of qualified teachers and allowing a larger supply of valuable books and materials, in order to keep pace with the acquirements of the students.

Attached to the Society’s Bengalee school at Arpuly already noticed was an English school, the pupils being selected from the one to learn English, in the other as a reward for their diligence. In 1829 there were ninety-three boys learning English in this school, from which promotions were occasionally made to the Society’s other English school, and sometimes to the Hindoo College; but this school was discontinued in 1833, at the same time with the Bengalee school at Arpuly, and for the same reasons.