Page:Calcutta Review Vol. II (Oct. - Dec. 1844).pdf/326

Rh sacrifices which they make to accomplish the object. But, for emoluments so lean and so meagre, what qualifications can the teachers be expected to present? If it be an universal law that the price of a commodity may fairly be allowed to determine its intrinsic or relative or conventional value, what can be the value, intrinsically, relatively, or conventionally, of qualifications everywhere estimated and hired at a rate so low as those of the vernacular schoolmaster of Bengal and Behar? Accordingly, it is the fact, that, however low the emoluments in question are, in comparison with those to which competent men might be justly considered entitled, they can scarcely be said to be lower than the paideutic qualifications or marketable commodity of which they may be regarded as the pecuniary equivalent. The following is the result of Mr. Adam’s extended observation on the subject:—

"“The teachers consist both of young and middle aged men, for the most part simple minded, but poor and ignorant, and therefore having recourse to an occupation which is suitable both to their expectations and attainments, and on which they reflect as little honour as they derive emolument from it. They do not understand the importance of the task they have undertaken. They do not appear to have made it even a subject of thought. They do not appreciate the great influence which they might exert over the minds of their pupils, and they consequently neglect the highest duties which their situation would impose if they were better acquainted with their powers and obligations. At present they produce chiefly a mechanical effect upon the intellect of their pupils, which is worked upon and chiselled out, and that in a very rough style, but which remains nearly passive in their hands, and is seldom taught or encouraged to put forth its self-acting and self-judging capacities. As to any moral influence of the teachers over the pupils—any attempt to form the sentiments and habits, and to control and guide the passions and emotions—such a notion never enters into their conceptions, and the formation of the moral character of the young is, consequently, wholly left to the influence of the casual associations amidst which they are placed, without any endeavour to modify or direct them. Any measures that may be adopted to improve education in this country will be greatly inadequate if they are not directed to increase the attainments of the teachers, and to elevate and extend their views of the duties belonging to their vocation.”"

It may, last of all, be stated, that, the average age of all the teachers throughout Bengal and Behar is 38.

4. The scholars; their class and caste, initiation and period of attendance.—It is at once interesting and important to learn what classes and castes of the Native community aspire to confer the benefits of a scholastic education on their children. Apart from certain wild mountain tribes, which are usually regarded as a remnant of the aborigines of the soil, but which numerically constitute but an infinitesimal fraction of the dense mass of native inhabitants, the vast body or bulk of the people naturally divides itself into the two great classes of Muhammadans and Hindus. And the first question is, which of these two classes furnishes