Page:Calcutta Review Vol. II (Oct. - Dec. 1844).pdf/333

328 Such, according to Mr. Adam, is the sketch of a completed course of Bengali instruction; but he distinctly cautions us, that it “must be regarded rather as what it is intended to be, than what it is;” for “most of the schoolmasters whom he met were unqualified to give all the instructions here described, although he has thus placed the amount of their pretensions on record.” All, however, he adds, “do not even pretend to teach the whole of what is here enumerated; some professing to limit themselves to agricultural, and others to include commercial accounts; while the most of them appeared to have a very superficial acquaintance with both.”

In estimating the nature and amount of the instruction received, Mr. Adam very properly directs special attention to the fact, that “the use of printed books in the native language appears hitherto to have been almost wholly unknown.” Yea, scarcely one even of the schoolmasters “ had ever before seen a printed book; those which he presented to them from the Calcutta School-book Society being viewed more as curiosities than as instruments of knowledge.” And not only are printed books not used in these schools, but in many whole thanas even manuscript text-books are unknown; and in all the districts, except Moorshedabad and Burdwan, the number of schools in which written works are not employed vastly exceeds the number in which they are employed. Thus, in Beerbhoom, the number of the former is 398, and of the latter only 13; in South Behar, of the latter 283, and of the former only 2. How, then, it may be asked, in the latter description of schools, is the business of education conducted? Why, simply thus:—All that the scholars learn is acquired from the oral dictation of the master. What is so acquired is firmly lodged in the memory, by dint of incessant repetition, without any understanding for a long time of what meaning the sounds, so imitated and repeated, convey. Or, at other times, it may, from oral dictation, be committed to writing.

But the point of chiefest importance is that which concerns the subject-matter of what is taught, whether orally, or by the aid of manuscript text-books. What constitutes the staple or substance of the intellectual, moral, and religious provision which is supplied to the opening minds of ingenuous Hindu youth? As regards the use of particular pieces or compositions, there is considerable variety; some being employed in one locality, and others in another,—one or two only being found in some schools, and a larger number in others. But, as regards their general and essential character, there is a distressing samenesss—a terrible uniformity. Apart from the rhyming arithmetical rules of Sub-