Page:Reports on the State of Education in Bengal (1835 & 1838).djvu/113

Rh trade into Calcutta where occupation for females is most urgently required. Hitherto the manufacture of straw has been confined to the country and to Natives, whilst the lower classes of Christians have abandoned themselves to idleness and begging. Many of the girls educated in the Free school, will now go forth habituated to industry and prepared to fill up the leisure of their domestic hours with an occupation of some profit and little toil.

The Benevolent Institution founded in the year 1810, is supported by voluntary contributions, and is under the management of the Serampore missionaries. The object of the institution is to afford instruction to youth of both sexes, the descendants of indigent Christians of all nations. It was proposed at first to educate only 50 such children, but in 1833 the number in the boys’ school alone had increased to 200, of whom 150 were East-Indians, 45 Hindoos, 8 Europeans, 3 Chinese, and 2 Africans. The absence of the headmaster in 1834 reduced the number to 121, but his subsequent return again brought it into a prosperous condition. In the last mentioned year there were eighty pupils on the list of the girls’ school, and more than fifty in constant attendance. The managers remark that, although a great many of the children are the offspring of Roman Catholic parents, no instance has occurred of any of the children having been taken from school because they were instructed in the Bible. The boys, with a view to fit them for usefulness in life, though it be in the humblest situations, are taught the simple and compound rules of arithmetic, the rules of English grammar, and the reading of the sacred scriptures. The three highest classes, including nearly a third of those in constant attendance, are acquainted with both the simple and compound rules of arithmetic, fractions, vulgar and decimal, and the square and cube root. They are also instructed in geography and the use of the globes, and acquire a familiar acquaintance with the rules of English grammar. Some of them are also taught to draw maps. The girls are taught reading, writing, spelling, grammar, arithmetic, and needle-work, in addition to catechetical and scriptural instruction. Needle-work, which is considered essential in their circumstances, receives a considerable portion of their time and attention. It is estimated by the managers that each child thus educated in the institution, on an average, costs less than two rupees per month, including the expense