Page:Reports on the State of Education in Bengal (1835 & 1838).djvu/370

300 The only other institution in the city of Moorshedabad to be noticed is a girls’ school superintended by Mrs. Paterson, with the assistance of a native teacher who receives five rupees a month. The number of scholars is 28 of whom 24 were present and 4 absent at the time the school was visited. The scholars are all Hindus, 17 of the Bagdhi caste, 6 of the Malo, 3 of the Kaivarta, and 2 of the Vaishnava caste. The teacher is an Agradani or low-caste Brahman. The average age of the girls entering school was 7·2 years; their average age when the school was visited was 9 years; and the average probable age of their leaving school was 12·6 years. Twenty-four of the girls receive each 1 pice per week for attendance, and four receive each 2 pice. Each girl every four months receives a piece of cloth for a garment to secure her decent appearance at school; the cloth is valued at 10 annas. Two female messengers are employed to conduct the scholars to and from school, one having charge of 13 and the other of 15 scholars; and each messenger receives one anna per week for each child who attends regularly every day of the week. Each girl receives an armlet every year; and on the occasion of her own marriage or the funeral obsequies of a parent, a payment of one rupee.

In this district there are two English schools, one under European and the other under native management.

The former of these is at Siuri the chief town of the district, and is under the superintendence of the Rev. James Williamson of the Baptist Missionary Society, who gives his instructions gratuitously from two to three hours every day. The school-house was built for 130 rupees and was originally intended for a girls’ school, but has since been applied to the purposes of an English school with the consent of the principal donors. The number of scholars is 57, of whom ten are the children of native Christian parents and forty-seven are Hindus. The following are the castes of the Hindu scholars: