Page:Reports on the State of Education in Bengal (1835 & 1838).djvu/373

Rh The number of scholars in the three schools is 120. Of these, two in the Japat school are children of native Christian parents. Six are Musalmans of whom one is in the Japat school and five are in the Missionary school at Burdwan. All the scholars in the Raja’s school are Hindus; and the number of Hindus in the three schools is one hundred and twelve whose sub-divisions are as follows:—

In respect of caste, there is no distinction between the scholars of the Raja’s school and those of the Missionary schools. The average age of entering school or beginning to learn English was 12·5 years, the average age when the schools were visited was 15·5 years, and the average of the ages at which it was considered probable the scholars would leave school was 21·4 years.

The scholars in all the three schools are taught gratuitously. All the Raja’s scholars are furnished with paper, pens, and ink, free of charge; and eleven of them receive food for four years. They supply themselves with books.

The instruction given in the two Missionary schools will be seen from the following details. The lowest class or youngest boys of the Burdwan school con the English spelling-book; the scholars of the next give the meaning both of the Spelling-book and Reader; the fourth grade read the New Testament, learn Murray’s abridged grammar, know something of the maps of Asia, Europe, and Africa, and of the use of the terrestrial globe, work sums in simple multiplication, and translate easy sentences from Bengali into English; the fifth grade add to the preceding some acquaintance with syntactical parsing and with the outlines of ancient history; and the highest class still further read the history of England, study the definitions, axioms, and a few of