Page:Reports on the State of Education in Bengal (1835 & 1838).djvu/374

304 the propositions of the first book of Euclid, work sums in compound addition, and translate rather more difficult sentences from Bengali into English.

The books used in the Raja’s school are Murray’s Spelling Book and abridged grammar, the English Reader, the Universal Letter-writer, and Dyche’s Guide to the English tongue. The teachers, never having enjoyed the advantages of competent instruction, possess a mere smattering of the language and can of course communicate only what they know.

Under the superintendence of the Rev. Mr. Linke a school for orphan boys has recently been formed on the Church Mission premises at Burdwan. They are to be taught English as well as Bengali, but they were acquainted with Bengali only at the time the school was visited, and they have therefore been enumerated in the account already given of the Bengali schools of the district in page 242. They are twelve in number and are the children of native Christian parents. In addition to instruction in letters and religion, they are also taught some of the mechanical arts as weaving, tailoring, and carpentry. The school is entirely supported by the subscriptions of benevolent persons in Burdwan.

There are four girls’ schools in the district, of which one, situated at Japat in the Culna thana, and superintended by the Reverend Mr. Alexander, is supported by the Ladies’ Society of Calcutta; a second, situated in the town of Burdwan, and superintended by the Reverend Mr. Linke, is supported by the same Society; a third, situated on the Mission premises in the neighbourhood of Burdwan, is supported and superintended by the Reverend Mr. Weitbrecht; and a fourth, situated in the neighbourhood of Cutwa in the thana of that name, and superintended by the Reverend of the Baptist Missionary Society, is supported by the Calcutta Baptist Society for promoting Native Female Education. In all these cases the wives of the Missionaries co-operate in the superintendence.

Besides the above-mentioned gratuitous superintendence there are thirteen paid teachers employed in these four schools; and of that number eight teachers are attached to the Japat school alone, two to the Cutwa school, two to the Burdwan school, and one to Mr. Weitbrecht’s school. Six of the teachers are Native Christians and seven are Hindus. Of the Native