Page:Reports on the State of Education in Bengal (1835 & 1838).djvu/529

458 from all those officers with whose opinion I have been favoured, the regimental schools are not in general in a very efficient condition. The defects are, I think, not difficult to be discovered.

The first want is that of books, and the first object should be to supply them. Without appropriate school-books Government may continue to issue orders and incur expense but with very little effect. The sepoys must not only have a motive for learning, but they must be guided to what they are to learn, told how they are to learn, and have the means of learning put into their hands. It may he made a question whether any of the series of school-books in Bengali, Hindi, or Urdu proposed to be prepared for vernacular schools will be adapted to regimental schools. It will probably be deemed proper that a separate series should be framed in which, with the exclusion of every thing offensive to the religious feelings or social prejudices of the sepoys, and in addition to that general knowledge which is useful to men in all conditions of life, might be embodied much information and instruction specially suited to the military profession in its various grades and relations and under various circumstances.

The next point will be to provide that the regimental moonshee, moolvee, and pundit shall themselves know what they will be required to teach, and for this purpose I would propose to pass them through a series of examinations in the regimental school-books similar to those which have been recommended for the teachers of vernacular schools. The interpreter and quarter-master of each corps might be made the Examiner with a small additional staff allowance, and on a vacancy occurring every candidate for the office of moonshee, moolvee, or pundit should be required by submitting to a public examination at a fixed time and place to establish his competent acquaintance with the regimental school-books. The present holders of these offices should be allowed reasonable time to qualify themselves and should then be subjected to a similar examination, retained in their appointments if found competent, and displaced if proved to be incompetent. If these appointments are invariably given only to qualified persons, qualified persons will always be found ready to offer themselves as candidates. To secure this more effectually the candidates for these appointments might be