Page:Second Report on the State of Education in Bengal (1836).djvu/37

Rh books would have a beneficial effect on the character of the pupils; but as far as I have been able to observe or ascertain, those books are employed like all the rest solely for the purpose of conveying lessons in language—lessons in the knowledge of sounds and words, in the construction of sentences, or in anecdotical information, but not for the purpose of sharpening the moral perceptions or strengthening the moral habits. This in general native estimation does not belong to the business of instruction, and it never appears to be thought of or attempted. Others will judge from their own observation and experience whether the Musalman character, as we see it in India, has been formed or influenced by such a course of instruction. The result of my own observations is that of two classes of persons, one exclusively educated in Mahomedan, and the other in Hindu literature; the former appears to me to possess an intellectual superiority, but the moral superiority does not seem to exist.

3. Elementary Arabic Schools.—The Arabic schools, or schools for instruction in the formal or ceremonial reading of certain passages of the Koran, are eleven in number, and contain 42 scholars, who begin to read at an age varying from 7 to 14, and leave school at an age varying from 8 to 18. The whole time stated to be spent at school varies from one to five years. The teachers possess the lowest degree of attainment to which it is possible to assign the task of instruction. They do not pretend to be able even to sign their names; and they disclaim altogether the ability to understand that which they read and teach. The mere forms, names, and sounds, of certain letters and combinations of letters they know and teach, and what they teach is all that they know of written language, without presuming, or pretending, or aiming to elicit the feeblest glimmering of meaning from these empty vocables. This whole class of schools is as consummate a burlesque upon mere forms of instruction, separate from a rational meaning and purpose, as can well be imagined. The teachers are all Kath-Mollas that is, the lowest grade of Musalman priests who chiefly derive their support from the ignorance and superstition of the poor classes of their co-religionists; and the scholars are in training for the same office.