Page:Second Report on the State of Education in Bengal (1836).djvu/39

Rh Musalman population of those who receive and communicate the slender education which these schools bestow. In the eye of the philanthropist or the statesman no institution, however humble, will be overlooked, by which he may hope beneficially to influence the condition of any portion of mankind; and it is just in proportion to the gross ignorance of the multitude that he will look with anxiety for any loop-holes by which he may find an entrance to their understandings—some institutions, which are held by them in veneration and which have hitherto served the cause of ignorance, but which he may hope with discretion to turn to the service of knowledge. I do not despair that means might be employed, simple, cheap, and inoffensive, by which even the teachers of these schools might be reared to qualify themselves for communicating a much higher grade of instruction to a much greater number of learners without divesting them of any portion of the respect and attachment of which they are now the objects.

4. Elementary Persian and Bengali Schools.—The schools in which both Bengali and Persian are taught are two; in one with, and in the other without, the formal reading of the Koran. The two schools contain 30 scholars; one five and the other 25. The period of study is in one case stated to be from 6 to 18 years of age, making 12 years; and in the other from 7 to 23, making 16. The teachers are—one a somewhat intelligent Brahman, and the other a Kath-Molla rather better instructed than others of the same class. The remuneration of the former consists entirely of fees—one anna, two annas, and four annas being charged respectively in three grades of Bengali writing; and four annas, eight annas, and one rupee in three stages of Persian reading, the income from both sources averaging seven rupees eight annas per month. The remuneration of the latter is received from one person who gives a fixed allowance and the usual perquisites, amounting in all to four rupees eight annas per month. The Bengali instruction is given in writing and agricultural accounts, and the Persian instruction in the reading of the Pandnameh, Gulistan, Bostan, &c. One of these schools has a separate school-house built by the patron. The scholars of the other assemble occasionally in the teacher’s