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those village teachers are held in great veneration throughout India." *

The Despatch of 1814 explains the object upon which

the One Lakh Grant was to be expended.

Act LIII of 1813 was clear upon one point at least, viz., that part of the one lakh of rupees was to be spent upon the "introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences." The Governor-General and his Council did not quite understand whether the sciences under reference were those of the West or of the East. To dispel all doubt the Court of Directors, in their Despatch of 1814, explained that by "sciences" was meant the Oriental Sciencesthe systems of ethics written in the Sanskrit language which embodied "codes of laws and compendiums of the duties relating to every class of people," and which treated of "all the virtues of plants and drugs"-and many other things the study of which might do much to form links of communication between Indians and European officials."

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Immediate effect could not be given to the
Educational Scheme of the East India Company.

The way was now cleared for action. But the hour was unpropitious. Lord Minto had just quitted office and a new Governor-General had arrived—the Marquis of Hastings. The Pindaris were harrying Central India. The Gurkha War claimed the years 1814 to 1816. The Pindari War occupied 1817. The Fourth Maratha War followed in 1817-1819. Obviously, it was not possible to develop schemes of education when all available time and thought

* The local authorities do not appear to have fostered the indigenous system of education. Mr. Howell (1866-67) makes the following reflections :-"It is much to be regretted that, as each Province fell under our rule, the Government did not take advantage of the time when the prestige of conquest, or gratitude for delivery from war and oppression, were strong in the popular mind, to make the village school an important feature in the village system that was almost everywhere transmitted to us. Had this been done, and had the numerous village allowances been diverted to this object, and had the Government devoted itself to the improvement of school-books and schoolmasters, instead of establishing a few new schools (N.B., Between 1821 and 1823) of its own, and thereby encouraging the belief that it was for the State, and not for the community, to look after education, the work of general improvement would have been substituted for the work of partial construction and we should have had in every Province a really adequate system of national education."

had to be devoted to the subjection of the turbulent forces that swirled around a not yet firmly established foreign Government.

Private Individuals and Missionaries interest
themselves in the Education of the People.

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But what the Company could not do had already been essayed by planters and missionaries. For example, in 1803, Mr. Ellerton, an indigo planter at Malda, had established several vernacular schools on his concern and had written certain text-books in Bengali for use in them. In 1814 the Rev. Robert May, a Christian Missionary, set up 16 schools in and around Chinsurah. So successful were these schools that Mr. Gordon Forbes, the British Commissioner at Chinsurah, brought them to the favourable notice of the Government, who made a monthly allowance (afterwards increased to Rs. 1,800) of Rs. 600 to Mr. May to support and extend the school system he had introduced. The result was that by the time Mr. May died in 1818, he left 36 schools attended by 3,000 pupils including Hindus and Muhammadans. It had been his practice to attach a pandit of capacity to a small group of schools, and in his schools he improved upon the indigenous system of oral instruction by introducing printed books both entertaining and instructive. On Mr. May's death the Government availed itself of two other missionaries, Messrs. Pearson and Harley, who opened a considerable number of schools between Khulna and Shamnagar, and later on at Bankipore. They too wrote several text-books in Bengali. Meanwhile, the Serampore Missionaries, Carey, Marshman and Ward, were not inactive. They established 20 schools in the vicinity of Calcutta, and their printing press issued a series of vernacular school-books.

Stewart's Schools at Burdwan.

Concurrently with these activities in the direction of elementary education for the masses, in 1816 the Church Missionary Society, through the agency of Captain Stewart, began to open vernacular schools in and around Burdwan,

In 1818 they were ten in number; cost about Rs. 16 each a month; and afforded instruction to 1,000 children.

How his Schools were conducted.

The

In the schools instruction was given from dictation. The monitor, with the text-book in his hand, had to pronounce a portion of each sentence audibly and deliberately, while each boy in the class wrote it down in his copybook. When the lesson for the day was completed, the necessary corrections in each pupil's book were also made by the monitor. Every boy in turn had then to read aloud what he had written-sentence by sentence. advantages claimed for this scheme of instruction were that one printed book served for a dozen children; that the pupils made concurrent progress in penmanship and spelling; and that they acquired a facility in reading and writing their own language. It was further postulated that a spirit of animation and emulation was engendered; that instruction was combined with pleasure; and that important facts and truths written from dictation and read over three or four times, could not fail to remain deeply impressed on the memory.

Local Opposition.

The Rev. J. Long thus gives an account of the difficulties against which Captain Stewart had to contend :"At the commencement of his labours, he encountered considerable opposition. Reports were industriously circulated that it was his design to ship all the children to England. And it was then sufficient objection to a book being read if it contained the name of Jesus. A case occurred near Burdwan where a Hindu, rather than give his child to be educated by the Missionary, left it out at night to be devoured by jackals! There were five Brahmanical schools in Burdwan, the masters of which were afraid that their own institutions would be broken up by the missionary schools. They, therefore, fulminated curses against any natives who should send their children to Captain Stewart's schools. But he chose his teachers

from among the ablest natives in the villages where his schools were to be established, and thus disarmed opposition by the bait of self-interest, and the five Brahmanical schools were soon abandoned. The introduction of printed books into the schools at first caused alarm. The natives apprehended it was some plan for ensnaring their children and destroying their caste!-as all instruction was previously conveyed through manuscript, and it was remarked of the village masters 'if you put a book into their hands, they are unable to read it, and are still less able to understand its general contents'. Besides the outlines of Astronomy and of the History of England, which were introduced into these schools, Captain Stewart also caused instruction to be given in some few of the preambles of the Honourable Company's Regulations, which are particularly calculated to convince the people of India that Government anxiously desire to promote their comfort and advantage. In reading these, their first and most deeprooted impressions are in favour of their rulers, and submission will consequently follow from attachment and love."

David Hare establishes Schools in Calcutta.

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During the years immediately preceding 1817, David Hare, Watch-maker, Educationist and Philanthropist, in association with Raja Radha Kanta Deva, a well-known Sanskrit scholar of the day, improved the condition of the vernacular schools in and around Calcutta. He employed instructing pandits to visit the gurus and teach them. He also gave gifts of books to the gurus. Later on, he established a sort of central vernacular school, which almost immediately passed to the control of the Calcutta School Society. An English school was soon after established near the central vernacular school. The two schools held classes at different hours-the vernacular from sunrise to 9 o'clock and the English from 10-30 to 2-30, and the vernacular again from 3-30 to sunset. By this arrangement boys in the vernacular schools were enabled to attend the English school if they so desired.

Demand for Instruction in English.

And most of them did desire to learn English. The Court of Directors had made no move whatever in favour of an English education for the natives; but they were not to be denied it. In Calcutta, Eurasian teacherschief among whom was Henry Louis Vivian Derozioand natives who had learnt a little of English, set up private English schools, or gave instruction in English in the homes of the more well-to-do. The Missionaries too taught English in their schools, and their schools flourished in spite of caste and religious prejudices. Indian enterprise established Vernacular Schools with English Departments. One such school was at Tuntunia (Thanthania) in Cornwallis Street, nearly opposite the Temple of Kali. Another school with only an English Department was held in the house afterwards occupied by Babu Bhuban Mohan Mitra's school. (N.B.-These two schools were amalgamated in 1834 and formed into the David Hare High School.)

Calcutta School Book Society established.

Of indigenous elementary schools there was an abundance. In them the beginnings of reading, writing and arithmetic were taught, but not from books, for the art of printing in Bengali was unknown, except to the Serampore Missionaries. To make cheap printed books available to schools of all classes, the Calcutta School Book Society was established in 1817. Four years later on it received from Government a donation of Rs. 7,000 and a monthly grant of Rs. 500.

Calcutta School Society established. Its Scope.

The year 1818 saw the founding of the Calcutta School Society through the influence and interest of the Marquis of Hastings. The objects for which it was established were as follows:

"That its design be to assist and improve existing schools, and to establish and support any further schools and seminaries which may be requisite-with a view to

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