28. It is evidently essential to the success of this or of any plan for the improvement and extension of elementary education, that training classes should be established on an extensive scale, and here I am disposed to think that Captain Macdonald has somewhat under-estimated the difficulties which at present exist from the want of the necessary agency. He proposes the establishment of a class for training village teachers in connexion with every provincial, zillah, and talook school, and to be conducted in each case, if I understand him rightly, by some one or other of the teachers at present employed in those schools. This, I apprehend, will not be practicable at the talook schools, the masters of which as a body are by no means efficient, and themselves stand very much in need of the training which it is suggested should be provided in their schools. I do not, indeed, anticipate any very marked results from the establishment of normal classes until they can be placed under teachers who have gone through a complete system of training, but something may, no doubt, be effected in the higher schools, and pending the provision of a trained agency, I think it would be well to make a commencement with that at present available in the provincial and zillah schools, and perhaps in a few of the talook schools, where the attempt may be made with some prospect of success. 29. It will not be necessary to incur any very large expenditure when first bringing the system into operation. The stipends of a limited number of village teachers while under training might be defrayed from the scholarship fund, an arrangement which I have authorised Dr. Gundert to carry out in Canara with the view of training teachers for talook schools. For the monthly grants to be made to certificated teachers, in books, or in money, or partly in both, a grant of 500 rupees per mensem would be sufficient at the commencement; and this, if his Lordship in Council should deem it inexpedient to apply to the Supreme Government for a special grant for the purpose, until he shall have had an opportunity of judging of the actual working of the system, may, without difficulty, be provided for out of the funds available for the employment of sub-deputy inspectors, of which a comparatively small portion is at present expended. 30. It only remains for me to observe, that in submitting this scheme for the approval of the Right Honourable the Governor in Council, I am sensible that it can only be looked upon as a very incomplete and perhaps temporary expedient for the improvement of elementary education. It must be manifest to every one who has reflected on this important subject that the only way of carrying out the object thoroughly is by the imposition of an educational rate, whereby the large expenditure necessary may be provided for, and each village schoolmaster permanently guaranteed the means of obtaining a respectable livelihood by the practice of his profession. Mr. Thompson, the late Inspector of Schools in the North Tamil Division, shortly before he left the department, furnished me with an elaborate scheme for the improvement of popular education in the districts under his charge by the imposition of such a rate. plan, however, would have involved an addition to the taxation of the districts in question, falling little short of 10,00,000 rupees, which, if extended throughout the Presidency on the same scale, would probably amount to some 50,00.000 rupees per annum. The extravagance of such a scheme as this was, of course, sufficient to condemn it, but setting this objection aside, it seems to me to be questionable whether the time has come for the imposition of an educational tax. His In many districts, I imagine, it must necessarily be preceded by a thorough revision of the assessment, and even in those districts where the assessment is light, it would be advisable to defer it until the adoption of other measures for the improvement of the existing teachers shall have practically convinced the people of the advantages of an improved system of education. II. Madras II. Madras. No. 16. ORDER thereon, No. 1238; dated 4 September 1857. THE Director of Public Instruction now submits his scheme for the improvement of village schools, on which his attention has been long engaged. The novelty of the subject, the necessity of forming an acquaintance with the chief systems established or tried in other Presidencies, the startling want of vernacular school books, and the thorough inefficiency of the present race of teachers, are described among the principal causes for the delay which has occurred in propounding a final opinion on this interesting and important question. The absence indeed of suitable books and properly qualified instructors is a difficulty which, even now, has only been partially removed. A small stock of books, sufficient for a commencement, has however been provided, and some twenty students at the normal school, who have been for some time under special instruction, will, it is thought, be enough advanced by the close of the year, to form the first body of trained masters for vernacular training schools. On the whole, therefore, the time has now come when the subject can be advantageously discussed. 2. The systems tried in this country may be generally classed under four heads. A. Mr. Thomason's scheme, in the North West Provinces. B. The hulkabundee. C. The plan prevailing in the talooks of the sub-collectorate of Rajahmundry, and identical in its main features with the hulkabundee. D. The system tried in the Lower Provinces of the Bengal Presidency. 3. The plan adopted in the first of the above was, to establish at the head quarters of every talook, a tahsilee school, conducted so as to present a model for imitation in all subordinate schools. These last were periodically inspected, and those whose progress was most marked, rewarded by grants-in-aid. The plan was considered so unequivocally successful, that in 1853 its extension to other parts of India was earnestly commended by the late Governor General. Recent inquiries, however, have tended to show that the stability of schools could not be depended on under the system pursued. It was shown in fact that a bad harvest, a change in the headship of a village and other such causes were commonly fatal to the existence of the little seminary; that, in fine, no less than one-third of these indigenous schools annually died out. It was to remedy this want of permanency that the hulkabundee system, or the maintenance of one substantial school for every circle of villages, so as to give the farmers of three or four hamlets in lieu of one an interest in its prosperity, was devised. Every success has attended the change in the North West Provinces, and the system has been introduced, by the energetic endeavours of Mr. G. N. Taylor, into operation in the delta talooks of the district of Rajahmundry, where the villages are held, as in the north-west of India, on joint rent tenures. 4. The main feature of the scheme is the assessment among the renters themselves of a fixed rate for each village, the proceeds of which are to cover the salary of the schoolmaster, the cost of supervision being paid for by the State. These voluntary rates are collected in Rajahmundry by the tahsildars along with the kists payable by the village, and are disbursed by them under report to the sub-collector, who is looked up to as the patron and head of the whole undertaking. It is obvious, therefore, that the work of supervision is no light one, and that the labour would be regarded by officers, possessing less enthusiasm in the subject, as a very onerous addition to the current duties of their office. To this it may be added that the conspiring testimony of the inspector, Captain Macdonald, and of Mr. J. D. Robinson, who succeeded Mr. Taylor, in the charge of the sub-collectorate, goes far to induce the belief that the contributions described as "voluntary" can hardly be so considered; that, in short, the zeal of the head of the district, extending itself to subordinates, not always over-scrupulous, has occasionally resulted in the application to the apathy of the ryots of a pressure more or less unadvisable. Above all, it is a system which could only answer with joint rents, and would be altogether inapplicable, as the director II. Madras. director has justly remarked, where the revenue is farmed, or in a ryotwar community. 5. In Bengal four systems appear to have been tried, viz.: 1. Mr. Thomason's original plan of inspection and reward. 2. The appointment of qualified teachers to inspect and improve circles of schools, supported by private contributions and the fees of the pupils. 3. The establishment of scholarships. 4. The establishment of new schools by grants-in-aid of local subscriptions. 6. In this Presidency, besides the operations in Rajahmundry, there has been an uniform scheme introduced at the instance of the Rev. J. Richards, late inspector, Southern Circle, among the village schools of the two great missionary societies in Tinnevelly; and it is partly from this and partly from a scheme proposed by Captain Macdonald, inspector, Northern Circle, that the director has drawn the proposal he now lays before Government. Mr. Thompson, another inspector, has also offered his scheme, but it is one involving so great an increase to the taxation of the country, that it carries its own condemnation with it, and does not need to be separately discussed. 7. Of the two schemes amalgamated by the director, the details alone differ. The principle in each is the same, viz.: the master of every school, on his qualifying by a certain standard, is to have a certain amount of assistance extended to him, according to the number of pupils he may have. The school of course is to be periodically inspected. 8. Under Mr. Richards' plan, village schoolmasters wishing to qualify themselves according to a fixed standard of attainments, are to be furnished with the necessary books and maps, at cost price, and also with directions for using them, and on their passing a satisfactory examination on the several subjects prescribed are to receive a monthly grant of two rupees on showing that they have 25 bona fide pupils. The objection entertained to this is the multiplicity of small money payments, and it is further apprehended that there is not inducement enough to the masters to improve themselves or enlarge the school beyond the terms required to entitle to the grant. Similar in principle, Captain Macdonald's plan proposes a grant, not of money but of books and maps to the value of two rupees. Then, at the end of a year the school would be inspected, and two annas and one anna for each lad allowed (according to the degree of proficiency exhibited) per mensem. This grant too would be in books, which the master would be at liberty to sell among his pupils at the rates marked, and thus realise an addition to his fees. Teachers qualifying by a still higher standard would gain honorary certificates and be eligible for employment as junior masters of talook and other schools; and to enable industrious teachers thus to qualify themselves, normal classes should be attached to each provincial, zillah, and talook school, and stipends allowed to those under instruction. 9. The Government concur with the director that, experimental as any first attempts will necessarily be in the cultivation of this untried field, the suggestions here offered afford reasonable hope of success, and he is accordingly authorised to carry them out; the expenditure being met, as proposed by him, out of the fund for scholarships and that for sub-deputy inspectorships. Should payment in books prove inadequate, part of the donation may be given, as suggested, in money. 10. Mr. Arbuthnot has concluded his report by observing that no larger plans can be expected, pending the general imposition of a special tax for educational purposes. Within what period this may be looked for, it is not now necessary to inquire. The present scheme will not be unfruitful, if among the rising generation some few thousand shall be numbered, at once the grateful recipients of the benefits it is designed to convey, and the pioneers of those improvements in the social condition of the masses, to which the ryot's ignorance and apathy are now the chief obstacles. (signed) E. Maltby, 21. PAPERS referred to in Madras Public Despatch (Educational), dated 6 October 1858, No. 5, para. 68. EXTRACT Public Letter from Fort St. George, dated 24th December, Para. 49. WITH his letter of the 26th August last, the director submitted one from Dr. Gundert, Deputy Inspector in Malabar and Canara, reporting on the Anglo-vernacular school at Honore, in aid of which a grant was made. 50. The grant was sanctioned for one year, and its continuance was to depend on the report of the Government Inspector. 51. We approved the course adopted by Mr. Arbuthnot, as set forth in the 4th para. of his letter, and, as recommended by him, sanctioned the monthly grant of such sum, not exceeding 35 rupees, as might be equal to a moiety of the receipts from local sources, to be disbursed in arrears from the 15th May last, on which date the period for which the former grant was authorised expired, the school having been opened on the 15th May 1856. READ the following Letter from A. J. Arbuthnot, Esq., Director of Public Instruction, to the Acting Chief Secretary to Government, Fort Saint George, dated Coonoor, 26th August 1857, No. 807. Sir, Letter from the Director of Public Instruction to the Chief Secretary to Government, dated 22d November 1855. Extract from the Minutes of Consultation, Public Department, under date the 8th December 1855, No. 1547. ADVERTING to the correspondence* noted in the margin, I have the honour to submit for the consideration of the Right Honourable the Governor in Council the accompanying copy of a letter under date the 23d ultimo, from Dr. Gundert, Deputy Inspector in Malabar and Canara, reporting on the Anglo-vernacular school at Honore, in aid of which a grant was sanctioned in the extract from the Minutes of Consultation, under date the 8th December 1855, No. 1547. The grant was sanctioned for one year, and its continuance was to depend on the report of the Government Inspector. 2. In the application originally made for a grant from the Public Treasury, it was stated that the local subscriptions amounted to 50 rupees per mensem, and, in forwarding the application, I recommended a grant" of such monthly sum as the subscription actually paid each month might amount to," which recommendation was complied with by the Right Honourable the Governor in Council. 3. The terms of this recommendation were somewhat indefinite, considering that the grant-in-aid fund is restricted to a fixed sum, but when submitting it I had no expectation that the amount of subscription specified in the application would be materially increased, and accordingly, in the calculation which I laid before Government with reference to the disposal of the grant-in-aid funds in my letter of the 10th July 1856, I set apart for the Honore school the sum of 50 rupees per mensem. 4. This sum, however, has been generally exceeded, and, in one month, the grant amounted to 83-8 rupees. Under these circumstances I deemed it proper, shortly after the submission of my last report on applications for grants-in-aid, to intimate to the managers of the Honore school that the Government would not be prepared again to sanction any grant, the maximum of which was not limited, but which might be increased indefinitely according to the amount of local subscriptions raised, and suggested that the community should determine definitely what sum they would contribute for a given period, and the manner in which they proposed to apply it. I, at the same time, furnished them with copies of paras. 4, 5, 6, and 7 of my letter of the 19th February last, and recommended that they should fix the amount of their subscriptions on the assumption that the grant allowed by Government would be equal to one-half of whatever sum they might be able to guarantee from local sources. 5. In reply they have informed me that they are prepared to guarantee a monthly payment of 50 rupees towards the maintenance of the school, which they hope shortly to raise to 70 or 80 rupees, and they request a maximum grant of 35 rupees may be sanctioned. 6. This application, it will be observed, is supported by the Deputy Inspector, whose report on the present condition of the school is, on the whole, favourable. The managers of the school have, I am aware, had great difficulties to contend with, and their exertions to keep up the school and to procure competent masters have been most praiseworthy. I beg therefore to recommend that a monthly grant of such sum not exceeding 35 rupees, as may be equal to a moiety of the receipts from local sources, be sanctioned, to be disbursed in arrears from the 15th May last, on which date the period for which the former grant was authorised expired, the school having been opened on the 15th May 1856. (signed) A. J. Arbuthnot, Director of Public Instruction. II. Madras. From Doctor H. Gundert, Deputy Inspector of Schools in Malabar and Canara, to Sir, I HAVE the honour to report on the Anglo-vernacular school at Honore, which I have inspected in the beginning of the present month (2d to 5th July). 2. Disquieting rumours having reached me, which represented the Honore school as going decidedly down since the dismissal of Mr. Whittle, and as being gradually replaced by the kindred institution flourishing at Sircy under the same master, I expected to find but little worth mentioning at Honore. It is now my duty to state that the condition in which I found the school was, if not very bright, still deserving of commendation and full of hope for the future. 3. The three or four classes of the school I found cooped up within a verandah room of the Talook Cutcherry, the accommodation provided by which was certainly inconvenient, though not at present altogether insufficient. But a very spacious school building has been erected in a suitable locality, capable of accommodating nearly twice the present number of pupils. It consists of a long and airy hall, from which a room is cut off at each end. Within a few weeks it will be ready for receiving the school, which holds in it a valuable property. It is chiefly the work of prisoners, who built it under the direction of the judge Mr. W. N. Molle, in whom the school has a zealous and constant friend. The materials have been supplied by the trustees at a cost of about 100 rupees. The prisoners' work is estimated at more than 400 rupees, so that the school building is worth from 500 to 600 rupees. 4. The English school has at present 100 pupils, of whom 77 are Brahmins, 20 Roman Catholics, two Mussulmans, and one Tamalian. In July 1856 the number of pupils amounted to 94, of whom 71 were Brahmins, 21 Roman Catholics, two Mussulmans. Thus there has been some increase in the total number of pupils, although a notable diminution has taken place in the first class. Of those now attending 2 are in the 10th year. Ditto 2 دو وو 12 وو 13 5 3 6723 LO ∞ ∞ ∞ 27 14 22 15 16 وو وو دو دو وو |