Education in British Guiana. 115 
In 1852, on the suggestion of the Commissioners, Mr. George Dennis was 
appointed as the first Inspector of Schools for the colony. The three R’s were 
now regularly taught in most of the 150 schools we find existing from the Inspec- 
tor’s first annual report, and in some schools grammar and geography also were 
taught, and successful attempts were made at industrial education on a small 
scale. There appear to have been no regular examinations of the schools, because 
in 1861 we find that recourse had to be made to a return sent in by the teachers 
to get details of what the children could do ; and it is there stated that in the 
“opinion of the teachers ” 1,142 children could work sums in the higher branches 
of elementary Arithmetic, 955 were able to point out the parts of speech, and 540 
to parse simple sentences. Three years after Mr. Dennis’ appointment as 
Inspector of Schools, in the year 1855, an Ordinance was passed wiping out the 
Commissioners, and placing the control of educational affairs in the hands of the 
Inspector of Schools, who became directly responsible to the Governor. By 
that same Ordinance the teachers received fixed’ salaries according to their 
classes after examination, supplemented by the school fees that were payable 
under the said Ordinance. Thus annual examinations of the schools were not 
required for determining the grants of the various schools, since the following 
provisions were made by the 1855 Ordinance :—The vote of the Combined Court 
was restricted to the payment of Teachers’ salaries and grants-in-aid of the 
maintenance of school premises. The vote of the Combined Court in 1855 was 
$37,600 (nearly £8,000 ), of which $33,000 were to be paid as salaries, on condi- 
tion that a sum equal to one-third of this amount, raised by fees and other local 
contributions, was added. The teachers fell into three classes with salaries 
attached as under :— 
Ist Class .. Masters BY PA a $ 720 
Mistresses 3 Pe be se aud) 
2nd Class .. Masters es a ae 480 
Mistresses i: At a, han gro20) 
drd Class .. Masters Le a Be re O00) 
Mistresses bad La HA row aan) 
In the third year of this Ordinance the system of Pupil Teachers was first 
introduced, 12 lads, selected by merit after examination, being appointed as 
pupil teachers with salaries of $4 a month. 
Mr. Dennis must have been a man of great ability to have done as much as he 
did, when we find that the clergy were so powerfu’ in the education affairs of the 
co.ony as to get the Commissioners wiped out, though their recommendations 
met with the approval of the State authorities, and that the clergy were able to 
get special grants from the Combined Court for the purchase of school books and 
furniture, and to assist them in erecting school-houses. 
Tn 1861 Estates’ Schools for the education of the children of coolie and other 
immigrants were first started by certain philanthropists ; and in the following 
year, in 1862, Mr. Dennis was succeeded by the Rev. W. G. G. Austin M.A. 
