612 



General Report of the Council of Public Instruction of Bengal, for 

 1841 and 1842. 



The number of district schools under the Council of Education 

 appear to be about 100, the number of scholars provided for, 

 14,782, or 147 to each school; but the average attendance is only 

 5019, or 50 to each school, and the expenditure being Co's. Rs. 

 6,15,529 per annum, is exactly Co's. Rs. 122 : 10 : 2 per head, which 

 is about £12: 10, English money, for each boy; rather more we 

 should suppose than the average rates of day schools at home.* The 

 course of education consists of English Reading, together with either 

 Hindee, Bengalee, Persian, or Sanscrit Grammar. The boys, (for 

 the system does not extend to the education of females,) are divided 

 into several classes, the senior of which embraces probably about 

 ten per cent, of the whole, and their reading extends to Elementary 

 Geometry, selections from Homer's Iliad, Milton, Bacon, Locke, and 

 select Essays on popular scientific subjects, published by the Society 

 for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Some portion of the press 

 in noticing this Report, seemed to consider the means at the disposal 

 of the Committee too limited ; for our own part, we think them 

 much too large, and that they ought to be reduced in proportion 

 to the number of scholars actually attending the schools, as com- 

 pared with the number enrolled, and who although provided for, 

 decline to attend. The four lacs of rupees thus annually saved, 

 we would devote to the examination and illustration of the natural 

 productions of the country, a subject with which we have no reason 

 to suppose any of the persons connected with the present system 

 of Education are at all, even theoretically, acquainted. We would 

 employ for this purpose, men, such as Messrs. Murchison, MacLeay, 

 Swainson, Brown and Herschel, with the pay of Members and Presi- 

 dents of the Law Commission, together with as many deputies as 

 might be necessary. In the course of twenty years, the children of 



* As an instance of what children may be educated for in India, we would refer 

 to the Catholic Orphanage, established by the Right Rev. Dr. Carew,— Ed. 



