396 



Remarks on the Amount of 



[No. 38, 



From the foregoing statement, the Board of Revenue observed, it 

 appears that the total number of persons who are receiving education 

 in these provinces, is 188,650 out of a population of 12,850,941, or 

 1 in 67.* 



These reports (with the exception of that of the Collector of Bel- 

 lary) furnish no answer to the inquiry respecting the books generally- 

 read at the schools, except that the Shasters and Vedas are read, and 

 that the sciences of theology, astronomy, logic, and law, are taught, 

 but chiefly privately. 



Mr. Campbell, the Collector of Bellary, gives the titles of several 

 books which are read at the schools, and enters very largely into a 

 detail of the mode of instruction pursued in them, and of the several 

 languages taught there. 



On the revenue proceedings of the 10th March 1826, Sir Thomas 

 Munro recorded a minute containing his observations on the infor- 

 mation communicated by the Collectors in their reports to the Re- 

 venue Board. <k From these reports, 1 ' he remarks, " it appears that 

 the number of schools, and of what are called colleges, in the territo- 

 ries under the Presidency, amount to 12,498, and the population to 

 12,850,941, so that there is one school to every 1,000 of the popu- 

 lation ; but as only a few females are taught in schools, we may- 

 reckon one school to every 500 of the population." 



The observation of the Board of Revenue, that the proportion of 

 the population receiving education did not exceed 1 in 67, Sir 

 Thomas Munro remarks is correct only as it regards the whole popu- 

 lation, but not as regards the male part of it, of which the propor- 

 tion is much greater. 



The male population he estimates at 6,425,000. The proportion 

 of this number, " between the ages of five and ten years, which is the 

 period which boys in general remain at school," he takes at one-ninth 

 or 713,000. This he takes to be the number of boys that would be 

 at school, if all the males above ten years of age were educated ; but 

 the number actually attending the schools appearing to be not more 

 than 184,110, it follows that not quite one in four of the male popu- 

 lation enjoys the benefit of a school education, and that the female 

 population is almost wholly destitute of it. But taking into this ac- 

 count the probable numbers taught at home, (which the Collector's 

 returns do not state, excepting that in Madras the private scholars 

 amount to 26,963, or above five times more than those taught in the 

 * The number receiving education in the City of Madras is, at present I in 38. 



