1850.] 



Education in Madras. 



397 



schools) Sir Thomas Munro considers it probable that the number of 

 the male population who now receive education is nearer to one-third 

 than one-fourth. The practice of private tuition, he observes, varies 

 considerably. It is not unfrequent in any part of the country, but 

 the proportion, is very different in different classes. In some it is 

 nearly the whole, in others it is hardly one-tenth. 



He further observes, that low as the state of education in India is 

 admitted to be, compared with that of our own country, it is even 

 now, he thinks, higher than it was in most European countries at 

 no very distant period. " It has no doubt" he adds, " been better 

 in earlier times, but for the last century it does not appear to have 

 undergone any other change than what arose from the number of 

 schools diminishing in one place and increasing in another, in con- 

 sequence of the shifting of the population, from war and other 

 causes." 



The ignorance of professed teachers and poverty of parents, are 

 considered as the causes which now combine to keep education in a 

 low state. 



Owing to the comparatively great number of professed teachers, 

 the number of scholars attached to each is small, and the monthly 

 rate paid by each scholar does not exceed from four to six or eight 

 annas. So that teachers do not earn more than six or seven Rupees 

 monthly, which is not considered an allowance sufficient to induce 

 men properly qualified to follow the profession. 



To remedy these defects, he suggests the endowment of schools 

 through the country by the Government. As a preliminary measure, 

 he proposes a school for educating teachers at Madras, on the plan 

 suggested by the Madras School-book Society, towards which he re- 

 commends that the Government should allow 700 Rupees per month ; 

 also, that two principal schools should be established in each col- 

 lectorate, one for Hindoos and the other for Mahomedans, and that 

 hereafter, as teachers can be found, the Hindoo schools should be 

 augmented, so as to give one to each tahsildary, which would be 

 about fifteen to each collectorate. The Mahomedan population not 

 amounting to above one-twentieth of the Hindoo, it is considered suffi- 

 cient to establish one Mahomedan school in each collectorate except 

 Arcot and a few other collectorates, where the proportion of the Ma- 

 homedan population is greater. 



VOL. XVI. NO- XXXVIII. F 2 



