Page:General report on the public instruction in the lower provinces of the Bengal Presidency (1844-45).djvu/38

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hindoo college.

scholarships. The scholarsliip examination, therefore, constituted the annual general examination of the senior department.

In English the first and fourth classes of the junior department were examined by Mr. Lewis, the second by Mr. Kerr, and the third by Mr. Jones. The vernacular examination was conducted by the Professors of Smrite and Nyaya of the Sanskrit College.

Mr. Lewis expressed himself as upon the whole pleased with the manner in which the pupils of the first class acquitted themselves. He observes, in reference to their reading and explanation of a passage selected from Thomson’s Seasons, ‘About twelve of the pupils passed a very creditable examination, the rest succeeded but indifferently; but the passage was one of considerable difficulty, and I am fully satisfied that more could not be expected of pupils belonging to the junior department.’

And, in reference to the examination in geography, the examiner says, ‘the result gave me great satisfaction, though I should have been better pleased had a greater number of the pupils succeeded in map drawing, which is an important branch of the subject, and one to which more attention might be devoted by the learner with profit.’

Anundoram Phookun and Gresh Chunder Mitter, of this class, were found to be far ahead of the others in all subjects. The former, who has been very attentive, and who has improved greatly during the past year, has since the examination been promoted to the fourth class of the senior department.

The pupils of the 2d class, consisting of three divisions, read and explained remarkably well, passages selected from their class reading books; they also answered questions in English grammar and geography in a satisfactory manner.

But in arithmetic the first division did not please the examiner so well. Six simple arithmetical questions were proposed, and only eleven boys out of twenty-nine who were present, worked more than three of them correctly. Sosheebhooshun Baneyen, Anundolall Banerjee, Gresh Chunder Bose, and Prosonno Coomar Ghose, in particular, were very deficient in arithmetic. They did not work correctly a single question. With the above exception the examiner speaks with approbation of the state of the second class, especially of the first and second divisions, taught by Baboo Iswer Chundro Saha, and Baboo Gopeekissin Mitter.