Elementary Schools not Indigenous.—Under the superintendence of the Missionaries of the Church Missionary Society, there were in 1834 nine schools, five of which were supported by the Society, and four by the subscriptions of residents at the station of Burdwan, who contribute rupees sixty monthly for this object. In these schools there were 754 boys receiving daily instruction, half of whom read the scriptures, Pearson’s geography, catechisms, bible history, &c. The Natives in the vicinity of Burdwan are said to be fully convinced of the beneficial effects of these schools, and to show a great desire every where to have them established for their children. In several instances the chief men in the village have offered to build a school-house.
At Bancoora in connection with the same Society, there were seven schools, but in consequence of the departure of the gentlemen in the Civil Service, occasioned by the junction of the Jungle Mehals to the district of Burdwan, the subscriptions in behalf of the schools were mostly withdrawn, and three schools were necessarily discontinued. A new subscription has been opened, and four schools, with about 350 children, are kept up under the care of a catechist. The gospels and other useful books are read and geography is taught. Petitions are stated to have been presented by the inhabitants of some of the neighboring villages, begging that new schools might be established among them.
At Culna is a circle of schools in an improving state, also under the superintendence of a Missionary of the same Society. In 1834, the number of boys was greater than was reported the preceding year, but the actual number is not mentioned in the report before me. More than half of the boys are conversant with the scriptures. One of the schools at this station kept on the premises of a respectable Brahman, is stated to have generally in attendance from 90 to 100 boys daily.
There is also an elementary school for Native boys, or a circle of such schools, at Cutwa in connection with the Baptist Missionary Society, but I have not met with any detailed account of them.
Indigenous Schools of Learning.—Hamilton says that in this district there are no regular schools for instruction in the Hindoo or Mahomedan law, and that the most learned professors of the former are procured from the district of Nuddea on the opposite side of the Hugly. The same remark may be applied to this statement that has already been made with reference to the state of learning in Midnapore. All that can be fairly understood from it is not that there are no Native schools of learning in the district, but that there were none known to the writer, or to the public officer on whose authority the author relied. It is exceedingly improbable, from the analogy of other districts, that there are not some of those domestic schools of Mahomedan learning already described, and still more improbable that in a population of which five-sixths are Hindoos, there should not be a still greater number of schools of Hindoo learning.
