Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/262

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Persian teachers and studies.

Thus 66 paid teachers receive in all rupees 411-4-6, averaging to each rupees 6-6-1 per month. Of the unpaid teachers, one not only instructs gratuitously, but also gives his scholars food and occasionally clothes; three support themselves by farming, of whom two are in possession of lakhiraj land, and of these one is a retired darogha, a fifth gains his livelihood as a mulla, a sixth instructs gratuitously from religious motives, and the object of the seventh was to keep in recollection his former acquirements. Of the paid teachers, a few only are dependent upon individual patrons, and those patrons are both Hindus and Musalmans; several of the scholars of these salaried teachers receive gratuitous instruction.

There are in all ten school-houses, of which one was built at the expense of the teacher, two by the subscriptions of the parents, and seven by private individuals, either from general motives of benevolence, or with a view to the advantage of their owa children. One teacher instructs his scholars from house to house, and the remainder find accommodation for their scholars in kachharis, mosques, and especially baithak-khanas.

In 73 schools there are 490 scholars, averaging 6.7 to each school. The number of Persian students is 485 and of Arabic 5. Of the Persian students 240 are Musalmans and 245 Hindus, and the Arabic students are all Musalmans. The average age of the Persian scholars at the time the schools were visited was 13.5 years, and of the Arabic scholars 18.4 years. The following are the castes of the Persian scholars who are Hindus and the number of each :—

Brahman . . . 111
Kayastha . . . 83
Kaivarta . . . 11
Vaidya . . . 10
Suvarnabanik . . . 8
Sadgop . . . 6
Gandhabanik . . . 4
Kamar . . . 4
Vaishnava . . . 2
Göala . . . 2
Sunri . . . 2
Aguri . . . 1
Swarnakar . . . 1

In addition to nearly all the works already enumerated, the following are included in the course of Persian reading in this district, viz., Amadnameh on the conjugation of verbs; the formal reading of the Koran; Tutinameh, or tales of a parrot; Ruqaädt-i-Alamgir, the correspondence of Alamgir; Insha-i-Yusafi, forms of epistolary correspondence; Mulatafa, a collection of letters exhibiting different styles of penmanship; Toghra, an account of Cashmir; and the poems of Zahir, of Nasir Ali, and of Sayib.

The only additional work in Arabic employed as a school-book in this district is the Munshdaäb on Arabic conjugations.

District of Burdwan

In this district there are 3 schools in which nothing more than the formal reading of the Koran is taught as described in