Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/65

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Mr. Adam’s letter to Lord W. Bentinck, on Vernacular Education.
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enlarging the usefulness of any single institution, or of a whole class. Having exhausted the institutions of one class, I would proceed to another, and from that to a third, repeating the same process in each, until I had obtained a complete knowledge of the state of education in the whole town and neighbourhood. The memoranda thus taken down on the spot and at the instant, the fruits of personal knowledge and direct observation, would supply the materials from which a full and methodical report would be furnished to Government.

7. A somewhat different mode must be employed in investigating the state of education in a district where common schools and schools of learning are indiscriminately scattered over a large surface. In that case, fixing my principal residence at the head station of the zillah, I would diverge from it in all directions to the extreme bounds of the district, passing one, two, three, or more days at one place, according as objects of investigation of the kind connected with my immediate duty presented themselves, entering freely into communication with parents, teachers, and pundits on that subject, examining schools, both common and learned, and, as in the former ease, making my memoranda at the time for future guidance in preparing a report. After having completed the range of one district, I would proceed to another, until I had in this manner gone over the whole country assigned to my investigation.

8. The number and frequency of my reports must depend upon the greater or less abundance of the materials with which observation and inquiry may supply me. I should commence my labors with the purpose of furnishing a separate report on the state of education in each principal town and in each district as soon as it has been examined, for there may be circumstances connected with the state of education in the town or district demanding early attention either for the purpose of remedying what is evil, or encouraging what is good. It is also possible, however, that one district may be so entirely a picture of another, with reference to this particular subject,