Besides reading, writing, ciphering, grammar, and geography, it is a feature of these, and I believe all other Missionary schools whether Bengali or English, that religious instruction is given to the scholars. The books employed for this purpose are the Gospels, Watts’ Catechism, Ellerton’s Dialogues on Scripture History, the History of Joseph, &c., &c. The Native mode of writing on stand, palm-leaves, and plantain-leaves, is adopted in these schools.
The Calcutta Church Missionary Association has thirteen elementary schools, partly in the town and partly in the villages, the average number of children receiving instruction being about 600. There is also a Christian school on the Mission-premises at Mirzapur, containing about seventy scholars, and a separate school for the Mahomedan population averaging thirty-nine boys. In connection with this Association, but not under its immediate direction, there is also a school at Beyala near Kidderpur, containing about 100 scholars. The course of instruction pursued in the schools is explained to consist in grammar, geography, reading the old and new testaments, spelling, writing, and arithmetic. They are chiefly intended for the lower classes of the population, and it is considered by this Association that more need hardly be attempted in their behalf than elementary instruction. The early removal of the children from school is greatly lamented.
In the villages to the south of Tolly’s Nullah there are three elementary boys’ schools, supported by the Ladies’ Society, connected with the Loll Bazar Missionary Society, and thereby with the Serampur Mission. The following are the names of the villages, and the number of the scholars in attendance: In the school at Debipur there are twenty in attendance; at Balarampore about forty-five; and at Lakhyantipur forty-four. At Anundapur, also, an estate in the Soonderbuns belonging to Serampur College, is a boys’ elementary school supported by the Serampur Mission, the attendance fifty-two.
Formerly there were several schools in Calcutta supported by the Bengal Auxiliary Missionary Society in connection with the London Missionary Society. The Bengali language only was taught, much time and labor was bestowed, and much expense incurred; but the Committee of the Society remark that during the last five or six years the desire to obtain a knowledge of the English language has been so great that a school in which this was not taught, was sure to dwindle away. To continue the schools on the old plan was deemed a waste of time and money, and to commence the new plan was impossible, both for want of funds and of qualified superintendence. The schools, therefore, in and about Calcutta, have been discontinued, with the exception of one at Kristnapur, at which from 10 to 20 children attend. It thus appears that the desire to obtain an acquaintance with English tends to the neglect of the vernacular language and has led to the
