Page:Calcutta Review Vol. II (Oct. - Dec. 1844).pdf/364

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in bengal and behar.
359

included all that have obtained any kind or degree of instruction, however humble, including even those who can merely decipher writing, or sign their names. With this understanding, the following table and remarks, supplied by Mr. Adam, will exhibit a complete representation of the whole subject:—

Total number of children between 14 and 5 years of age. Number of children receiving school instruction. Number of children receiving domestic instruction. Total number of children receiving domestic and school instruction. Children receiving neither domestic nor school instruction. Proportion of children capable of receiving to children actually receiving instruction is as 100 to
City of Moorshedabad 15,092 959 300 1,259 13,833 8.30
Thana Dowlatbazar, 10,428 305 326 631 9,797 6.05
Thana Nanglia 8,929 439 285 724 8,205 8.10
Thana Culna 18,172 2,243 676 2,919 15,257 16.05
Thana Jehanabad 15,595 366 539 905 14,690 5.80
Thana Bhawara 13,409 60 288 348 13,061 2.50

“The last column of the preceding table shows, that in the Culna thana of the Burdwan district, where the amount of instruction is greater than in any other of the localities mentioned, of every 100 children of the teachable age, 16 only receive any kind or degree of instruction, while the remaining 84 are destitute of all kinds and all degrees of it; and that in the Bahwara thana of the Tirhoot district, where the amount of instruction is less than in any other of the localities mentioned, of every 100 children of the teachable age, 21/2 only receive any kind or degree of instruction, while the remaining 971/2 are destitute of all kinds and all degrees of it. The intermediate proportions are those of thana Jehanabad, in South Behar, and thana Daulatbazar, in the Moorshedabad district, where there are about 6 children in every 100 who receive some instruction, leaving 94 wholly uninstructed; and those of thana Nanglia, in the Beerbhoom district, and the city of Moorshedabad, in which there are about 8 children in every 100 who receive some instruction, leaving 92 wholly uninstructed.”

Thus in Burdwan, the most highly cultured district visited, only 16 per cent. of the teachable or school-going population do actually receive any kind or degree of instruction at all; and in Tirhoot, the least cultured district visited, only 21/2 per cent. receive any kind or degree of instruction;—while the aggregate average for all the districts is no more than 73/4 per cent.—leaving 823/4 out of every 100 children of the teachable age wholly destitute of all kinds and degrees of instruction whatsoever! And taking