Page:Reports on the State of Education in Bengal (1835 & 1838).djvu/108

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state of education in bengal

for support either in, the form of public subscriptions or of school fees.

3. The third class of English schools consists of those which are principally designed for the instruction of the children of Christian parents, without excluding natives. Among the pupils are a few Europeans and some native children; but the majority consists of East-Indian and Indo-Portuguese. The schools are all proprietary and the instruction stipendiary. Those noticed under this head are boys’ schools.

The Calcutta High School, the first institution of this class, was established in 1830, and is the property of shareholders, each share being 250 rupees, bearing interest by dividends of profits not to exceed six per cent. per annum. The property is held by trustees; the school is managed by an elective committee; and visitors are appointed to visit the school and to control the appointment of masters. The masters are a rector, a second master, a third master, and as many junior and assistant masters as the state of the school may require. The school is divided into three departments, English, Commercial and Classical. The English department includes, besides the elements of the language, grammar, history, geography, and composition; the Commercial includes arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and book-keeping; and the Classical includes Latin from the rudiments to Horace and Livy, and Greek to the Collectanea Minora and Homer’s Iliad. In the first a boy remains three years, supposing him to be almost unacquainted with English when he enters. After that period he proceeds to the Commercial and Classical departments in which he continues five years. The classes that are engaged in the forenoon with the rector in the classics, go to Commercial department in the afternoon and vice versa. After being in operation only four years, five pupils from the High School had entered Bishop’s college where they are prosecuting their studies. The number of pupils is 150. The school is open to the sons of Hindoo or Musalman gentlemen, but it does not appear whether any receive instruction. This institution publishes annual reports of its proceedings.

The Parental Academic Institution is also managed by a committee and publishes annual reports. The objects of the Society that established it are to afford to youth the best education that existing circumstances admit, and as far as the state