infrequent in any part of the country. The proportion educated is
very different in different classes; in some it is nearly the whole;
in others it is hardly one-tenth.
- The state of education here exhibited, low as it is
compared with that of our own country, is higher than it was in
most European countries at no very distant period. It has, no
doubt been better in earlier times; but for the last century it does
not appear to have undergone any other change than what arose
from the number of schools diminishing in one place and
increasing in another, in consequence of the shifting of the
population, from war and other causes. The great number of
schools has been supposed to contribute to the keeping of
education in a low state, because it does not give a sufficient
number of scholars to secure the service of able teachers. The
monthly rate paid by each scholar is from four to six or eight
annas. Teachers in general do not earn more than six or seven
rupees monthly, which is not an allowance sufficient to induce
men properly qualified to follow the profession. It may also be
said that the general ignorance of the teachers themselves is one
cause why none of them draw together a large body of scholars;
but the main causes of the low state of education are the little
encouragement which it receives, from there being but little
demand for it, and the poverty of the people. - These difficulties may be gradually surmounted; the
hindrance which is given to education by the poverty of the
people may in a great degree be removed by the endowment of
schools throughout the country by government, and the want of
encouragement will be remedied by good education being
rendered more easy and general, and by the preference which
will naturally be given to well-educated men in all public offices.
No progress, however, can be made without a body of better
instructed teachers than we have at present; but such a body
cannot be had without an income sufficient to afford a
comfortable livelihood to each individual belonging to it; a
moderate allowance should therefore be secured to them by
government, sufficient to place them above want; the rest should
be derived from their own industry. If they are superior both in
knowledge and diligence to the common village school masters,
scholars will flock to them and augment their income. - What is first wanted, therefore, is a school for educating
teachers, as proposed by the committee of the Madras School-
Book Society, in the letter of the 25th October 1824, which
accompanied their second report. I think that they should be
authorised to draw 700 rupees monthly from the treasury for