of the common school-master is in general rather higher, none of
those whom I met in Nattore receiving in all less than three
rupees eight annas, and some receiving as high as seven rupees
eight annas a month.
There are no school-houses built for, and exclusively
appropriated to, these schools. The apartments or building in
which the scholars assemble would have been erected, and
would continue to be applied to other purposes, if there were no
schools. Some meet in the Chandi Mandap, which is of the
nature of a chapel belonging to one of the principal families in
the village, and in which, besides the performance of religious
worship on occasion of the great annual festivals, strangers also
are sometimes lodged and entertained, and business transacted;
others in the Baithakkhana, an open hut principally intended as
a place of recreation and of concourse for the consideration of
any matters relating to the general interests of the village; others
in the private dwelling of the chief supporter of the school, and
others have no special place of meeting, unless it be the most
vacant and protected spot in the neighbourhood of the master’s
abode. The school (a) in the village numbered 4 meets in the
open air in the dry seasons of the year; and in the rainy season
those boys whose parents can afford it erect each for himself a
small shed of grass and leaves, open at the sides and barely
adequate at the top to cover one person from the rain. There
were five or six such sheds among 30 or 40 boys; and those who
had no protection, if it rained, must either have been dispersed
or remained exposed to the storm. It is evident that the general
efficiency and regularity of school-business, which are promoted
by the adaptation of the school-room to the enjoyment of comfort
by the scholars, to full inspection on the part of the teacher, and
to easy communication on all sides, must here be in a great
measure unknown.
Respecting the nature and amount of the instruction
received, the first fact to be mentioned is that the use of printed
books in the native language appears hitherto to have been
almost wholly unknown to the natives of this district, with the
exception of a printed almanac which some official or wealthy
native may have procured from Calcutta; or a stray missionary
tract which may have found its way across the great river from
the neighbouring district of Moorshedabad. A single case of each
kind came under observation; but as far as I could ascertain, not
one of the school-masters had ever before seen a printed book,
those which I presented to them from the Calcutta School-Book