Reports of Inspectors of Schools.

himself in a bond to forfeit Rupees 200 if any knowledge of the questions escaped from his press, and I believe that secrecy was kept. Considering the difficulty experienced in University Examinations from the escape of questions in the shoes of press-men and by the memory of compositors, the printing of examination questions with secrecy is a serious difficulty in Calcutta.

The competition of the Normal schools with one another, while it keeps up the standard of intellectual attainments, interferes with the practical application of the art of teaching, The time spent in the important work of tuition, does not attract that public notice, which the same time given to the subjects of the Examination. obtains. I therefore intend in the next award of scholarships to add to the marks at the annual Examination the marks for ability in teaching and managing a class, and to give the best scholarship and prizes to those who stand the highest in the final result. The head mark for teaching a class will be half the head mark at the written examination. I hope by thus giving a substantial weight to practical skill as a teacher, to raise the importance of the art in the minds of the students. The written examination always contains papers on school management and the art of teaching, but those who give the best answers on these subjects in writing are not necessarily the best teachers. The Calcutta Normal school has taken up as an extra subject the study of agriculture, and Baboo Hury Mohun Mookerjee, formerly teacher of the Agricultural School in the Botanical Gardens, has given 73 lectures during the last nine months on the following subjects. 1. The use and importance of agriculture,

2. The various orders of plants.

3. The effects of external influences on vegetable life. 4. Soil and its simple analysis.

5. Manures and their application to the soil.

Central Division, Mr. Woodrow.

6. The propagation of plants and its different modes.

7.

Botany. Elementary organs of plants. Organs of nutrition. Organs of reproduction.

The Head Master of the Hooghly Normal school gives the following account of the results of the Boarding Department. "There are at present about 90 students residing in the boarding house. The erection of the new additional bungalow has been just completed. As soon as the students return after the summer vacation is over, it is hoped that those who have hitherto for want of accommodation put up elsewhere, will reside on the school premises. The advantages of this boarding house Institution cannot be over-estimated. When the students first enter the Normal school they are found to be intractable, rude and clownish, dirty in their habits and modes of living, and prone to all sorts of mischievous propensities. But a rapid change comes over them on account of constant association with the older inmates. They soon become regular and steady in their habits, polite in their manners and neat, and cleanly in their dress and appearIndeed the difference between the 1st and 3rd year's class is striking. That such would be the case is not at all surprising. The Normal school does not receive its supply of students from the middle class of the Hindu society. On examining the Return of Parents and Guardians submitted to your office in January last, it will be seen that out of 123 students on the 31st of December, 44 are the sons of priests, who with the progress of social changes, now occupy a lower position in society than before. The rest are, with very few exceptions, the sons of petty dealers, mechanics and others of the same social rank and position. That such men should be quite decent in their manners and habits when they first enlist themselves as students, it is vain to hope for. But it is certainly gratifying to see that within the short period of two to three years of their residence in the Normal school there is so great a change."

ance.

In former years the Schools were arranged in the two Divisions of English and Vernacular, and each Division was classified in six

Schools for Boys.

Reports of Inspectors of Schools.

grades according to their merit. This year under the orders of the Supreme Government, the Schools have been distributed under the heads of Higher, Middle, and Lower Class Schools. Each class is divided as before into six grades so that now there are 18 in the place of 12 grades. In order to obtain the present grades I first arranged the Schools as they would have stood in the old list;-I then separated them into their three new classes; and awarded the grade generally on the rule that the English and Anglo-Vernacular Schools should stand one grade lower in the Higher class, and one grade higher in the Middle class; and the Vernacular Schools one grade lower in the Middle class and one grade higher in the Lower class than they stood in the old list.

The number of Schools of each grade and class under this general rule is shewn in the following table.

I find that the range of difference of merit is much wider in the Middle class than in either the Higher or the Lower class,

Central Division, Mr. Woodrow.

so that six or even more grades are required in the Middle class while there is no use for so many in the other two classes. The Higher class schools are, to a certain extent, superior schools, because they use the Entrance Course, and I object to Masters teaching the Course at all, if their pupils are not fit for it. The masses generally are not sufficiently advanced to appreciate the use of attending schools, and schools for them are inferior. Again, very many indifferent schools have been added to the lower part of the Middle class from the fact that the majority of the pupils in them are of rich or respectable parentage. Hence it follows, that the range of Middle class extends from a good English school only a year or two below the Entrance Standard down to a very indifferent Vernacular School, and comprehends some eight or more of the former grades.

The following are the studies of the schools which compete for Vernacular Scholarships.

VERNACULAR SCHOLARSHIP COURSE OF 1864.

Literature.-Charupath III, Padyapath II. Shitarbanabash.
Composition.-Narrative and Descriptive Pieces.

Grammar. Sandhi, Karak, Shamash, Taddhit.

Arithmetic.-Vulgar and Decimal Fractions, Simple and Compound Interest, Square root, Mensuration of plane Surfaces, and Mental Arithmetic.

Geometry.-Euclid, Book I.

Natural Philosophy-Prakritic Bigyan, first six chapters.
Geography.-Tarini Churn's Bhugal, and Map-drawing.
History.-History of Bengal, 1st and 2nd parts, Tarini Churn's India,
part II.

Useful Knowledge.-Patra Kaumudi, (last edition). Preservation of Health by R. P. Mookerjee, and Money Matters by R. K. Chowdry.

Reports of Inspectors of Schools.

There are now annually available in the Central Division Vernacular Scholar- 100 vernacular scholarships of 4 Rs. ships. a month, of which 50 are tenable for

4 years at English institutions and 50 for one year at Normal schools. These scholarships carry with them exemption from fees in Government schools.

The rules for the award of vernacular scholarships are with some slight modifications a copy of those laid down for the Junior Scholarship Examination.

VERNACULAR SCHOLARSHIP RULES FOR THE CENTRAL DIVISION.

One hundred Vernacular scholarships are open annually, to be competed for in the Vernacular Scholarship Examination by candidates educated in any school in the Central Division.

2. These scholarships are of the value of 4 Rupees a month. Fifty of them are tenable for four years at an English institution or the Medical College, and fifty are tenable for one year at a Normal school only.