H. Madras.

every point which might naturally be expected in a review of the first year's work; yet I trust that the advantage to be derived from a clear retrospect of the past, and from having enunciated the principles of a well-defined basis of future operations, may show to be desirable, the minuteness, which might otherwise be regarded as redundant, in the report I

have now the honour to forward.

2. In accordance with the notice issued in the "Fort St. George Gazette," I proceeded, first, to examine such candidates as presented themselves for admission as normal students. The number of applicants in February 1856 was 16, of whom 12 were admitted on probation. Some of these did not reach the standard which had been fixed, but were admitted from the consideration that it would be undesirable to reject so many as to prevent others from afterwards presenting themselves; hence eight only of these were permanently retained. Another candidate was shortly after admitted, having been examined by papers forwarded to Calicut, where he was acting as an assistant master in the provincial school. A second examination was held about the middle of April, when 25 candinates presented themselves. Of these, 11 were entered as students, and seven retained permanently; one having voluntarily withdrawn, and refunded his scholarship fees, after some months residence, because the close application required, and the exercise of voice necessary, interfered with his health. 3. After the Midsummer vacation in June seven other candidates were examined, but one only proved fit for admission; he is now in the institution. No other students were admitted before January last; so that of the 17 examined in December, eight had been under instruction from March 3 to December 4, or eight months, since June is a vacation month; eight more from May 10 December, or for six months; and one from July, or for five months. Since January I have examined eight candidates, of whom four were admitted; one of these I did not feel justified in recommending for retention as a scholar; he consequently withdrew, so that three remain, thus making the total number of students at the present time 20, From this summary it will be seen that, out of 57 candidates, 20 only have been found fit subjects for training, and of these several can be considered so only by a very liberal construction. So great a discrepancy between the number applying and passing, even though the test was considerably lowered, must, I think, be taken to indicate the scarcity of moderately educated youths available for our purposes; whether there are many who have sufficient education seems to me more than doubtful. The extension of education will, it may be hoped, increase the supply; but I see little probability of securing good candidates except by the introduction of the system of pupil teachers, which prepares pupils especially for the normal school by a long course of practice in teaching, as well as by a course of elementary instruction from the masters; as long as pupils are admitted of lower attainments than those in the junior class of the college department of the Presidency College, so long will it be necessary to devote much of the time required for the practice and theory of teaching to elementary instruction. At present not more than one half of the pupils are as advanced as is desirable.

4. As a means of meeting the difficulty to some extent, I would propose the establishment of a preparatory class, in which the pupils should receive instruction, and not be called on to teach the pupils of this class to receive stipends of five rupees per mensem on passing an easy examination, and be subjected to periodical examinations before being elected to normal scholarships. Were such a class established, many promising youths would be secured who are now necessarily rejected; and what is of great importance, we should have the power of adapting the previous instruction of such pupils to their future course, and, lastly, their preliminary training would be sound, which is more than can now be said in many cases. The model and practising schools would probably supply some of the best pupils of this class; the having obtained a scholarship in either would be a guarantee of a pupil's fitness for it.

5. Such an arrangement would place in the hands of the institution the entire education of its most advanced pupils. The value of such an extended connexion, in enabling us to mould the character, not the intellectual only, but the moral, to a great extent, is incalculable; for it is a fallacy to suppose that good masters can be sent out with characters formed and reliable after a two years' course of instruction. Where pupils reside on the premises, and under the constant guide of masters of the same nation and faith, such a time is little enough; much more so when the intercourse is limited to hours of instruction, and even then only distant and constrained, from the prejudices on one, perhaps on each side. At present it would be difficult to provide for the teaching of this class.

6. What may be called the professional education of the normal students must be carried on principally through the medium of the primary department; but this, consisting of about 330 boys, was too large for a practising school; I consequently found it necessary to modify its organization, in order that a section might be devoted to that purpose. This section, of about 100 boys, has been taught entirely by the normal students under my supervision. They have also taught one other class entirely for some time past, also a Tamil class. The remainder of the boys has been taught by the master of the original primary school, with his assistants.

7. This division of the primary school into two parts laid the basis for the permanent organization which I had the honour to propose in September last, and which on your recommendation was sanctioned by Government. From unavoidable delay in procuring men from England this has not yet been carried out; I hope, however, to be able to commence the next half year with the practising and model schools under their respective masters. The duty of the master of the former or normal master will be to superintend the teaching

of

Class.

of the students, point out their defects as well as the way to remedy them, and give lessons as models for the imitation of the students. The master of the model school will conduct it, with the assistance of pupil teachers, in the same way as the students may be expected to carry on their schools after leaving the institution. They will not teach in this, except on an emergency; but those who have been in the practising school during any one week, will spend from three to six hours in the model school in the course of the following one; more especially towards the end of their time of training, in order that they may observe the general management and conduct of a school.

8. The special use of the practising department will be to familiarise the pupils with and practise them in the best methods of teaching; whilst the model department will show them how the general management and organisation is to be carried on. At the same time each will combine the other to some extent; indeed the greater the extent to which they do thi, the more perfect will each be. The agency employed is the essential distinction, and not the dissimilarity of the methods of teaching or results. The model school is necessary, to enable the future master to see how the work of a school can be done by the master, with such assistance as can be got, in the shape of pupil teachers, from the school itself. The practising school, with its supply of normal students for teachers, cannot exhibit to our future master an example of what his school should be, since he will have no normal students to call in as assistants; but in the model school he will see practically working such a school as in every way he may hope to imitate.

9. It will be seen from the foregoing remarks what I think the primary should be, compared with which what it has been is no more than a balting attempt. The accompanying sheet (B.) will show the studies in which the different pupils were prepared at Christmas. The examination in the vernacular was conducted by Mr. Joyes, in arithmetic and dictation by Mr. M'Leish, and in all other subjects by myself. The complete numerical tables are suspended in the school; but the average will probably better answer the purpose of giving a general comparative view of the result of the examination than copies of these tables. The following table contains this information.

TABLE of Average Results for each Class, and for the School generally.

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10. These results are in some cases unsatisfactory, but on the whole less so than I was prepared to find, knowing, as I did, the anomalous state in which the school had been during the year. The ultimate result of the tabulation, viz. 212 out of 440, is below what is desirable. According to my system of marking, no proportion below the half is quite satisfactory; this, it is true, is not much under that proportion; but I believe the vernacular marking to have been regulated by a very easy standard, I consequently feel less confident in speaking of the total than if the whole examination had been conducted by myself. At the same time that I know the primary department to be capable, under a more perfect organization, of producing higher results, I feel satisfied that a good deal has been effected during the year.

11. The primary object of a numerical table is to exhibit the relative amount of information possessed by each pupil, as compared with his class-fellows. By a comparison of the marks obtained with the number obtainable, its absolute amount, in the judgment of the

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examiner, is also shown; but supposing these two points to be clearly shown by it, there still remains the character of the instruction, which is not always fairly measured by the amount of knowledge exhibited. Such a table speaks, I think, rather of the number of facts stored, than of the intelligence and thought which the pupils have been taught and trained to bring to bear on any point. That this latter is, beyond comparison, the higher educational result requires only to be stated to command assent, and yet it is next to impossible to give this consideration its due weight in a numerical table. In saying this, I by no means intend to characterise these tabular statements as useless; on the contrary, I believe them to be of considerable value; what I wish, rather to do, is to bring forward the fact, too likely to be forgotten when examining such, that there is something behind which will always greatly modify, sometimes almost falsify, what the figures assert. As I am anxious to put this point forcibly, I may, perhaps, venture to quote a few words from the Rev. D. Coleridge. In speaking of school examinations, he says, "Is it after all, the knowledge itself however useful and fitting, which is most valuable to a child, and not rather, the awakening of the faculties, the ability to learn, to understand, to feel-in a word the culture of the mind? From that soil once fertilised, the hidden germ will spring up and the tender plant will strengthen, and every wind of heaven will sow fresh seed and all will grow up together, and the sun will shed its blessing on the ripening harvest; if barren, the trite simile of a child's garden, with its rootless flowers, or it may be, gaudy weeds, presents but too faithful an image of the transient crop, produced with so much pains and reviewed with so much admiration, But if it be desired to test the state of a child's faculties-the mental capability which has been called forth; let the examiner bear him read a few sentences in a sensibly written book, let him observe his countenance and attend to the intonations of his voice; and after a few judicious questions suggested by the subject, he will already have discerned the ineffaceable mark, if it be there, which education stamps upon the mind." The substance of this is so admirable, and expresses so truthfully the character which instruction must possess to be educative, that though I may differ in opinion as to the exact nature of the test to be applied, I cannot but feel that such a view is worthy of reiteration when we are involved in tables of numerical results, which have a tendency to ignore this more real test.

12. And if this is important in the case of boys, of children; much more so is it in the case of young men whose habits of mind must reproduce themselves indefinitely by forming similar ones in all those who will hereafter be subjected to their influence directly, as well as indirectly. Further, if these students have a tendency rather to trust to memory for the ready production of facts, than to their power of thought for the patient working out of principles; if I say, we have to do with pupils of this class, still more true is it that numerical tables are by no means to be relied on as infallible indications of educational results.

13. The accompanying sheet C. will show clearly the kind of work done by the normal students up to Christmas, as well as its amount.

To go fully into the method of treatment of each subject would be tedious. I may state generally that as regards teaching, the object constantly kept in view is to make every lesson such, both in matter and treatment, that it may show the students what they will have to do hereafter-that it may be in fact a model to them.

14. It was not attempted to cover a large surface, nor yet to treat any subject very abstractedly; but a clear knowledge of principles was, and is, as far as possible, given, and such examples for the most part worked, as some of the kind the students may use afterwards if they teach the same subjects.

15. This consideration of making each lesson a model made it necessary that the instruction should be to a great extent oral; whilst the fact that every master ought to be a student showed that the power of selecting knowledge from books ought to be imparted; otherwise, the lessons he gives in his school will echo more faintly every day, the instructions he received during his course of training. There are also other reasons why a future master, every student indeed, should be accustomed to the proper use of books. "In receiving oral instruction, a pupil's mind rests on that of his teacher. It has gathered strength, perhaps, but not independence. He has never sought knowledge for himself, or encountered the difficulties opposed to its acquisition by himself. When his props are taken away from him, it is difficult to see how he is to get on. The means of his further progress are new, and strange to his use." It is for this reason that, whilst the first and principal place is assigned to oral instruction, it is yet associated with the use of books. The first by fitting knowledge for the mind of the student creates a love for it, whilst the second forms the power which will enable him to increase his stores.

16. The labour of oral instruction is, however, very great, and that it may be well given, there is required a larger staff of teachers than has yet been appointed to the normal school-as steps are now being taken to remedy this, to some extent, I need do no more than allude to the defect.

17. English was the subject demanding most attention. The method of treatment here adopted is very different from that usually followed. Grammar abstractedly receives little. attention; a passage of some standard or other is taken and examined thoroughly, tested, as it were, by grammar. Afterwards the students are required to write a paraphrase in their own language of the piece so treated, which exercises are examined, corrected, and returned with remarks; sometimes the same passage is written a second time should any point have been generally misunderstood. This is a laborious process, but I have great faith in its power; and the result of the English part of the examination will be seen from the report of the Reverend P. Percival, who examined in those subjects, as well as in the vernacular, to justify to some extent the confidence I felt in the ultimate result.

18. Method is a subject to which great attention was devoted; but from its being entirely new ground to the students, and from the paper having contained questions requiring for their answers that the subject should have been not simply read in school and lectured on, but so studied and thought out, that each might speak from experience, or at least, from conviction. From this, and from its having been a long paper, the average numerical result is but 50 out of 130; in practical teaching it is however 75 out of 150, and upon this latter, of course, most depends their future usefulness as masters. The paper result I regard as satisfactory; many of the answers containing sound views well expressed, many others giving evidence of soundness, but being too shortly expressed, or seeming too much like quotations to entitle the writer to high marks.

19. Tamil is known to be much neglected by most natives; our pupils form no exception to the rule. It is consequently not to be wondered at, though much to be regretted, that their knowledge of their own language should be ranked far below that of English; the marks of the latter averaging 235 out of 350, or 47 out of 70, those of the former only 87 out of 190; the knowledge of English and Tamil thus being in the proportion of 893 to 609, or nearly in that of three to two.

20. The algebra examination papers were, I think, too difficult; that for the second division especially so. I have above stated what sort of knowledge has been attempted to be given, from my experience in training schools, I know it to be impossible to impart complete knowledge of such a subject, in the time usually available for its study; to do that, much longer time would be necessary, yet enough may be done to give a useful acquaintance and such a knowledge as will enable the student to teach the subject well. The papers set are not adapted to test this knowledge, rather to test such as a man should possess who went in for B. A. degree. To the two papers on algebra I have taken the liberty of appending that set by the Government Inspector of normal schools in England, to the first year students in December 1855, the latest I have by me. To such a paper of questions, I believe the students of both divisions, more especially the first would have answered satisfactorily; to that set they answered unsatisfactorily. Mr. Fortey set the papers on algebra, arithmetic, Euclid, mechanics, and astronomy, and his report will be found at the end.

21. In my letter, No. 20, dated January 29th, 1857, I enclosed the numerical table of results. The following will put those results in another form, and one better suited, perhaps, for the purposes of comparison, and reference.

The first column for any subject gives the per-centage of those excellent or good, the second of those excellent, good, and fair, and the difference between the number in this last column and 100, will give the per-centage remaining for those who are more or less unsatisfactory.

II. Madras:

An inspection of this table will show that for the first division of the students the subjects of history and geography are the least satisfactory; this must be remedied during the present year. I was, probably, rather severe in my marking, on account of the great inclination shown in most of the answers in those subjects to be vague and discursive, which is a fault much to be condemned; indeed, if it were general it might be taken as conclusive evidence of little mental culture, but I did not find it so strongly marked in other papers. It is a habit which I wage constant war against in my own teaching, from the conviction of its baneful influence.

22. In considering the second division, the result will be seen to be less satisfactory. The students here are altogether of a different "calibre" of mind from those of the upper; and whilst I hope to see most of them capable of teaching lower classes efficiently, I do not believe it possible that they can ever become men of powerful minds, or of extensive knowledge.

23. With the choice of candidates hitherto open, it has not been possible to exclude all those not well qualified.

24. It is true that for junior masterships there will always be required men of an inferior grade, but it would be well if we could exclude all below the standard I have above intimated; since there will, under the most favourable circumstances, be some who rank low and who will supply holders of lower posts.

25. I am able to report very favourably on the attention and perseverance of the students. With their progress in acquiring knowledge I am satisfied also; but a systematic method of teaching is not as yet attained by many of them.

26. Judging from my limited experience, I am inclined to think that naturally, the native of India is not well adapted to become a schoolmaster.

27. In the two prime characteristics of an efficient master, firmness for discipline and fertility of illustration and explanation for teaching, he seems to me to be specially defective. Both these defects are deep seated; the first hardly to be remedied without the addition of a new element of character, the second only by forming a new habit of mind. Imitation will not avail; indeed, few would attempt it in the matter of Government, for though a native has great faith generally in his own capability, he here feels himself so utterly powerless as to give it up; and in the second, if imitation of particular cases be the main source whence his lessons are drawn, it must run dry immediately. If any man wants originality, a good teacher does. I do not mean originality of a high order or genius; but that kind of originality which can seize on the varied and unexpected points occurring in a lesson, see their bearing, and turn them to advantage. Some progress in teaching was made before December, more has been made since, and as I hope to place the practising school on a more satisfactory footing for the next half year, I trust that the improvement may then proceed in an increased ratio.

28. Rather more than one-third of the time of each student is devoted to teaching, and this is by no means too much, since our great object is to give the students skill in teaching and managing. My idea of a perfect normal school is that of one where no new knowledge should be imparted; rather where that previously acquired should be thought out and arranged in the form thus suited for instruction, and where the whole time of the students

should