द ब्यूटीफुल ट्री: १८वीं सदी में भारत की स्वदेशी गुरुकुल शिक्षा (धर्मपाल)

TOTAL SCHOOLS, COLLEGES AND SCHOLARS Table 1 gives the total number of schools and institutions of higher learning, along with the number of students in them in their districts. The data is taken from the reports of the collectors. Incidentally, the collectors of Ganjam and Vizagapatam indicated that the data they were sending was somewhat incomplete. This might also have been true of some of the other districts which were wholly or partly under Zamindary tenure. Two of the collectors also sent detailed information pertaining to those who were being educated at home, or in some other private manner. The collector of Malabar sent details of 1,594 scholars who were receiving education in Theology, Law, Astronomy, Metaphysics, Ethics and Medical Science in his district from private tutors. The collector of Madras, on the other hand, reported in his letter of February 1826 that 26,963 school- level scholars were then receiving tuition at their homes in the area under his jurisdiction. More will be said about this private education subsequently. The reports of the collectors were ultimately reviewed by the Government of the Presidency of Madras on 10 March 1826. The Governor, Sir Thomas Munro, was of the view that while the institutional education of females seemed negligible, that of the boys between the ages of 5 to 10 years appeared to be a ‘little more than one-fourth’ of the boys of that age in the Presidency as a whole. Taking into consideration those who were estimated as being taught at home, he was inclined ‘to estimate the portion of the male population who receive school education to be nearer to one-third than one-fourth of the whole.’ CASTE-WISE DIVISION OF MALE SCHOOL STUDENTS The more interesting and historically more relevant information, however, is provided by the caste-wise division of students. This is true not only as regards boys, but also with respect to the rather small number of girls who, according to the survey, were receiving education in schools. Furthermore, the information becomes all the more curious and pertinent when the data is grouped into the five main language areas—Oriya, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil. These constituted the Presidency of Madras at this period, and throughout the nineteenth century. Table 2 gives the caste-wise number of school-going male students in each district of the five language areas. 26