3&amp;8

EDUCATION.

There is no more interesting survival in Ceylon than the
Pansala school. Centuries ago these schools were a living
institution here, as they are to-day in Burma. In Ceylon
only a feeble flicker of that life remains ; but here and there
you will still find at the village temple a yellow-robed
priest seated perhaps under a tree and teaching five or six
boys. Each of these holds a scrap of ola manuscript, and
they are learning to read from such books as the temple
happens to possess. There is a well-defined series of old
works on the Sinhalese alphabet and grammar, which is
supposed to form the regular course of the Pansala school.
But such studies are, as a rule, confined to those intended
for the priesthood ; the ordinary village boy at the Pansala
school learns nothing except to read and write, and this
instruction is imparted by means of books only dimly
anderstood. Many have thought that the Paunsala school
ought to have been adopted by the English as the means of
education in rural districts. But such astep was impossible.
The system was practically dead. The people had lost all
sense of obligation to send their children to such schools,
and there were no means of inducing or compelling the
priests to do their duty as teachers.

Historical.

British rule in Ceylon dates from 1796. Our predecessors
the Dutch had in most matters of administration a very
clear and consistent policy. Education was no exception to
this rule. It was placed under a body called the Scholarchal
 Commission,* consisting of about eight members, lay
and clerical, under the presidency of the Dissave of
Colombo, the Dutch official who ranked next to the Governor,
and during the whole of the eighteenth century there were not
only Dutch schools in the principal towns, but also vernacalar
 schools in all the most important parts of those parts
of the Island which were held by the Dutch. The village
schools were under native teachers, who received a fair
rate of pay, and were under the direct supervision of the
Proponents or native ministers. Once a year two members,
one clerical and one lay, of the Scholarchal Commission
visited every school, and a report was drawn up which was
submitted to Government and forwarded to Holland. Registers
 were kept in every school, compulsory attendance was
anforced by a system of fines, and during a considerable

* For a full account of this see Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the
Royal Asiatic Society, vol. I, p. 105, “ The Education Establishments of the
Dutch in Ceylon.” by the Rev. J. D. Palm.