What were the condition of pathshalas …

William Adam (1796 – 1881) toured the ‘pathshalas’ in Bengal, mostly those in the north of Calcutta. The conditions of the Pathshalas were:

1. The system of education in pathshalas was flexible.
2. There was no proper system of fixed fee, printed books, benches, chairs, blackboards, and roll-registers.
3. They had no system of separate classes and school buildings.
4. There was no procedure for annual examinations and regular time-table.
5. In some places classes were held under a banyan tree, in other places in the corner of a village shop or temple, or at the guru’s home.
6. Fee depended on the income of parents: the rich had to pay more than the poor. 
7. The teaching process was oral with no fixed topic. The guru decided what to teach, in accordance with the needs of the students.