The Role of Vernacular Schools in Promoting Education in 24 Parganas during the Colonial Period
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31305/rrijm.2025.v10.n7.029Keywords:
Vernacular Education, 24 Parganas, Colonial Bengal, Missionary Schools, Bengali Medium, Educational PolicyAbstract
This article examines the growth, operation, and impact of vernacular schools in District 24 Parganas during the Colonial period. With changing Colonial education policies and the role of missionaries, and also the local social reform movements, vernacular schools played a vital role in promoting elementary education in rural and semi-urban Bengal during the Colonial period. These schools used regional languages like Bengali etc. and Hindi and Urdu for teaching. They became important for control and social progress. The study shows the complex network of people, including Colonial administrators, missionaries, Indian reformers, and local communities, that shaped the direction of these vernacular institutions. This research examines how vernacular schools helped in the promotion of school education, using archival data, census records, educational reports, and data based on secondary sources.
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Tols were educational institutions focused on the instruction of classical language, literature, and logic. They served as centers for advanced scholarly learning, particularly in subjects such as grammar and philosophy, and were typically managed by individual scholars.
Pathshalas were elementary schools found throughout local communities, providing instruction in basic literacy and numeracy. These schools generally operated in simple settings and offered foundational education to children in the vernacular language.
Madrasas were institutions that provided advanced instruction in language, literature, and various branches of knowledge. Their curriculum often included religious and linguistic education, and they were organized to serve the cultural and academic needs of their students.
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This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
