( 52 ) 32 From BABU JAGAT BANDHU LAHA, Head Master, Dacca Training School. Dated, Dacca, the 29th January, 1895. GENTILEMEN, I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Circular letter dated the 5th Instant and to thank you for the honour you have done me by consulting me on the very important subject which you have taken up. For a long time, I have been of opinion that in the lower classes of our English schools, a great deal of the time and the energy of the boys are unnecessarily taken up in consequence of their being compelled to read History, Geography, Grammar and Mathematics in English. They have not only to understand the language, but they have also to Commit it to memory to be able to answer questions put to them in those subjects properly. Thus a great deal of strain is put on their powers, which cannot but be detrimental to their progress. At the same time, it cannot be said that they clearly understand the facts of History and Geography and the definitions of Grammar, or follow and grasp satisfactorily the reasoning in Geometry. Nor do they make that progress in learning English as a language, which those who advocate the present system, expect. If the reform which you suggest be introduced, a great deal of the time of the boys will be saved and they will be able to devote greater time and attention than they are able to do now to their text-books in English and to parsing, composition and translation and retranslation. Thus, while on the one hand, they will understand and learn their Grammar, Geography, History and Geometry better, they will make greater progress in English than they do now and in a shorter time. I am therefore of opinion that up to the Fourth Class of Entrance Schools at least, the vernacular languages should be the medium of instruction in the subjects named above. The only restriction that think it desirable to put is, that, while the body of the books treating of these subjects should be in the vernacular, the terms used (such, for example, as orthography, etymology, noun, verb, mood, tense &c., in Grammar; island, lake, strait &c., and the names of places in Geography; angle, straight line, parallelogram, axiom, postulate &c., in Geometry; the names of foreigners in History; and the figures I, 2, 3, 4 &c., and the names units, tens, hundreds &c., in Arithmetic) should be written in English. Several English Grammars for beginner shave been written on this principle, and if it be accepted, similar book on the other subjects will no doubt be published without delay. As for the proposal of making the vernacular languages a part of the
