Although pãtasãla-s existed in medieval Kãnçipura, schools in a Western sense became critical with rising numbers of Europeans (and Eurasians) and their children in 17th century India. The necessity became acute because of orphaned and/or abandoned children. Local government and the foreign community in Madras felt compelled to provide for the neglected children in some way. Another reason was religious proselytism of protecting the new converts. Schools at this time served principally as a facility offering basic literacy and numeracy skills, with no path-breaking innovation in pedagogy. Innovation was mostly of social nature, enrolling children from marginalised families.
In such a context, the first school for orphaned girls was started by Dom Aleixo de Menezes, the Archbishop of Goa, using Portuguese medium, in Goa in 1605. Records show that a schoolmaster was paid in Madras by the English East-India Company from 1670. Two Tamizh schools exclusively for boys, and one Tamizh school exclusively for girls, one Portuguese school for both boys and girls, and one Danish school (for both boys and girls-?) existed in Tranquebar in 1712. A charity school on private donations existed in Madras in 1715, which, in high probability, admitted both boys and girls, because the covenant indicates that boys be taught to read, write, and learn accounting, whereas girls to read and some aspects of home management.
As time passed, these schools suffered financial difficulties. When Bartholomew Ziegenbalg died in 1719 and John Ernest Gründler in 1720 the schools started by the Royal Danish Mission in Tranquebar folded. However, their successors restarted the schools, with monies donated from Germany. However, even this support gradually waned. By the late 18th century the Madras Military Male Orphan Asylum (MMOA) administration resorted to lottery to support 250 children; running a money lottery was successful because the people of Madras, irrespective of caste or religion, bought lottery tickets, with a hope of making a quick buck. (Could this be the earliest organised money lottery in India?) On the other hand, struggling schools in Calcutta organised sacred-music concerts to raise funds.
Andrew Bell interested in educational practice ‘developed’ a pedagogy in MMOA, which he supervised in 1793. According to the Bell pedagogy, a teacher taught his older students directly, and those students taught the younger ones and maintained order among them – came to be referred as ‘monitors’. This method was acceptable to Indian Muslims as well. The method gained support from the government because it saved money for them: less teachers, therefore less expenditure. Today the world celebrates Bell pedagogy as Madras system of education, although we know that Bell refined a practice, which he saw in a pãtasãla in Calicut.
The earliest schools for differently-abled children commenced in Madras. William Cruickshanks, born to an Irish soldier in Madras in 1800 and abandoned, entered the Male Military Orphan Asylum. At the age of 12, Cruickshanks turned blind. Not despairing, Cruickshanks heard lessons read aloud by his mates and memorized them; in a few years, he started tutoring children of wealthy Madras families. In 1838, he became the headmaster of the Native Education Society’s School (100 students) in Madras. He became the headmaster of MMOA in 1841, and that of the 25-strong new school in Palayamkottai in 1844. A note on this remarkable Madras man is available in Stephen Neill. School Education Inspector Miss Carr refers to the ‘satisfactory’ performance of children with hearing and speech impairments in a school run by Florence Swainson in Palayamkottai in 1898.
(The author is a senior lecturer in Ecological Agriculture at Charles Sturt University, Orange, New South Wales, Australia)