When Britishers came to India, at that time indigenous system of education was prevalent.

There was an
outsized number of Muslim Maktabs and Madrasahs, Hindu Pathsalas, the Tolls of Bengal, Agraharas of
southern India. These institutions were mostly single teacher schools with multiple class teaching. In
some cases senior students acted as monitors and helped the teacher within the teaching work. The
medium of instruction in these institutions was Sanskrit, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Persian, Telugu, Tamil etc.

Provision for imparting education existed in Madrasahs and other centers of upper learning. The
importance of these institutions in fulfilling the tutorial needs of the Indian masses cannot be
underestimated. thanks to the unsatisfactory financial condition , these institutions were declining
gradually. there's no mention of 1 school which was held during a house exclusively used for itself Most
of them were held in temples, private dwellings or sheds or the homes of the teachers themselves.

They had hardly any continuity and sprang up or vanished according to local demand or its absence. As a
rule, they weren't communal in their working and were opened to all or any or any who could afford to
shop for schooling. Most of the teachers were Brahmins and accepted teaching profession not for the
profit in cash or kind but more by the respectability which tradition gave it. the entire emolument of the
teacher was between Rs. 3 to Rs. 5 per month. The teachers were men of ordinary attainments and
really often they knew no quite the tiny they taught in their schools

The pupils of the indigenous schools came from different communities although the kids of the upper
classes formed the huge majority. These schools taught the rudiments of reading, writing and
arithmetic. an outsized sort of multiplication tables were taught to the pupils mainly with a view to
enabling them to unravel mentally all kinds of sums that ordinarily occurred in lifestyle . The equipment
of the schools was very simple and crude. These institutions were the foremost agency for the spread of
mass education. It had no religious tinge and had no endowments either from the state or from the
overall public .

The size of the varsity was generally small. There was no regular period of admission. At any time during
the year the pupil could join the varsity and followed his own pace of study. during this respect the
larger schools were bit systematic. The chief merit of the indigenous system of education was its
adaptability to local environment and thus the vitality and recognition that that they had earned by
centuries of existence under a spread of economic conditions. the shortage of coaching and sound
education of teachers generally , the narrow and limited curriculum and thus the severe kinds of
punishment adopted, were variety of the short comings of the indigenous system of education.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the indigenous system of education was fast decaying on
account of the prevailing anarchy or the growing impoverishment of the people under British rule.
British Government crushed down the indigenous educational system, which had been prevalent in our
country from outing of mind .

These institutions were imparting some quite education to the masses, if not better kind of education.
The authority didn't take any step to reinforce the condition of those indigenous schools existed in
several parts of the country in various pattern, but watched them steadily decline impoverished.
Gradually the network of indigenous schools disappeared and a few of latest schools cropped up. Not
realizing the inherent utility of this indigenous system for the expansion of mass education the Western
educators opined, “The indigenous system in India was of no importance and therefore the British
officers were justified in ending the same”.

The expansion of education in India are often attributed to the efforts of Christian missionaries. Their
earliest activities were confined mainly to education . in several parts of the country elementary schools
were established by them. Whatever may have been the character and character of colleges established
by them, there is no denying the actual fact that they introduced a replacement introduce education of
the country, which exercised a crucial influence on the prevailing system of education.

Thanks to those good old missionaries who instilled new life within the myriads of Indians, who
launched organised efforts with a view to usherine during this new era of welcome change. But the basic
aim of these Missionaries was to convert people by preaching the doctrine of Christianity through
European mode of education. For them education wasn't an end in itself but how to the spread of
Christianity.

According to Prof. Nurrullah and Naik “The Missionaries used education as how of evangelization. They
propagated for the spread of Christianity through English medium. Only the Presidencies of Calcutta,
Madras and Bombay were the foremost centres of education at that time”.