SCHOOL INSPECTORS OF WEST BENGAL

In 1853, Mr. Woodrow was the Secretary of the Education Council of British Bengal, after the Woods Despatch in 1854, the Council was dissolved, and the Education Department was reorganized. At that time, the administrative division and its districts were as follows-

• Southwestern Districts or Bardhaman Division: Badhaman, Bankura, Midnapore, Jahanabad Sub Division of Hoogly, Howrah.
• North Central Districts: Malda, Murshidabad, Birbhum, Jessore, Rajsahi, Dinajpur, Rangpur, Bogra, Part of Nadia, Bardhaman, Hoogly; Pabna,
• South Central Districts or Presidency Division: Calcutta, Nadia, 24 Pargana, Howrah
• Cooch Behar Division: Jalpaiguri (Dy. Ins- Bireswar Sen, 16 july.1868), Darjeeling (Dy. Ins-J. Thomas, 1865)
• Eastern Districts: Dhaka Division – Maymansingh. Sylhat. Cooch Behar, Chittagong. Noakhali, Tripura
• Northwest Districts. Patna, Bihar, Saran. Champaran, Gaya
• Rajsahi Division:
• Central Districts or Chotonagpur Division: Southwest Frontier
• Assam Division:

In 1854, Charles Wood, President of the Board of Control of the British East India Company, sent a despatch to the then Governor General of India, Lord Dalhousie, on English education and women’s education in India. At the same time, it was also said to create an Education Department in every province. Accordingly, the Education Department was created in the then Bengal Province and a post of Education Officer was created.

In 1855, the government decided to open government aided schools for teaching English and vernacular languages ​​in Bengal Province. But to decide what method should be taught in these schools or what should be the Mode of Instruction, the principal of the Sanskrit College, Pandit Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, was given the responsibility. Mr. Vidyasagar made a proper outline and submitted it to the government. According to this report, the outline indicated is the first step in the expansion of education in rural Bengal. Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar Mahashay was appointed as Special Inspector of Schools to implement the plan which the British Government took to spread modern education in Bengal. He was appointed as Special  Inspector of Schools with an additional salary of Rs. 200/-. On May 1, 1855, Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar Mahashay, the first inspector in Bengal, joined as Special Inspector of Schools. He was entrusted with the work of spreading education in Burdwan, Nadia, Medinipur, Hooghly districts.

A few days later he submitted a second report to the Government of Bengal proposing the establishment of a Teacher Training School or Normal School to train competent teachers to teach in these newly established schools. Accordingly, the first teacher training school in Bengal was established with two unused rooms of the Sanskrit College.

Vidyasagar Mahashay took up the task of spreading education in villages with great enthusiasm. He appointed 4 Sub inspectors of Schools, Tarashankar Bhattacharya, Harinath Bandopadhyay, Deenbandhu Nyayaratna and Madhav Chandra Goswami on a monthly salary of Rs. 100 /- to assist in the rapid expansion of education. Salary was allotted additional allowance for extra traveling expenses.

In 1856, the first Lt. Governor of Bengal, FJ Halliday, reorganized the education department, and removed the post of Secretary of the Council of Education, and renamed it DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION and appointed W G Young as DPI.

Mr. Vidyasagar was not satisfied with the appointment of MR YOUNG and requested the Lt. Governor to appoint an officer with more experience as DPI. This started Vidyasagar Mahashay’s feud with Mr. Young. Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar established many schools, especially girls’ schools, in those 4 districts, to which Mr. Young strongly objected. But on friendship with the Lt. Governor, Mr. Vidyasagar continued to advance with great enthusiasm in the work of spreading women’s education.

Meanwhile, in the following year, the cabinet in England changed and spending on education was reduced. Vidyasagar Mahashay is in trouble because DPI Mr. Young refused to accept the cost of the newly established schools, instead of advising Vidyasagar Mahashay to change the inspection report, Vidyasagar Mahashay expressed his disapproval of distorting the truth and instead sent his resignation letter asking for immediate dismissal from the post of school inspector. Despite requests for reconsideration of resignation by Lt. Governor, Vidyasagar remained steadfast in his decision and was relieved of his duties as Inspector of Schools in November 1858.

After Vidyasagar Mahashay’s resignation, Bhudev Mukhopadhyay was appointed as Additional Inspector of Schools of Central Division in 1862, who simultaneously held responsibility in various departments of Bengal, Bihar, Orissa. He was honored as Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1877 in recognition of his commendable role in the Department of Education during his long service life. In 1882 he was promoted as Director of Public Instruction. Later, he was a nominated member of the Lt. Governor’s office and was also a member of the Hunter Commission. He retired from the Education Department in 1883.

In 1865, Public Instruction Committee of Education was formed in the state of Cooch Behar. This committee, with the assistance of the Government Inspector of Schools of the North-East Division of British Bengal, worked for the inspection and supervision of schools in the State of Cooch Behar. This committee appointed Deputy Inspector of Schools locally and was involved in the work of inspecting the schools and spreading education in the poor areas. It was running under this management till 1870. But as the number of schools increased and the need for a full-time Superintendent of Education was felt, a separate Education Department was formed in the state in 1870 and R. Robinson was appointed as the first Superintendent of Education in the state in 1870. He held this position till October 1871. Meanwhile, in September 1871, Babu Kashinath Mukherjee resigned from the post of Inspector of Schools in the Education Department of British Bengal and joined Cooch Behar State as Superintendent of Education in 1871. With such an experienced person in charge of the education department, a significant change was achieved in the education sector of the state. He was engaged in this duty tirelessly for 9 years.

After Wood’s Despatch, when education departments were formed in each province, the Bengal province was divided into 9 educational divisions. At that time the administrative structure was as follows-

• A Director of Public Instruction in charge of the entire Department of Education.
• Inspectors of Schools in charge of a Division An Additional Inspector of Schools, two Assistant Inspectors of Schools lived under this Inspector of Schools
• A Deputy Inspector of Schools was in charge of each district under the department; There were some Sub Inspectors of Schools under the Deputy Inspector of Schools.
• Assistant Sub Inspector of Schools, Inspecting Pandit, Guru Instructor etc. were to help Sub Inspectors.

There were 4 different cadres of education officers and different recruiting bodies as follows-

• The Indian Educational Service
• The Provincial Educational Service
• The Subordinate educational Service
• The Lower Subordinate Educational Service

At that time (as from 1871 to 1904) consisted of 9 Educational Division and its Inspector of Schools and other authorized posts numbered as follows –

• Bardhaman Division: Ray Bahadur Radhanath Rai, BA retired on 27 Sept, then Moulabi Mahammed Ibrahim + 1 Assistant Inspector + 8 Deputy Inspector of School + 48 Sub Inspector of Schools
• Presidency Division including Calcutta: Mr. P. Mukherjee, B.Sc. + 1 Assistant Inspector + 7 Deputy Inspector of School + 33 Sub Inspector of Schools
• Rajsahi Division: Mr. Hallward, MA, + 6 Deputy Inspector of School + 32 Sub Inspector of Schools
• Dhaka Division: Mathura Nath Chatterjee, MA upto 23rd July, retired. Then Moulabi Mohammed Ibrahim, BA up to 9th October. Kumud Bandhu Basu, Assistant Inspector in charge upto 8th January 1904 + 1 Assistant Inspector + 7 Deputy Inspectors of Schools + 35 Sub Inspectors of Schools
• Chittagong Division: Abdul Karim, BA + 3 Deputy Inspector of School + 22 Sub Inspector of Schools
• Patna Division: Mr. W. Billing, MA + 1 Assistant Inspector + 7 Deputy Inspector of School + 34 Sub Inspector of Schools
• Bhagalpur Division: Dr. P. Chatterjee, BA + 1 Assistant Inspector + 6 Deputy Inspector of School + 26 Sub Inspector of Schools
• Orrissa Division: Mr. H. A. Stark, BA + 3 Deputy Inspector of School + 30 Sub Inspector of Schools
• Choto Nagpur Division: Mr. M. Ghosh, BA upto 12 oct, Sashi Bhusan Dutta, MA + 1 Assistant Inspector + 5 Deputy Inspector of School + 20 Sub Inspector of Schools

There were 52 Deputy Inspectors of Schools working in a total of 58 districts within these 9 Divisions and the total number of Sub Inspectors of Schools was 280. Out of the 9 divisions, the names of the Sub Inspectors of Schools working in the 3 divisions included in the current boundaries of West Bengal are-

• Bardhaman Division: Satish Chandra Mukherjee, Umesh Chandra Basu, Rasik Lal Das, Ram Gopal Mukherjee, Gopinath Majumder, Nibaran Chandra Das gupta, Gopinath Sen, Radhanath Chatterjee,
• Presidency Division: Satish Chandra Choudhury, Kamalesh Chandra Banerjee, Bhusan Chandra Banerjee, Anukul Chandra Mukherjee, Moulabi Izad Baksh, Charu Chandra Banerjee, Suresh Chandra Choudhury, Musraff Hossain, Krishna Chandra Banerjee, Rati Kanta Laha, Hari Charan Mukherjee; Priyanath Brahmachari; Satkari Sanyal, Madhusudan Sarkar, Umesh Chandra Basu, Suresh Chandra Ray, Gopal Chandra Ray: Dinnath Bhattacharya, Moulavi Mohammad Wazir
• Rajsahi Division: Jajneswar Chakraborty, Gabinda Chandra Ray, Akshay Kumar Sen, Harivar Mitra, Gobinda Chandra Banerjee, Damodar Prasad Sarkar

In 1908-09 some more posts of Sub Inspectors of Schools were approved in the District Board, and the number of posts of Sub Inspectors of Schools stood at 306 and the number of Assistant Sub Inspectors of Schools stood at 70. During this time there was one Additional Inspector of Schools and two Assistant Inspectors of Schools in each division under the Inspector of Schools. The post of Deputy Inspector of Schools in each district is renamed as Chief Inspector of Schools.

By 1921-22, the posts of School Inspectors were renamed as –

• District Inspectors
• Sub Divisional Inspectors
• Assistant Inspectors
• Sub Inspectors
• Assistant Sub Inspectors
• Inspecting Pandit

In the financial year 1922-23, as per Education Department’s letter no. 1598- Edn, dated the 4th August 1922, 4 number post of Subdivisional Inspectors were created.

According to the data, it is seen that in the financial year 1922-23, the total number of posts of education officers in all cadres was 418 which decreased to 388 in the next financial year where 25 Sub Inspector and 5 Assistant Sub Inspector posts were abolished. As a result of the government’s austerity policy, this number fell further on March 31, 1925.

As on 31st March 1925, the sanctioned number of posts in various Cadres of Education Officers in various Departments was as follows: –

A few years later in 1932-33 the post of Additional Assistant Director of Public Instruction was also abolished.

An attempt has been made to highlight the names of all the school inspectors working in the various districts of the present West Bengal before 1930, who are the predecessors of the present generation of inspectors, through data research.

• Nilmoni Mukherjee, Sub Inspector of Schools, Uluberia, 1873
• Phoni Bhusan Mukherjee, Inspector of Schools, 1907
• Radhika Prasanna Mukherjee, Dy. Inspector of Schools, 24 Parganas, 1873
• Brahmma Mohan Mallick, 1877.
• Sashi Bhushan Mukherjee, first grade, Sub Inspector of Schools, 1876
• Sripati Mukherjee, Additional Assistant Inspector of Schools, Presidency Division, 1907, Burdwan Division, 1908.
• A. M. Nash- officiating inspector of schools, Presidency Circle.
• Miss Indumukhi Nath, Assistant Inspectress of Schools, Burdwan Division.
• Niebel, Dy. Inspector of Schools, Darjeeling, 1865
• Hira Lal Pal, Dy. Inspector of Schools, 1907
• Akshay Kumar De, Sub Inspector of Schools, Berhampore, 1873,
• R. Parry, Inspector of Orissa Circle, Dy. Inspector of Schools, Midnapore, Inspector of Schools, Eastern Circle
• Abdul Hait, Sub-Inspector of Schools, 1873, Jalpaiguri, 1898.
• Abdul Abid Hq, Assistant Inspector of Schools, Presidency Division, 1908
• Abdul Karim, Inspector of Schools, 1898
• Abdul Latif, Dy. Inspector of Schools, Burdwan Division, 1908, Additional Inspector of Schools, 1908

After the Bengal Code of 1930 many more changes have taken place in the education system and the Cadre structure of the present education department is largely influenced by the Bengal Code.