The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century c4.11

c4.11

The fortunes of English Public schools are said to have fallen strikingly during the eighteenth century. In January 1797, the famous school at Shrewsbury, for instance, did not have ‘above three or four boys.’ After some major reorganisation, it had about 20 pupils a year later.¹⁸ In public schools like Eton, teaching consisted of writing and arithmetic (a number of English and Latin books were studied); while those in the fifth form also learnt ancient Geography, or Algebra. Those who stayed at Eton long enough' also 'went through part of Euclid.'¹⁹ However it was 'not till 1851 that Mathematics became a part of the regular school work and even at that date those who taught the subject were not regarded as persons of full standing on the staff of masters.'²⁰