First Century After the Expulsion 87 
     
    
   
   
    
     A SCHOOL SYSTEM TAKES SHAPE 
     
    
   
   
    
     The few schools that did exist on the Island were run without financial 
     
     help from the government until 1825 at which time the Legislature 
     
     of the colony voted an amount of money designed to encourage the 
     
     establishment of schools'*®. From that year onward the Island govern- 
     
     ment became increasingly interested in the education of its citizens. 
     
     In 1830 it created a Board of Education, composed of five members 
     
     responsible for issuing teaching certificates, and alloted 590 pounds 
     
     for the upkeep of schools’’’. The following year the Public Treasury 
     
     contributed towards the operational costs of three grammar schools 
     
     and fourteen district schools’’®. 
     
    

    
     The School Act of 1834 laid down the terms of the system of 
     
     instruction which was to develop in the colony. This law established 
     
     three categories of teachers for the district schools. The so-called “first 
     
     class” teachers were to be sufficiently qualified to be able to teach 
     
     English, Reading, Writing and Practical Arithmetic; “second class” 
     
     teachers were to be capable of also teaching Geometry, Trigonometry, 
     
     Mensuration, Surveying and English Grammar. Finally, in addition to 
     
     all these subjects, the “third class” teacher had to have a good know- 
     
     ledge of the Classics and the highest branches of Mathematics and 
     
     Geography. He also had to be familiar with globes and be able to use 
     
     them in class. In order to obtain one of these certificates the teacher 
     
     had to pass the examinations set by the Board of Education in the 
     
     required subjects’’’. 
     
    

    
     In 1837 John McNeill was appointed as the first school inspector. 
     
     His initial report is interesting because it shows that education was 
     
     spreading throughout the Island: there were now fifty-one schools 
     
     and 1,169 school children. The population of the Island at the time 
     
     was approximately forty-seven thousand. McNeill’s remarks pertaining 
     
     to the quality of the teaching were less encouraging: 
     
    
   
   
    
     I regret to have it to state, from recent personal observation, that the system 
     
     of instruction pursued in many of the county schools throughout the Island 
     
     is extremely defective, and consequently but little really useful and substantial 
     
     knowledge is acquired by the children attending them.” 
     
    
   
   
    
     The government subsidies to the schools were not large; they 
     
     paid for a portion of the teachers’ salaries. The remainder came out