Buddhist education in colonial Burma

This post contains an article from the 28 February 1903 edition of The Hanthawaddy Weekly Review discussing Buddhist education in Mandalay. This edition of the newspaper is available in its entirety in PDF form on the Myanmar E-Library in the newspaper section. The translation below covers the text from the red line near the bottom of the the first (left hand) column to the red line near the bottom of the last (right hand) column.

Vocabulary:

စပ်လျဉ်း ။ [စပ်လျဉ်း၍] relating to ; in connection with; as regards to.
စာစစ်ပွဲ ။ examination
ပရိယတ် ။ study of ပိဋကတ်
သင်ခဏ်းစာ ။ [သင်ခန်းစာ] lesson
အသီးသီး ။ separately, respectively; each and every
တံဆိပ် ။ seal; stamp; medal; emblem; trademark; badge
သီးခြား ။ separate, independent
ဆုချ ။ to reward; give a prize
အကလေး ။ [same as ကလေး] child
ပကာသန ။ ostentation
ဆောင်းပါး ။ article; parcel or letter dispatched by courier
ထည့်သွင်း ။ to put in, insert, include
အလေ့အထ ။ habit, custom
သင့်လျော် ။ to be suitable, proper
သင်ကြား ။ teach, train; learn
သဘောထား ။ to consider, regard; attitude, intention
မှန်း ။ to aim; intend
တန်း ။ to head straight for
မုချ ။ without fail, surely
လား ။ to reach
တင်မြှောက် ။ to appoint of elect someone to a high office
တစ်စုံတစ်ယောက် ။ someone, anyone, nobody
အရွယ်၃ပါး ။ the three stages of life (child, adult, elderly)
ဆည်းပူး ။ to acquire (knowledge, riches, merit, etc.)
အနက် ။ meaning; definition
ဖြောင့် ။ straight
မတ် ။ upright vertical
ထိုက် ။ to be worth, have a certain value; deserve
ချင့် ။ to measure, calculate, estimate
လေးလံ ။ heavy; ponderous
ထင်မြင် ။ to visualise; discern mentally; believe; think
ဘွယ် ။ [ဘွဲ ?] title, award
အဓိပ္ပါယထ္ထ ။
လုံလောံ ။ [လုံလောက် ?] to be sufficient, enough
ဝတ် ။ duty; responsibility
အတုံ့အပြန် ။ reciprocally
သဉ့်နော/လဉ့်နော ? ။ ?
စမ်းသပ် ။ to test, experiment
မက ။ more than

Translation:

Regarding matters about the Buddhist Missionary Association

[The article is] in regards to the examination that the Mandalay City Buddhist Missionary Association held not long ago. [The examination] contained questions that were asked in [regards to] the Mingala Sutta lessons of the Tipitaka literature. A total of 60 young people entered [the examination]. 22 young people were successful. In that way, each and every one of those who were successful will be documented. Amongst those who were successful, the first,

second, third [placed people received] silver medals. The remaining successful people [received] books. In that way [those who took the exam] are distinguished and the Buddhist Missionary Association leaders will give out the prizes [to them]. The association school teacher Maung Bo Htun included an article [about this matter] one week ago in our association's letter.

Now, in regards to the matter, the conducting of an examination once a year is exceedingly appropriate for any school. That is because children [and] young people, as they study literature and the Tipitaka for the whole year, if they study without loosing the consideration that "I will get an examination on the last day [and] will have to compete with all of the people in the same level as me," it is greater than studying without having such an aim. Anyone who strives hard without fail, whether a leader [or] whether a child in the world, although they are able to attain that prestige, because children excel and can attain that prestige more than adults, now in the Buddhist Missionary Association School with the giving of prizes once a year to those who succeed in doing the examination, it is an exceedingly good means to establish prestige in getting merit*. Childhood and youth, within the three stages of life, are ages at which [people] search for and enroll in education. Amongst whatever correct ways there can be to improve [the situation] of whether any child acquires education or not, if there is a correct way that is honest and upright, the way that can hit [succeed?] and reform shall commence. Just like displaying superior status, whatever way raises prestige and gives support is of worth.

In the template explained above, in the Mandalay City Buddhist Missionary School, amongst the questions that were asked in [regards to] the Mingala Sutta, with the age of the people who answered, although there were awards for excessive mental discernment of difficulties for some questions that were deserving of mental consideration, the system of devising the questions was very appropriate. And with that, whether children or adults, amongst Tipitaka literature studies, in regards to the meaning of wisdom that is studied in any section, any quarter, any department, any subject, because understanding is not established and properly studied, [although] the spoken word may improve in some way [for] any literature, [since] the meaning of that writing is not understood and not known, it should not be said that the resulting illumination is sufficient. For the student to understand the meaning, especially because the teacher's duty is of the Dhamma, for those who teach and act as teachers, in regards to the present issue it is appropriate to take special care of the Buddhist teachings.

In regards to the present matter, an issue that we happen to notice [is that] in teaching in a way that questions and answers are taught reciprocally so that [students] understand the Tipitaka literature, because it is the best way if [teachers] experiment and teach with questions and answers to clear up misunderstandings about any section that is taught to youth each day, it will be noticed that [the students] will excel and will easily understand. And now in the Mandalay Buddhist Missionary School, if [teachers] teach in accordance observe with the system explained above, I strongly believe that [the situation] will increase and develop in the future. If the system that started from monastic schools and lay schools in the country is taught in all schools in which Myanmar language is aught, then I believe that there will be much benefit, gratitude and development of people.