Monitorial system

The monitorial system, also known as Madras system, Lancasterian system/Lancasterism or the Bell system of instruction, was an education method that took hold during the early 19th century. It was related to colonial education systems that had developed in the possessions of the European powers. This method was also known as "mutual instruction" or the "Bell–Lancaster method" after the British educators Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster, who independently promoted versions in which children had a tutorial role. Abler pupils became pupil-teachers, passing on what they had learned to other students. Andrew Bell was an Army chaplain in India, and from 1789 to 1796 held the position of superintendent of the Male Orphan Asylum in Madras, now known as Chennai. He observed the system of pupil teachers that obtained in the Madras Pial schools (run around temples), and which in essence was also the system in the Bengal Pathsalas. He developed the Bell System of Instruction, writing of it "The school teaches itself". It was adopted at the Royal Military School and the Royal Hibernian Military School.