प्राचीन भारत में शिक्षा (डॉ. ए.एस. अल्तेकर - गुरुकुल एवं बौद्ध विहार शिक्षण इतिहास)

VI] HIGHER LITERARY EDUCATION 165
Clever students were not compelled to mark time for
their dull companions as under the modern system
of education. The educational system ministered to
the needs and individual capactity of each student.
If a student was intelligent and industrious, he could
finish his education much earlier than is possible in
modern times. The idle and careless student had not
as pleasant a prospect of a merry college life as he
has in the present age. Yuan Chwang says, ‘When
disciples, intelligent and accute, are addicted to idle
shirking, teachers doggedly persevere in repeating
instructions until their training is finished’.¹ The
Chinese traveller was very favourably impressed by
the capacity of Indian teachers to rouse their students
to activity and urge them to progress.
Monitorial System: In order to make personal
supervision effective, the cooperation and help of
advanced students were enlisted in the cause of
education. They used to guide the studies of the
juniors under the general supervision of their teachers.
About the Valabhi college students, I-tsing observes
that they used to pass two or three years, ‘instructed
by their teachers and instructing others’.² This
system also obtained at Taxila; for instance, the
Kuru prince Sutasoma, who aquired proficiency
earlier, was entrusted with the teaching of his brother
prince, the heir apparent of Benares.³ Senior
students at Taxila were often put in charge of their
schools during the temporary absence of their
teachers.⁴ This method of entrusting teaching work
to brilliant students had a great educational value.

1. Watters, I, p. 160.
2. P. 177.
3. Sutasoma-Jātaka, No. 537.
4. E. g., Sukha-vihārī Jātaka, No. 10.