Andrew Bell

Andrew Bell 1753-1832, British educator, b. St. Andrews, Scotland. After seven years in Virginia as a tutor, he returned to England, was ordained a deacon, and later (1789) became superintendent of an orphan asylum in Madras (now Chennai), India. Here he developed the monitorial system , which he described in a pamphlet, Experiment in Education, published upon his return to London (1797). Joseph Lancaster, a Quaker, established a school on similar principles, which was copied by large numbers of nonconformists. Bell organized a system of monitorial schools that taught the principles of the Established Church.

Bibliography: See biography by R. Southey and C. C. Southey (3 vol., 1844); J. M. D. Meiklejohn, An Old Educational Reformer (1881).

Bell, Andrew (1753–1852). Founder of the Madras system of education. Bell was educated at St Andrews University, Scotland. In 1789 he became superintendent of the Madras Male Orphan Asylum, founded by the East India Company. The teachers were few and inefficient, so Bell experimented with asystem of mutual instruction whereby clever boys were placed in charge of others. This system was described in a pamphlet written in 1797. There was open rivalry with Joseph Lancaster, who claimed to have originated the system. The Church of England in 1811 formed the National Schools Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor with Bell as its first superintendent.

Bell, Andrew (1753–1852). Founder of the Madras system of education. Bell was educated at St Andrews University, Scotland, after which he settled in Virginia, becoming a tutor. He returned to England, gaining a doctorate of divinity at St Andrews, and sailed for India in 1787. Two years later, Bell became superintendent of the Madras Male Orphan Asylum, founded by the East India Company. The teachers were few and inefficient, so Bell experimented with a system of mutual instruction whereby clever young boys were placed in charge of other boys. This system was described in a pamphlet written by Bell in 1797 shortly after he returned to England and was adopted in a number of schools. There was open rivalry with Joseph Lancaster, who claimed to have originated the system. The Church of England in 1811 formed the National Schools Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor with Bell as its first superintendent.

Peter Gordon