Bell, Andrew (1753–1832)

British educationist. In 1789 he became superintendent of the Madras Male Orphan Asylum, India, founded by the East India Company for the education of the sons of military men, where he developed a system of the older boys teaching the younger ones. On his return to England he published The Madras School or Elements of Tuition (1797), explaining his system.

He settled in Swanage, Dorset, and applied the system in four or five small schools in the town. Meanwhile Joseph Lancaster, a Quaker, had set up a school in 1798 in Borough Road, London, also using the monitorial system. The Church of England, viewing Lancaster's school as a threat, founded the National Society to run Anglican schools, and Lancaster and his supporters set up the rival British and Foreign Schools Society. Bell became superintendent of the National Schools, which proved the more efficient organization, and by 1833 there were 12,000 such schools.

Bell also sought to apply his system to secondary schools, though he had little success in this.