in a total population of 52,668,269, these figures referring to their
daughters’ education are striking. The aim of Christian education is
twofold, the building up of the Christian community so that ultimately
the Indian Church may be a strong social factor, and the education
of non-Christians with a view to influencing them either directly or
indirectly in favour of Christianity. These two aims are combined in
most mission-work except in the case of most of the girls’ Boarding
schools where a non-Christian girl is naturally the exception. Of the
eleven High schools for Indian girls in the Province, six are under
mission management and two varying types may be noticed.
The Diocesan High school--a Government-aided institution for girls
under the management of the Clewer Sisters, has the reputation of being
the best girls’ school in Calcutta. The reason for this is easy to
discover in the personality of its Principal, Sister Mary Victoria,
whose aristocratic idealism (if the words may be combined) determines
the tone of the whole school. In India the personal element counts for
everything, and without it, the best of institutions and Government
plans are unavailing. Sister Mary Victoria and her English staff are
constantly with the girls and when the school was first started they
took their meals with the boarders until a tradition of manners was
established. The school is well staffed with trained teachers both
English and Indian, the former predominating. An English lady also
who is interested in the school comes regularly to teach brushwork.
There is an excellent College Department. The Government curriculum is
followed, and in addition systematic religious instruction is given
to all pupils. The ideal of this school is not, however, success in
examinations only and their shadow does not lie heavily. As a small
pupil remarked to the writer: “There are lots of girls in our school
who don’t love examinations, but who do love school.” The pupils are
drawn from various ranks and creeds; the boarders are mostly Christian,
and the majority of the day scholars Hindu and Brāhma. The leading
Indian families in Calcutta send their girls here, and to the Loretto
Convent,[91] rather than to the Bethune School because of the personal
contact with English ladies. The daily religious lesson is not felt
as a deterrent in any way. It is curious to watch these girls drive
up to the school in handsome carriages and to realize that they are
only paying two shillings and eight pence a month for a really first
class education. Many of the richer parents give donations as well,
but the fee is kept low for the sake of the poorer. These fees and the
Government grant practically cover the working expenses of the school
apart from the support of the English staff. There are no separate
schools for the wealthier classes worked on a system of full payment,
partly because poverty is not so much a cause of separation in India as
in Britain and partly because there is not a sufficient number of girls
ready for higher education who could and would pay fees that would
cover expenses. Taken as a whole the fees in mission schools are higher
than in Government institutions.
Of a somewhat different and more usual type is the United Free Church
High school, it exists almost entirely for the girls of this and other
missions who enter it as boarders from the country; the school is thus
predominantly Christian and has little contact with Indian life. Of 122
scholars about 90 are boarders, and accommodation is being built for
more. The day scholars are mostly in the lower classes. The education
given is exceedingly thorough, and if the whole curriculum ending with
a teachers’ diploma is taken it ensures a girl a good post either
in Government or mission service. There is no College Department,
but a special feature since 1889 is the excellent Normal course from
which most satisfactory results have been obtained. Miss Whyte may be
rightly considered the pioneer of efficient training for teachers in
Bengal. The Government curriculum is followed, and in addition the
customary Biblical instruction is given. The school suffers from two
drawbacks customary to all of its type, the lack of space and the
“Westernization” of the pupils. Situated in one of the most crowded
parts of the city, the buildings resemble a huge bee-hive packed with
class rooms and dormitories and redeemed only by the glorious flat roof
so characteristic of life in Calcutta. Below is a pathetically small
playground where the boarders walk or read or play, in so far as the
latter is natural to Indian girls. A splendid effort has been made by
the staff to bring the girls into contact with nature and the historic
monuments of India in order to counteract the cramping influence of the
surroundings. One year a large party of teachers and former and present
pupils visited Agra and Delhi, the wonder and glory of which opened
a new field of thought and imagination to the Bengali girls. Another
year the whole school was transferred for a short time to Deoghur. The
material obtained on these expeditions served as a basis for nature
study throughout the term. The students and elder girls are also
taken once a year for a short mission tour, which serves not only to
enlarge their horizon, but also emphasizes the primary purpose of the
school. In spite, however, of the energy and originality of the staff
in organizing these expeditions, the atmosphere of the school remains
very much that of an ordinary secondary school in Scotland and has no
distinctively Indian note. “Atmosphere” and curriculum are mutually
dependent and their relationship is a problem that does not affect
mission schools only. As a whole the mission High schools are doing a
splendid work and their growing influence in the community is to be
noted in the fact that occasionally Brāhma-Samāj and even Hindu girls
are found amongst their boarders.
[Illustration: Four Scholarship Girls. United Free Church Mission
School for Hindus, Calcutta]
The Middle schools, teaching up to Standard V., have adopted the
sound policy of excluding English, the object being to give a sound
vernacular training to such children as will never have the chance of
getting High school education. “It is these schools which supply the
bulk of pupils to our training schools for mistresses, and as such
their importance in our system of female education in this country
is very great.”[92] The strong point of the mission schools, both
Middle and Primary, is that they are under the direct and constant
supervision of European workers. In one mission visited, all the Indian
teachers were Christians and had had Normal training, and the schools
were constantly visited by a lady holding the highest educational
certificates. This is not the case everywhere, but it is the ideal
aimed at. A mission Primary school is a pleasant place full of promise
and of future possibilities. Shadow and sunshine are mingled, but
on the whole the sunshine predominates.
Take for example one in the vicinity of Calcutta--an old one-storied
dwelling-house off a village lane, which skill has converted into a
passable four-roomed school, with a sandy patch of ground used for
drill and occasional geography lessons. There are about 120 children
from five to eight years of age, the infant department is evidently
looked upon as a sort of crêche by the village, for there are eighty
babies sitting in solemn rows on the matting, but as soon as a girl
becomes useful or marriageable she is withdrawn. Presiding over this
happy family are three white-saried Christian girls, only one of
whom has been trained as a teacher. The girl with the eighty pupils
has only been as far as Standard III. herself; she is however making
a loyal effort; the babies pass their wooden boards with very tidy
hieroglyphics for inspection, but the impossibility of it all makes one
wonder if a Government grant is wisely given. The Head-mistress lends
a kindly eye, but her attention is centred on Standard III. with its
five select girls; this is the last year of Christian influences and
these girls are being taught something not in the Government Code. They
are bright and intelligent and the short Scripture lesson is enlivened
by plenty of question and answer. Once a fortnight or once a week the
school will be visited by an English lady, who will plan, supervise
and if needful, give a model lesson. She has eight schools of this
type under her personal superintendence, and her visits are the pivot
on which they turn. A good Government grant is given; the Code for
vernacular Primary schools is followed, and as there is no competition
the work is warmly welcomed by the Hindu community. The mission Primary
schools hold their own in the educational system; of thirty-eight money
prizes given by Government to Calcutta girls’ Primary schools, all but
three were won by mission pupils. The special characteristics of the
missionary contribution to the educational problem, as a whole, are the
presence of fully qualified European workers, who enter the educational
sphere at salaries which no Government servant would accept, and the
development of Normal work on scientific principles.
This review of the three agencies at work leads to the general
consideration of some of the main problems which underlie the types
and organization described, and which affect the educational outlook;
the supply of teachers, the character of Secondary education, the
development of Primary education and the co-ordination of the whole.
The most crucial is undoubtedly that concerning the teacher.
The school career of the Bengali girl is limited at present in the
large majority of cases to only four or five years, and there is thus
no time for the teacher to waste. If education is to commend itself
at all to the real India (as distinct from “Babudom”) it must be of
the very best type. The Government realize this and are putting forth
every effort to procure trained teachers, but whence are the students
to be obtained, and who is to train them? The unquestioned future for
every Hindu and Moslem girl is matrimony and it is therefore only from
amongst those who have been widowed in childhood that teachers can
be drawn. But in spite of all that has been written and said on this
subject the necessary education is still denied to them, by religion,
custom, and prejudice. In the Hindu Female Training School in Calcutta,
started by Government to surmount some of the initial prejudice in
regard to the training of “_parda-nashin_” women, there are only
seven pupils. They are all widows of above sixteen years and though
they are not admitted unless, when children, they have been through
the fourth standard, their brains have remained fallow for six years
and the problem of their training is a difficult one. In the only
other Government institution for non-Christians there are at present
thirteen Moslems and nine Hindus, and many of them have to be taught
reading and writing as well as the art of teaching. It will thus be
seen that though the ultimate solution of the dearth of teachers may
be found in the utilization of the young widows, public opinion will
have to undergo a considerable change before it is possible.[93]
From the Brāhma-Samāj community more is to be expected, and though
the Brāhma-Samāj Training Class in Calcutta is not at present in a
flourishing condition, they certainly contribute a fair proportion
of teachers. It is, however, from the Christian community that the
teachers are chiefly drawn, and efforts are being made to secure their
efficient training. Of the sixteen Training Institutions in Bengal
thirteen are under mission management, and of 192 Indian pupils, 175
are Christian. A wholesome sign of the growing spirit of unity is the
amalgamation of the training classes of four missions in Calcutta into
one Christian Normal Training College with an excellent staff and a
good modern equipment. So far it is only for mistresses who are to
teach in the vernacular. Even with the large contribution of Christian
teachers, the demand immensely exceeds the supply. Even before her
examination there is hardly one of the candidates who has not secured
a good post. They are in demand in the first instance for mission
schools, in Brāhma-Samāj and non-sectarian institutions, and in Hindu
and Model Primary schools. “The fact that they are Christians in a
large number of cases is not considered a bar to their employment.”[94]
The inference for missionary societies is obvious--that to supply
all the girls’ schools of Bengal with teachers of strong Christian
character would contribute much to the coming of the Kingdom of God.
As regards the type of training given, the drawback is the fact that,
like the Code, it is too Western. A solution may probably be found if
the British educators are allowed to supplement their home-training by
further studies on the spot, before undertaking work--a slower process
but a surer one. Secondary training is yet to be developed both by
missions and by Government. One Indian teacher has taken her degree of
Bachelor of Teaching from a Mission school, but this is an isolated
instance.
The relation of the statistics of Higher education to Primary is
striking; only 11% of the girls at school are beyond the stage of
just being able to read and write, while only 319 girls in the whole
province are beyond the Middle stage. An immediate question is, How
to retain the girls in the higher classes. Social and religious
considerations weigh heavily here, as in the problem of the supply
of teachers, but another influence may be, as elsewhere, the nature
of the curriculum. This question has underlain much of the previous
discussion, and is wide and far-reaching in its scope. Indian education
must have its own “Paradise”; the acme of Western civilization ought
not to be reproduced in India, if diversity and not uniformity is
the higher law. There is something lacking if the Mahakali committee
speak of a “feeling of relief” in an escape from Government education,
and some compromise is surely possible between their system and that
of the Anglicized Boarding School. Destructive criticism is easy and
there is plenty of it in Indian educational circles. On the one hand,
the mission authorities say that they are bound by the hard and fast
rules of the Code which conditions their grant, on the other, there is
a great deal more liberality and elasticity in the Government policy
than is commonly imagined, and a really well thought-out curriculum on
new lines would probably not mean the forfeiture of a grant. It is true
that schools which vary from the type recognized at home are not aided
by Government, but the Indian situation is different and it is probably
for the good of the whole system that they should be under Government
supervision and receive the impetus which comes from sharing in the
educational scheme. Here is the opportunity for private enterprise and
initiative; with co-operation on the part of the missionary societies
in Calcutta it would surely be possible to remove one of their girls’
High schools to the country and to give a practical demonstration of
what modern education on Indian lines might mean. This would be no
easy task and could only be accomplished by a staff who had intimately
studied the conditions of Indian life and thought. This would be the
most effectual “constructive criticism.”
[Illustration: Standards I. to IV. United Free Church Mission School
for Hindus, Calcutta]
The extension of Primary education is a crucial problem throughout
India; here in Bengal 95% of girls of school age are absolutely outside
the educational pale. The wonder is, considering the inveterate
indifference of the majority of parents and guardians to female
education, even when it is freely given, that any progress is made at
all. On the one hand there is the question whether it is advisable to
encourage it too warmly, when the available supply of trained teachers
is so disproportioned to the need; on the other, the multiplication of
schools and the acceptance of female education by public opinion would
create a condition more favourable to the ready supply of teachers.
The new Code for Primary schools introduced in 1910, which is in accord
with modern educational principles, may prove more attractive than the
former. Finance is an important matter. Many villages are too poor
to maintain separate _pathshalas_ for their daughters; there are at
present 69,000 girls in boys’ Primary schools as against 75,000 in
Primary schools for girls only. The result is that in these villages
the stricter castes do not send their girls to school and even the
others are withdrawn after the infant stage. In the Secondary schools
in the cities many girls who can well afford to pay are enjoying a
first-class education for two shillings and eightpence a month at
the expense of Government and missionary societies. This looks as
if a re-adjustment of funds might increase the Primary statistics.
Here again is an unlimited sphere for private enterprise; the mission
school for girls only, staffed by Indian women teachers under European
supervision is welcome and sure of success. The system of Zenana
teaching both by missionaries and Government teachers is, as in Eastern
Bengal, of great use in breaking down prejudice, and though apparently
slow and costly work, it is invaluable.
It might possibly prove to be for the good of the whole system if some
small central Board or consultative committee were formed to promote
co-operation in the development of future plans between the Government
and the various private enterprises.
The future of female education in Bengal is partly a question of
administration, partly that of a greater number of European educators
in sympathy with the genius of the country, partly that of a reformed
curriculum, but more fundamentally it is a question of religious
evolution.
VI
INTERESTING INSTITUTIONS IN THE UNITED PROVINCES AND PANJĀB
“The world exists in order to grow souls under the eyes of a patient,
tireless, yearning Teacher.”
From _Hindustan Review_.
It is not proposed to give in this chapter a detailed account of
general organization and of the forces at work. There is a definite
similarity in the system of administration throughout all India,
though it varies in its adaptation to indigenous institutions: one
policy underlies missionary efforts, though they differ remarkably in
the personal factor; the new Indian spirit is everywhere more or less
articulate. But it is worth while to lay emphasis on certain phases of
the problem of female education in the United Provinces, and on certain
institutions in the Panjāb which are typical of the complexity of the
situation, or present unique characteristics.
In the Quinquennial Survey the United Provinces occupy an
unsatisfactory position at the bottom of the list of comparative
percentages, showing only 1.2 per cent. of girls of school-going age
at school. This percentage has, however, risen in 1910 to 1.33, and
the total number of institutions has increased from 1,067 to 1,266--a
creditable advance in the face of the difficulties to be encountered.
The “impatient idealist” must beware, however, of extravagant hopes
of transformation in a country where progress must of necessity be
slow and of an evolutionary nature. Under more stringent inspection
and regulation, the rapid advance in the early part of the decade
has proved to a certain extent fictitious, and due to an over-hasty
desire on the part of the educational authorities to move with the
times. Local committees had apparently started schools for which there
was no demand and for which they were unable to procure teachers.
One Inspectress reports that in some cases, on a surprise visit, no
teacher was found at all; in others, though the teachers were present,
no work was being done.[95] Artificial efforts to hasten the pace were
attended only by a spurious success; for example, a capitation grant
of four annas a month was given in 1906 for every girl attending a
boys’ school, with a resulting increase of 4000 in the statistics of
attendance; but a careful inspection and subsequent removal of the
grant proved that the girls had simply been procured to sit in the
schoolroom without receiving any attention, and that they left in a
year or two as ignorant as when they entered it. Quite possibly some
of the annas had found their way into the pockets of the parents who
had been so obliging as to lend their girls. The latest statistics
show a drop of 3000 in the total number of female scholars, but this
is entirely among the girls attending boys’ schools, and is due to the
more efficient administration. The slight increase in the Secondary
schools and in the girls’ Primary schools is a sign of genuine
progress and may be welcomed as such. The policy of the Government
is one of slow advance after careful investigation and enlistment of
local co-operation. About the year 1907, every District Officer was
instructed to form a special committee to watch over the interests of
girls’ education in his district, and some of these committees have
done excellent work, while others have been baffled by the difficulties
to be faced and by lack of funds. Others, again, as indicated
above, have tended to make haste too quickly. The fact that Indian
non-Christian men of good social position have been found willing to
serve on these committees is an indication of general advance and of
growing sympathy with every effort for enlightenment and reform.[96]
As regards Inspectresses, the United Provinces are better staffed at
present than any other province excepting possibly Madras, and yet
the overwork is no less, for the districts are very large, and in
many cases the schools are quite inaccessible to the woman traveller.
But in a country where _parda_ is strict, and where registers
may only represent fictitious girls, and where moreover the work of
the Inspectress is much needed for the stimulus and sympathy she can
give, the system well repays the necessary expense, and will probably
admit of yet further expansion. An effort is also being made to
secure voluntary co-operation on the part of both English and Indian
ladies who are willing and able to help. One Indian lady has given a
great deal of her time to the inspection of the Government Primary
schools in her district; another lady, a missionary with exceptional
qualifications, is secretary of a local educational committee.
+TABLE OF SCHOOLS FOR INDIAN GIRLS IN THE UNITED PROVINCES.+[97]
+-----------------------------------------+--------------------+
| +UNDER | +UNDER |
| PUBLIC MANAGEMENT. |PRIVATE MANAGEMENT.+|
+-----------------------+----------+------+---------+----------+
| | Local or|Native | | |
| Government. |Municipal|States.| Aided. | Unaided. |
| | Branch. | | | |
+----------------+------+---------+-------+---------+----------+
|High Schools | .. | .. | .. | 6 | .. |
| | | | | | |
|Middle-- | | | | | |
| English | .. | 1 | .. | 18 | 4 |
| Vernacular | .. | .. | .. | 7 | .. |
| | | | | | |
|Primary | 5 | 355 | .. | 499 | 17 |
| | | | | | |
|Training Schools| 1 | .. | .. | 7 | 3 |
+----------------+------+---------+-------+---------+----------+
| | 58 | 356 | .. | 537 | 24 |
+----------------+------+---------+-------+---------+----------+
The problem of finding teachers is even more acute here than elsewhere.
It seems hardly credible that a teacher could be found in regular
employment who was unable to write words of three letters to dictation,
yet such is a recorded fact. Her ignorance had been concealed by
a memorized knowledge of the Koran. Of sixty-two Primary schools
sanctioned by Government in 1909 it has only been possible to open
twenty-one because of the entire lack of teachers with even the minimum
of qualification.