Adam's Reports on Vernacular Education in Bengal and Behar/Report 3/Chapter 2/Section 6

SECTION VI.

Application of the plan to Female Instruction.

Another extensive class of the population unprovided with the means of instruction by the natives themselves is the female sex. I need not dwell here on the necessity of female cultivation in any country to its advance in civilization. This is, of course, admitted; and the privacy, subjection, and ignorance of the sex in this country, amongst both Hindus and Musalmans, are equally well known. All the established native institutions of education exist for the benefit of the male sex only, and the whole of the female sex is systematically consigned to ignorance, and left wholly without even the semblance of a provision for their instruction. The ignorance and superstition prevailing in native society, the exacting pride and jealousy of the men, the humiliating servitude and inaccessibility of the women, early marriages, juvenile widowhood, the interdiction of second marriages, and consequent vice and degradation, are obstacles to amelioration which appear all but insuperable. The only question that can arise is whether Government can with advantage interfere in the matter of female instruction, and this can be determined only by considering the actual or possible modes of interference.

There are three modes in which a beginning has been made to communicate instruction to native females. The first is by means of institutions in which they are not only taught, but fed, clothed, and lodged. The children are either orphans, or the daughters of native Christians, or of idolatrous parents. These institutions are exclusively under Christian management and the instruction is chiefly religious, but not to the exclusion of general knowledge and the arts of domestic industry. It must be evident that they give the teachers and superintendents an absolute control over the minds of the pupils, and this is the object of their establishment. They also tend to break the ties between parents and children in those cases in which the former are alive, especially if they are not Christians. The second mode is by the establishment of schools such as those described in Chapter 1st, Section XI., and referred to in Section XII., para. 5, p. 219. The children are the offspring of the poorest classes of native society. They are paid for attendance, and elderly females are employed to conduct them to and from school. This mode gives the teachers and superintendents a much less firm hold of the minds of the scholars, but it leaves the domestic tie unbroken. It is opposed to native prejudices, as it requires that the scholars should leave home to attend school, and it involves unproductive expenditure, as the matrons are paid only to secure attendance at school, not attention to study; and yet the reports of such institutions are filled with expressions of regret on account of irregular attendance, slow progress, withdrawal from school after marriage, &c. The third mode is that which has recently been adopted by some wealthy and respectable natives who have commenced either themselves to instruct their female relatives, or for that purpose to admit female teachers into their families whom they retain as domestic servants. The rich and good-caste families will probably in general prefer this course, and they will be the more incited to it in proportion as the state of instruction amongst the male population is improved and in proportion as female instruction is extended to the poorer classes.

Under such circumstances, what can Government do without offence to promote female instruction, so essential an element of civilization and of public and private morality? One mode not only inoffensive, but probably highly acceptable, would be the preparation of a small series of books framed, of course, with a cautious avoidance of religious controversy and with a judicious adaptation to the character, condition, circumstances, and attainments of the sex in this country. If these books were introduced only into the two descriptions of female schools that have been described above, an important object would be gained; for the effect would be to improve the instruction of the native female Christian population, which is probably at present too narrow, and which, for their own sake as well as for the sake of the effect on society, should be rendered more comprehensive and practical. The pupils of these schools would thus be fitted to become the native female teachers of the country, but before being recognized as such, they should be required to pass through a series of examinations corresponding with what has been proposed for the male teachers of vernacular schools. When approved female teachers are thus obtained they might be encouraged, with the aid of books received in reward of their attainments, to offer their services to families on the plan of visiting the homes of their pupils, or of collecting them in a common neighborhood for instruction, with, of course, the consent of heads of families. A native female teacher who should thus devote five hours a day to the females of five different families, receiving two rupees a month from each family, in addition to the presents of clothes and food which would naturally flow from such a relation, might be considered well paid; and this is an expense which many native families would willingly incur, if Government will take the first step of preparing proper books and of vouching for the qualifications of teachers. In order to judge how far the teachers were entitled to the presents of books or other higher rewards, as endowments, &c., which it might be deemed advisable to hold out to them, it would be impossible to subject their pupils, as in the case of common schools, to public examinations; but this might be remedied, either by sending native female examiners, always, of course, with the consent of heads of families, to ascertain and report the progress of the pupils of different teachers at fixed periods, or as a check upon such reports by receiving the certificates of heads of families as to the amount of instruction communicated by the teachers to their female relatives within the periods in question.

Without going further into details, it is sufficient to indicate the general views which have occurred to me on this subject, and to add that this mode of promoting female instruction is one which respectable native families have themselves shown a disposition to adopt, and that the stimulus which the encouragement of Government would supply would probably give it general acceptance and prevalence.