Page:Report on public instruction in the lower provinces of the Bengal presidency (1849-50).djvu/14

2 The most important occurrence of the past year was an intimation from the Government that the Council of Education were hence-forward to consider their functions as comprising the superintendence of Native Female Education. The following communication on the subject, addressed by the Government of India to the Government of Bengal, was communicated to the Council, for their information and guidance, in April last:

“The attention of the Governor General in Council has been lately directed toward the subject of Female Education in Bengal. Thirty-five years have elapsed, since the establishment of the Hindu College gave the first great impulse to that desire for European knowledge, which is now so general throughout the country. Under the influence of the new ideas which have been widely disseminated among large and influential classes of the community, through the Government schools and colleges, it is reasonable to believe that further attempts, for improving the moral and social condition of the people, may now be successfully made, which at an earlier period would have failed altogether to produce any satisfactory result.

2. “It is the opinion of the Governor General in Council that no single change in the habits of the people is likely to lead to more important and beneficial consequences, than the introduction of education for their female children. The general practice is to allow them to grow up in absolute ignorance; but this custom is not required or even sanctioned by their religion; and in fact a certain degree of education is now given to the female relatives of those who can afford the expense of entertaining special instructors at their own houses. This method of imparting knowledge is impracticable as a general system, but it appears to the Governor General in Council that it is quite possible to establish female schools, in which precautions may be adopted for as close seclusion of the girls as the customs of the country may require. An experiment of a school of this kind in Calcutta has been tried by the Hon'ble Mr. since May of last year; which, in the face of considerable opposition, such as every novelty is sure to encounter in Bengal, at present contains thirty-four pupils, the children of persons of good caste and respectable connexions. The success which has been accomplished