Page:Reports on the State of Education in Bengal (1835 & 1838).djvu/118

48 Native Female Education in Calcutta and its vicinity. Subsequently the number of schools was increased to 30, and that of the pupils to 600, but instead of still further multiplying the number of schools, it was deemed advisable to concentrate them, and a Central School was built for that purpose and occupied in 1828, since which the efforts of the Ladies' Society have been chiefly confined to that sphere of labor. An allowance is made of a pice a head to women under the name of hurkarees, for collecting the children daily and bringing them to school, as no respectable Hindoo will allow his daughters to go into the street except under proper protection. The school numbers 320 day-scholars, besides 70 Christian girls who live on the premises. The latter are orphans, and most of them have been collected from the districts south of Calcutta that have recently suffered from inundation and famine. Together with these, 40 poor women have been admitted by Mrs. Wilson to a temporary asylum, who are all learning to read and receive daily Christian instruction, and are at the same time employed in various ways to earn in whole or in part their own living. In connection with the Ladies’ Society, there is also a girls’ school on the premises belonging to the Church Missionary Society in Calcutta. The number of pupils fluctuates between 50 and 70. Spelling, reading, writing, needle-work, and religion are the subjects in which instruction is given. Many of the scholars have become teachers. Native ladies of the most respectable caste in society have both sent their daughters, and in some instances have themselves expressed anxiety to obtain instruction. The system of instruction pursued is also stated to have met the express concurrence and approbation of some of the most distinguished among the Native gentry and religious instructors. The majority of the more respectable Natives, however, still continue to manifest great apathy concerning the education of their daughters.

The Ladies’ Association for Native female education was originally instituted with a view to establish schools for Native girls, which could not be undertaken by the last-mentioned Society. This Association had at one time ten schools under its management, which, for the purpose of concentration, were reduced to two and afterwards to one. The school is conducted by a Christian master and mistress, with the assistance of an elderly Christian woman and three of the best scholars as