EDUCATION IN PUNJAB

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21807, 12 June 1936, Page 6

EDUCATION IN PUNJAB

MORE WOMEN ENTERING PROFESSIONS VIEWS OF A NEW ZEALAND MISSIONARY A greater appreciation of the value of education, an increase in the number of women entering professions, and the poor provision for the training of women in the smaller villages are some of the characteristics of educational development in North India, it was gathered from a discussion of the subject by Miss B. J. Hardie, who has recently returned to Christchurch on her second furlough since she went out in 1923 under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand to take up educational work in the situated in the South Punjab.* The desire for education was growing rapidly, but there was little regard for education as a means of culture, Miss Hardie said. It was usually regarded as a stepping-stone to a highlypaid position, but such positions were scarce and thousands of men with university degrees were out of work or working in poorly-paid jobs. Men with the M.A. degree were occupied in such work as point duty. “Farmers like to give their sons the benefits of a higher education, but complain that they are thus unfitted for working on the land,” continued Miss Hardie. “This is true in practice. A boy who has studied up to the matriculation standard in a school built to withstand the heat is physically incapable of labouring in the fields during the intense heat of summer. Educationists are alive to this fact, and many have introduced agriculture into the school curriculum, as has been done at our own Boys’ High School at Kharar.” Girls’ Education Speaking of girls’ education. Miss Hardie said that whereas very few except Christian girls entered the professions—it was considered “infra dig.” for a girl to earn her own livelihood -to-day the training colleges and hospitals were crowded with nonChristian girls training to be teachers, nurses, and doctors. “Apart from this minority who are looking forward to a career,” Miss Hardie said, “most girl pupils are being educated to enhance their value in the marriage market. ‘Nobody asks for an illiterate girl’ is an expression one continually hears. Very often girls of 10 years, or even older, seek admission to our school, the reason being that the prospective bridegroom’s parents have made it a condition of betrothal that the girl shall be educated. Nothing must be allowed to stand in the way of a good match. I once obtained a pair of spectacles for a girl whose eyesight was deplorable, but the mother, rather than allow them to be worn, took her daughter away from school, saying: ‘How could she get a husband if she wox-e those things? They would think she had bad eyesight’ • Villages Backward “In the smaller villages of the Punjab distressingly little is being done for education. There are several reasons for this—economic conditions, the seclusion of women and the difficulty of protecting women teachers in isolated places. Since more than 70 per cent, of the total population of India lives in villages, this question is a vital one. “ ‘Rural reconstruction’ is the slogan of the present day,” continued Miss Hardie, “and in this important undertaking. missions and government are able to co-operate to a great extent The missionary, on his tours of the district, wins the love and confidence of the people, and is often able to persuade them to carry out the Government’s schemes for improvement, “Last winter plague was raging in our district. An Indian officer from the district headquarters had gone to a certain village to inoculate the people against the disease, but they refused to be treated. He went away threatening to return with an English ‘sahib’ and compel them to submit Some days later I went to visit the Christians of this village. Hearing in the distance the sound of my car, they fled terrified in all directions, thinking that ‘the man with the needle’ had come back, Belief at seeing me was soon followed by submission, as X exr

plained the benefits of inoculation. When next the officer came, they courageously bared their arms and though deaths occurred on every side they were not affected.”