Presiding this evening [Jan. 24] at the prize distribution of the United Free Church of Scotland Mission Girl Schools [in Calcutta], His Excellency Lord Ronaldshay said that the movement in favour of women’s education was fast gathering strength. During the quinquennium ending with 1916-17 the number of public schools for girls increased in Bengal from 6957 to 9520 and the number of girl pupils under instruction from 222,576 to 285,398. His Excellency pointed out that it must be perfectly obvious to every impartial observer that the curriculum which included such subjects as hygiene, nursing, needlework, cookery and domestic work must be of far greater practical value to Indian girls than a curriculum designed with a single eye upon Matriculation examination, but it must be equally obvious to any moderately observant person that Matriculation certificate in Bengal had acquired so extraordinary and so fictitious a value in the eyes of the people that it was difficult to persuade them to adopt what is obviously a more rational course.
