Y idea of secondary and higher education for women is based fundamentally upon the recognition of two principles. (1) That the most natural and therefore efficient medium of instruction is the learner's mother tongue. (2) And secondly, that women as a class have different functions to fulfil in the social economy from those of men. We must recognize that both national and social economy require that women should occupy a station of their own distinct from that of men. If schools and colleges for women are started on these lines with vernaculars for the media of instruction and English as a second language, with courses of study specially suited to the needs of wamanhood, there need be no apprehension that they would find no learners. Many of those that e.t the present day rush to the University portals for matriculation will be glad, I dare say, to join the new institutions, provided only that at the completion of the courses there, there is a similar examination and a similar distinction or public recognition of their educational status. It is the educational stamp that attracts girls to the University examinations today and not so much the benefit of the education received. If they get the genuine metal and a similar stamp along with it in the new institutions, there need be no want of girls to avail themselves of them.

In framing these secondary and higher courses of studies, we may be guided by the Japan Women's University. A prudent and practical Japanese thinker and worker, Mr. Naruse, conceived the idea of this University and with immense patience and perseverance made it a success to the great advantage of the Japanese nation. So far as our women are concerned, our circumstances are very similar to those of Japan, and we can profitably turn for guidance to institutions conducted by those people rather than to schools and colleges for women in the West. Mr. Naruse saw in what condition Japanese women were and he pitched his hopes accordingly. He writes:"Our aim in establishing the Women's University is neither to copy the higher institutions for women in America and Europe, nor to rival the men's University courses in this country. What we aim at is so to frame our schedules of study as to suit the mental and physical conditions of women at present, and to gradually raise the standard in accordance with general progress."

The Japan Women's University became so very popular in course of time that even women of thirty and thirty-five years of age sought admission to its institutions to win the honour of being in the lists of graduates of its high schools and colleges. If we follow in the footsteps of the Japanese in this matter and organize vernacular Universities for women throughout the length and breadth of the country, we shall be doing a great service to our nation, by putting before the generality of our women an ideal within their reach.

Although the organizers of the Japan Women's University were at first satisfied with a humble programme of studies in order that they might bring it within easy reach of many women, yet they kept before their mental vision high aims and they were very careful to lay down sound principles to guide them. I cannot resist the temptation of quoting at length:

There is a widespread te dency to regard a woman merely as a tool or a machine destined solely for service at home or for the propagation of family line; and in opposition to such extreme tendencies, we feel the necessity of educating women as human beings, that we may be able to call forth their consciousness as personalities with infinite aspiration and longings,

The fact that an express statement had to be made to the effect that woman was not to be considered a mere tool, shows the sentiment of the generality of Japanese people in regard to the status of woman in society and as we have to fight against a similar prejudice in our society, we shall do well to follow the line of work laid down by these people. Just as, on the one hand, they boldly enunciated this principle in opposition to narrow-minded conservatives, on the other, they had to enunciate another, equally bold, to oppose the views of extreme radicals.

We cannot support another movement which aims at the so-called emancipation of women. In opposition to this tendency, we lay emphasis on home life as the chief sphere of a wo nan's activities. Here her proper place is found as wife and mother, not indeed as a tool or ornament, but as an active partaker in the humanitarian and national spirit, which should animate a home......... Our aims is to educate women that they shall come to realize their own special mission in life as free personal agents and as members of the Empire of Japan and that, as such, they shall be able to perform their services as wives and mothers in a larger sense and more efficient manner than hitherto.

But at the same time we must remember there will always be women who, owing to various reasons, do not marry. To these we must give room for realising their mission in life and utilising their own peculiar personal abilities. We must recognize their spheres of activity

as legitimate, and not as existing on sufferance, and their lives as having important missions for the nation and the community at large.

Thus the principles, which shall govern us in educating women are:-First. to educate them as human beings, personalities; secondly, to educate them as woDien in order to fit them to become good wives and wise mothers; and thirdly to educate them as members of the nation so that they may always remember that their lives at home are related in an important manner, however hidden, to the prosperity or decay of the nation.

The Japan Women's University has a complete course of studies beginning with standards for the kindergarten school and ending with a three years' course for post-graduate studies. Kindergarten for children from 3 to 5, elementary school course extending over six years, high school course of five years, college course for three years, and post-graduate courses from one to three years. You will be interested to hear that the number of institutions under the Japan Women's University increased to 182 during its twelve years' existence up to 1912. During this period the Japan Women's University turned out 1,243 graduates, and in addition to these the Girls' High Schools sent out 896 graduates or matriculates of their own, who did not pursue the higher course. The Japanese did not wait till they had an adequate staff of efficient lady teachers and lady professors. Out of the 30 professors of this University, 25 are men and only five are women. In the Girls' High School attached to the University, however, there are 11 lady teachers and only 7 men teachers.

To suit Indian conditions, we shall perhaps have to make a still humbler beginning than the Japanese did. We should devise a course of secondary education for women so adjusted that by the time a girl attains the age of fifteen or sixteen, she should be enabled to complete it. Parents are sure to postpone marriage of their daughter for a year or two if an educational distinction is near at hand for her. This age also is likely to be the minimum age of marriage of girls in advanced Indian communities in the very near future.

It is impossible to check the growing disparity in the education of our men and women unless vigorous efforts are made to spread secondary education among women far and wide through the medium of the vernaculars. Men's secondary and higher education are sure to advance by leaps and bounds; while the advance in women's education in these departments cannot but be nominal if carried on only along the present lines. When women are not intelligent enough to sympathetically appreciate men's enterprises, when they are

unable to bear their share in the progress of the nation or reform of society, men cannot but be handicapped in whatever they do. There has always been a complaint that we have been living double lives, one at home and one outside. The only way in which this can be remedied is to educato women properly, so that they may be real and intelligent partners in our views and actions. In the way of the balanced progress of society, this disparity is a great stumbling-block and the sooner we remove it the better.

I shall now give a rough idea of the Japanese secondary and higher courses by giving sketches of their schedules. The secondary course:— Practical Ethics, Japanese Language, English Language, History, Geography, Mathematics, Physics, Domestic Science, Sewing, Painting, Music, and Gymnastic Exercises. For higher education there are at present four departments (1) Domestic Science, Japanese Literature, English Literature and Pedagogics. Each department has three kinds of studies: (1) Required; (2) Elective, and (3) Voluntary. Here are the studies of the Domestic Department. There are similar lists of other departments too, too long to be given here.

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Required studies common to the four Departments:Ethics, Practical Ethics, Psychology, Pedagogics, English, Physical Exercises.

DOMESTIC SCIENCE DEPARTMENT.

Required studies:-Physiology, Hygiene, Applied Physics and Chemistry, Economics, Home Management, Cooking, Japanese Language, Child Study.

Elective studies:-Applied Natural History, European History, History of Art, Constitution and Civil Law, Etiquette, Horticulture, Sewing.

Voluntary studies:- Philosophy and History of Philosophy, Chinese Literature, Japanese Literature, Music, Painting.

It will not be very difficult to frame secondary and higher courses on these models to suit local conditions in any province, when the time for experimenting comes. Until suitable texts could be written, selected portions from existing books might be utilized. In short, if the will arises, the way will be forthcoming.

In devising our courses on these lines, we ought not to make an abrupt departure. The new high school courses for girls ought to be, for the present, accommodated to the courses now in force. They should be complete in themselves for those who, at the close of their high school education, will enter upon their worldly tasks. They should

be of a preparatory nature for those who will choose to go in for higher grades in a vernacular college; while they should also be so framed that girls with the necessary intelligence and ambition may find it easily possible to go in for the matriculation of the present Universities after a couple of years' further preparation.

It will certainly mean an educational experiment, and we may reasonably expect Government to take the lead here as they have done in agriculture. I am aware the finances of Government at the present day are the most strained owing to the abnormal conditions created by the war in Europe, and instead of undertaking new financial responsibilities they would be anxious to use the scissors wherever they could. In these circumstances all that may be legitimately expected of them is the setting apart of a part of their ordinary allotment to the education of women, for making a small beginning in that direction. It will even be a great thing if they set it down as one of the most urgent schemes of the day, to be taken up before everything else when normal times return. Let us hope and pray they soon will. That our empire is bound in the end to come victoriously out of the present struggle, every one of us cannot but be confident. For our cause is righteous. It is only for the early termination of the war that we have to pray.

But even if Government be favourably disposed in the matter, their wheels often are too slow to move. It is already late. To wait any longer will be almost suicidal. I would appeal therefore to Indian States, to public bodies, to private institutions and to men interested in the social amelioration of the country, to take up the matter without further delay, and start experiments which are bound to succeed if only they are pursued with a firm grip. They will yet save the situation if they lose no time in empty discussions. Let them set to work practically. When they have some work already done to show, I feel sure, Government will not be tardy in extending their helping hand to them. The matter is of such grave urgency and far-reaching import, that I would urge it on the Conference to take it in hand and to appoint a committee to formulate a scheme with all its details clearly reasoned out and to suggest ways and means to found vernacular high schools and colleges on the lines here advocated. Women's education has sufficiently advanced now for us to take the step.

In this connection I am very happy to say that I have been authorised by the managing committee

of the Hindu Widows' Home Association to announce to this Conference that they are prepared to start, by way of an experiment in the direction, college classes as the natural development of their Mahilasrama or Girls' High School. What makes me feel still happier is that already a contribution of no less than ten thousand rupees has been promised by one of my colleagues at the Mahilasrama. The letter he has addressed to me, comes as a very auspicious augury, synchronizing, as it does, with the inception of the new idea. The moment appears to be opportune, and my friend's contribution is a circumstance that is, to my vision, a sacred intimation, that the institution, if started, would not be allowed to die for want of funds for want of sympathy and co-operation by my countrymen. Happy in its arrival, I cannot resist the temptation to quote portions from my friend's letter. He writes::

For a long while I have been thinking of practising a kind of renunciation, the renunciation of money, Love of money is like strong fetters, and hampers and obstructs the way to progress. Of the ancestral estate that has come to me, therefore, I am anxious to set apart just enough for the daily needs of my wife and daughter, and of the rest make a gift of Rs. 10,000. I only desire that the amount be devoted towards the foundation of the first college at Hingne, in connection with the proposed Maharastra Women's University. I have no objection to your making any use of this letter, that you may deem fit.

On the heels of the letter just quoted from, comes another-equally propitious-from Miss Krishnabai Thakur, at present the Lady Superintendent at the Mahilashrama, offering a donation of Rs. 4,000 towards the equipment of a small library for the new institution. She tells me, it is the amount that the friends of the late Mr. B. G. Godbole have collected among themselves to give a concrete form to the last wish of the deceased gentleman towards whom Miss Thakur's feelings were almost those of a daughter. It was he who being her guest, while on a visit to the Widow's Home just before his death, expressed a wish that he could be instrumental in providing a decent library for the institution. His spirit will certainly feel gratified to see that Miss Krishnabai has done for him what he was not spared to do. The lady has actually handed the amount of Rs. 4,000 to me with a desire that the amount be spent for the purpose of creating the nucleus of a library that must ever grow to meet the requirements of a vernacular college.-(From the Presidential Address to the Indian Social Conference.)

WIDE diffusion of the highest scientific and technical education amongst a population is a condition congenial to the appearance of the great captain of industry. One hears it frequently said that great technical and scientific institutions follow, not precede, the establishment of great industries. This view has been shown to be based on a complete misreading of experience by no less an authority than the former Member for Education in the Government of India, now Lieut.-Governor of Burma, Sir Harcourt Butler. The following passage occurs in a very able Note which he prepared on Technical Education for the Government of the United Provinces some eight years ago:

Every civilised country has its Technological Institutes in numbers; and in almost every country except England the foundations of these institutes were laid in the earliest stages of technical education. In America the Rennselaar Polytechnic Institute was established in 1824; the Massachusetts Institute in 1865; the Worcester Polytechnic in 1868; Lehigh University in 1866; the Steven's Institute in 1871. The Paris Ecole Polytechnique was opened in 1795; the similar institute at Vienna in 1815. The German Technological Institutes date from the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century; Brunswick, 1745; Berlin, 1799; Carlsruhe, 1825; Munich, 1827; Dresden, 1828; Stuttgart, 1829, Japan commenced with higher technical schools. In the beginning all these institutions were, doubtless, humble; but it is still true that in countries yearning to be industrial, technical education has begun largely at the top. Technical education lower down followed as a rule after the spread of general education.

I may be allowed to state that it was because he held similar opinions that the late Mr. Tata sought to give practical effect to them so sar as it was in his power by means of the Institution at Bangalore, known as the Indian Institute of Science. He intended it to be not a glorified technical institute, turning out a few indifferent chemists and electric operators, mainly intent upon making a living for themselves; but a sort of nursery and training ground to inculcate the spirit of original and specific research in different branches of science and industry, which might ultimately serve as a means for the development and prosperity of the country. . . . The Board of Education in the United Kingdom have, I am glad to see, recently adopted a great scheme for the organisation and development of scientific and industrial research under expert guidance and control, which scheme I would like to see extended to India. The Government of India too have made a welcome departure, creating a special

appointment in which our eminent countryman, Mr. Jaggdish Chander Bose, can puruse the remarkable researches which have earned the admiration of savants all over the world, and have given rise to the conviction that at least in the fruitful field of investigation which these researches have opened up, Europe will have to come to India for inspiration. This, we may hope, is but the commencement of a forward policy in scientific and industrial education.

This is a field which pre-eminently belongs to the State. I shall refer later to the function of the State in industrial development; but scientific research needs such large endowments that only the State can provide it. When, however, we talk of scientific education let us be quite clear what we mean. It connotes at the top the machinery for higher scientific study, for the creation of that atmosphere of scientific knowledge and research which will permeate all our industries. Sir Norman Lockyer once said that the greatest economic asset of Germany was not the possession of a few great scientists; other countries possess as good scientists and as good brains; but the possession of a We want to build diffused knowledge of science.

bring

up in India that diffused knowledge of science. Below this we want technical schools to increase the skill of our craftsmen; museums and exhibitions to this knowledge home to the people in the most practical and instructive manner, namely, ocular demonstration; and universal education in order to produce a higher standard of manual labour, Then, industrial success lies not only in creating products but in studying demand. Here we enter the whole field of economics wherein study is no less essential than in scientific research. We rejoice in the stimulus given to economic studies through the foundation of the Bombay College of Commerce and the more recently established Economic Bureau. In short, we have to make science the handmaid of our industries and of our commerce and to banish empiricism from every branch of both. I have spoken of this as essentially the domain of Government; so it is. But here as in every other field of economic activity the co-operation of our industrialists and men of commerce is demanded.

(From the Presidential Addres to the Indian Industrial Conference.)