cccxu 



who passed the examination for the degree of Arts was 199. *In the 

 two decades that followed including 1891, it rose- up to the astonishing 

 fio-ure of 2,552. The Bachelor of Arts degree represents the ordinary- 

 collegiate course taught in an Indian College, and may, for all practical 

 pur]30ses, be regarded as marking the highest general culture received 

 by the youth of the country. The studies that one pursues after pass- 

 ing the B.A. Examination are either special and technical, such as 

 those pertaining to Law, Medicine, Engineering, &c., or the advanced 

 branches of Mathematics, Philosophy, and the like, to qualify oneself 

 for the higher degree in arts. It is but a small fraction of those who 

 receive the B.A. degree that go up for examination in Honours. The 

 number of those who qualify themselves for the special studies men- 

 tioned above must necessarily be limited by the demand of the learned 

 professions for specialists. At present the most crowded of them is 

 Law. Teaching likewise absorbs in its service a large number of the 

 alumni of the University. The technical colleges now in existence are 

 all maintained by the State ; and they are the Law College, the College 

 of Civil Engineering, the Medical College, the Agricultural College, 

 and the Teachers' College. Looking into the statistics for 1890-91 we 

 find that there were 35 Arts Colleges in the Presidency — First and 

 Second Grades together — with an attendance of 3,200 scholars. These 

 figiu-es indicate a great advance as compared with those of 1870-71 when 

 the number of colleges was 12 with an attendance of only 385 scholars. 

 Again 548 candidates appeared for the B.A. Examination in 1891 as 

 against 65 in 1871 ; the number of candidates for the F.A. Examination 

 was 531 aud 2,052 for the earlier and the later years respectively. These 

 figures are sufficient to show the rate of expansion of collegiate education 

 during the interval under notice. One very satisfactory feature of this 

 development is that learning is no longer the monopoly of any one 

 section of the Indian community. The desire for English education is 

 spreading among all classes. Of the 3,200 students in attendance 

 at the Arts Colleges in 1890-91, 38 were Europeans and Eurasians, 

 244 Native Christians, 46 Muhammadans, 2,208 Brahmins, 658 non- 

 Brahmin Hindus, and 6 other classes. Nor has the alleged difficulty 

 of findiiig suitable openings in life for educated men had as yet any 

 appreciable effect on the growing demand for English education. Look- 

 ing to the efficiency of public service alone, there would yet seem to be 

 open a large field for educated talent. There are indications too that the 

 education given in our colleges is fostering in its recipients a spii'it of 

 self-help and manly enterprise. The number of young men who have 

 in recent years taken to commercial pursuits, or have crossed the sea 

 for service in Burma, afford evidence of the new spirit. Nor would there 

 seem to be any foundation in fact for the^ opinion that the Indian 

 Colleges are rearing up a body of disaffected young men. Those who 

 have had the best opportunities of watching the progress of education 

 in the country and its results are almost unanimous in holding that its 

 influence for good has been marked, considering the short period during 

 which it has been at work. 



Equally satisfactory has been the development of what is called 

 secondary education, which comprises a course of studies, extending over 

 six years, in English and in one of the vernacular languages of the 

 country, as also in the elementary portions of History, Greogi'aphy, 

 Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. The Matriculation Examination 



