TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 609 
2, Lhe Higher Education of Women in South Afric. 
By Miss E. M. Crarx. 
Limitations of the Term—In almost any country, and assuredly in any other 
land where English is the language of the State and of schools, the connotation of 
the term ‘higher education’ would be strictly limited to College and University 
work above the grade of matriculation. But in South Africa, a comparatively 
hew country, the term may be allowed a somewhat broader and more general 
significance, so that it may be understood as including (1) secondary or High 
School education ; (2) Normal or Training-School education; (3) Collegiate or 
University education. From the outset certain peculiarities characteristic of the 
country should be borne in mind: (1) the differences of standard, nationality 
tonsidered, as among Colonial Dutch, Golonial English, and real Europeans; 
(2) the differences of standard, locally considered, as between town and country 
education; (3) the popularly accepted differences of standard for boys and girls, 
Provision for such Education.—The number of schools having the technical 
right to the name ‘ High School’ is comparatively small ; but all of the ‘A 1’ public 
schools are doing some work of this grade, while many of them are offering 
instruction in all the highest standards, including matriculation. Statistics for 
1904 report 2,331 pupils in High School grades, without specifying as to sex, 
though here it is safe to say that the girls are in the minority. . . . Very different 
in this respect is the case with the three ‘European ’ Training-Schools for pupil 
teachers and others, which report a very striking majority of female students. Of 
these one is in the eastern division, and two are in the western. The specific 
object of these three institutions is that of giving instruction in the principles and 
methods which lie at the base of successful teaching: 284 students represent the 
enrolment for last year. . . . In four institutions of College grade, preparing for the 
Cape University examinations, young women are now following the prescribed 
courses of study ; the total registration, however, is not over fifty, and a very large 
majority of these women students are in the intermediate class. 
Changes in Standard.—Forty-five years ago there existed in the whole country 
only one large school for girls; twenty-five years ago at least six had been founded, 
and were in successful operation. No one of these, however, at that time was 
doing anything like college work, nor was matriculation then regarded as a school 
examination. Reading, writing, elementary arithmetic, with ‘accomplishments,’ 
had been up to that time considered all that was necessary for a girl to know for 
her own good, while there existed little or no conception of training or education 
for the sake of imparting knowledge to others. . . . The development has been 
slow but steady. The grade-standard has advanced, as has also the generally 
accepted standard of public opinion, in both city and rural communities. One 
yery important element in this advance, so far as the education of women is con- 
cerned, has been the growing necessity for self-support, with the increasing strict- 
ness of requirement on the part of the Department of Education, a strictness which 
has been applied in due proportion to schools of all grades, According to the 
official report of the Superintendent-General for 1904 the percentage of ‘female 
teachers in the seven most important classes of schools’ varies from 49-15 to 89:33, 
an indication of a great change during the quarter of a century in the general 
attitude toward the question of the right of young women to teach and to be 
taught. 
‘The University System.—The University of the Cape of Good Hope is exclu- 
sively an examining body, having the right to grant academic degrees. Five 
teaching institutions or colleges prepare students for the examinations leading to 
the grades—Intermediate, B.A., and M.A. There has never been on the part of 
the University any discrimination of sex in the matter of eligibility to the 
examinations given, or the degrees conferred. In most of the Colleges co-education 
exists, while during the past few years several scholarships based on competitive 
examinations have been taken by women. 
The Situation and the Outlook.—With reference to the future, even the 
immediate future, several important topics suggest themselves as worthy of con- 
1905, RR 
