does not seem possible for these areas, much less for the whole
of India.
According to the 1879-80 Report of the Director of Public
Instruction for the Madras Presidency, the total number of
educational institutions of all types (including colleges,
secondary, middle and primary schools, and special, or technical
institutions) then numbered 10,553. Out of these, the primary
schools numbered 10,106. The total number attending them:
2,38,960 males, and 29,419 females. The total population of the
Presidency at this time is stated as 3,13,08,872. While the
number of females attending these institutions was evidently
larger in 1879-80 compared to 1822-25, the proportionate
numbers of males was clearly much reduced. Using the same
computation as those applied in 1822-25 (i.e. one-ninth of the
total population treated as of school-going age), those of this age
amongst the male population (taking males and females as
equal) would have numbered 17,39,400. The number of males in
primary schools being 2,18,840, the proportion of this age group
in schools thus turns out to be 12.58%. This proportion in the
decayed educational situation of 1822-25 was put at one-fourth,
i.e. at 25%. If one were to take even the total of all those in every
type of institution, i.e. the number 2,38,960, the proportion in
1879-80 rises only to 13.74%.
From 1879-80 to 1884-85, there was some increase,
however, to be found. While the population went down slightly to
3,08,68,504, the total number of male scholars went up to
3,79,932, and that of females to 50,919. Even this larger
number of male scholars came up only to 22.15% of the
computed school-age male population; and, of those in primary
schools to 18.33%. These figures are much lower than the 1822-
25 officially calculated proportion. Incidentally, while there was
an overall increase in number of females in educational institu-
tions, the number of Muslim girls in such institutions in the
district of Malabar in 1884-85 was only 705. Here it may be
recollected that 62 years earlier, in August 1823, the number of
Muslim girls in schools in Malabar was 1,122; and, at that time,
the population of Malabar would have been below half of that in
1884-85.
Eleven years later in 1895-96, the number in all types of
educational institutions increased further. While the population
had grown to 3,56,41,828, the number of those in educational