Today our topic of discussion is Normal Schools .
Normal Schools
Seeing that interest in female education was strong in Dhaka, Mr Martin, Inspector of schools for the south-east, asked the government to set up a female normal school in 1862. After some deliberation the Government of India sanctioned “the establishment, experimentally for one year of a Normal School at Dacca for the training of Native School Mistresses.”
Consequently, on 11 May 1863, the first government Female Normal School was opened in Dhaka with 16 students most of them Bairagi by caste as high caste Hindu girls were still educated at home. Initially the school, located at Sutrapur, was a success; but in the end it “proved too far ahead of its time” and had to close down in 1872 after producing 17 trained teachers.
Encouraged by the government’s efforts local Brahmos led by notables such as Dinonath Sen, Abhay Dutt and Kaliprsanna opened their own female school the Antahpur Stree Shiksha Sabha in 1870. The government provided an annual grant of Rs. 150 for the Sabha 8 This was the school Mary 38 Carpenter had inspected on her trip to Dhaka. In 1876, she observed at a public address in London:
I proceeded to Dhaka where I had reason to know that a great work was going on. Here an adult school has been established which was attended by a number of the wives of native gentlemen anxious to advance the cause of female education. No other school of the kind exists in India.
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