Christian missions in the Telugu country - Uecf.net

i66 MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY
the same persons who teach the men, and in rare cases it
is done by their wives as well. At certain times, too, the
women are expected to be present in the chapel for
instruction. But household duties make interruptions ;
and at best there is always some shyness on their part at
being taught by a man. The result is seen when the
missionary catechises the congregation on a set course of
instruction, as, for instance, for confirmation, for he
rarely gets as good answers from the women as from
the men. Nevertheless there is a certain standard of
knowledge required from the women, as there is from the
men, both for baptism and for confirmation.
Educa- And now let us consider what is being done for the
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education of girls. There are a large number of girls in
the village schools, and these are almost all Christians.
All the schools are open to both boys and girls and,
by the Church rules, Christian girls are bound equally
with boys to attend school. Still, excuses for absence
are more easily accepted for girls than for boys. In
1910 there were 809 Christian girls in our day schools,
a number which exceeded that of the non-Christian
boys (733). The Christian boys numbered 1465.
There are also the girls in our boarding-schools to
be considered. These schools were started early in the
nineties, their primary object being to secure educated
wives for the superior agents of the Mission, as
experience shows that it is undesirable for teachers to
have illiterate wives. It is a rule of the Mission that
a teacher shall marry a person educated up to the
second standard at least, and a fine is actually enforced
if the rule is infringed. Another rule lays down that no