Chapter III: Burma

“Thou son of _dewas_; to hear and see much in order to acquire knowledge; to study all science that leads not to sin; to make use of proper language; to study the Law in order to acquire a knowledge of propriety of behaviour; these are blessed things, _Dewa_, mark them well.”

“Thou son of _dewas_; to be patient and endure suffering; to rejoice in edifying discourse; to visit the holy men when occasion serves; to converse on religious subjects; these are blessed things, _Dewa_, mark them well.” The _Mingala-thut_. Buddhist Beatitudes. (Burma--Sir George Scott).

In Burma the ancient ideal of Indian womanhood may still be seen in a somewhat purified form. The Buddhist faith which gives a touch of gentleness to every relation of life, has accentuated its best features and swept away many of the laws which hindered its development elsewhere. There is thus very little in the position of women in Burma at which even the most pronounced feminist could cavil. The woman is, if anything, the predominant partner and yet few realize that she rules. Gay, blythe and débonnaire, the sunniest spot in a sunny scene, her rainbow-tinted tamein relieved by a short white jacket, a coloured scarf across her shoulder, and fresh flowers clustering in her dark lustrous hair, the Burmese woman is ready any day for any problem of life you may choose to propound. She is the bargainer, trader and financier of the family, and as such her legal and monetary position after marriage is well assured. Marriage is here an affair of the heart, and it is entered upon when young life flows strong in the later teens. A woman may not marry without her parents’ consent before the age of twenty, but then if marriage is her wish, why should the parents not consent? Why should anyone object to anything which promises to fulfil the heart’s desire of another. So runs a contented “laissez faire” policy. And life is not measured in terms of money by the Burmese. If education has a chance anywhere of being regarded not as a means of livelihood but as a leading forth of the mind to higher and nobler thoughts, it is here in Burma, in consequence of the mental characteristics of the people. Work beyond what is needed for the bare necessaries of life seems unnatural, and there is no perpetually rising standard of comfort, nor passion for accumulation to bind the Burmese to an unceasing wheel of toil. He pauses to be glad and to rejoice. The art of rejoicing is one of the chief arts of Burma, and there is perhaps no country in the world where it is carried to such a pitch of perfection. No generalization can be made about any people unless long years are spent in their midst, but the first impressions made by the Burmese on a stranger generally confirm the writers who characterize them as modern hedonists. There are books which show another side of the picture, and many sad facts (notably the looseness of the marriage tie[52]) bear them out, but leaving these aside, and turning to our particular problem, we find that the girls’ schools of Burma are glad and happy places. There is an atmosphere of buoyancy and quiet zest in work which strikes the visitor at once, and this testimony is amply borne out by the teachers.

It must, however, be remembered that not all girls in school in Burma are Burmese. A large proportion of them are drawn from the Karens, who occupy the tracts of hill country on the frontier of Lower Burma, in Tenasserim, and in the Delta of the Irawadi. The gradual civilization and raising of these tribes to the standard of the Burmese in general, is on all sides attributed to the excellent work of the missionaries, (the American Baptists and the Anglicans). Where Christianity comes its special social results follow. There is a Chinese community numbering over 40,000 and a strong Mohammedan section, not to speak of Hindu immigrants from South India, Tamils and Telugus, while the variety of the educational problem may be seen in the official enumeration of the other races under instruction: “Karens, Talaings, Chins, Shans, Danus and Inthas, Chinese, Indians, Palaungs and Taungthus.”

The interior of Burma is inhabited by about fifty-seven different tribes speaking forty different languages. Feminine education however is not as yet a matter of importance amongst the hill tribes; apart from the Anglo-Indian (Eurasian) schools, which lie beyond the province of this book, it affects mainly the Burmese, Karen, Chinese and Mohammedan communities.

As regards general literacy, Burma ranks high in the provinces of the Empire; the proportion of girls at school to girls of school-going age was 9.6% in 1910,[53] as compared with 4% in 1907 in British India as a whole. This distinction is however mainly in the Primary stages, for the women graduates of Burma can so far be numbered on one’s fingers. It is also entirely confined to those areas which have come into touch with modern civilization. There are large tracts of hill country where the women are totally uneducated, for the Burmese and Karen women alone contribute to the high proportion. One would however naturally expect to find a well developed system of female education throughout the various stages, offering possibly an example to the other provinces, and it is surprising to find that this is not the case. On the contrary there is considerably less organization and no such definite policy in female education as in Eastern Bengal. The real reasons for the creditable proportion are the later age of marriage, the bright temperament and ability of the Burmese girl, the complete absence of _parda_, and the general social atmosphere, which permits girls to study unhindered in boys’ schools throughout all the stages. Thus there are more girls studying in boys’ schools than in separate ones, viz. 73% as compared with 42% over India as a whole. The system seems in many ways to work well. Of the three contributing factors, which are found in every province, the work of Government, the spontaneous Indian movement, and missionary effort, the last overwhelmingly predominates in Burma, especially in the higher stages.

The policy of the Government, more especially as regards girls’ schools, has been to encourage, guide, and, to a certain extent, finance private institutions while undertaking little direct work of its own. As will be seen from the accompanying table, only four institutions are directly under the Central Authority. A certain proportion of girls may also be found in the Government and Municipal Secondary schools for boys; the Primary schools for boys directly under public control only number fifteen and the proportion of girls in them is therefore a negligible quantity. No Inspectress or Assistant Inspectress has as yet been appointed, partly because funds are lacking and also because, apart from purely domestic subjects there does not, seem such a crying need for it as in other parts of India.

+MANAGEMENT OF GIRLS’ SCHOOLS IN BURMA+[54]

+------------+-------------------+----------------------------------+
| | +UNDER | +UNDER |
| |PUBLIC MANAGEMENT.+| PRIVATE MANAGEMENT.+ |
| +---------+---------+-------+------+---------+---------+
| | | Munici- | Aided | |Number of|Number of|
| |Govern- | pal | by | Un- |Scholars | Girls in|
| | ment. | Boards. |Govern-|aided.| on | Boys’ |
| | | | ment | | Roll. | Schools.|
+------------+---------+---------+-------+------+---------+---------+
|College | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 12 |
| | | | | | | |
|High | .. | .. | 9 | .. | 1,523 | 502 |
| | | | | | | |
|Middle-- | | | | | | |
| English | .. | .. | 16 | .. | 1,968 | 1,086 |
| | | | | | | |
| Vernacular| 4 | .. | 48 | .. | 3,312 | 9,456 |
| | | | | | | |
|Primary | .. | .. | 619 | .. | 20,022 | 40,534 |
+------------+---------+---------+-------+------+---------+---------+
| | 4 | .. | 692 | .. | 26,825 | 51,590 |
+------------+---------+---------+-------+------+---------+---------+

_Note_.--Deducting the Anglo-Indian figures it leaves only 676 Indian
girls taking High School Education.

There are also 86 Private Institutions of an elementary character with
over four thousand pupils.

The spontaneous Indian element may practically be identified with the Buddhist educational movement, except for one small Mohammedan school in Rangoon where tiny girls learn the Koran. To Buddhism and the Buddhist monks may be attributed the high standard of literacy in Burma as a whole. Practically every Burmese boy knows how to read and write, and he has learnt it at the monastery.[55] In the nature of things girls are not admitted to these _Kyaungs_, but there are apparently some parallel schools for girls, conducted by nuns. “Besides the monastic public schools, there are private schools kept by laymen and occasionally also by women, in which girls as well as boys are taught.”[56] The private institutions which do not come under inspection are mainly of this character. One fruit of the recent Buddhist revival is the Empress Victoria Buddhist Girls’ School, which owes its existence and tone to the energies of Mrs Hla Oung. Her main idea is the combination of modern education with definite instruction in Buddhism and in this the school differs from all the other indigenous girls’ schools, where little beyond bare literacy can be acquired. Excellent education up to “Anglo-Vernacular Standard VII” can be obtained here under competent mistresses or masters. An Anglo-Vernacular school has also recently been opened through private generosity for the girls of the Chinese Colony in Rangoon. There is naturally no spontaneous and independent effort for girls’ education among the hill tribes, though in many cases they are ready to meet the missionary more than half-way.

The missionary influence in the education of girls in Burma is thus a most important one, and includes every stage from the Kindergarten to Normal training. The chief agencies at work are the American Baptist Mission, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and the Methodist Episcopal Church of America. The Roman Catholic educational schemes exist largely for the Anglo-Indians and the Tamil immigrants from South India.

The American Baptist Mission dates from the time of Judson (1810), and has now in connection with it over 70,000 native Christians speaking eight different languages. The educational scheme for their Christian girls is very thorough, and leads up through a system of small village schools to their Burmese boarding-school in Kemmandine, a suburb of Rangoon, and to an excellent mixed Karen school, also in Rangoon. There is a separate Normal school, and one or two especially clever girls are to be found in the Matriculation class of the Baptist Boys’ High School preparing to go to the Mission College. A large proportion of the non-Christian girls are drawn into these schools by the efficiency of the education offered. The centre of the S.P.G. work is St Mary’s School, Rangoon, which dates back to 1865, and is a first-class institution in every way. It is satisfactory to note that several of the staff are former pupils who have returned to teach here, after training in the S.P.G. Normal School. Some of the staff are Anglo-Indian, but a good proportion are Burmese Christians. Two English ladies are in charge. There are about one hundred boarders, mostly Christian, but including some Buddhists, and nearly an equal number of non-Christian day scholars. The school works under the Government Code, and earns an excellent grant. There are three other good S.P.G. schools for Burmese or Karen girls which lead up to St Mary’s. Those at Toungoo and Mandalay have a considerable number of boarders. A few of these are drawn from the immigrant population--as Kansi, the little Ghurka girl in the accompanying illustration. Her father is a Christian, and contributes regularly to her maintenance. The policy of the S.P.G. Mission seems, so far, rather to concentrate on a few good schools than to develop much village educational work. The Methodist Episcopal schools, like those of the S.P.G., are partly for the Anglo-Indian community, and partly for the indigenous population. In Rangoon they have two good High schools, one of each type, and other schools in the country. The educational work done by other societies in Burma is not extensive; but, where every unit counts, it has its own contribution to make. There are large tracts of hill country round Burma which are still waiting for missionary advance, and where the women are totally uneducated.

The pioneer work to be done would be of the type usual amongst primitive peoples, and might produce the same magnificent results as amongst the Karens.

Passing from the organizing agencies to the actual pupils, the religious classification as seen in the accompanying table is of interest.

The Anglo-Indian pupils pass through the various stages of their education in the High School, hence their absence in the statistics of the Primary schools. The proportion of Mohammedan girls in the High schools is striking, and is possibly due to the fact of mixed parentage; Buddhist freedom to a certain extent influences Mohammedan customs in Burma. By the new regulations only 15% of the places in the “European” schools are available for Burmese or Indian girls, and these vacancies are eagerly sought after. The curriculum pursued in the various schools is laid down in the Government Code, and there are no schools of any importance which stand apart and develop an experimental curriculum of their own, as occasionally happens in other provinces. Burma has, as yet, no University of her own, and the curriculum of the schools with the corresponding departmental examinations is to a certain extent determined in relation to the Calcutta Matriculation. Schools are classified as “High” in which after a good vernacular foundation, the pupils are taken up to Matriculation, English being used as a medium of instruction in the higher forms; “Middle Anglo-Vernacular,” in which English is taught orally from the Primary stages and as a written language from the fourth class, instruction is given only up to the test of the seventh standard, and in the latter stages English is used as a medium; “Middle Vernacular,” in which pupils are taken up to the seventh standard, but no English instruction whatever is given; and “Primary,” where vernacular education is only carried to the fourth standard.

+CLASSIFICATION BY RACE OR CREED OF BURMESE SCHOOL GIRLS+[57]

+------------------+------+-------+-----+-------+------+----+----+
| |Euro- |Native |Hin- |Moham- |Buddh-|Par-|Oth-|
| |peans |Christ-|dus. |medans.|ists. |sis.|ers.|
| | |ians. | | | | | |
+------------------+------+-------+-----+-------+------+----+----+
|High School |1,349 | 14 | 9 | 23 | 31| 25 | 72 |
| | | | | | | | |
|Middle | | | | | | | |
| Anglo-Vernacular| 470 | 453 | 6 | 28 | 1,001| 2 | 8 |
| Vernacular | 4 | 543 | 38 | 114 | 2,938| .. | 1 |
| | | | | | | | |
|Primary | 128 | 1,121 | 77 | 208 |18,481| .. | 7 |
+------------------+------+-------+-----+-------+------+----+----+
| |1,951 | 2,131 | 130 | 373 |22,451| 27 | 88 |
+------------------+------+-------+-----+-------+------+----+----+

The curriculum is in many respects very similar to that found in schools at home, and is open to the usual criticism that its influence is denationalizing. A recent order limits the teaching of English in the first three classes to simple conversation lessons, in order that more stress may be laid on correct vernacular. The advantages of the oral method in the hands of a skilled teacher are undoubted, but it is a question whether the Department have not been somewhat premature in this respect. The Kindergarten classes are excellently conducted in some schools, and every effort is made to keep them as Burmese as possible in character. In drawing, a complete series of copies based on Burmese design and ranging from the most simple to the most elaborate, has been prepared and is in extensive use. It is when the stage of optional and alternative subjects is reached that the denationalizing element enters more strongly. In one High school visited, only about 25% of the girls were taking Burmese, in some forms only one pupil did so, while many of them take Latin, and a preponderating proportion choose English history as being an easy examination subject. The number of Anglo-Indian girls partly explains this choice. Indian history is a compulsory subject throughout, and the Government Code offers ample scope for vernacular and classical Oriental study. It is the choice of the individual pupil or parents which is at fault. Sewing is not a subject which carries a Government grant, and excepting at a few of the European schools, it is at a low ebb. The Principal of the S.P.G. High school acted as Inspectress for the Department in this subject during 1910 in some twenty-six schools, and through her efforts the standard has been to some extent raised, but there is a crying need for a properly appointed Inspectress, who will develop this subject as well as a sound system of instruction in hygiene and domestic economy adapted to Burmese conditions. The tendency is for the girls to drop off in the higher forms at about sixteen years of age, so that very few really go up for the Matriculation examination, and these mainly with intent to teach. Others pass after Standard VII. straight to the Normal school.

In outer circles a strong destructive criticism is directed against the anglicizing tendency of education in Burma, but amongst the missionaries actually engaged in it there is not the same realization of a possible need for change as is found amongst certain sections of missionary educators in other parts of India. The reason for this may partly lie in the fact that the Western education of girls--indeed education at all beyond the mere rudiments--is of later date in Burma than elsewhere, and that consequently its full effect cannot yet be traced. Moreover, among the Burmese there is not the same “nationalist” spirit as exists in India proper, and this directly influences the educational problem. It must be remembered, too, that there is not the same gulf between the woman’s life and the man’s as in other parts of India, and that the system used for boys may in many respects be excellent for girls. But whether we have here in its early stages a problem which is destined to become more acute, is a subtle question and one worthy of close inquiry. At any rate, no constructive theory has as yet been put forward by any mission school. The general public, however, criticize, and taking that criticism for what it is worth, there is a general indictment on the ground of the education given being mere “cram,” and not really a training of mind and character. A Burmese Deputy Commissioner writes: “If women have become more educated, many have also become more frivolous, spending their time in reading songs, _zats_,[58] and useless trash, instead of doing more useful work.”[59] A special accusation is also directed against the general atmosphere of the school, which is too reminiscent of English to be the natural one for a foreign country.

Both these criticisms are apparently concerned more with the problem of the teacher than with that of the curriculum. The Government Code is elastic, the trouble is the lack of emphasis laid on Oriental subjects. A British or American missionary may often enter at once into school life in Burma without any opportunity of knowing the people or the language, and be thus unable to give the Burmese tone, which in theory she may or may not value. I observed the special case of a young American at the head of a large Anglo-Vernacular Middle school who was obliged to interview her new pupils through an interpreter, and had no means of supervising the instruction given in the vernacular throughout her school. The educational problem translates itself here into the mission problem of under-staffing. It may doubtless be argued that the denationalizing influence in the mission schools is that of a religion presented in its Western aspects but it is interesting to note that the same atmosphere is felt in the Empress Victoria Buddhist Girls’ School,[60] which is constantly under the personal influence of Mrs Hla Oung, a leading Buddhist. The definite statement, “We wish to be English in everything except our religion,” affords a striking contrast to the care with which some missionaries seek to preserve all that is good and right in national tradition and custom.

Passing from the dominant influence to the staff, through which the Head-mistress must transmit her ideals, what opportunities of training have these teachers had? As regards the Normal schools the whole work is practically in the hands of the missionaries. There are four Normal schools for girls all under mission management. These included in 1910 eighty-eight pupils, of whom sixty-nine were native Christians. There are also a few girls in the Government Normal schools for men, notably two Mohammedan girls in the Mandalay school. The criticism in the Government Report is that the literary work demanded of the female students is too severe, especially if they do not aim at teaching in any institution higher than a Primary school. Some alteration in the curriculum is suggested. Moreover, many teachers cannot afford to defer the opportunity of an immediate salary, and do not pass through the Normal school. Most of those in charge of the mission schools, however, insist upon Normal training for their teachers. The type of teacher produced is not, according to general opinion, a very high one; she is intellectually weary, and looks upon her career mainly from a pecuniary point of view. There are, of course, marked exceptions. Teachers’ Associations do not exist, and it is questionable whether these would be advisable owing to the heat and strain of the necessary hours of teaching. The material, therefore, with which the Head-mistress has to shape her school is not of the best quality, and it is all the more necessary that she should have leisure from routine for personal contact with both pupils and staff. This is just what she does not get. A very large proportion of her time is often taken up by work on Government schedules, and in personally teaching the higher English classes. In mission schools, which frequently have non-Christian teachers on their staff, she may also have to teach the Scripture lessons throughout. So far, we look in vain for Burmese women who have passed up to the University to train as leaders. Of the twelve women Arts students in Rangoon, only one is Burmese. She is a Christian. Even the Anglo-Indian community, from which many of the teachers are drawn, rests content with the qualification of First Arts (a two years’ University course), and no graduates have, as yet, to the writer’s knowledge, taken Secondary training. The ideal for women’s education in Burma is the production of some fully qualified Burmese Head-mistresses, who will be able to impress their individuality on the whole system, and thus make it contribute to the beauty of their national characteristics.

It will thus be seen that the day of foreign and missionary educators in Burma has in one sense only begun; they are needed for pioneer work amongst the untouched hill districts; for the even more difficult task of guiding the course of higher education into the right channels; and for the work of training those who will prove in the future its best interpreters to their own people.