![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmFfCcbUoREZjgzaVX1KUB2R1HhzPjcjHh8TTYA77i7NE7qCPsVjpMT0keCSuMM3-Z2M2YqORbsmwBpZX1QaJY088fjNUKenCtAsh7fFR-Xq_HaAC6rs7aZS5LJRsumZp_sRoKb9X2-V8/s400/Zenana+%28+Girls%29+school+at+Baroda+-+1895.jpg)
Photograph of a zenana school at Baroda, Gujarat from the Curzon Collection, taken by an unknown photographer during the 1890s. The Department of Public Instruction was opened in 1875 and a policy of free, compulsory education for both sexes and all castes was pursued by the state government with the encouragement of the Gaekwar Maharaja Sayaji Rao III (ruled 1875-1939). The Gaekwar particularly valued the education of women and in 1885 published a memorandum on the subject. A girls’ schools was opened in Baroda in 1875, and by 1880 there were eight throughout the state. In addition a training college for women teachers was opened in 1882. Zenana classes were attended by grown-up women who were taught reading, writing, arithmetic and needlework. This view of the school shows a brick building built in an Anglo-Indian style.