Group of Maratha pupils and masters in class of the Elphinstone High School, Bombay--Photographer: Unknown Medium: Photographic print Date: 1873

Photograph of pupils in a class of the Elphinstone High School at Bombay in Maharashtra from the Archaeological Survey of India Collections: India Office Series (Volume 46), taken by an unknown photographer in c. 1873. This image of pupils gathered around a table conducting an experiment, possibly in physics, was shown at the Vienna Exhibition of the same year. The school shown here is named after Mountstuart Elphinstone who helped to establish the educational structure of the Bombay area. The Imperial Gazetteer of India states, "There are three classes of secondary schools - the vernacular and English middle schools, and the high schools...The English secondary school stage is divided into middle and high school sections, which really form portions of the same course...the English school education should ordinarily be completed by the time the pupil attained the age of sixteen...In English secondary schools the main course has hitherto led up to the matriculation or entrance examination of one or other of the Universities. There are other courses of a more practical character leading up to different examinations...A purely literary education has been more popular among both parents and students, as being in itself more attractive to them and as affording a better opening for remunerative employment. The matriculation has generally been accepted as a qualifying test by Government and private employers as well as by the Universities, and has been regarded as the common goal of the school career."