In the months of July and August of every year, thousands of Jewish children were knocking at the doors of the _gymnazia_ and universities, but only tens and hundreds obtained admission.

In the towns of the Pale where the Jews form from thirty to eighty per cent of the total population, the admission, of Jewish pupils to the _gymnazia_ and "Real schools" was limited to ten per cent, so that the majority of Jewish children were deprived of a secondary education.
The position of the _gymnazium_ and "Real school" graduates who were unable to continue their studies in the institutions of higher learning was particularly tragic.

Many of these unfortunates addressed personal appeals to the Minister of Public Instruction, Dyelanov, who, being good-natured, would, despite his reactionary proclivities, frequently sanction the admission of the petitioners over and above the school norm.

But the majority of the young men, barred from the colleges, found themselves compelled to go abroad in search of education, and, being generally without means, suffered untold hardships.
Nevertheless, the cruel restrictions could not suppress the need for education in a people with an ancient culture.

Those that had failed to gain admission to the _gymnazia_ completed the prescribed course of studies at home, under the guidance of private tutors or by private study, and afterwards presented themselves for examination for the "maturity certificate" [1] as "externs," braving all the difficulties of this thorny path.