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Title: Some phases of educational progress in Latin America

Author: Walter A. Montgomery

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Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME PHASES OF EDUCATIONAL
PROGRESS IN LATIN AMERICA ***





  DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

  BUREAU OF EDUCATION

  BULLETIN, 1919, No. 59

  SOME
  PHASES OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS
  IN LATIN AMERICA

  By

  WALTER A. MONTGOMERY

  SPECIALIST IN FOREIGN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS
  BUREAU OF EDUCATION

  [Advance Sheets from the Biennial Survey of Education, 1916-1918]

  [Illustration: DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR]

  WASHINGTON
  GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
  1920




  ADDITIONAL COPIES
  OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PROCURED FROM
  THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS
  GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
  WASHINGTON, D. C.
  AT
  10 CENTS PER COPY




SOME PHASES OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS IN LATIN AMERICA.

BY WALTER A. MONTGOMERY,

_Specialist in Foreign Educational Systems, Bureau of Education_.

 CONTENTS.--Central America: Practical education; Guatemala; Salvador;
 Honduras; Costa Rica; Nicaragua; Panama--British Guiana: New school
 regulation--Argentina: Preliminary; illiteracy; report of National
 Council of Education; progress of education in the Provinces; changes
 under the projected law of 1918; secondary education; technical
 education; normal-school training; higher education--Brazil:
 Vocational education--Chile: Preliminary; illiteracy; primary
 education; secondary education; training of teachers; technical
 education--Uruguay: General introduction; primary education, public
 and private; rural schools; medical inspection of schools; secondary
 education; commercial education; training of teachers; higher
 education--Venezuela.




PRACTICAL EDUCATION IN CENTRAL AMERICA.


One of the most interesting aspects of the school situation in Central
America and Panama is the important position occupied by commercial
and industrial education in the courses of study of many institutions.
Public men and teachers in Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua,
Costa Rica, and Panama have taken into account the need of offering to
the new generation an education which shall be completely practical,
with the purpose of turning the thoughts and energies of all the youth
to fruitful service of their country.

The teaching of arts and crafts, as well as that of commerce and
agriculture, was formerly not begun, as in the United States, upon the
student’s entering the secondary school, though there has for some time
been a movement to make such instruction a part of the work of the
advanced classes in the primary schools, to be continued in the liceo
and the normal schools.

This universal interest in practical lines of education is a striking
indication of the influences and tendencies now at work in Central
America. In the different countries included under this designation
there are schools and academies, workshops and laboratories, intended
for the practical education of the student body. When it is remembered
that the introduction of practical and industrial education in the
school régime of Central America is a matter of the past few years,
the progress realized is regarded as highly satisfactory. The rapid
increase of the commerce of Central America, the improvement in
the means of intercommunication, the travels of its people abroad,
the influence of foreign elements in its territory, and the various
interests thus awakened have aroused in the interior of the Republics
composing it the belief that national greatness in modern times must
rest upon economic and industrial foundations. The influx of foreign
capital and the consequent establishment of powerful industrial
enterprises have likewise emphasized the necessity of training men
for work in such enterprises. The introduction of modern machinery,
the increase of the different forms of the application of steam, the
adoption of the inventions intended to gather up the results of labor,
and numerous similar influences have given rise to a tremendous demand
in this part of the continent for skilled and reliable mechanics.
Central America has thus addressed itself with enthusiasm to the task
of training the children of its schools for the activities of the
present day.

The capitals, other important cities, and even many small towns
have schools devoted to practical education, generally provided
with buildings and equipment well adapted to this end. Honduras,
for example, has founded a school for scientific instruction in the
cultivation and preparation of tobacco and for the manufacture of
cigars and cigarettes in the tobacco district around Danli. In several
Provinces of the same Republic, and in Panama, where agriculture is
subordinate, the Governments have founded schools for training pupils
to weave hats and other objects.

The more generalized industrial schools are those of arts and crafts
and the so-called practical schools for boys. Their organization
presents marked differences. In some of the countries named there exist
schools that receive pupils either as full or half time boarders,
and offer night courses as the situation demands. In all these
instruction is free. The Government generally offers a certain number
of scholarships in the boarding schools for pupils approved by the
different Departments or Provinces of the country. Tools, instruments,
and supplies used in the schools are provided by the Government. In
return the school exacts of such students certain services and thereby
carries out certain work that represents a partial reimbursement for
the amount spent upon their maintenance. This is the case with the
schools of arts and crafts in Honduras and Panama. Some small schools
of this class are maintained by means of the labor they carry on for
private individuals and by the sale of the products they turn out.

These industrial schools are generally of two kinds: (1) Those in which
the training in commercial subjects and in arts and crafts constitutes
part of the regular course of study and (2) those devoted exclusively
to the teaching of arts and crafts.

(1) In those of the first class the pupils study the ordinary subjects
prescribed by the department of public instruction and devote only
several hours weekly to arts and crafts. This class in its turn
includes two groups of institutions. To be admitted to those of the
first group the pupils must know how to read and write and apply
the elementary rules of arithmetic. During the entire school year
instruction is given in Spanish, geography, history, and arithmetic.
The practical schools for girls and boys are generally of this kind,
being especially numerous in Guatemala and Honduras. The schools
conducted by the Christian Brothers in Nicaragua are also of this
type. The duration of studies is from three to five years, a half
day being devoted to the classes in the ordinary subjects of primary
education and the other half to practical work. In the second group
are comprised various institutions which require certificates from the
higher elementary schools, such as the liceo and the higher colegio for
women in Costa Rica, the National Institute in Salvador, the Central
National Institute for Boys in Guatemala, and the normal schools in
these countries and in Honduras.

(2) Of the special institutions which constitute the second category,
there are to be noted two prominent instances in the schools of arts
and crafts in Panama and in Honduras. In organization and purposes they
are schools of mechanical arts, and not schools of manual training.
Their workshops have not been established to impart general notions of
manual arts or a general apprenticeship, but to train the pupils from
entrance upon the line of education chosen by themselves. In these
schools are taught carpentry, tanning, shoemaking, blacksmithing,
cabinetmaking, electricity, installation and management of machinery,
mechanics, printing and bookbinding, telegraphy, etc. All workshops in
such schools are well equipped with machinery and tools.

All that has been said in regard to modern educational tendencies and
influences to which boys are subject in the countries mentioned can be
extended, though in less degree, to the girls and young women. Within
the past few years women’s sphere of action has steadily been enlarged,
and has come to include not only teaching but various employments
in shops and mercantile establishments. Within the next few years
their instruction must be taken into account in schools of domestic
training, vocational schools, practical schools, and the technical
colegios. The organization and range of these institutions does not
differ materially from those for boys. The vocational school for girls
is essentially a school of arts and crafts in which the pupils devote
themselves from entrance to the study of a special line, such as
dressmaking, embroidery, millinery, and, in certain schools, cooking,
washing and ironing, etc. A certificate of proficiency is granted them
upon the completion of certain assigned courses. The other schools
for girls before mentioned combine general subjects with the special
apprenticeship in crafts upon which they enter as soon as they reach
the higher classes of the primary school and which they continue into
the high school and the normal school.




GUATEMALA.


The type of industrial education that prevails in Guatemala is the
combination of general studies with special instruction in the arts and
trades given in the practical schools for girls and for boys. There
also exists in the capital a school of arts and crafts for women where
instruction is given at the same time in the subjects of ordinary
instruction. In the departments of manual arts which are largely, but
not exclusively, attended by boys, are taught theoretical and practical
blacksmithing, carpentry, printing, bookbinding and weaving, besides
geography, history, botany, chemistry, zoology, geology, drawing, and
Spanish language and literature. In the schools of Guatemala much
attention is given subjects of a practical nature, with the purpose
of training competent workmen and artisans. There also exist in this
country a National School of Commerce, situated in the capital, and a
Practical School of Commerce, at Quetzaltenango. In both cities there
are schools of agriculture which admit to their first-year courses the
pupils of the first year of the central normal schools. The capital
possesses also a school of telegraphy, recently founded with the view
to installing in it a special wireless station.




SALVADOR.


Arts and crafts for women, commercial subjects and mechanical arts,
are generally taught in Salvador in the public schools, though their
incorporation in the courses of instruction is comparatively recent.
Many prominent teachers of the country have taken the pains to spread
abroad the appreciation of the necessity of “enlarging the educational
sphere of the State, and opening to the youth and to workmen schools
where they may acquire practical knowledge of the sciences and the
arts and by these means may contribute to the advancement of general
intelligence in the country.” In compliance with these ideas the
Government has founded in Salvador a National School of Graphic Arts
aiming “to aid the youth of Salvador to the acquisition of knowledge
of a practical nature, and to put it in a position to be successful
in the economic struggles which are the most important signs of the
modern age.” In this school the preference is given to the teaching
of physics, mechanics, drawing, printing, lithographing, carving,
bookbinding, and technical telegraphy and telephoning. Night courses
are also given in this school.

In consequence of the public sentiment above mentioned, there has been
opened in the National Institute of Salvador a course in commercial
and economic subjects lasting three years. This course comprises the
study of various modern languages, commercial law, political economy,
industrial chemistry, commercial geography, bookkeeping, stenography
and typewriting. The pupils in this school are required to work several
hours daily for a period in the different ministerial departments
before graduation. Salvador also established in 1913 a school of
agriculture, with a department of animal husbandry. Two years later
there was established the Technical-Practical Colegio for Girls, in
which instruction in crafts for women is combined with that in general
subjects.




HONDURAS.


Industrial instruction has attained great importance in Honduras. The
School of Arts and Crafts of Tegucigalpa concerns itself chiefly with
products in wood and the metals and is steadily training artisans and
mechanics. There likewise exists in this city the national automobile
school managed by the Government. For some years there has been in
operation in Siguatepeque a school of English and of arts and crafts,
in which are taught fiber weaving, carpentry, dressmaking, and
embroidery. In the normal schools and in the two colegios students may
choose between the commercial courses and those relating to arts and
crafts. In 1915 was established a technical practical school for girls,
where courses in science and in crafts for women are offered parallel
with the subjects belonging to the primary schools.




COSTA RICA.


Costa Rica is another of the Central American countries where practical
instruction is combined with general. Five institutions of higher grade
and the vocational schools for women have well-equipped workshops,
laboratories, kitchens, and laundries. Of all Central American States,
Costa Rica gives perhaps most attention to this special branch of
instruction. It is noteworthy that manual arts and domestic science are
uniformly taught in the secondary schools conjointly with the literary
and purely scientific subjects.




NICARAGUA.


In Nicaragua manual arts form part of the general instruction, as has
been seen in the case of the normal schools conducted by the Christian
Brothers. Girls receive practical instruction in the normal schools.
Some years ago there was established a special school for the training
of telegraph and telephone operators.




PANAMA.


Like Guatemala and Honduras, Panama has devoted special attention
to industrial training. The School of Arts and Crafts of the City
of Panama is one of the largest and best equipped of its kind. It
is essentially a school for artisans and possesses sections of
electricity, carpentry, cabinetmaking, printing and bookbinding,
carving, foundry work, etc., its principal object being to train men
for the separate industrial branches.

Panama also has a vocational school for girls in which a year’s
instruction is given in telegraphy, one in laundry work, two in
dressmaking and embroidery, two in shorthand, two in cooking, two in
millinery and flower work.

It has likewise a school of agriculture, in which is given a three
years’ course, for which the Government offers 30 scholarships to
youths approved by local authorities. The Government has also founded
from time to time specialized schools in the interior, with the object
of encouraging agriculture or some other industry, such as that of the
manufacture of Panama hats. Like Honduras, Panama devotes the greatest
attention to special industrial schools.

For the furtherance of commercial education in Central and South
America a Pan American College of Commerce, to be located at the City
of Panama, is projected, under the joint auspices of the Southern
Commercial Congress of the United States and the Government of the
Republic of Panama. The active support of the countries of the two
Americas is to be sought, and it is hoped that it may be opened on
January 1, 1921, the quadricentennial year of the City of Panama,
the first city to be founded by Europeans in the Western Hemisphere.
The college is designed to train the youth of the two continents in
practical courses of commerce, shipping, banking, and international
trade relations generally.




NEW SCHOOL REGULATIONS IN BRITISH GUIANA.

The last report of the director of primary instruction in British
Guiana outlines a new regulation for the common schools. In many of
its parts it includes novel measures of school organization which
are of interest as suggestions to other South American States for
similar action. The regulations relate to the classification of
schools, the minimum period of attendance, the age limit of pupils,
the occupations of pupils after leaving school, school gardens, etc.
As an instance of its stringent character, the regulation decrees
that when any school ceases to conform to certain conditions with
regard to building, installation, equipment, and health conditions, it
shall be classified in B category; and if within 6 months it has not
satisfied the requirements of the regulation, the authorities shall
suspend the Government aid hitherto granted. It is to be noted that the
primary schools of British Guiana are not directly administered by the
authorities.

The school also loses its governmental aid if within two consecutive
years it does not maintain a fixed minimum attendance, which varies
according to the population of the locality in which it is situated. In
return special aids are offered for schools that teach gardening for
boys and the care of smaller children for girls from 12 to 14 years.

The greatest educational need of the colony is the establishment of
technical primary schools for the instruction of boys and girls from
11 to 15 years. It is projected to establish two such schools in
Georgetown in which there shall be taught, in addition to manual arts
and other craft, drawing in all its branches, arithmetic and geography
as related to commerce, the rudiments of experimental science,
shorthand, and business correspondence. Criticism has been directed
against the omission of instruction in agriculture, which is admitted
to be the most necessary branch in the colony. It is, however, intended
to impart agricultural instruction in special schools to be established.

Because of the fact that the majority of the pupils leave school before
reaching 12 years, it is not possible to put into practice suggested
plans of giving them preoccupational instruction in which they might
be making a start before the end of their primary-school studies. On
the other hand the traditional primary school is not adequate to give
direction toward a vocational subject. Hence, to the regret of the
authorities, attempts to link the primary school with the occupation of
the pupil have been abandoned.

Much interest has been developed in school gardening; and about 100
gardens are annexed to primary schools, affording practical instruction
to pupils in agriculture and horticulture. The Government has also
established 8 model gardens, where instruction is given the pupils of
neighboring schools.




ARGENTINA.


PRELIMINARY.

Two well-defined stages have marked the progress of national education
in Argentina since 1916. The first began with the reorganization of
primary instruction by act of the Federal Congress early in that year,
which came about largely through the initiative and efforts of the
minister of public instruction. It had long been felt that the legal
system in force since 1882 was unsatisfactory, especially on the point
of articulation of secondary education with the higher elementary
on the one hand and with the universities on the other. Argentine
educational thinkers asserted that secondary education prepared neither
for practical life nor for entrance to the technical schools and the
universities, inasmuch as it had remained unchanged for more than
a generation, in the face of the social, economic, scientific, and
ethnical changes through which the country had passed.

Together with this dissatisfaction with a special division went the
conviction that governmental reform should strike deeper, and instead
of busying itself with plans of reform of courses and schedules,
should settle the fundamental question of what should be the nature
and aims of the national secondary school. This could be done only
by so modifying the prevailing system as to make it fit the needs of
the school population according to their age, social conditions, and
probable future. Proof that it had not so adapted itself was thought
to be found in the fact that of the pupils annually completing the
4a elementary grade only 45 per cent continued into the _colegios
nacionales_, as contrasted with 55 per cent who went into the 5a grade
and commercial schools, while on a moderate estimate 60 per cent left
with insufficient equipment for their needs as useful members of
society. Furthermore, the secondary school, as organized, offered no
opportunity to boys and girls of 13 and 14 years to choose the advanced
courses and vocational training for which they felt an aptitude, and
so to secure adequate preparation for the university studies or for
advanced technical, industrial, and commercial schools.

For this lack of correlation between educational divisions it was
proposed to substitute a logical and unbroken sequence. What came
to be commonly accepted among education authorities as best serving
this purpose was a common intermediate school of three years of an
essentially practical character, carrying on general elementary
instruction by means of book lessons and developing by special
experiments and practical methods individual aptitudes by which to
determine future training. As the basis for such a school primary
education had, of course, to be modified, and after months of
discussion a scheme for general modification of the entire educational
fabric was outlined (1916). According to this, the primary school
proper was to cover four years; the uniform middle school of the first
grade one year; and the differentiated middle school of the second
grade two years. Upon these were to be based the _colegios nacionales_,
the normal schools, the industrial schools, the various higher special
schools, and the national universities. Though marking a meritorious
attempt to articulate the several divisions, the project did not work
out satisfactorily in actual operation, and as a constituent part of
the national system it was repealed after about a year of operation.


ILLITERACY.

On a basis of population estimated (1917) at slightly more than eight
millions, 725,000 were estimated to be illiterate, about 42 per cent
of the school population. Illiteracy is most rife in remote Provinces
of the Andes and in the Territories, sparsely settled and inhabited by
people of roving habits and poorly developed industrially. Under the
lead of the director general of the schools of the Province of Mendoza,
a systematic campaign to eliminate illiteracy was begun in 1916. It
was recognized that financial considerations made it impossible to
establish the number of primary schools which would be demanded,
certainly not for the many remote points where only the legal minimum
of 15 or 20 illiterates were to be found. Home schools (_escuelas del
hogar_) were therefore established, officially ranking as auxiliary to
the already existent schools, for illiterates of 8 to 20 years, and
offering as a minimum curriculum reading, writing, the four fundamental
operations of arithmetic, the duties of the Argentine citizen, elements
of ethics, and personal hygiene. Such schools may begin any day of the
year, and with a minimum of five pupils. Any person desiring to open
such a school must fulfill the following conditions:

(_a_) He must be at least 20 years of age, of good moral reputation,
certified by the chief civil official of his residence.

(_b_) He must speak the national language correctly and be able to give
instruction in it.

Such schools shall not be established at less distance than 5
kilometers from an established primary school supported by national,
provincial, or local funds, but if the school be intended exclusively
for boys from 15 to 20 years old it may be located at any point. Such
schools are to be visited freely by school and civil authorities, and
by persons designated by the provincial general inspectors.

Related in character to the _escuelas del hogar_ of the Province are
the _escuelas tutoriales_, established by national decree of 1916,
applying to all the Provinces and especially to the Territories.
In these schools, established at points designated by the National
Council of Education, any number of children not regularly enrolled in
the primary schools may be taught by private individuals who conform
to the requirements of primary teachers, and by teachers regularly
engaged in primary work. The latter, by special exception, receive
additional compensation for such instruction. The same law also
provides remuneration, to be fixed by the general council of education
of the Province or Territory for all persons, not teachers, who are
certificated to have taught illiterates, whether children or adults, to
read and write.

Most novel of all undertakings for the wiping out of illiteracy are
the traveling schools (_escuelas ambulantes_). Provided for by the
original organic school law of 1884, these schools were not, because
of lack of funds, put into operation until 1914. Up to that time there
was a conviction that their need was insignificant by contrast with
the greater problem of illiteracy in the cities, and that to scatter
funds available for combating illiteracy was not prudent. How serious
this mistake was appeared in 1914 when it was ascertained by systematic
count that of nearly 35,000 children of the Territories not in school
only 6,000 lived in towns.

Located first in Province of Catamarca, and in the mountain regions
of Rio Negro and the Chubut, these schools are built of materials
easily transportable, and accommodate an average of 25 pupils. Sites
are selected for them which are most accessible to the largest number
of children in the district. Teachers traverse such regions on foot
or muleback, carrying necessary equipment for instruction, and remain
four and one-half months at each place, giving instruction in reading,
writing, elements of arithmetic, and hygiene. A decided advantage is
found in this succinct curriculum, the average of successful study
by the pupils of these schools being, it is claimed, fully on a par
with that of the pupils of the nine months’ primary schools, who are
required to take the standard number of subjects.

Within their first two years of existence, 20 of these schools were
established, as reported by the National Council of Education in
December, 1916; and 12 were added in 1917. The report of the inspector
general of the Province of Mendoza concluded as follows:

 This new type of school must exist for many years in Argentina to
 answer the needs of the actual distribution of the population, the
 lack of adequate means of communication, and the impossibility of
 maintaining fixed schools in the greater part of the zones engaged
 in agriculture and cattle raising. It behooves the authorities,
 therefore, to continue the improvement of the system in such manner
 that its efficiency shall be steadily greater, and that results shall
 amply compensate for their maintenance.

An interesting phase of social conscience is shown in the generous
offer of the women pupils of the third and fourth years of the normal
school at Santa Fe to instruct illiterates afternoons and nights in
reading, writing, the elements of arithmetic, national language and
history, and practical personal and school hygiene. This offer has
been highly commended both by Argentine and foreign educators as a
step toward solving the problem of illiteracy, worthy of imitation
nationally and locally.

The struggle against illiteracy has been the subject of serious
consideration by the executive, the chief school authorities, and the
Congress. The executive has constantly urged the National Council of
Education to intensify its campaigns and has cooperated by all means in
his power in the steady diffusion of education. The Houses of Congress
have also busied themselves especially with this grave problem. These
efforts have borne fruit which, if not visible at the present time, is
certainly destined to raise the level of popular education within the
next few years. The authorities have judged that what is needed is the
patient labor which does not require an immediate and striking solution
of a most difficult problem, but is willing to continue to exercise an
ever-increasing influence upon the rising generation, confident of the
spread of education and enlightenment with the increase of population
and the improvement in means of communication; and that it is not
wise to sow schools broadcast throughout the Republic merely for the
pleasure of doing something and of doing it rapidly. The success of the
struggle against illiteracy, certain as it is, has its roots not in
merely spending much money, but in spending money well.


REPORT OF NATIONAL COUNCIL OF EDUCATION.

The progress of education in Argentina is best epitomized in the report
of the National Council of Education for the four years ending December
31, 1916. The character of this council is unique in educational
polity, wielding, as it does, greater powers than any similar body
in countries educationally advanced, and counting in its membership
some of the ablest men in the Nation. Its reports follow traditionally
the line of national (the capital city), provincial, and territorial
administration. When the very heterogeneous character of the population
of Argentina, due to the steady stream of immigration, is taken into
account, the necessity of such a central body, vested with powers
of initiation and execution in primary education, is apparent. By
a wise division of powers in the original organic law, the control
of secondary education was left in the hands of the Provinces, with
subsidies granted by the National Government, as was the right to
prescribe subjects essential to nationalistic and patriotic training.
Concentration of effort and power is thus secured, with national
acquiescence in the official actions of the council. Its activities
center naturally around the establishment of new schools and the
construction of school buildings, and the training of teachers to meet
the demands of modern conditions.

As a substitute for the abortive intermediate schools established in
1916, which soon proved unsatisfactory, the council decided later in
that year to establish, parallel and auxiliary to the higher primary
schools, one of practical arts and crafts for each sex in every
district of Buenos Aires. Such schools approximated 100 in number.
This type of school was designed for boys and girls not intending to
proceed to higher studies, and was later to be extended to the nation
at large. Its purpose and program of studies was two-fold--to complete
the theoretical and higher courses of the higher primary schools with
vocational, technical, and manual training, based upon and making
use of the materials which were peculiarly Argentine and local in
industries, commerce, art, and economics; and to lay stress throughout
on nationalistic and patriotic aims. An interesting feature, common to
these new schools and the continuation schools now arising in England
and France, is the provision by which they operate 2 hours in the
morning and 2 hours in the afternoon or night, and are to admit pupils
from the fourth to the sixth grade of the primary schools, who have
reached the age of 12 years. Statistics as to the success of these
schools are not as yet available.

In the matter of building primary schools proper, the report of the
council shows progress throughout the four years covered. A total of 62
schools, with 426 teachers and 19,563 pupils, was added to the system.
Because of national economic and financial conditions prevailing
half a century ago, the great majority of the primary schools began
operation in private buildings, which did not conform to pedagogical
or even sanitary requirements. For many years excessive rents were
often paid by the State, but upon the revaluation of property in many
Provinces in 1915, an economy in rents was effected, and the funds thus
saved were devoted to new schools. Despite high prices of material
and difficulties of labor, in December, 1916, eleven school buildings
were in process of erection, at an estimated cost of $750,000, with a
capacity of 22,000 pupils. According to the report of the council: “The
construction of properly equipped Government primary school buildings
has constituted one of the most serious problems and, therefore, one
of the chief occupations of the council.” It was frankly admitted,
however, that, with all the efforts of the council, accommodations for
children in the primary schools were still far from adequate, it being
estimated on that date that 4,000 additional schools of this grade
were needed for the more than 600,000 children in the capital and the
Territories who, for one reason or another, were not in school.

The activity of the council continued to be marked in 1917. In April of
that year, 143 new schools were decreed, 39 for the Federal Capital, 18
for the Provinces under the legal national subvention, and 86 for the
Territories (30 being _escuelas ambulantes_), the Congress voting two
millions in the national budget for the execution of this decree. The
centralizing tendencies of South American countries in general, and
the overwhelming dominance of the capital, secured for it so generous
a share of this that it is estimated that in the Federal capital there
will be for the first time room for all children of school age. For the
poorer Provinces, and the Territories, which by the Tainez law of 1886
are absolutely dependent upon the central authority of the National
Council, 250 schools of one and two rooms were assigned, but on an
estimate about one-third of the children were still left unprovided
with school facilities. Attention was repeatedly called to the need of
a uniform and rigorously applied national law for compulsory school
attendance.

During the year 1918 approximately 400 schools were established, and
the council proposes to establish as many more during 1919 in the
Provinces and the national Territories. The nation has taken charge
of many provincial schools which the respective governments could not
maintain by reason of lack of resources. The Province of Mendoza alone
transferred 130 schools to the council of education during the month of
August, 1918. Relative to the establishment of schools, regard has been
had chiefly to the population of the districts which petitioned for
them, as well as the number of children of school age, in order that
the buildings may be installed in populous centers, where a constant
attendance of pupils is reasonably assured.

The general plan of the council for the diffusion of primary education
has not been put into practice in full, because of the lack of
resources in some instances and in others because of the scarcity of
building materials in the country. School equipment has been secured
in various countries, supplies necessary having been purchased in the
United States to the value of $350,000. The demand has been still
unsatisfied, the capital city alone calling for the establishment of
new schools every year, because of the increase of children of school
age, and the Provinces have always been behind the necessary number of
school buildings and facilities and have never reached the goal set
by the authorities. An encouraging feature of the situation is that
upon the completion of all the school buildings now under construction
accommodations for 56,000 pupils in addition will be provided.

Peculiar attention has been given to the development of night
schools by the council, 86 having been established and maintained by
the council in the four years covered by the report. An admirably
broadened scope was given them in the appeal issued by the council to
the nation that the full purpose of such schools should be realized
not only by the attendance of illiterates, but also of youths and
adults “who, possessing some degree of education, are also desirous of
improving that as related to the needs of their lives.” All reforms
and modifications of night schools have concerned themselves with this
larger clientele. A further socializing of the night school is seen in
the appeal of the council to proprietors, managers of factories, and
employers of labor generally to encourage in every way in their power
their employees to attend night schools and to offer prizes of various
kinds for diligence and progress. Literature bearing on these schools
was distributed free by the council.

In 1915 the council was empowered, by the terms of the will of a
philanthropic resident of Buenos Aires, Don Felix Berasconi, who
bequeathed for educational purposes a sum of three and a half million
dollars, to proceed to the erection and establishment of an institution
under State control which should give instruction in general primary,
scientific, scientific-industrial, physical, and social education. A
building was to be begun in 1916, planned in seven sections, conforming
to the most modern pedagogical and sanitary demands, and with a
capacity of more than 3,000 pupils. Designed to benefit the working
people preeminently, it was to be situated in the section of the city
showing the greatest proportion of them.

Responding to the general feeling of dissatisfaction with the results
of primary education in the city of Buenos Aires, which has been
unaffected by criticism for seven years, the council in June, 1917,
sent out questionnaires to all inspectors and to the body of teachers
calling for an expression of opinion as to (1) the merits and defects
of the plans of studies, schedules, etc., then in force; (2) those of
projected or possible programs, with additional features worthy to
be incorporated; and (3) educational considerations bearing upon the
problems of the schools of the capital. The answers showed encouraging
grasp of the educational needs of the city, with significant unanimity
as to the practical methods of working out necessary reforms. Salient
points were:

1. That all programs should leave room for and be closely articulated
with manual arts and domestic economy.

2. That the courses of arithmetic in the first, second, third, fourth,
and fifth grades were overloaded, as were those of grammar in the
fourth, geometry in the third and fifth, nature study in the second,
geography in the second and fifth, singing in the second, and music.

3. That the primary school cycle should commence at 7 years and end at
12.

4. That primary courses and schedules for urban schools should be
strictly differentiated from those for rural and country town schools.

5. That from October 15 to April 15 the school day should be from 7.30
to 11.30; from April 15 to September 30 from 12 to 4.

6. That the advancement of the teacher with the class merited a fair
trial, the teacher remaining with the same class a minimum of two years
and a maximum of three.

7. That the establishment of normal schools essentially for rural
teachers was imperative.

It is recognized that the clearness and sanity of these answers had a
marked effect upon the substance of the law presented to the Federal
Congress in August, 1918.

Another interesting instance of the submission of a pedagogic matter to
the teachers of the city of Buenos Aires is shown in the questionnaire
asking their opinion as to the best method of teaching spelling,
sent out by the inspector of the tenth district, to the teachers. In
accordance with the answers to this, the vocabulary used in primary
schools was reduced to categories corresponding to the several grades,
to its difficulties, and to the actual needs of the life and dominant
occupations of the quarter of the city from which the children were
drawn. This step was highly commended in French educational circles as
marking efficient grappling with pedagogical difficulties felt in all
cities of whatsoever country.

The regulation of the medical and dental inspection of national
schools, under decree of March, 1918, was noteworthy. According to
this, professional inspectors, chosen by the Government, must within
the first three months of each school year examine individually all
children entering school for the first time, periodically inspect the
school buildings and ground and the health conditions of the teaching
and administrative staffs, and take all prophylactic measures deemed
necessary against epidemics and contagious diseases. Such reports shall
be transmitted to the medical inspector general. Dental inspection of
schools is to have a prominent part. Every month the chief inspector
shall assemble for report and mutual discussion all medical and dental
inspectors in such territorial divisions as he shall see fit.

Of the regulations in detail promulgated by the council in 1918, the
most important is that changing the school year to two divisions, the
first beginning March 1 and continuing until June 30, followed by three
weeks of vacation, and the second beginning July 21 and continuing
until November 20, followed by the long vacation of the year. This
change is regarded as conforming with climatic effects upon the health
of school children and as being a step long needed.


PROGRESS OF EDUCATION IN THE PROVINCES.

Outside the scope of the National Council are the powers of the
provincial councils. These are local, auxiliary, and reinforcing in
character. Some of the Provinces are practically inactive on the side
of primary education, contenting themselves with the provisions made
in that field by the National Government. Others, however, among them
Santa Fe, San Luis, Cordoba, Entre Rios, and, of course, Buenos
Aires, are worthy of note and commendation for steady interest in
matters educational, and in financial support of schools carried on
independently of the central authority.

Progress in the Province of Santa Fe, as evidenced by the annual
message of the governor of that Province for 1917, was steady, despite
the need of economy in provincial finances due to conditions resulting
from the World War. An increase of 14 provincial schools over the year
previous and of the grades in 36 schools was noted. Two problems were
kept steadily in view: The improvement in the teaching personnel,
accentuated by the disclosure of the fact that more than one-third of
the teachers in the provincial schools lacked teacher training, and the
construction of better school buildings. It was estimated that with
these from 25 to 30 per cent of additional pupils could be taught by
the same teaching force.

In the Province of San Luis the general inspector of provinces reported
for 1916 the establishment of 160 local associations of the national
_Amigos de la Educacion_. This society, composed of parents and others
interested in primary education, has for its objects the close linking
of home and school, the fight against illiteracy, the promotion of
good feeling and companionship between natives and immigrants, the
celebration of national festivals, the securing of better primary
enrollment and attendance especially by the poorer children, with the
inculcation of their self-respect, and cooperation with the regional
and national authorities in the safeguarding of public health.

In this Province, by volunteer organizations of teachers and others
interested, local patriotic conferences were inaugurated on topics
of national history, hygiene, political economy, ethics, and themes
generally related to home and school matters.

In the Province of Buenos Aires school excursions have been developed
and made an organic part of instruction in civic and national spirit.
They have been so arranged that children in the several zones may come
by personal touch to know and correspond by letter with each other. In
some places participation in these excursions has been made a reward
of good lessons and conduct. They are to be taken in the last 15 days
of October, and children are not to remain more than 3 days in one
locality. Groups of not more than 12 pupils are recommended.

In July, 1916, the council general of the Province of Buenos Aires
initiated courses in the normal school for the training of teachers
and graduates of the normal schools in the recognition and study of
retardation and its causes, and in early correction of abnormalities
most frequently met. The program of courses includes a series of 16
lessons on related medical and pedagogical topics.

Of direct bearing upon educational problems among the rural population
is the project of the law recently sent by the executive of the
Province of Buenos Aires to the legislature, providing for the issuance
of bonds to the amount of $45,000,000 for the expropriation of parts of
the great landed estates and the division of the land thus expropriated
into small tracts for the use of small farmers. Subsequent purchase
under advantageous terms is to be encouraged. According to reports, the
prevailing system of “arrendatorios,” or small tenants for short terms,
has led to so acute an agrarian unrest, with the consequent shifting
and aimless wandering of an increasing element of the population, as
to constitute a social and economic menace no longer to be ignored.
The educational effects in the increase of illiteracy and the general
retardation of primary education have been manifest.

In 1918 the Legislature of the Province of Entre Rios enacted into
law a series of provisions guaranteeing the stability of the scale of
salaries for teachers in provincial schools. Promotion and increase
of salary were based rigorously upon merit; teachers were declared
unremovable during good conduct and fitness; initial salaries were
fixed as follows: (_a_) For normal teacher, $160 per month; (_b_) for
rural normal teacher, $120 per month; (_c_) for rural teacher, $100 per
month; (_d_) for special teacher, $80 per month. Every five years the
teacher who has worked in the same place for that period shall receive
a bonus of 20 per cent on his initial salary.

The government of the Province of Cordoba has approved a plan for the
introduction of agricultural courses in the primary schools, presented
and prepared by experts in agronomy and pedagogy, without dislocation
of existing courses and schedules.

The inspectors of this Province presented for the consideration of the
provincial chamber of deputies the project of a law to establish a
normal school for the preparation of rural teachers exclusively, the
courses offered being:

(_a_) The development of subjects related to fundamental studies in the
primary schools;

(_b_) Practice teaching adapted to the needs of the primary schools of
the locality; and

(_c_) Elementary teaching, both theoretical and practical, in manual
arts, agriculture and cattle breeding, and minor rural industries.

Private schools conforming to governmental requirements were legally
recognized and incorporated by decree of 1917 and their consequent
validation effected. Pupils of the fifth and sixth grades of such
private schools applying for leaving certificates are required to
undergo an examination upon all subjects for those grades of the
official national programs before a board of three members appointed by
the inspector.

Officially apart from the Ministry of Public Education but calling for
special mention was the establishment in 1917 under the encouragement
of the National Department of Agriculture of 16 schools in rural
domestic science in nine Provinces, including Buenos Aires. Courses
are offered in minor industries, such as dairying, beekeeping, care of
fowls, hog raising, agriculture, horticulture, and canning of fruits
and vegetables. Five hundred women have been enrolled. A number of
these schools, the largest at Tucuman, have been put on a permanent
basis, and private associations are working to effect this in many
places.

School celebrations of national festivals, long popular in Argentina,
have been especially marked during the year 1918, the centennial year
for the nation. They were held in all schools on July 8, the chief
feature being the oath to the flag and the singing of the national hymn
in the presence of the school and civic authorities.


CHANGES UNDER THE PROJECTED LAW OF 1918.

Following the former order of education in Argentina, the second stage
of primary education began with the educational bill submitted with
the approval of the President to the Federal Congress in August, 1918.
In this were incorporated changes of far wider scope than any ever
before projected. Not only primary education, but the entire fabric
of Argentine education was to be nationalized in content of courses,
in methods of instruction, and in special preparation of teachers for
tasks devolving on them under the new régime. The bill provided for
large development of industrial and vocational courses and called for
the use of materials peculiarly national and local. It laid stress upon
civic and patriotic training, in view of the heterogeneous constitution
of the Argentine population through steady streams of immigration
and the necessity of molding these diverse elements into a body of
patriotic and intelligent citizens. It provided for the establishment
of primary schools throughout the nation under more flexible financial
and administrative regulations than the old, for the segregation of
specific revenues for the exclusive use of the Ministry of Public
Instruction, and the consequent abolition of the old system of national
subsidies to individual localities. Especially in the fight against
illiteracy did the projected law embody progressive features. The
National Council of Education was empowered to establish standard
primary schools wherever there were as many as 20 illiterate children
of school age. In the message which accompanied the recommendation of
the law the President pointed out that the projected law tended to give
unity and stability to the several divisions of education under the
direction of the department of national instruction and adapted them to
the material progress of the nation and to latter-day civilization.
His identification of popular education with national progress
justifies a quotation at length:

 As primary education was established by law in 1864, it contains
 regulations which in reality have lost their original justification;
 for Argentine civilization now demands urgent reforms in the matter of
 general instruction in order to give greater consistency and reason
 to the latter, and in order to make it more practical, more adaptable
 to the various regional needs of the Republic. It is especially
 urgent to carry its action to all the sections of the country not yet
 reached by the system in order to arrive at the real aims of a truly
 national education. Chief among these is to eradicate illiteracy,
 the most patriotic task in which we can engage and the one upon
 whose successful execution alone can any real national progress and
 enlightenment rest.

 The institutions of higher education have continued to develop in the
 direction of autonomy and within the limit determined by the law of
 1885; but with the primary, they demand modifications in the course
 and arrangement of studies in order to abolish antiquated practices
 and methods and to reach the level of the great modern universities of
 the world.

 Secondary instruction, in its turn, has lacked and still lacks a
 law to fix it in definite form and to define its real character
 in accordance with constitutional precepts and the nature of our
 political institutions. It has existed subject to the continual
 change of plans and regulations, harassed by the application of
 widely varying educational conceptions, in a state of continuous
 instability, and therefore reduced to a mere administrative mechanism
 without power of initiative relative to its immediate needs and
 without sufficient social influence to realize its true aims. To
 remedy these evils and to fill these gaps is one of the purposes of
 this law, in which the attempt has been made to include only that
 which ought to be general and permanent. The primary aim of secondary
 education should be to spread education among the towns and cities in
 such a way that in all the country there shall be trained, educated
 citizens fitted to play their part in the future civilization of the
 country. Preparatory instruction has therefore been kept under the
 control of the universities, which will fix their courses of study,
 their duration, and their extension both general and special. Both the
 plans of the preparatory courses, as well as those of the professions
 taught in the faculties of the university, have been projected along
 the lines already mentioned. The programs of the normal schools have
 been formulated in accordance with the technical ideas which should
 distinguish them, separating the general studies from those properly
 called pedagogical or professional, arranging them so that the former
 shall precede and the latter be intensified toward the end of the
 course.

 As regards practical subjects of instruction, the project outlines
 only the general features according to which they must be taught.
 Instruction will be imparted in accordance with the necessities of
 the immediate field of each school, with special regard to natural
 production, commerce, industries, and aptitudes of the population, all
 with the purpose of adjusting anew the activities of the Argentine
 youth, which has hitherto been by preference inclined toward the more
 speculative studies rather than those of practical and of immediate
 application. It is left to the authorities of technical education
 to prepare plans and courses of study adapted to each class of
 institutions.

 Enrollment in all schools has been made absolutely free, a logical
 consequence of compulsory education, which has as yet never been
 effective, but which is an indispensible condition to placing all upon
 the same plane of equality, a thing inherent in the principles of
 republican institutions.

 The Government considers that the power wielded by the nation to
 spread primary education in the Provinces is so ample, in the form
 established by this projected law, that the regulations in force
 concerning financial subventions are without reason or justification.
 Once the Provinces have complied with the duty imposed upon them by
 the constitution in this regard up to the limit of their capacity the
 accompanying responsibility of the Federal Government will disappear.

 The executive, knowing the great value of the teaching profession
 in the general concert of human activities, seeks every means
 to establish and dignify the career of teacher, making it a
 real profession surrounded by all the honors and all the public
 considerations which it can legitimately claim. It is therefore sought
 in the reform to fix proper conditions for different categories
 of teachers, as well as a scale of salaries, and proportional and
 periodic increase, thus guaranteeing the stability of the profession
 and assuring it an honorable and tranquil retirement. With such aims
 in view for the retirement of secondary teachers, the executive has
 believed it equitable to establish similar lines of financial aid for
 pensions and for increase of salaries as those offered to the teachers
 of primary education.


SECONDARY EDUCATION.

Reference has been made to the establishment of intermediate schools,
at first uniform, later differentiated, substituted for the former
fifth and sixth years of the primary school and intended to bridge
the chasm between the primary and the secondary schools. This marked
a further innovation, in that secondary education had always been
left in Argentina to the Provinces, the State nationally exercising
only a nominal oversight of this division. For financial reasons, as
well as because of the necessity of giving uniformity to a type so
widely scattered, the intermediate school was from the very first
regarded as national in scope. It may be likened in many respects to
the junior high school of American cities. It was designed to give
instruction of a general and cultural nature in languages, history,
geography, and mathematics, combined with experimental studies in the
elements of physical and natural science. Much earlier entrance, its
advocates claimed, would thus be possible upon subjects of vocational
and technical character, which should test the nascent abilities and
aptitudes of the pupil. Especial attention was to be given woodworking,
typewriting, stenography, linotyping, decorative design, photography,
and special arts and crafts favored by local conditions.

This experiment, though marking an advance in educational methods,
was unsuccessful, and after a year of existence such schools were
discontinued. They did, however, affect instruction in secondary
education, leaving their impress in the radical requirement of early
specialization after the fifth and sixth higher primary grades.

The educational policy of Argentina thus returned to its traditional
status; and secondary education still centers around the 37
colegios nacionales, institutions for boys of 10 to 14 years of
age, which admit those with leaving certificates from the fifth
and sixth grades of the higher primary schools, and by revisal
of 1911 offer courses arranged by fourfold division of subjects
into the physical-mathematical, the chemical-biological, the
historical-geographical, and the literary-philosophical groups.
A decree of the National Council dated February, 1916, made the
certificate of sixth grade of the public school obligatory for
admission to the colegio. This was regarded as going far toward
settling two fundamental difficulties--the first, the long desired
abolition of the entrance examination, as discredited by experience
and prejudicial to secondary training, and the second, the official
recognition of the compulsory attendance law for children of 6 to 14
years.

Among the new subjects assigned for the colegios is the study of
Italian, now restored after being abolished by previous decree. In
accordance with this requirement, a course in this language has been
instituted in the normal schools for the preparation of teachers.

The close connection of the interests of the colegio nacionale with the
university is brought out in the report of the rector of the National
University of Buenos Aires for 1916. It is of significance as striking
out new lines in what had always been a conservative division, and
carried weight in the fluid state of public opinion on education which
prevailed just at that time.

Taking up the instructional aspect of secondary education, and the
claims put forward by zealous partisans of the opposing views that the
colegios should prepare either for higher studies or for practical
life, but not for both, he urged legal provisions for both forms of
training to supply the demand felt in all modern states for men of
thought as well as efficiency in action. In the light of this demand
all wrangling as to programs of study could only be to the damage
of the State. Since the Argentine colegios half a century ago were
modeled after the French lycées, with their emphasis upon the cultural
studies, the world had moved far, economically and socially, and sane
modifications in secondary education now clamored for recognition.

On the side of administration the peculiar question for Argentina,
the land of great distances and many climates and productions, was
whether the best organization for secondary instruction was the
concentration of power in the hands of a council or of the minister of
public instruction, or more or less complete autonomy to be granted
to the individual institution. In either case the fixed principle was
to be accepted that the universities were directly concerned in the
discipline and studies of the students they were to receive, and that
they should therefore have the right of intervening in matters of
organization and studies of the colegios.

A just decentralization of the colegios could be easily realized and
would bring such beneficial results as: (1) More direct and immediate
action of the authorities; (2) closer articulation of the colegios
with the universities in the matter of studies for preparation for the
latter; (3) formation of intellectual groups that would be encouraged
to take root permanently in the Provinces, thus avoiding the wholesale
migration of the directing classes to the capital; (4) ease of reform,
as contrasted with the present system, wherein every change in the
program of studies was a disturbance whose utility was not always
certain; (5) the best selection, so far as possible, of the personal
directive staff of the colegios, as the men in higher education would
be familiar with the problems of secondary instruction; (6) economy of
administrative expense; (7) the possibility of transforming certain
of the colegios into schools of arts, trades, and industries in which
general instruction, continuing the primary, might be combined with
the special and technical preparation so much needed for the material
well-being of the several regions of the Republic.

In the projected law of public instruction, introduced in August, 1918,
it is provided that all matters relating to secondary education shall
be under the authority of the national universities, with full power to
regulate content of courses, curricula, etc. This is manifestly a step
suggested by the traditional system of Spain, in which the standard
secondary schools (_institutos_) are arranged according to university
districts and are governed by university rector and council. Its wisdom
and advisability for a country of the Western Hemisphere have been
variously considered.


TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

By the projected law of August, 1918, a National Board of Technical
Education is to be established to ascertain the progress of this branch
of education in other countries, to adapt whatever may be possible to
the conditions and needs of Argentina, to foster technical instruction
in the national schools, and to keep in touch with its progress
throughout the world.


NORMAL-SCHOOL TRAINING.

The sequence of studies prescribed for pupils of the normal school
according to the decree of March, 1916, is also worthy of notice.
Immediately following, and based upon the intermediate schools which,
as described above, were discarded after trial, the normal school
required four years for the teachers’ diploma, after which the student
might proceed to higher studies for the degree of teacher of modern
languages in two years or that of teacher of languages in normal school
in three years, or that of teacher of philosophy in any institution
in six years. A commendable gain of one year in each of these was
effected, and this feature is to be embodied in the new provisions now
under consideration. In addition, the new project of educational law
outlines a teacher’s course of four years, clearly differentiating
between the general or cultural and the pedagogical or professional
courses. The former are assigned to the first three years as required;
the latter are reserved for the last year, constituting an intensive
curriculum of pedagogical history and methods and practice teaching
in the required annexed practice school. The completion (1918) of the
Normal School Sarmiento in Buenos Aires, named in honor of the founder
of popular education in South America, is to be noted. This school,
capable of accommodating 1,000 pupils and equipped with the most modern
apparatus, is worthy of comparison with the finest schools in the other
countries educationally most advanced.


HIGHER EDUCATION.

With the provision incorporated in the projected law, by which control
of national secondary education is vested in the universities, the
latter will touch national education much more intimately than ever
before. The universities of Argentina are those of Buenos Aires,
Cordoba, and La Plata, which are national, and those of Santa Fe
and Tucuman, which are provincial but will soon be nationalized. In
1917 there was a growing feeling in university circles in favor of
decentralization, with greater degree of autonomy for each university.
The report of the rector of the university of Buenos Aires for 1917 was
of interest as showing the effect of this upon the colegios as well
as the universities. How far this has been checked by the projected
provision to intrust secondary education to universities can not be
learned.

The unrest among the student bodies in the institutions of higher
education has constituted perhaps the most remarkable feature of the
educational history of the past year. In Buenos Aires reform was
demanded in the statutes under which the university was governed, and
the adoption of methods in conformity with new tendencies in university
instruction. The students demanded especially the right to vote for
the election of the authorities. Satisfactory agreement was reached,
and the university, after several days of suspension of classes and
demonstrations on the part of the student body, resumed instruction,
which was uninterrupted for the rest of the year. At the University of
Cordoba the conflict between the students and the authorities assumed
more serious proportions. Regular work was suspended, the efforts
of the mediator appointed by the National Government to hear the
claims of the student body and to decide upon the just and practical
course for the university authorities to adopt were unsatisfactory
to the complainants, and the authority of the minister of public
instruction was invoked. Upon investigation the latter official
advocated in his report to the executive a complete reorganization of
the university in its statutes, regulations, acts of discipline, and
staff of professors. These changes were ratified by the executive and
were practically embodied in the project of the law submitted to the
Congress in those sections pertaining to university education. In the
other three universities, those of La Plata, Tucuman, and Santa Fe, the
disturbances which impeded the prosecution of the regular routine of
studies were comparatively insignificant, though the spirit of unrest
was marked and many of the reforms and changes secured in the two
leading universities were readily accepted.

The growth of the so-called student centers (_centros estudiantiles_)
has been a feature of higher education during the past two years. These
organizations have come to be representative of student life and of the
student point of view, and have therefore gained much importance in the
eyes of the authorities. They are organized according to departments
of studies, such as the centers of medical and dental students, of
engineering students, of political science students, of students of
architecture, and of law. Each numbers from 100 to 500 members. They
are grouped as a whole into the University Federation of Buenos Aires,
in which each is represented by delegates, and which is regarded as the
mouthpiece of all university students in the metropolis.

Plans are already under way by the executive council of the University
of Buenos Aires for the celebration of the first centenary of its
foundation, which will occur in October, 1921. Invitations have been
extended to the institutions of higher education in all countries of
the world to designate and send representatives. Though the actual
building of the ancient colegio nacional, in which the university began
its operation, has been materially changed, yet the present building
occupies the same site, and it has been decided to hold the centennial
celebration in it.

Of interest is the projected foundation of a popular university at
Buenos Aires, constituted along industrial lines and frankly designed
to counteract the technical and industrial influence of North American
universities in South American countries.

A survey of educational progress in Argentina may fittingly conclude
with mention of the annual American Congress of Education and
Commercial Extension, held in Montevideo in January, 1919, in which
representatives of all the Latin-American countries participated, and
those of Argentina, from her economic and educational leadership, were
most prominent. The proceedings of the congress will be discussed in
the chapter on Uruguay.




VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN BRAZIL.

Educational activity in Brazil has been most marked in the field of
vocational education. A special commission, appointed by the Director
General of Public Instruction, consisting of five experienced teachers
in subjects of this nature, was instructed to formulate courses for
the State schools which were to be established by law in the Federal
District. They were to serve as models for subsequent schools of the
same character in the several States and Territories. The commission,
of which Senhor Coryntho da Fonseca was the spokesman, after several
months of conference and personal visits of inspection to the
vocational schools already existent in the several centers, especially
in Sao Paulo, and after hearing reports from active teachers in the
subjects, presented its report in March, 1919. It was approved by
the Vice President, serving ad interim for the President, and was
recommended by him to be put into actual operation pending its formal
enactment into law by the Congress.

The report as finally presented rested upon four main considerations:

1. The State, in the field of instruction, has primarily an educational
function and only secondarily a vocational one. Courses in shop
training, designed to awake and develop an aptitude in the pupil for a
particular industry, must of course enter into any well-rounded scheme
of education. This in turn must be designed to promote a general and
not a specialized technical education which will introduce both sexes
to industrial and commercial life. For practical reasons of expense, if
for no other, the State should not be expected to prepare pupils for
specialized vocations.

2. The task of the commission being to deal with the branches of
vocational training best adapted to give the pupil a broad outlook upon
general industrial activities, the commission judged it best to confine
its recommendations to manual work of construction in wood, metal,
and plastic material. In methods as well as content of instruction it
is emphasized that such work must proceed along the lines of teaching
by example. In such teaching much that is old and fundamental must be
stressed by way of throwing light upon the elements of the training
that are common to all branches of manual arts.

3. In its decision to urge a general attitude toward industrial
training rather than specialized methods peculiar to one branch, the
commission was confirmed by the testimony of all except one of the
directors of the vocational institutions in Brazil. Only one advocated
specialized instruction. Written representations of the faculties of
the vocational schools Alvaro Baptista, and Souza Aguiar, in Rio,
further confirmed this view.

4. The results of vocational instruction in Brazil as actually observed
within the last few years convinced the commission--

(_a_) That unspecialized training best provided the foundations for
good citizenship as well as industrial training.

(_b_) That by this training the latent technical aptitudes of the
student were more effectively revealed and developed, as shown by
steady increase in salaries of the graduates, than was the case with
the apprentices who had been trained exclusively in one line.

(_c_) That the superior adaptation of the graduates of the general
vocational school had been shown by tables giving information as to
their progress in skill and value to their employers. These tables were
naturally incomplete, but their general drift was undeniable.

(_d_) That the chief cause of the poor attendance upon the vocational
instruction for boys is the prevalent idea that the vocational school
is an index of lower social standing, enrolling only those boys that
can not obtain any other means of education. Thus the vocational
school is sharply differentiated socially from other types of schools.
It suffers from being regarded as preeminently the school to train
workmen. The commission had in mind the purpose of preparing public
sentiment for the passing of this traditional prejudice when it
attempted to inspire a just estimate of manual work in the public mind
and to organize such courses as would adequately carry out this idea.

(_e_) That the vocational school must be established as a direct
continuation of the primary school, ministering to the innate tendency
in the child to realize things with his own hands; that thus the
traditional and depressing prejudice mentioned would be counteracted,
as time would not be given for it to intervene in the child’s mind. The
workshop, thus articulated with general training, would come to be the
fulfillment of an aspiration, inculcating as well the love of work and
respect for it.

(_f_) That the success of the projected schools depends largely upon
the cooperation of the industrial firms of Brazil, which should be
appealed to for their sympathy and for the encouragement of their
adolescent employees to attend these schools; that the granting of
daylight hours to employees to attend such schools, as has been done in
England and France, with the consequent improvement in the physical
and mental condition of the pupils, is a step to be commended to all
employers as patriotic citizens.

The salient provisions of the report of the commission are as follows:

 ARTICLE 1. The technical and vocational instruction maintained by
 the prefecture of the Federal District has for its aim to complete
 the primary elementary instruction by means of a general technical
 education leading the youth of both sexes preferably to industrial and
 commercial activities.

 ART. 2. Technical and vocational instruction shall be given in the
 following types of schools:

 (_a_) Primary vocational schools.

 (_b_) Secondary vocational institutes.

 (_c_) Secondary agricultural schools.

 (_d_) Vocational finishing courses.

 (_e_) Normal school of arts and crafts.

 Types (_a_), (_d_), and (_e_) shall be day schools exclusively; types
 (_b_) and (_c_) shall offer boarding accommodations for pupils from
 distance.

 ART. 3. In schools of types (_a_) and (_d_) instruction shall be
 imparted predominantly in the recitation rooms.

 ART. 4. The courses of the primary vocational school for boys shall
 include the following subjects:

 (_a_) The usual subjects of the complementary course of the primary
 schools, with fuller development of the studies of physics, chemistry,
 natural history, hygiene, and mathematics.

 (_b_) Modeling and free-hand and mechanical drawing.

 ART. 5. The courses of the primary vocational school for girls shall
 include:

 (_a_) The usual subjects of the complementary course of the primary
 schools, with fuller development of the studies of hygiene and
 domestic economy.

 (_b_) Modeling and free-hand drawing.

 ART. 6. The subjects of the vocational finishing courses shall include:

 (_a_) In the commercial course, Portuguese and civic instruction,
 commercial geography, French and one other modern language, English
 or German, to be chosen by the pupil, commercial correspondence and
 accounting, typewriting, stenography, and arithmetic.

 (_b_) In the industrial course, Portuguese and civic instruction,
 arithmetic, and geography, elements of applied physics, chemistry,
 and natural history, accounting as related to the particular vocation
 selected by the pupil, free-hand and mechanical drawing.

 ART. 7. The vocational finishing courses are designed primarily for
 young men already employed in industry and commerce, who seek to
 improve their vocational knowledge.

 ART. 8. The two types of vocational finishing schools may be taught
 conjointly in the same building.

 ART. 9. Teachers and assistants imparting instruction shall be
 appointed as follows:

 (_a_) There shall be a teacher and so many assistants for each branch
 as shall be made necessary by the attendance.

 (_b_) For the instruction in technical accounting related to each
 vocation there shall be employed special teachers only where 15 or
 more students are enrolled for each course, and they shall receive
 salaries only when actually teaching. The same teachers shall be in
 charge of the various related branches of technical instruction in the
 shops.

 ART. 10. The courses in the secondary vocational institutes for boys
 shall include--

 (_a_) The elementary and middle instruction for pupils who have not
 had them.

 (_b_) Physical exercises and military drill.

 (_c_) Vocal and instrumental music.

 ART. 11. The courses in the vocational institutes for girls shall
 include--

 (_a_) Primary instruction for such pupils as have not had it.

 (_b_) Vocational drawing and modeling.

 In the vocational institutes the elementary primary instruction shall
 be followed by an intensive course in manual arts, such as sloyd, wood
 carving, and weaving in straw, vine, and bamboo.

 ART. 12. The primary vocational schools shall also offer a commercial
 course consisting of the following subjects:

 (_a_) Commercial correspondence and accounting.

 (_b_) Typewriting and stenography.

 (_c_) French and one other modern language, English or German.

 ART. 13. Instruction in the workshops of vocational schools for boys
 shall be given first in a general compulsory course of three years,
 during which the pupil shall in turn be trained in the workshops
 in cold and molten metals, including foundry work and wrought-iron
 work. The pupil shall then be allowed to specialize in any workshop
 or section at his choice. The pupils of the vocational institutes
 for boys shall likewise take a compulsory course in horticulture and
 kindred subjects.

 ART. 14. The agricultural schools and the vocational institutes shall
 require attendance on the courses of civil training and agronomy, with
 optional specialization in any line selected when the general course
 is completed.

 ART. 15. In the vocational schools and institutes for girls there
 shall be a compulsory general course upon the following practical
 subjects: Cooking, laundering, ironing and starching, housekeeping,
 sewing and dressmaking. Along with this general course the pupils
 shall attend certain vocational courses chosen by themselves from
 sewing, lace making, and embroidery, artificial-flower work, etc.

 ART. 16. For admission to the schools of vocational instruction the
 following shall be the legal requirements as to age:

 (_a_) For vocational and agricultural schools, minimum age 13, maximum
 21.

 (_b_) For the vocational institutes for boys, minimum age 10, maximum
 13.

 (_c_) For the vocational institutes for girls, minimum age 7, maximum
 13.

 (_d_) For the normal school of arts and trades, minimum age 14,
 maximum 25.

 (_e_) For the vocational finishing courses, minimum age 13.

 ART. 17. For matriculation in the vocational and agricultural
 schools and the finishing courses the candidates shall submit to an
 examination upon the subjects taught in the middle course of the
 primary school. In the commercial courses of the finishing schools,
 in the girls’ schools, and in the normal school of arts and trades,
 the entrance examination shall be upon the subjects of the final
 examination of the primary schools.

 ART. 18. The school year in the entire system of vocational
 instruction, with the exception of agricultural schools, shall begin
 March 1 and close November 30. The period from December 1 to December
 24 shall be devoted to examinations and to school exhibitions. In the
 agricultural schools, because of their nature, the pupils shall have
 60 days of annual vacation granted to them in groups by the director
 in accordance with the demands of the agricultural seasons and labors.

 ART. 19. The courses of the primary vocational schools, of the
 institutes, and of the finishing courses shall be divided into periods
 of 4 to 5 years; the finishing courses into periods of three years;
 and the commercial course of the schools for girls into a period of
 two years.

 ART. 24. The officials of inspection of technical and vocational
 instruction shall draw up annual statistics of attendance and of the
 results of the vocational instruction upon the bases of data furnished
 by the directors of the several schools and, so far as possible,
 by employers and by the former pupils who have themselves left the
 schools. These statistics shall relate to the following topics:

 (_a_) Number of pupils placed, with indication of the establishments
 where they are employed.

 (_b_) Initial salary obtained by them as related to the period of
 schooling.

 (_c_) Technical aptitude revealed by former pupils and their capacity
 of adaptation to the various industrial works.

 (_d_) Progress of increase in salary of former pupils.

 (_e_) All available information as to individual former pupils with
 regard to the advantages or disadvantages of their schooling in the
 decision of economic life, and their success in it.

 ART. 25. All posts of assistants and substitutes in the vocational
 system shall be filled by competitive examinations.

 (_a_) For the assistant in drawing in the vocational schools in
 institutes for boys, the examination shall be tests in drawing, in
 artistic training, and in pedagogical fitness.

 (_b_) For the filling of the same post in the vocational schools and
 institutes for girls the examination shall be tests in writing at
 dictation, in decorative composition, in embroidery and lacework, and
 in pedagogical fitness.

 (_c_) The competitive test for filling the post of substitutes in
 shopwork shall be upon vocational design of an assigned theme for
 shopwork and the execution of the same.

 ART. 26. The teachers in vocational instruction shall be named by
 means of promotion of the assistants and substitutes.

 ART. 27. There shall be a substitute for every group of 20 pupils in
 shopwork, and an assistant for every class of 30 pupils.

 ART. 28. When any primary school is transformed into a vocational
 school there shall be annexed the elementary primary course in which
 shall be taught intensively the manual arts prescribed for the
 elementary instruction of the institutes, but the pupils shall attend
 the shopwork of the vocational courses only when they have completed
 the work of the middle course and attained the age of 13 years.




EDUCATION IN CHILE.


PRELIMINARY.

The last two years have seen in Chile a distinct gathering up of the
threads of educational purpose. The feeling of dissatisfaction with the
primary school system, for many years inarticulate, has found a voice,
and all signs point to Chile’s finally securing a modernized system
of public instruction. The head and front of the indictment drawn by
national students of education has been the complete Germanization of
the system through the employment of a considerable number of German
educational experts during the decade from 1904 to 1914. The climax
came in the revelations of the propagandist activities of the German
educators brought out at the meeting of the National Educational
Association in 1917.

Financial support of public instruction in Chile has never been
stinted, so far as its existent state was concerned. As merely one item
may be adduced the fact that in March, 1916, the Congress authorized
the President to devote to public instruction for specific aims such as
the building and remodeling of schoolhouses, $4,000,000 annually for 10
years, through the medium of the Central Council of Education, in which
was vested the discretion as to methods and objects of the expenditure.
In 1918 the budget was voted by the Congress of $35,450,000 for public
instruction, as against that of $32,373,404 for 1917. So that the
authorities of the Government must justly be credited with a practical
interest in education which encourages teachers and other active
workers in their efforts toward greater efficiency.

In 1917 there had been increased discussion of matters educational;
and in June of that year President Sanfuentes in his message showed
that the time had come to impress on the national system of public
instruction a more practical stamp, making it adequate to the needs of
everyday life and the special conditions of the country. Along with
this he urged the specialization of secondary education as, just then,
the urgent and opportune point of attack for the development of Chile’s
scientific and industrial possibilities.

This message was followed by action of the Congress which clearly
showed the traditional line of cleavage long prevailing in Chile’s
social and political system. The demand for some form of modernized
public instruction could no longer be repressed; and a conservative
deputy introduced the project of a law to insert in the constitution
a provision for compulsory primary schooling and compulsory religious
instruction, the only modification of the latter being the concession
to the parent to choose the forms and means of such instruction. The
radical party was not slow in countering with a project adopting the
feature of compulsory attendance but decentralizing and completely
secularizing the existing system. The latter proposal, now made for
the first time in the history of Chilean legislation, was especially
bold, as Chile has never done away with the essentially religious tone
of her education. She retains representatives of the State church on
her National Council of Education, freely recognizes parochial primary
schools, and has her secondary schools largely managed by religious
instructors and under distinctively religious auspices.

The compromise bill formulated by a specially appointed commission
of the Congress sought to satisfy both extremes. It vested supreme
administrative authority in educational matters in a council of 18,
sitting in Santiago, presided over by the Minister of Justice and
Instruction; but it allowed 11 of the members to be named by the
Senate, the Chamber of Deputies, and the President of the Republic.
This feature was severely criticized by the liberals and by the
National Educational Association as still keeping educational authority
in the hands of politicians, not intrusting it to men really interested
in education, and making it possible to block all educational progress
whenever desired.

The bill made four years’ attendance in primary schools, private or
public, compulsory for all children between 7 and 13, and required all
reaching the latter age without completing the prescribed course to
continue until 15. Poverty could not be pleaded in excuse, as grants
by the State were specified and graduated in amounts according to
need. Exemption from religious instruction was allowed upon written
application of the parent or upon certification of the local junta,
another feature opposed by the National Educational Association on the
ground that the junta’s powers could never be so amplified legally.
Programs of study and schedules should be under the authority of the
inspector general of primary instruction. Primary instruction was to
be imparted to complete illiterates in schools called supplementary,
managed independently of existing primary schools, and to partial
illiterates in schools called complementary, conducted in conjunction
with existent primary schools.

The bill, as outlined above, encountered opposition from many sources,
and still remains unenacted. Pending its passage, the Minister of
Public Instruction, by virtue of the power vested in him, issued
in 1918 a decree organizing primary education in three grades of
two years each, continued by one grade of vocational education of
from one to three years. Attendance is not specifically compulsory,
though the local junta has power so to declare it in the schools of
its jurisdiction. The requirements as to qualifications of a primary
teacher are made more rigorous; he must be a citizen of Chile, of
good character, not less than 18 nor more than 40 years of age at the
time of appointment, and a graduate of a Government normal school, or
holding a degree of a Chilean or recognized foreign institution.


ILLITERACY.

The problem of illiteracy in Chile is a serious one, the estimated
figures for 1917 showing 959,061 illiterates out of a total
population of 3,249,279. Since the year 1900 the struggle against it
has grown in vigor. The National Educational Association has shown
especial efficiency, and has worked through committees having the
following phases in charge: Compulsory school attendance, the legal
requirements, condition of the schools and the teaching force, school
revenues, school buildings and sanitation, and special education.

This steady pressure prepared public sentiment for the leadership
of the most influential agency ever invoked in the fight against
illiteracy, viz. the conferences organized by the powerful newspaper El
Mercurio. Under its auspices these conferences were held in a 3-days’
series in July, 1917, and were attended and participated in by men and
women identified with every phase of national education. The following
topics were the salient ones of those discussed:

 1. Comparative study of illiteracy statistics in various countries.

 2. Means of combating illiteracy in leading nations.

 3. Practicable means of action in Chile.

 4. Means of contribution, and proportion in which the State, the
 municipal authorities, and the Provinces may contribute to the budget
 necessary.

 5. Cooperation of private initiative.

 6. Means of making school attendance compulsory.

 7. Regulation of child labor.

 8. Reforms necessary in actual plans of study and in classification of
 schools.

 9. Necessity and practical means of giving the schools a more
 Nationalistic character.

 10. Minimum of knowledge to be required by compulsory attendance law.

 11. Place of night schools, Sunday schools, and traveling schools, in
 the struggle against illiteracy.

While no action of a legal character resulted from these conferences,
yet the impetus given to the cause was powerful, and had weight in
bringing about the decree and the projected law already outlined. Such
a move, combining at once social and economic as well as educational
characteristics, seeking to bring public opinion to bear on the
solution of a problem underlying the life of a nation, and launched by
a newspaper, is unique in the history of education.

The Territory of Magellanes has shown itself remarkably efficient in
handling the problem of illiteracy. It is the southernmost area of the
country, and little favored by nature, being a long strip of barren
and rocky coast, with a climate singularly bleak and uninviting. Its
industries are based exclusively upon its mineral resources; and its
population, though intelligent, is very sparse. By the census of
1917, its percentage of illiteracy was 20; according to the estimate
of the author of a study of the Territory, published in the Anales
de la Universidad, April, 1918, this has been reduced to 7 per cent.
Credit is largely due the Society of Popular Instruction, a private
organization, established in 1911, which offers free instruction
to pupils of all ages. In spite of the prevailing inclemency of the
climate, the sessions of its day and night schools are excellently
attended. The system is centralized in Punta Arenas.


PRIMARY EDUCATION.

Unlike Argentina and Brazil, primary public education has always been
left in the hands of the central national government, the individual
Province having control of financial outlay and the construction of
school buildings, and this only when requirements of the national law
are fulfilled. Uniform programs of study and schedules of hours are
enforced throughout the nation. But conditions of scarcity of materials
and labor render it impossible to keep many of the old buildings in
repair. The tendency long criticized by the Association of Teachers, to
cram school buildings into the half dozen larger centers, seems in a
fair way to be checked.[1]

[1] Criticism has been freely expressed in the public press of the use
of a disproportionately large part of the primary school fund voted by
the Congress for the use of the executive.

This new order of things is most plainly seen in the attention paid
to rural schools, which have predominated in the number built since
1916. The Government has instructed the committee on public works and
the department of primary instruction to develop a plan of building
uniform types of rural school. The expenses are to be borne out of the
fund just mentioned. Three types are contemplated, with a capacity of
80, 160, and 400 pupils respectively, solidly constructed, conforming
strictly to all modern demands of sanitation, lighting, and heating. In
many places the North American principle of consolidation of schools
has been applied, to the distinct improvement of attendance and
instruction, 200 small and struggling schools having been abolished
and 100 annexed to others more centrally situated. With these gains,
however, the crying need in Chile is acknowledged to be more schools.
It is estimated that 10,000 elementary schools are yet needed for her
approximately 750,000 children, of whom slightly less than 400,000 are
in the schools of this grade, and 50,000 in private parochial schools.
All educational thinkers are agreed that the situation calls for legal
compulsory attendance on primary instruction, rigidly enforced.


SECONDARY EDUCATION.

Secondary education in Chile is organized in three grades: (1) National
high schools; (2) liceos of the second class, and (3) complete liceos
of the first class.

(1) The high schools are a development of the last few years, and are
situated only in the larger centers. They number 30 for boys and 12
for girls, enrolling less than 12,000 pupils, and are generally little
more than higher elementary schools. They are almost exclusively
technical, and do not prepare the pupil for advanced study.

(2) The liceos of the second class (sometimes called colegios), of
which about 100 exist in the Provinces and Territories, offer courses
covering three years in the elementary subjects of instruction common
to scientific and literary groups.

(3) The liceos of the first class, numbering 40 for boys and 31 for
girls, and offering the full course of six years, are representative
of the best in secondary education in Latin-America. Those for boys,
following the tradition of the Spanish system for corresponding
schools, are administered by the University of Chile; those for girls,
by the Minister of Public Instruction and the National Council. The
practical and scientific wave which swept over this division of
education in 1915 caused the reinforcement of physical and chemical
teaching. Spanish, history and geography, religion (optional), French,
mathematics, natural sciences, gymnastics and singing, and manual
training run through all six years of the course; English (or German
or Italian), philosophy, civics, penmanship and drawing, mechanical
drawing (optional), extend through varying numbers of years. Students
of secondary education are struck with the excessive number of hours
required weekly, the minimum being 29 for the first year and the
maximum 33 for each of the last three years.

The essential purpose of the liceo of the first class is to prepare
for the university, or for the professions; and national scholarships
are granted, including maintenance at the hostels, or annexed boarding
halls which were established five years ago.

The system of secondary education has long been criticized by Chilean
educational thinkers as being too largely mental and literary, and as
paying little, if any, attention to the physical and moral. The attempt
to organize sports and physical exercises in secondary education has
met far less encouragement than in other South American countries.

By decree of May, 1917, classes for illiterate girls over 7 years old
were annexed to liceos for girls, the ministry basing the number to be
admitted upon the attendance of the year previous. This was stoutly
opposed by the National Educational Association as being a confusion
of classification, a violation of the continuity of the educational
system, and an evasion of the palpable duty of the school authorities,
which should press the Government to establish fitting and proper
schools for such illiterate girls.

The Government has appointed a commission of prominent men for the
study of reforms necessary and advisable for programs of secondary
education for girls. As matters stand, the same programs of study
are set for both boys and girls, a traditional arrangement the
disadvantages of which are coming fully to be recognized.

Despite unfavorable and antiquated programs of studies, the Province
of Nuble has made noteworthy progress in female secondary education.
In Chillan, its capital, are conducted four liceos, three of which are
for girls. Ambitious courses in the classics, social sciences, and
rudimentary science are offered. One of them, the Instituto Pedagogico,
founded in 1912, exercises far-reaching influence over the social,
moral, and artistic conditions of the Province. The American Liceo,
a private institution, conducted by teachers from the United States,
devotes especial attention to the teaching of English, colloquial and
literary, and also gives instruction generally along thoroughly modern
high-school lines.


TRAINING OF TEACHERS.

Chile’s system of training teachers is distinctively eclectic,
borrowing, as it has done, from France, Sweden, Germany, and the United
States. Before 1870 French influence predominated, the great Argentine
educator, Sarmiento, himself a pupil of the school of Saint-Simon,
having founded the first normal school in 1842 while in exile from the
tyranny of the dictator Rosas. German influence became pronounced about
1880, when that nation began to supply men and women teachers in the
normals and as instructors in all grades of education. Since 25 years
ago the tide began to turn toward North American influence, especially
of the type of education developed in the Northwestern States. The
Chilean ideal is a judicious combination of (1) an institution for
the training of teachers for public schools who shall have adequate
culture, specialized training, manual skill, and theoretical and
practical knowledge of modern subjects, and (2) an institution for
training in social relations and habits, exercising steady influence on
the social environment of the school by means of popular courses and
conferences, and participation in popular movements.

The full course in the 16 training colleges for teachers covers five
years, of which the first three are devoted to general education and
the last two to professional training. The course for the fifth year is
essentially professional, consisting of pedagogy (history, methodology,
and practice teaching), 17 hours weekly; Spanish, 1 hour; English or
French or German, 4 hours; civics and economics, 2 hours; hygiene, 2
hours; horticulture or metallography, 2 hours; drawing, 1 hour; manual
arts, 2 hours; music, 1 hour; physical education, 3 hours. All expenses
are defrayed, in return for which the pupil is pledged to teach for
seven years in the national schools.

The actual method of instruction is along German lines. Object lessons,
those in natural history and history and geography have all impressed
recent foreign visitors as essentially Herbartian. Perhaps in no other
country of the world, since the well-drilled German schools fell into
chaos, is the influence of the normal schools upon the system and
method of public instruction more powerful than in Chile. Indeed,
this potent influence has overleaped the boundaries of Chile proper
and affected every country of Latin America. A supreme example is
the influence of the Instituto Pedagogico, the best known of Chilean
normal schools, founded in 1909, with predominatingly German faculty,
which has developed into a type of higher normal school with a colegio
annexed, emphasizing practice teaching with subsequent criticism
and courses of general pedagogy and methodology in every subject.
Its certificates rank highest in the secondary and normal education
of the capital city; students are attracted to it from the other
Latin-American States, and return home to reorganize education there
along its lines. Its boast is that it inspired the establishment of the
Instituto Nacional at Buenos Aires.

Scandinavian and Belgian influences are at work in the Instituto
de Profesores Especiales. Established in 1906, it was definitely
reorganized in 1910 and installed in the building especially
constructed for it. Of its 300 pupils 200 are women, and the majority
of both men and women are active teachers in the schools of the
capital. It offers courses common to all the specialized sections,
such as psychology, French, pedagogy, civics, and school legislation,
and includes five sections, fundamental to its organization: Physical
education, manual arts, drawing and penmanship, domestic economy, and
vocal music. For the convenience of teachers, instruction is given from
7 to 9 a.m. and from 4 to 8 p.m.

The last few years have seen wide extension of the demand for rural
normal schools, and many critics of the existent schools have urged
that they follow those of the State of Wisconsin as a model. The
essential solidarity of educational aims of the South American
republics is shown by the fact that Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia
during the same period drew their inspiration from the same North
American source.

The decree already mentioned under the head of primary education
emphasizes the duty of the normal schools to prepare free of all
expense primary teachers for any of the three grades of instruction.
Each normal school is also required to have annexed such specially
organized practice schools as shall be necessary. At the discretion of
the President of the Republic, the normal schools shall offer special
courses for those students who have passed the examinations of the
fifth year of the colegios, with the aim of attracting such students
into the field of teaching. That the need of wider training of the
teachers is a pressing one in Chile is shown by the fact that, in 1915,
of 3,000 rural teachers, only 350, and of 6,240 primary teachers of the
nation at large, only 2,435, had normal school training. The service
had to be recruited by 2,000 graduates of primary schools who passed
examinations, and by 1,850 applicants who held no certificate and were
allowed to serve as temporary substitutes.

Of special interest is the annual reciprocity of teachers between the
Government of Chile and the Universities of the States of California
and Washington, arranged in 1918. Each party is to send four. For the
present the Chilean commission has expressed predominant interest in
secondary education, and has called for one university professor, one
normal-school teacher, one teacher of technical subjects, and one
teacher (preferably a woman) in secondary education. The universities
mentioned will act as the agents in the selection of the instructors.

Interchange of university professors has also been arranged with
Uruguay, which is for the present confined to medical instruction.

The National Educational Association has at many meetings pressed for
the scientific and practical training of the teachers of Chile in
vocational studies; and for the appropriation by the Congress of a
definite sum for sending normal teachers abroad for study in the modern
practical and sociological subjects.


TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

For this branch of education the National Educational Association
in 1917 recommended that there be established by law a Council of
Industrial Education composed of a director and 12 members, four of
whom shall be professors of the fundamental technical branches, one
a woman inspector of vocational schools for women, one an inspector
general of primary education, one the director general of railroads,
and one a director and inspector of army munitions. Their duties should
be to exercise superintendency over the entire system of technical
and industrial education to be organized in the Republic, over the
national school of arts and trades, and over such industrial schools
for girls and women as might be established. On this board should be
likewise all inspectors and officials of such branches as might be
later established. A bill embodying these provisions was introduced in
the Congress but has not as yet been acted upon.

Steady progress in all branches of technical education has been shown.
The schools of higher primary grade offering technical courses
number 288, with physical training and gymnastics compulsory in all
grades. There were also in operation 29 technical colegios for women;
6 agricultural colegios; 10 commercial schools, controlled by the
commission upon commercial education; and 3 schools of mines.

The department of industrial promotion has urged upon the Congress the
establishment of a chain of industrial and agricultural schools.

With the establishment by law of the Industrial University of
Valparaiso there will be completed the full cycle of industrial
education in Chile, consisting of: (1) Elementary industrial training
in two schools already established and in six more to be established;
(2) secondary industrial training in the School of Arts and Crafts; and
(3) higher industrial training in the Technical School of Valparaiso.

In November, 1918, met the first National Congress of Dairying,
organized under the auspices of the Agronomic Society of Chile.
It urged the legal organization of instruction in this branch in
(1) special schools of dairying in northern and central Chile; (2)
courses annexed to already established schools of agriculture; (3)
in establishments of secondary education for youths of both sexes in
popular meetings and public traveling courses; (4) in rural primary
schools for illiterate adults.

It is appropriate to mention just here the comprehensive project of
the board of missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United
States for the establishment of an agricultural and industrial system
of education in southern Chile. It has been approved by the Government
of Chile as a potent aid in the uplift of the peon class. A ranch of
nearly 4,000 acres has been purchased along the Malleco River, on
which it is purposed to train the native population in the rudimentary
subjects of instruction, and especially in modern agricultural methods.
The management will employ the best available experts in horticulture,
agriculture, and domestic arts to be found in the South American
countries who may be acquainted with the needs of Chilean rural life.


THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CHILE.

This body plays a larger part in educational thought and leadership
than the corresponding body in any other Latin American State. Its
activities are planned for close articulation of the social and
educational needs of the nation. One of the furthest reaching is
the public-extension work in subjects of university and secondary
instruction. In 1917, its eleventh year of operation, it held 14
conferences at the University of Chile, with an attendance of 15,000,
an increase of 50 per cent over the previous year. The subjects
treated were patriotic, historical, literary, artistic, sociological,
commercial, and medico-therapeutic.

In secondary extension during 1917 there were held in provincial
capitals 19 conferences on subjects more popular and more exclusively
educational and sociological.

The department of university extension has also for three years
devoted itself to collecting international data upon immigration
and naturalization laws, and has cooperated with all the labor
organizations of the Republic to hinder the passage of premature and
unscientific laws in this field.

The activities of the association cover a wide range. In his report for
the year 1917 the president reviewed the activities of the body and
examined the most important problems to which it had addressed itself
during the period. They were:

 1. The establishment of a rural normal school, a project not yet
 realized.

 2. Democratic education by the progressive elimination of primary
 courses of education in secondary institutions.

 3. Obligatory primary instruction, sought by a law passed by the
 Chamber of Deputies in 1917, but as yet not acted upon by the Senate.

 4. Nationalization of the Chilean system of education, a question
 which needs to be presented still more in detail to the nation and the
 Congress.

Like Argentina, Chile has a grave problem in the assimilation of
alien elements, and her nationalism is alarmed at the activity of the
school organizations of diverse races existent on her soil. French
students of education are intensely interested in this development as a
vindication of their prophecies, for they have long been pointing out
the Germanization of Chilean education.

The association has vigorously urged legislation requiring the close
and systematic inspection of all nongovernmental schools, especially
those of secondary grade in north Chile, where German propaganda has
for years been an open secret, carried on, as was well known, by a
German-Chilean Union of Teachers, and where German liceos exist in full
operation. The association urged the requirement in secondary schools
of essentially national subjects, such as Spanish and the history,
geography, and civics of Chile, taught by Chileans and descendants of
Chileans.

In the field of physical education, the activities of the association
have been specially directed to securing proper playgrounds for schools
and to arousing practical interest in this field among philanthropists
and the public at large. The association has taken strong ground
for antialcoholic instruction in primary and secondary schools,
urging that such be incorporated in the textbooks in the study of
physiology, hygiene, and temperance, and in independent courses in
public schools and State colegios. The project encountered opposition
in the National Congress. The association has also grappled with the
problem of immorality, issuing in May, 1917, appeals to families on
sexual ethics and the systematic inculcation of ethical ideas of sex by
educational and therapeutic measures. During 1917, fraternal relations
were established with Brazil and Bolivia, on the occasion of the
inauguration of the Higher Normal Institute.




EDUCATION IN URUGUAY.


GENERAL INTRODUCTION.

The marked educational awakening of Uruguay during the last biennium
has been only one phase of the universal demand of the nation for a
new social and economic adjustment. Perhaps the chief manifestation of
this has been the adoption of the new constitution in place of the old,
which had been in force exactly 90 years. At a plebiscite of November,
1917, the constitution as formulated was submitted to the people and
adopted by a vote of 85,000 to 4,000; and it became the fundamental law
of the land on March 1, 1919. As regards its bearings upon educational
administration, the most noteworthy change--and perhaps that around
which centered most opposition during its consideration--was the
provision which divides the executive power between a President and a
National Council of Administration.

The latter body, composed of nine members elected for six years
directly by the people, and absolutely independent of the President,
has charge of all matters relating to public instruction, public works,
labor, industries, public charities, health, and the preparation of
the annual national budget. The administrative officers of public
instruction of all grades, including the minister, are appointed by
the National Council and are subject to its authority according to
such particular laws and regulations as the Congress may enact. This
substitution of a composite board for an individual as the fountainhead
of educational authority is an experiment whose operations will be
observed with much interest in a country of South America habituated by
tradition to authority concentrated in an individual.


ILLITERACY.

_Instruction of adults and the night schools._--The problem of
combating illiteracy, as in all the more progressive South American
countries during the last biennium, has received more systematic
consideration than during any previous period.[2] As will be seen
later in the consideration of the rural schools, measures have been
taken which are of unusual importance for the instruction of youthful
illiterates. In the related field of instruction of adults who are
illiterates or nearly so, work of a creative nature has been done in
Uruguay. The mere statistics show progress, the courses offered for
adults in the year 1916-17 being 55 in excess of the former year and
the enrollment 5,284, an increase of 1,671 over that year; but the new
spirit animating this branch is the notable feature. The authorities
have kept it steadily in mind to carry adult education out from the
capital city to the rural districts; and the national authorities of
primary education have cooperated efficiently in lending schoolhouses
as places for adult instruction and encouraging primary teachers to
assist in this work. The Government has furthered the study of the
problem in the researches of Señor Hipolito Coirolo, director of the
largest night school for adults in Montevideo. Señor Coirolo spent
nearly two years in collecting systematic data from Argentina, Brazil,
Colombia, and Paraguay, which were naturally confronted by the same
problems in adult illiteracy. In March, 1917, he presented to the
authorities the results of his findings in a project for the organic
reform of instruction for adults in the night schools. Señor Coirolo
maintained that the time was ripe for progress in this field to keep
pace with the other educational demands, more especially as it was
admitted that the prevailing system was a more or less poorly made
combination of regulations and practices covering many localities and
periods, and had been only tentatively adopted by presidential decree
in 1903, and given legal existence in 1907, when 35 night schools
were organized. All familiar with conditions knew that they were now
completely out of touch with modern social and educational demands.

[2] See executive message of May, 1917, accompanying project of law
for appropriation of $50,000 for appointment of 100 assistant primary
teachers for the Departments of the Republic.

Señor Coirolo found the curriculum of night schools too largely
theoretical and bookish and in only a few instances offering practical
instruction. After careful study of the subjects offered in the night
schools of progressive countries, he urged that the night schools of
the future be organized upon the following main lines:

1. The completion of 17 years of age requisite for admission.

2. The division into three classes, each occupying a year according to
the degree of illiteracy, and the division of each class into three
cycles of three months each, the cycle to be the unit of time, without
limitation upon the transfer of pupils from one cycle to another.

3. The subjects to be introduced in logical sequence and to be taught
in accordance with the development of the pupil and to consist of
reading, language work, writing, arithmetic, elements of applied
geometry, singing, drawing, moral instruction, elements of anatomy,
physiology, hygiene, civic instruction, geography, and history
(national and universal); talks and lessons on objects of daily
life, manual arts, domestic economy, and household arts; elements
of political economy, sociology, psychology, duties of parents,
accounting, and industrial training. Individual conferences with
teachers, reading, writing, and arithmetic are to be continued through
all three years; and each year is to close with a review and finishing
course, devoting attention to individual needs.

4. Under the head of general administration the proponent urged the
elimination of religious instruction in night schools, less attention
to examinations for promotion, the prohibition of holding night
schools in buildings occupied by children during the day, and careful
inspection of night schools by appointed authorities.

Certain of these provisions were embodied in a ministerial decree
of October, 1917, which stressed the importance of this branch of
education in the national life, and appropriated $10,000 for the
increase of the staff of teachers in commercial subjects and domestic
arts.


PRIMARY EDUCATION, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE.

In 1917 slightly less than 100,000 pupils were enrolled in the 1,014
public primary schools of Uruguay, an increase of 2,500 over the
preceding year. Of these, nearly 65,000 were enrolled in the city of
Montevideo alone.

In administration and inspection the authorities in this field were
active and progressive. Tentative reforms in the programs of study for
the schools of towns and villages, a step long urged by them, were
outlined by the minister of education; and wider latitude was allowed
such individual schools in the matter of adapting nature study and
practical courses to regular school work in accordance with local
conditions and occupations. This step was in keeping with the attention
paid to rural schools, which will be discussed later.

By executive resolution of July, 1917, the long-discussed change in
the school year was made by which it shall hereafter open March 1 and
close December 15. As with the similar change in Argentina, beneficial
results, especially in the rural schools, are expected, as this
arrangement is in conformity with climatic conditions. The change was
made after investigation among the teaching force, and the country
teachers won a victory over their city fellows, who favored vacations
in the summer. This is but another and a significant effect of the
steady centripetal attraction of the overshadowing capital city, more
marked even in the new countries of South America than in the old
ones of Europe. The country teachers have openly expressed their wish
to spend the longest possible time in the capital, in spite of the
inconveniences of such a sojourn in the summer. A further light upon
the country teacher’s point of view is shown by the information that
the long vacations in winter permit the small landowner to employ his
children in labors of battage, which begin in December and last most
of the winter. The schools are therefore practically empty in winter.
It is manifestly wiser to put the former long vacation of July at this
time.

Complaints having become more frequent in regard to the blocking
of educational administration in certain departments because of
disagreements among inspectors, more drastic requirements were laid
down by resolutions of the National Inspection of Primary Instruction,
dated February, 1917. The authority of the departmental inspector
over the subinspectors was confirmed; in the event of disagreement or
insubordination the departmental inspector was required to present
the case to the Department of National Inspection; the visitation
of schools was distributed as nearly equally as possible; and the
responsibility for inaction was put squarely upon the inspectors.

These provisions, rigorous as they were, did not prove adequate,
and much of the business of the schools of the outlying departments
still remained blocked. The executive, therefore, in November,
1917, transmitted to the Congress, along with a message emphasizing
the necessity of the law, a project for the establishment of three
divisions of regional inspectors of primary education to exercise
general supervision over the departmental inspectors and the schools
of the Republic. These regional inspectors acting as a unit were to
constitute the technical inspection of the school authorities. Their
functions were to be regulated by the executive in accordance with
the reports of the national inspection and the general direction of
primary instruction. The hitherto existing chief inspectors, technical,
adjunct, and chief of statistics were to be transformed into regional
inspectors, and under their immediate supervision were to be put all
the departmental inspectors. The projected law encountered unexpected
opposition, and its passage has not as yet been secured.

Scientific interest in the character of the textbooks adopted for use
in the primary schools of Uruguay has been aroused by the Government’s
offer of prizes for satisfactory textbooks and by the publication in
the Anales de Instruccion Primaria of illustrative lines and themes
of treatment. The general assembly has authorized the offer of $6,000
in prizes in the contest for the composition of a book combining in a
single volume all the textbook material needed in the fourth, fifth,
and sixth classes in the public schools of Montevideo. This offer had
as its object to lower the cost of education and thus to facilitate
attendance, as the book in question was to be distributed gratuitously
in cases of need.

A circular issued by the department of technical inspection in April,
1917, called the attention of teachers to the abuses of assigning
written home work and limited such tasks to 30 minutes in classes of
the first grade and to one hour for those in higher grades.

By executive decree, school savings funds and a system of aid for
necessitous children, supplying clothing, midday meal, transportation,
and books, were established and placed in charge of the administrative
council for each department, composed of the departmental authorities
of primary education, and the civil authorities of the several
localities, presided over by the departmental inspectors. The funds for
the institution of this system were to be drawn from State subventions
to municipalities, school fees, and legacies and gifts to such objects.
Although the Congress in October, 1917, appropriated $30,000 to
organize the system, financial considerations have as yet prevented its
practical organization.

_Private instruction._--For the first time in the history of Uruguay
systematic steps have been taken to ascertain the real nature and
aims of private instruction. By executive decree of May, 1917, the
inspector of private instruction and the assistant director general of
primary public instruction were directed to address to every private
educational institution in Uruguay a questionnaire in duplicate calling
for information concerning its teaching staff, the mental and physical
condition of its pupils, the hygienic conditions of the building and
site, classrooms, dormitories, playgrounds, source and nature of
drinking water, lighting conditions, school furniture and equipment,
programs of study, methods, textbooks, school hours, and the general
organization and administration of the school. No time limit was set
for the reply, but it was requested within a reasonable time. The gist
of the information gathered and the action of the Government have not
as yet been published. Such a move has naturally aroused opposition in
conservative and ecclesiastical circles, and its results are awaited
with keen interest by other South American countries which have to deal
with similar problems.

The issues aroused by the consideration of the private schools
continued to grow more acute and culminated in the introduction of a
bill in the Congress in March, 1918, forbidding the opening of private
schools of any grade without the written permission of the inspectoral
department of private instruction or the departmental inspectors of
primary instruction; and requiring all teachers in private schools to
hold a State teacher’s diploma in accordance with the provisions of the
law of public instruction, and debarring the clergy from teaching in
any such private schools. The bill naturally became a storm center and
is as yet unenacted into law.


RURAL SCHOOLS.

Until the breaking out of the World War, and the consequent upsetting
of traditions in all South American countries whose outlet is on the
Atlantic Ocean, educational thought in Uruguay concerned itself largely
with the capital city. In this respect, as in that of population (one
out of three people in Uruguay lives in Montevideo), the centralizing
tendency of South American countries is well illustrated. But a vital
change began to show itself from 1914 to 1916, and in the latter
year it acquired extraordinary impetus from the support of national
leaders and of the press. The nation has grown steadily to recognize
the proper balance to be observed between the claims of the schools of
the capital and those of the rural districts. It has come to see that
a healthy national life was possible only with organic changes in the
schools of the outlying departments, and that these of Montevideo could
without danger be left at their present status until the education of
the people from whom the great city was steadily recruited should be
attended to. It is in the light of this radical change in the national
attitude that the educational history of Uruguay for the last biennium
should be read.

This epoch in educational progress has been further marked by the
recognition of the need of financial support for rural education, and
the further need of differentiating the subjects of instruction proper
for rural children from those adapted to the city. In getting this
principle clearly before the public mind, the educational authorities
of Uruguay have played a part excelled in few countries for skill and
devotion to the national interests. Mention should be made of the able
contributions of Señor A. J. Pérez, National Inspector of Primary
Education, especially of his study entitled “De la cultura necessaria
en la democracia” (Anales, 1918), which applies to modern conditions De
Tocqueville’s main lines of thought.

A commission of nine experienced teachers, six men and three women,
with Señor Pérez as chairman, was appointed by executive decree to
formulate the program of study for the projected rural schools.
It began its sessions in February, 1917, and met frequently for
two months. Its report was presented in May, 1917. Approved by the
executive in June, by decree it went into effect on March 1, 1918. The
main contentions of the commission in support of its plan are well
worthy of notice:

1. Far-reaching changes within a generation in the commercial and
industrial life of the nation have affected the rural districts and
have called for different subjects and methods of instruction for the
children of these districts. The rural school of the future must be
recognized as fundamentally an elementary industrial school adjusted to
local conditions.

2. The successful rural school must have the following aims: To
inculcate conscientious and efficient labor; to minister to a
well-regulated and happy home life; to diffuse the knowledge of private
and public hygiene, and to further the increase of population and
public wealth and, in general, the possession of a well-founded and
enduring popular liberty.

3. The intimate relation of the rural schools with the problems of home
life requires the new rural school to be taught by women, and therefore
the training of young women as teachers in such schools should be at
once initiated and continued as the basis of their success. Concrete
illustration is found in the successful intensive training of 24 young
women in a course of six weeks at the normal institute at Montevideo in
the summer of 1917.

4. In the administrative organization the committee was guided by the
following general principles: (_a_) Not to install rural schools by
foundation or transfer except in localities where donations of ground
of not less than 4 hectares (10 acres) should be immediately available;
(_b_) to urge similar donations, public or private, to existing rural
schools which lacked grounds of the minimum area above indicated;
(_c_) to propose and encourage the transfer of rural schools that
had no grounds annexed nor could obtain such by donation to another
parish where such advantages could be obtained without prejudice to the
interests of the rural schools in the district.

5. No child below 7 years of age should be admitted to the rural
schools.

6. The programs of study for the rural schools occupied the greater
part of the commission’s time. The subjects of instruction as reported
covered three years, and were reading, language work, writing,
arithmetic, drawing, agriculture, domestic economy, elements of applied
geometry, geography and history (local, national, and universal),
singing, and gymnastics. In the view of the commission itself, the
feature which peculiarly differentiates these new programs is the
complete application of practical methods and aims to each of these
subjects, the elimination of abstract and memory teaching, and, above
all, the development of the subjects of drawing, agriculture, and
domestic economy. The fundamental aim throughout was to correlate
instruction with the conditions and occupations of life in the several
communities and to lead the pupil to see each subject as related to
practical utility.

Following the promulgation of the report of the commission, lively
interest was manifested by the nation at large in the initiation of
such rural schools. Practical difficulties, however, were foreseen in
securing funds for their launching upon the nation-wide scale hoped
for, and restlessness in certain quarters was manifested, though the
Chamber of Deputies promptly voted the funds necessary. The National
Rural Congress of Uruguay, in session in August, 1917, addressed to
the minister of public instruction an urgent plea for carrying out the
terms of the report in time for the opening of at least a part of such
schools with the new school year.


MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS.

The medical inspection of schools has been favorably regarded in
Uruguay for a number of years. It was initiated by law in 1913 with
the examination of the pupils of the normal schools in Montevideo and
the division of urban and rural schools into five groups. Since then
popular approval of its application to the schools of the nation has
steadily grown.

Under the present law individual inspection of the physical condition
of pupils concerns itself only with those who enter for the first time.
Naturally the law is applied with varying degrees of rigor, the schools
of the capital being visited regularly by the medical inspectors, while
those of the outlying departments are dependent upon the energy and
faithfulness of the individual inspector. The law assigns to each a
certain number of schools to visit. Capable medical inspectors have
served their nation well in pointing out the grave disadvantages from
the use of primary schools for night schools for adults, especially the
danger of tuberculosis.

Medical inspectors are also required by law to include in their
tri-monthly reports recommendations for repairs, alterations, etc.,
of school buildings and grounds called for by sanitary or hygienic
considerations.

Dental inspection has also been systematically carried on in most of
the schools of the capital, the reports of oral and dental affections
observed in the children reaching 76 per cent of the total ailments
noted. Ocular inspection in the schools of Montevideo has also been
made a separate field within the last biennium.

By an amendment of 1916 to the existing law an annual physical
examination of teachers in the schools of Montevideo will be required.
This was naturally, and in certain instances bitterly, opposed; but the
opposition has largely died down, and the teachers themselves have come
to realize the benefits involved.


PHYSICAL TRAINING.

In accordance with the wish of educational officials to diffuse among
the schools of Uruguay the benefits of international progress in the
physical betterment of school children, a commission was named by the
executive in April, 1916, to draw up a plan of physical education
in schools. This commission, acting in cooperation with the general
direction of primary instruction, recommended to the executive the
appointment of a permanent technical commission of physical training
for schools, and this recommendation was approved by executive decree
of March 8, 1918. The commission so appointed was to consist of a
member of the general direction of primary instruction, one of the
national commission of physical education, a physician of the medical
school staff, a physician to be named by the National Council of
Hygiene, the technical inspector of primary education, the technical
director of the National Commission of Physical Education, the teachers
of gymnastics of the normal institutes and of the primary schools of
the capital, and two physicians who were specialists in diseases of
children.

The province of the commission was to draw up for the general direction
of primary instruction programs of physical exercises for schools; to
outline methods of instruction; to see that these programs and methods
were practically carried out in the public schools, to inform the
school authorities upon points of deficiency in instruction and to
indicate measures of correcting these; to organize gymnastic meetings
and exhibitions for schools, and in general to promote the diffusion of
physical education in the schools.

In furtherance of the awakened national interest in physical education,
the executive has appointed departmental commissions in various
departments for the immediate provision of adequate playgrounds and
the acquisition of apparatus for games to be installed in town and
village plazas. These have cooperated with the National Commission
for Physical Education, the latter having decreed the establishment,
upon application of residents, of neighborhood and community playing
centers. All games, especially those of North America, which are
adapted to the climate and environment have been systematically
encouraged. In localities where it was required by law the executive
has authorized the municipal authorities, with the consent of the
national commission, to negotiate such loans as were necessary for the
financial carrying out of this nation-wide scheme. These are steps of
very great significance in a country of South America not by tradition
or racial inheritance addicted to outdoor sports.


SECONDARY EDUCATION.

By executive message of February 14, 1918, the work of certain of
the departmental liceos in discovering boys of talent in the higher
elementary schools who were without means of continuing their
education, and giving them opportunities to pursue their studies by
means of a system of scholarships, was highly commended, especially
as a beginning of bridging the chasm between elementary and secondary
education.

In response to popular demand, courses in Italian and Portuguese were
incorporated by decree of the secondary education division of public
instruction in 1917. With the object of making known to teachers
in secondary education the international progress in this field, a
journal entitled “Revista de Enseñanza Secundaria” was established by
executive decree under the direction of the secretary of this division.
All reports and public business concerning this division are to be
published in this journal.

By executive decree of November, 1917, all courses for the training of
primary-school teachers maintained since April, 1916, in the liceos of
the outlying departments were discontinued. They had been originally
instituted by way of experiment for supplying teachers for the rural
schools, and were not regarded as serving this purpose. Furthermore, in
view of the agitation for improved rural schools, it was regarded as
useless to continue a system of training which had proved, because of
its environment, impracticable to harmonize with modern schools.


COMMERCIAL EDUCATION.

The past biennium has seen a considerable development of interest
in commercial education. By executive recommendation and by law of
January, 1916, there were introduced in the liceos and national schools
of commerce in the capital and three of the larger cities courses of
varying length for the training of boys for the consular, diplomatic,
and foreign agency services. By ministerial decree of April, 1917,
there were incorporated in the national schools of commerce courses
in civil and commercial law, American history, and advanced courses
in accounting and bookkeeping; and legal permission was given the
individual school to extend the latter courses into the fifth year
wherever deemed suitable. In common with students finishing the courses
in the liceos, those from national school of commerce were granted
opportunity to compete for scholarships abroad offered by decree of
January, 1918. These scholarships are good for one or more years
according to the success of the holder, and are apportioned among the
departments according to the discretion of the council of secondary
and preparatory education. Among the usual scholastic requirements
called for are periodical reports from the holder of such a scholarship
concerning the social and economic conditions of the people among whom
he has been sent to study.

Following the plan drawn up at Montevideo in the summer of 1918
by governmental and educational representatives from most of the
South American countries, invitations were sent to all interested
in commercial education to attend the South American Congress of
Commercial Education to be held in that city in January-February,
1919. The best talent in this division of education was assigned the
discussion of topics which were considered as most urgent at the
present time. They were treated under two main heads, those of (_a_)
economic commercial expansion and (_b_) commercial instruction. The
former head, not being essentially educational, calls for no notice
here. The latter included the following topics:

1. From what points, how, and by what means commercial education should
be developed on the American continent; extent and sub-division of such
instruction.

2. Means of stimulating acquaintance among the peoples of the Americas.

3. The centers of commercial education as professional schools, and as
institutions of modern culture.

4. Should courses in business ethics be included in the curriculum of
the advanced classes? Morale, character, and culture of students of
commerce and of consular service.

5. Universal history of commerce as an indispensable element in the
training of competent consuls.

6. Are screen films necessary in giving instruction in commerce and
geography?

7. Countinghouse practice.

8. How should commerce be taught?

9. Teaching of languages in the centers of commercial education.

10. Preparation of women for a commercial career.

Among the resolutions officially adopted by the congress which had
educational bearing were those recommending that--

(_a_) Institutes or sections of economic expansion in faculties
of economic science, schools, and higher centers of economic and
commercial study be established which should devote themselves
especially to the study and practical solution of the various economic
questions affecting inter-American relations and solidarity.

(_b_) For social and economic ends American countries create and aid
industrial schools for fisheries and derived industries.

(_c_) Propaganda primers be prepared for exchange among the public
schools of the (South) American Continent.

(_d_) There be included in programs of higher commercial study courses
of comparative American economy and comparative customs legislation
(the latter for consular courses), and that existing seminaries of
economic investigation or higher commerce schools write the economic
and financial history of their respective countries.

(_e_) The interchange of professors and students between the higher
institutions of commercial learning be initiated.

(_f_) International agreements be concluded for the reciprocal
recognition of degrees issued by institutions of commercial learning
and that scholarships be granted for the interchange of students.

(_g_) The compilation of legislation of American countries concerning
commercial education be intrusted to the permanent commission created
by the congress. The commission will be assisted in this work by a
committee of professors and experts in commercial education and will
be charged with proposing plans and curricula in accordance with the
following: Commercial instruction, which presupposes primary education,
to be divided into three categories--(_a_) Elementary instruction,
which may be dependent or independent; (_b_) secondary instruction;
(_c_) higher instruction. The purpose of these branches is: (_a_)
To train auxiliaries of commerce; (_b_) to prepare for commerce in
general; (_c_) to furnish economic, financial, and commercial knowledge
preparing for directive functions in commerce and industry, insurance
and consular work, etc.

(_h_) Preliminary cultural studies of two grades be established, one
confined to the first and second categories of commercial instruction,
and the second for broader instruction in the third category.

(_i_) The study of the proposal of the National Institute of Commerce
of La Paz, Bolivia, concerning education of women be referred to the
permanent commission.

(_k_) Higher institutions of commercial education establish, if not
already existing, in their curricula the separation of commercial from
economic geography, the study of commercial geography to begin in
primary schools, with periodical competitions for the preparation of
the best commercial and economic geographies of each country and the
exchange of prize works be arranged for.

(_l_) Institutions of bibliography and information be established,
independent of or annexed to seminaries or institutes, for
investigation existing or to be founded in America, and providing for
the widest exchange of economic, financial, and commercial information
collected.

(_m_) The practice of the professions receiving diplomas from higher
institutions of commercial learning in commercial, civil, and
administrative matters be legally recognized.

(_n_) An extraordinary prize to be known as the Pablo Fontaina Prize
for Commercial Studies be offered for students of higher institutions
of commercial learning. (Sr. Pablo Fontaina is director of the Superior
School of Commerce of Montevideo and played a prominent part in the
organization and work of the congress.)

(_o_) Entrance into consular and diplomatic services be granted by
competitive examination or to candidates presenting degrees issued by
official institutions of higher commercial learning.

(_p_) Courses of ethics in preparatory studies and lectures on
commercial ethics in higher institutions of commercial learning
delivered by distinguished professional men be established.


TRAINING OF TEACHERS.

Uruguay has always been progressive in this field. In 1914 Señorita
Leonor Hourticou, the directress of the Normal Institute for Girls,
submitted to the national inspector of primary instruction a
far-reaching and systematic plan of reform in the aims and methods of
practice teaching. She urged the establishment of a general directorate
of teachers’ practice training, composed of directors of normal
institutes and the national technical inspector of schools, which
body was to operate through a salaried secretary. Practice teaching
for the first grade was to be required for one year with a minimum of
160 sessions and for the second year for at least three months with a
minimum number of 60 sessions. Twelve schools for practice teaching
were to be established at Montevideo. Local inspectors were to be
appointed by the general directorate. While this scheme was not enacted
into law, yet it had very great value in focusing the attention of the
educational authorities upon the practical problem of reorganizing
practice teaching.

These recommendations were allowed to lapse; but along with the
demand for improved schools went a similar one for the improvement of
the schools in towns and villages. In 1916 a committee of which the
directress of the Normal Institute for Girls was chairman was appointed
to formulate a training course for nonrural teachers which should be in
keeping with the recognized needs of modern schools. In October, 1916,
it presented as its report an outline of studies recommended to be
incorporated in the three years’ training course for primary teachers.

Taking up for the present only the teachers of the first and second
grades, the committee recommended the following courses: Arithmetic,
accounting, algebra, applied geometry, penmanship and drawing,
elements of biology, zoology, botany, mineralogy and geology, anatomy,
physiology and hygiene, physics and chemistry, studies in industries,
geography and cosmography, history (national, South American, and
universal), constitutional law, sociology and political economy,
literature and composition, French, philosophy, and pedagogy with
practice teaching. By the approval of the executive these courses were
to go into effect in September, 1917.

_Training of rural teachers._--The movement to improve the conditions
of rural life which has been mentioned before began in earnest in
1914. In that year a report based upon an intensive study of the
social and economic needs of the rural districts was presented to the
general direction of primary instruction by a committee of teachers
especially appointed for that purpose. Though no official action was
taken at the time, the ventilation of the subject was very opportune
and aroused public interest in a field so vital to the welfare of
the nation. In every phase of rural education, and especially in the
training of the teachers required, practical reforms were recognized
as urgently necessary. From the strictly pedagogical point of view,
the projects for teacher training as laid down in that report were of
supreme interest, as constituting the basis upon which all subsequent
suggestions have rested. They called for the establishment of a normal
school exclusively for women rural teachers, which was preferably to
be located either within the capital city or within easy access of it.
This school was to work along the three main lines of agriculture,
horticulture, and domestic science. For admission there was to be
required, in addition to the usual certificates of mental, moral, and
physical fitness, the certificate of completion of at least the third
year of the program of the rural schools.

The courses were to cover at least two years, preferably three, with
provision for four-year courses for pupils aspiring to the post of
rural inspectors, an aspiration which was encouraged in the report.
Only two or three scholarships were to be offered in each department,
and the number of pupils was to be restricted to 50 for the first
year. No purely theoretical instruction whatsoever was to be allowed.
Increasingly specialized work in the practice school annexed was to be
required of every pupil each year. For the last two years the work of
practice teaching was to be so arranged as to alternate by semesters
with the classroom work assigned. The latter, toward the end of each
semester, was to review all the work from the beginning.

The projected institute was to be provided with all grounds, buildings,
and equipment necessary for the teaching of every phase of rural life,
including the care of fowls and cattle, with library and laboratories,
with a modern gymnasium, with a hall for the teaching of the fine arts,
and, most important of all, with a mixed practice school under the
direction of the authorities of the institute, consisting of at least
three grades and preferably four.

Summer courses for teachers, both men and women, were to be offered,
emphasizing practical work in all courses related to rural life.
Traveling schools of agriculture were outlined to appeal especially
to youths of years beyond the rural school age and already engaged in
farming, each class to have not less than 8 pupils and not more than
15, and to continue for periods ranging from one week to two months
according to the demand in each locality. These traveling schools were
to be organized for the same unit of territory as the rural schools
already in existence. Each course was to be arranged in cycles as
follows: (1) Three years’ course in dairying; (2) four years’ course in
domestic science; (3) three years’ course for rural teachers, men and
women. Suitable certificates were to be awarded students satisfactorily
completing these courses.

As regards the courses in rural schools, the committee found that the
advantages accruing did not justify instructing pupils below 8 years
of age in formal agriculture, satisfactory progress being made if the
pupil was awakened to a love of nature and an interest in the life of
the farm. Pupils above 8 were to be instructed in agricultural courses
progressively adapted to their maturity and to the peculiar conditions
of locality, soil, and climate.

As regards courses in domestic science, though the subject does
not permit of a sharp age line of cleavage, yet the youngest girls
might most profitably be given the elements, while the older girls
might, in the discretion of trained teachers, take up the formal and
technical study of food values in connection with elementary chemistry,
physiology, and biology.

Anticipating the establishment of the normal schools for the exclusive
training of teachers for the projected rural schools, the executive
in November, 1917, sent to the Congress, along with the accompanying
message, the project of a law for establishing two normal schools of
agriculture in the Departments of Colonia and San Jose. These schools
were intended to minister to the special need of these outlying
departments. Their courses were to be intensive in character, adapted
especially to the training of teachers for these localities, and to
cover a year. Indeed, the bill specifically mentioned their purposes as
intimately related with the forthcoming rural schools. The bill at once
became a law, and the schools were to begin operation in March, 1918.


HIGHER EDUCATION.

In the field of university education no changes, administrative or
instructional, are recorded for the past biennium; but there has been
a certain amount of dissatisfaction with the administrative government
of the University of Montevideo. In September, 1918, the executive sent
to the Congress, along with an accompanying message, the project of
a law clearly defining the constitution of the directive councils of
the several faculties of the University of Montevideo as established
by the laws of 1908 and 1915. Contention had arisen as to the right
of electing representatives to each of these councils. By the new law
each such council was to have 10 members and a dean. In the faculty
of law four of these were to be elected by the attorneys who were also
professors; four attorneys to be selected by those neither professors
nor substitutes; one minor attorney by those neither professors nor
substitutes; one student delegate by the students themselves.

In the faculty of medicine four members were to be elected by the
professors, substitutes, and chiefs of clinics and laboratories; three
members to be elected by the physicians not embraced in the above
categories; one member to be elected by the pharmacists; and one by the
dentists not included in the categories above; one member to be elected
by the students of medicine, pharmacy, and dentistry.

In the faculty of engineering four members were to be elected by
the professors and substitutes; three members to be elected by the
engineers; and two by the surveyors who were neither professors nor
substitutes; one member to be elected by the students of engineering
and surveying.

In the faculty of architecture five members were to be elected by the
professors and substitutes; four members to be elected by architects
who were neither professors nor substitutes; one member to be elected
by the students of architecture.

By decrees of 1917 enacted into law, seven years of advanced courses
were required for the degree of doctor of medicine and five years
for the degree of architect. Special courses of one and two years in
construction and materials, leading to certificates but not to degrees,
were formulated and allowed by the ministry of public instruction.

In pursuance of the policy of exchanging professors between the various
countries of South America formulated at the Pan American Conference
held at Buenos Aires in 1910, special exchange was arranged with Chile
in 1916.




EDUCATION IN VENEZUELA.

Primary education in Venezuela, during the biennium under
consideration, has enlisted the practical interest of the National
Government as never before. This has taken shape primarily in the two
fundamental administrative decrees of the Provisional President, Dr.
Bustillos. The first, issued in February, 1917, outlines the general
requirements laid down in the organic law of public instruction under
certain regulations for primary public schools. These are divided
into three main heads: (_a_) The primary elementary schools, in which
only those subjects belonging to compulsory primary instruction are
taught; (_b_) higher primary schools, in which are taught the subjects
belonging to higher primary instruction; (_c_) complete primary
schools, in which instruction is given in both the above divisions at
once.

The decree requires that each school be equipped with all modern
appliances for the physical well-being of the pupils. Children are not
admitted below 7 years of age; only those below 7 years are admitted
to the mothers’ schools or the kindergartens; only those above 14 are
admitted to the schools for adults.

The subjects required in the elementary primary schools are: Reading,
writing, and elements of Spanish; elements of arithmetic and the metric
system; rudiments of geography and history of Venezuela; rudiments of
ethics and civic instruction; rudiments of behavior and hygiene; the
national hymn and school songs; the first elements of manual arts, and,
for girls, of sewing.

In the higher primary schools are taught the following: Elements of
Spanish grammar, elementary arithmetic, metric system, geography and
history of Venezuela, elements of universal geography and history,
elementary science, ethical and civic instruction, behavior and
elementary hygiene, elements of drawing and music, manual arts and
elements of agriculture and cattle raising for boys, sewing and
domestic economy for girls, gymnastic exercises.

Religious instruction is imparted to pupils whose parents or guardians
require it, provided that the number of such be at least 10. The
celebration of school festivals as required by law, the establishment
of libraries in each school accessible to both pupils and teachers, and
the keeping of books and registers by teachers and directors are among
the general provisions emphasized in the regulations.

The second decree, issued by the Provisional President in July, 1917,
sets forth the regulations for the official inspection of public
instruction. It expressly concerns the following schools:

1. Those maintained or aided by the Federal Union.

2. Those of primary, secondary, and normal instruction, maintained or
aided by the States or by the municipalities.

3. Public and private schools satisfying legal requirements of good
conduct and school hygiene.

The official inspection of schools has its ultimate authority vested in
the following grades of functionaries:

1. Committees (juntas) constituted by law in localities maintaining a
school.

2. Technical inspectors of primary, secondary, and normal instruction
for the Federal District and the States of the Union.

3. A superintendent for the Federal District.

4. Inspectors necessary for the operation of higher and special
instruction.

5. Commissioners appointed for special educational cases.

The duties and responsibilities imposed by law upon the juntas of
primary instruction are detailed at greatest length, as upon them
rests the proper execution of the law and the success of the entire
system. Most important of all these duties are those pertaining to the
enforcement of compulsory primary instruction. The juntas are required
to keep themselves informed of the primary instruction imparted to all
children of school age in their district, whether in schools public or
private or at home; to require all parents and guardians of children
of school age to have such children instructed as required by law;
to keep themselves informed of the progress of all such children; to
impose fines as required by law upon all parents or guardians who
neglect the instruction of children; to see that the children admitted
to schools of all grades conform in age, state of health, etc., to
the requirements of the law; to visit the schools in their district
frequently and regularly; and to keep registers of all facts pertaining
to the attendance upon such schools.

The duties and responsibilities of the inspectoral juntas of secondary
instruction and those of normal instruction are full and exacting and
along the lines already laid down.

The technical inspectors as a group have charge of all three grades
of instruction, each in the district assigned to him. As fixed by
ministerial decree, there are 10 of these, excluding the superintendent
for the Federal District. These functionaries are the direct agents
of the ministry of public instruction, and form the connecting link
between that office and the local juntas. They are vested with complete
power to compel the execution of the law by the local juntas under
penalties prescribed by law. They are instructed to work in complete
harmony with the juntas, to call meetings, and to outline to them their
duties under the law. They are also required to instruct teachers in
their duties. In short, the inspectors are the element upon which the
successful working of the machinery of the regulations depends.

The superintendent of public instruction in the Federal District is
directly under the authority of the minister of education.

The inspectors of higher and special instruction have duties and
responsibilities analogous to those of the inspectors already
mentioned, though these, for obvious reasons, are not outlined at such
length.

In the field of primary instruction the interest aroused in rural
schools has been the most marked feature in the past biennium.
The ministry of public instruction has paid special attention to
the project of establishing rural schools, fixed or traveling, in
the vicinity of the main manufacturing, industrial, or commercial
centers of the country, and the President by decree of July, 1917,
in commending the project, urged upon the juntas wherever possible
to develop this type of schools. Especially in the agricultural or
cattle-raising sections was the project received with enthusiasm,
applying, as it did, directly to the problems of illiteracy and the
training of the country population in practical subjects related to
daily life. By special decree the President urged the introduction
of elementary courses in agriculture in the established schedule of
studies.

Among the States which definitely established such schools the State
of Trujillo, fourth in population, took the lead by establishing 14,
with predominant emphasis upon practical courses in agriculture and
related subjects. Such schools began at once to serve as centers for
the instruction not only of the children of school age but of the
population generally in new methods, the use of machines, cooperative
societies, etc. Similarly in sections devoted to cattle raising they
were centers of inspiration and instruction in related subjects.

During the last biennium the industrial plants located in the centers
of Venezuela have established primary schools for the children of
their operatives, with the approval of the authorities, State and
municipal. The minister of public instruction, in his memoria for
1918, urge upon the Congress the passage of a law recognizing the work
of these schools, arranging for their inspection by the governmental
technical inspectors and the classification and certification of
pupils completing the courses offered in them. Such schools have also
done much in combating the illiteracy among adults by means of night
schools, and they have in many places, by employing excellent teachers,
served the very useful purpose of raising the standard of requirement
in various districts for the public schools, State or municipal.

Secondary education in Venezuela, according to the memoria referred to,
suffers much from the insufficiency and irregularity of the revenues
devoted to it, with the consequent inefficient equipment for modern and
scientific subjects and the inadequate salaries of the teachers. On the
pedagogical side the memoria found the effects experienced by secondary
education from the mechanical and memory instruction, too largely
prevalent in primary education, a permanent obstacle to any hope of
real reform in secondary education.

The colegios, a type of secondary school peculiar to the
Spanish-American countries, of grade preparatory to the liceos, seem
to be disappearing from Venezuelan education. There are now left
only 13 Federal colegios, all the others maintained by the States
and municipalities having lapsed. The explanation probably lies in
the exaggerated theoretical instruction they offered and its lack of
adaptation to the actual needs of the nation. A number of them occupied
buildings of some size and pretension, and the minister in his last
memoria suggested that the vocational and industrial schools needed in
the educational system might well be installed in these buildings.

Interest in the education of girls has made progress in Venezuela,
an especially promising liceo for girls having been established at
Caracas, offering advanced courses covering two years, with special
attention to physical training and modern subjects.

Education in arts and crafts for men has long been popular in
Venezuela, perhaps largely because of the national talent in those
subjects. The school at Caracas, established in 1916, offers a
four-year course, with English as the only foreign language. Within two
years it reached an enrollment of 288 in the regular classes and 213 in
the night courses.

Commercial education and training in political science courses have
grown in popularity during the last biennium. Schools of the former
have been established at Caracas, Maracaibo, Ciudad Bolívar, and Puerto
Cabello; and of the latter, at Caracas, subsidized by the Government
and regarded as an important adjunct in training for the legal
profession.

In the field of the primary normal schools, the ministry has seen the
necessity of their serving more largely the educational needs of the
nation by supplying more and better teachers to the schools. It is,
therefore, proposed to revise them thoroughly, especially in regard to
the chief defect observed since their establishment, namely, the poor
preparation of students who enter. It is proposed to offer, preparatory
to the normal school proper, a perfecting course in essentials
covering two or three years, to which would be added French, drawing,
gymnastics, and music. Such a course would preferably be offered in
the higher primary schools. The pupil should then proceed to the
specialized subjects of pedagogy, methodology, psychology, and the
history of education, these subjects to cover one year.

Another serious problem is the great difficulty experienced in securing
suitable candidates for the scholarships offered in the primary normal
schools by the several States and Territories. In many of them the
memoria reports that the appointments had to lapse in view of the
fact that no candidates qualified for them. The minister therefore
suggested that a system of boarding departments, annexed to the normal
schools, each accommodating about 20 boys of 10 to 13 years, should be
established as feeders to the normal school system.

By presidential decree, dated July, 1917, special courses in practical
agriculture, horticulture, floriculture, and domestic sciences were
established in the primary normal schools, with the view of especially
equipping teachers for the rural schools, whose establishment has come
to be regarded as so necessary for the nation.

By presidential decree of March, 1917, an experimental station
of agriculture and forestry, with an acclimatization garden, was
established near Caracas. It is intended to serve as a model for other
such stations in other parts of the country. “The objects of the
station are the improvement of the methods of cultivation of the chief
agricultural products of Venezuela; the introduction, selection, and
distribution of seeds; experiments in reforestation; the suitability of
soils to crops and of crops to various regions; and practical work for
the training of agricultural foremen and forest rangers.”




Transcriber’s Notes

Page 6: “Quezaltenango” changed to “Quetzaltenango”

Page 13: “themselves especialy” changed to “themselves especially”
“educationaly advanced” changed to “educationally advanced”

Page 21: “original justfication” changed to “original justification” A
repeated “the” was removed.

Page 22; “The Goverment” changed to “The Government”

Page 29: “Artice 1.” changed to “Article 1.”

Page 31: The original text skips from Article 19 to Article 24.
Articles 20-23 appear to have been omitted.

Page 45: “longest posisble” changed to “longest possible”

Page 46: “several localties” changed to “several localities”

Page 49: “schools of Montevido” changed to “schools of Montevideo”
“hygenic considerations” changed to “hygienic considerations”

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