Chapter XVI: Front Matter (16)

The laws making primary education gratuitous, compulsory and secular, are indissolubly associated with the name of Jules Ferry. The law of June 16, 1881, abolished fees in all primary schools and training colleges, the law of 1882 established compulsory attendance, and finally the law of October 30, 1886, enacted that none but lay persons should teach in the public schools, and abolished in those schools all distinctively religious teaching. In the boys' schools members of religious communities were to be displaced within five years, but in girls' schools the _religieuses_ might remain till death or resignation.

Moral instruction.

Religious teaching was replaced in the state schools under the Ferry law by moral instruction according to official curricula, a change which has been described by M. Seailles (_Education ou revolution_) as a revolution of the profoundest philosophical meaning. The difficult and delicate topics of the relation of the state school to religion and the value of the substituted moral instruction have recently received illuminating and objective treatment from different points of view in the series of reports on _Moral Instruction and Training in Schools_, edited by Professor M.E. Sadler (1908, vol. ii.); the barest reference to the questions at issue must here suffice. As regards the character of the moral instruction, it would appear to have shifted from a Kantian to a purely sociological basis. Roman Catholic opinion is at least not unanimous in regarding the "lay" or neutral school as essentially or necessarily anti-religious, and plainly there is no inherent reason why the neutrality should not be a real neutrality, but with the existing relations between the Catholic Church and modern thought in France the influence of the Normalist teachers is in fact apt to be anti-religious, and moreover no system of independent moral doctrine, whether based upon a priori or inductive reasoning, can be acceptable to the Roman Catholic Church. In whatever degree the blame may be rightly apportionable between church and state, the fact is that the two find themselves in acute conflict, and that from the conflict there has resulted a certain moral confusion which Christian and non-Christian moralists alike view with alarm. It may be that the mischief would have been mitigated had more moderate counsels prevailed at the time of the Ferry law, and had the church been willing to accept (as the Republic might then have been willing to concede) right of entry for the clergy into the schools. But the real causes of the trouble lie deep in the philosophical and religious problems of our time, and in the constant and self-sacrificing devotion of the French to logical ideals on either side. Perhaps it is not too sanguine to discern in the growing tendency to idealism in French philosophy, and to liberal ideas in French and Catholic religious thought, the promise of a happier state of things. In the meantime, the religious difficulty in the schools divides the nation into two hostile camps (_les deux Frances_, as a Swiss Protestant writer puts it) in the shape of the state secular schools on the one side and the private religious schools on the other.

In the year 1903-1904 the total number of pupils in private primary schools was 1,298,591, as against 4,935,000 in the public primary schools, but these figures were liable to be materially affected by the rigorous enforcement of the laws against the religious orders.

Financial reform of 1889.

In 1889 an important change was made in educational finance by transferring the cost of teachers' salaries in primary schools from the communes to the state, a right consequence of the changes which made the teacher a state official. Thus the state assumed the greater part of the burden of primary instruction, leaving to the communes merely the cost of fabric, and to the department the maintenance of the fabric of the normal schools and certain expenses of inspection.

Administrative machinery. Minister and conseil superieur.

At this point it will be convenient to describe shortly the various central and local authorities that constitute the official machine. The minister, the head of the entire hierarchy, is assisted by a _conseil superieur_ consisting of fifty-seven members, of whom the majority are elected by the higher teaching profession, while a few are nominated by the president, including a small number to represent private schools, and a few are elected by the primary teachers. Practically the ordinary work of the council is carried on by a sub-committee consisting of the nine nominees of the president and six others designated for this purpose by the minister. The council has administrative, judicial and disciplinary, as well as advisory, powers which enable it to exert a direct influence upon the internal organization of schools. There is also a pedagogic _comite consultatif_ and a legal _comite contentieux_, whose respective functions are purely advisory.

Inspecteurs generaux.

The _inspecteurs generaux_ "act," says Mr Brereton in his official report to the English Board of Education, "as the eyes and ears of the central authority." Their duties are: first to inspect the normal schools; next to supervise the work of the ordinary inspectorate; lastly to give general and comparative information on the progress of primary instruction in the various parts of France. For the purpose of general inspection France is divided into seven districts.

Rector and council of academy.

As already indicated, for the purpose of educational administration, the departments of France are grouped in seventeen divisions called academies. At the head of each academy is the rector. He is appointed directly by the president and must hold the doctor's degree. He is not only the head of the local teaching university, but is also charged in a general way with the oversight of all three departments of education, superior, secondary and primary; in regard to the last, however, his functions are confined to the pedagogic side. The direct share of the rector in administration is mainly confined to the normal schools and the higher primary schools. The rector is assisted by an academic council composed almost exclusively of pedagogic elements.

The academy inspector.

Each department of France has an academy inspector appointed by the minister. The duties of the academy inspector embrace both higher and primary education. In the latter sphere he is the real head of the local administration, and the primary inspectors are his subordinate officers. He appoints the probationer-teachers and nominates the regular teachers for appointment by the _prefet_.

Prefet and conseil departemental.

The _prefet_, the chief administrative officer of each department, not only appoints the teachers upon the proposition of the academy inspector, he is also as president of the _conseil departemental_ concerned generally with the externa of school administration, including the supply of schools. The _conseil departemental_ with respect to its powers corresponds in some degree to our own local education authorities, but as regards its constitution it is in no sense a municipal body, the representatives of the _conseil general_ of the department (which corresponds to the county council) being greatly outnumbered by the pedagogical members.

Primary inspectors.

The inspectors of primary schools, as has already been stated, act under the academy inspector. They are appointed upon the result of examination and not by direct nomination as in England. The examination is severe, and it is from the body of the professors of the normal schools rather than from the ranks of the primary teachers that the successful candidates are chiefly drawn.

Minor local authorities.

Very limited powers are entrusted to certain communal and cantonal authorities. The _commission scolaire_ is a committee organized in each commune for the purpose of improving school attendance, to which end they administer a _caisse des ecoles_ or school fund for supplying clothing and meals to needy children. The _maire_ of the commune has the right of visiting the schools, but neither he nor any of the minor local authorities can interfere with the teaching. Similar duties are assigned to the _delegues cantonaux_, who are appointed by the _conseil departemental_ for each canton (a wider area than the commune), and can best be described as local visitors or visiting committees rather than managers in our sense of the word. "All this hierarchy of central and local officials," says Mr Brereton, "will doubtless seem complicated to English minds. The extraordinary thing is that, so far as I could learn, the machine, for all its complexity, works smoothly enough. The truth is that the province of each particular functionary is so clearly defined that there is no debateable ground over which ambitious rival authorities can wrangle."

Conception of secondary education.

In proceeding to sketch the French system of higher primary and secondary schools, it may be observed that European systems of higher education have generally been framed upon the view that the divisions of education are longitudinal, not latitudinal, and that secondary education is a training complete in itself from the preparatory stage to the university, with aims and ideals of general culture which differentiate it radically and at the very outset from education of the elementary type. On the other hand, in the United States the view has prevailed that the divisions of education must be latitudinal, that the secondary school must be complementary to the elementary school, in which even the elite must receive their preparatory or elementary training. At any rate down to the reform of 1902, which will presently be explained, the French system could be regarded as a typical and even extreme example of the European theory, little consistent as this might seem to be with the broader principles of democracy. This view of the matter is expressed by the French terminology, by which what in England is called "elementary" is in France termed "primary" education.

Higher primary schools.

The thoroughness with which the principle of the autonomous character of the two divisions of education was carried out undoubtedly favoured in a special degree the complete organization given to higher primary instruction in the _ecoles primaires superieures_ under the Third Republic. The aim of these schools is to fill the void which must otherwise exist for those who need a higher education than the primary school can give, but for whose subsequent careers secondary education would be ill-adapted and injudicious. Throughout the organization of primary education the French have kept steadily in view the danger of creating an intellectual proletariate. "Nous poursuivons la culture generale du caractere et de l'esprit, mais nous cherchons en meme temps a orienter l'enfant vers la vie pratique," says an official report. The aim of the higher primary school is to continue education in this spirit up to the age of sixteen so as to prepare the scholar to take an honourable place in the higher ranks of skilled industry rather than to deflect him towards a professional career or intellectual pursuits for which he is unfitted, not so much by the accidents of birth and social circumstance as by his own natural aptitudes. Within the limits necessarily marked out for them the higher primary schools of France have aimed at imparting what may be termed a general culture as distinct from purely technical or trade teaching, and this development has been greatly furthered by the separate organization given to the latter teaching in the _ecoles professionnelles_. At the same time, prominence is given in the higher primary schools to practical training of an educational character with special reference to the industries and circumstances of the locality, and in the rural districts a special agricultural bias is imparted to the curriculum. It is interesting to note that the institution of the higher primary schools was due in large part to the spontaneous initiative of the municipalities, and that in the later phases of state organization special care has been taken to avoid anything in the nature of a rigid uniformity in these schools.

Supplementary courses.

A wider extension has been given to higher primary instruction by the establishment of _cours complementaires_ in certain schools, at centres at which it would be impossible to organize separate higher primary schools. A similar solution of the continuation school problem has recently commended itself to the consultative committee of the Board of Education for England.

Admission to the higher primary schools in France is only accorded to those who have obtained the elementary school leaving certificate, _certificat d'etudes primaires_. A feature of importance for continuation work in rural districts is the provision made for boarding scholars in attendance at these schools. The boarding arrangements are generally, as in the case of the secondary schools, left to the head teacher, but in some instances municipal hostels have been provided. No fees may be charged for higher primary instruction, and scholarships (_bourses_) are provided to a certain extent in the form either of boarding scholarships or maintenance allowances to compensate the parent for the loss of the child's labour. The number of scholars in the public higher primary schools for the year 1903-1904 was 34,084, and in _cours complementaires_ 21,777, making a total of 55,861. In addition there were 8891 scholars in receipt of higher primary instruction in private schools.

Secondary schools, lycees and colleges.

French secondary education is given in the _lycees_ which are first-grade schools maintained and controlled by the state, and the _colleges_, which are schools of the second grade maintained partly by the state and partly by the municipality. A considerable number of scholars pass annually from the colleges to the lycees. In both grades of schools the teachers are paid by the state and nominated directly or indirectly by the minister of education. They are required to possess certain specified academic qualifications which can only be obtained from the _universite_, but failing teachers with the prescribed qualifications the classes are taught by teachers styled _charges de cours_ as distinct from professors.

Ecole Normale Superieure.

With a view to supplying teachers for the secondary schools, the state maintains the Ecole Normale Superieure, a college in which instruction, board and lodging are given free to a number of scholars selected by competition from the best secondary school boys, though residence in the institution is no longer compulsory. By the decrees of November 10, 1903, and May 10, 1904, the Ecole Normale became practically the College of Pedagogy of the University of Paris. Its students are entered as students of the university, and study for their qualifying examination as teachers in secondary schools (_agregation_) under university professors, partly at the Sorbonne, partly at the Ecole Normale, while their professional preparation is entrusted solely to the latter institution.

Classical and modern education. Reform of 1902.

The Republic has not reorganized secondary education by a comprehensive law; it has, however, introduced by decree, under parliamentary authority, an important reform in the internal organization of the schools which marks a notable departure from the traditional view of secondary education as a self-contained whole. Article 1 of the decree of May 31, 1902, declares that secondary education is co-ordinated with primary education in such a way as to constitute a continuation of a course of primary studies of a normal duration of four years. The decree goes on to provide for a full course of secondary studies of seven years' duration, divided into two cycles of four and three years respectively. In the first cycle the scholar has two options. In section 1 Latin is obligatory and Greek optional from the beginning of the third year (_classe iv._). In section 2 there is no Latin. At the end of the first cycle the state grants a _certificat d'etudes secondaires du premier degre_. In the second cycle one of four courses may be taken; section 1 with Latin and Greek continues the old classical education; section 2 with Latin and modern languages corresponds to the German Realgymnasium; section 3 with Latin and science, and section 4 with modern languages and science, to the Oberrealschule. The _baccalaureat_, or secondary school-leaving examination, conducted by the university, is adapted to all the courses on the principle that courses of study of equal length, whether classical or modern, literary or scientific, are entitled to equal advantages. This system of alternative courses with leaving examinations of equal value is mainly German in origin, and may be said to represent the results of the best European thought upon the problem of the organization of secondary education.

Religious instruction in lycees.

It is remarkable in view of the thoroughness with which the principle of laicization has been applied to the primary schools that the lycees still retain their chaplains (_aumoniers_) for the purpose of giving religious instruction. This difference of treatment is apparently based upon the consideration that the gratuitous and compulsory character of primary education demanded a much stricter interpretation of the principle of the neutrality of the state than was necessary in the case of secondary education, which is neither compulsory nor gratuitous.

Private secondary schools.

In addition to the state schools there have until lately been in France a large number of private secondary schools, the most important of which have been associated with the Catholic religious orders. The enforcement of the laws against these communities has resulted in the closure of a number of these schools, and in the reorganization of others under a lay teaching staff. It is conceivable that the action of the Republic may largely forward the movement, otherwise perceptible in the Roman Catholic Church, to transfer education, even when combined with specific religious teaching, from ecclesiastical to lay hands. Evidence of this tendency is to be found in the boarding-schools (some four in number) founded upon the plan of M. Demolins (author of _A quoi tient la superiorite des Anglo-Saxons_) after the English public school model, but with a distinctly Catholic colouring.

Apart from the position of the religious orders, the future of private education in France is far from secure at the present time. The liberty of teaching secured by the _Loi Falloux_ is regarded as a pseudo-liberty by the advanced republican educationists, and the principle that education is a function of the state and not a matter of supply and demand is deeply rooted in the public mind. Proposals have been mooted for making the baccalaureat strictly a school leaving examination attached to the state schools. The adoption of any such measure would practically destroy liberty of teaching by reason of the power which the baccalaureat secures to the state as the key to the professions.

Secondary education for girls.

The foundation of secondary schools for girls in connexion with the educational reform of Jules Ferry is in its way one of the most notable achievements of the republic. There is little doubt that the expulsion of the religious orders is destined to exercise a profound influence upon the education of women in France. The place of the closed convent schools is being taken either by new state schools or by Catholic schools under lay teachers, and the number of scholars affected by this process of laicization is far larger in the case of girls than of boys. This change is calculated to produce far-reaching effects in the social and religious order, by no means necessarily, however, of an anti-Catholic or irreligious kind.

For an account of the resuscitation by the Republic of the local universities under the one great state teaching body collectively known as the University, see UNIVERSITIES.

_Germany._

Under the German empire education is left to the exclusive control of each of the federated states. The only point of direct contact between the Empire and education lies in the mutual undertaking of the federated states to bring the law of compulsory school attendance to bear upon all subjects of the empire resident within their respective borders. Of far greater moment is the moral influence exerted upon the other states by the Prussian hegemony, in virtue of which the Prussian educational system comes to be in all essential characteristics typical and representative of Germany as a whole. It is remarkable that though, as Matthew Arnold was able to report to the Schools Inquiry Commission in 1866, "the school system of Germany in its completeness and carefulness is such as to excite the foreigner's admiration," neither Prussia herself, nor Bavaria, nor several other of the principal states of the Empire, have found it practicable to pass a comprehensive education law, owing to the religious and political difficulties with which any general legislative assertion of principle is attended in Germany as in England. The consequence is that the Prussian system in particular is the result of a long and complicated series of special laws, decrees and administrative regulations. In such circumstances it is inevitable that, especially in secondary education, some considerable local variations and anomalies should remain, but the centralized authority of the state has confined these to questions of patronage and external administration, and even within this sphere has successfully asserted its own ultimate supremacy as the guardian of the educational interests of its citizens. A detailed historical study would bring out clearly the intimate connexion between the development of the educational system and the growth of the Prussian state, and again between these and the expansion of the national life of the German people; incidentally it would exhibit the supremacy of Prussia in the modern Empire as the inevitable result not merely of military force but of a genuine hegemony of intellect and culture.

Influence of Luther.

Stress is rightly laid by all educational writers upon Luther's famous letter to the German municipalities in 1524, urging upon them the duty of providing schools and upon parents the duty of sending their children to school. An attempt to give effect to this teaching was at once made by the electoral government of Saxony, which by a school ordinance of 1528 provided for the establishment in every town and village of Latin schools, for in Germany as in England the influence of the Protestant reformers was solidly on the side of classical education as the key to the study of the Scriptures and theological learning. All the more remarkable, therefore, was the initiative of the electorate of Wurttemberg, whose school ordinance of 1559 represents the first systematic attempt to make provision for both elementary and higher education, directing that elementary schools should be set up throughout the country, and _Particularschulen_ or Latin schools in every considerable centre of population. The educational efforts both of the early Reformers and of the remarkable Jesuit educationists, who contributed so largely to the partial reconquest of south Germany for the Catholic Church, were brought to naught amid the troublous times of the Thirty Years' War, and the desolation and national decadence which that calamity brought in its train. To this result the aridity of the Protestant scholastics who succeeded Luther and Melanchthon, and the frivolity, incompetence and petty despotism of the small German courts, contributed in no slight measure. The permanent and positive value of Luther's pronouncement of 1524 consists not so much in the direct effects which it produced as in the hallowed association which it established for Protestant Germany between the national religion and the educational duties of the individual and the state, and doubtless this association largely contributed to the creation of that healthy public opinion which in Prussia rendered the principle of compulsory school attendance easy of acceptance at a much earlier date than in England and elsewhere, save only Scotland, where a similar historical religious influence was supplied by John Knox.

Early Prussian measures.

State interference in education is almost coincident with the rise of the Prussian state. Already in 1717 Frederick William I. ordered all children to attend school where schools existed, and fixed the fee at 5 pf. (1/2d.) a week. This was followed in 1736 by edicts for the establishment of schools in certain provinces and by a royal grant of 50,000 thalers for that purpose in the following year. In 1763 the _General Landschulreglement_ of Frederick the Great laid down the broad lines upon which the Prussian state has since proceeded, asserting the principle of compulsory school attendance, fixing the fees, with provision for the assistance of very poor children, prescribing the course of instruction, and giving directions for the examination and supervision of teachers. Much progress was made, more especially in the organization of higher education, under Baron von Zedlitz, who was appointed minister for Lutheran church and school affairs by Frederick the Great in 1771, and retired under Frederick William II. in 1788. The last-mentioned year saw the establishment of the _Abiturientenexamen_, or leaving examinations, which form the determining element in the state organization of secondary education in Germany. As in England, the fear of the French Revolution produced a corresponding reaction in educational affairs, and the policy of Frederick William II. was to bind ever closer school and church in a system practically independent of state control. The first departure from this policy was marked by the _Allgemeines Landrecht_ of 1794, which boldly proclaims that schools and educational institutions may be founded only with the knowledge and consent of the state, and must always be under its supervision and subject to its examination and control. This law also laid upon heads of families in every place the duty of providing and maintaining schools.

Reconstruction after Jena.

It was not till the disaster of Jena and the prostration of Prussia at the feet of Napoleon awoke the dormant spirit of patriotism, and concentrated all the intellectual forces of north Germany upon the task of national regeneration, that the principles of the _Allgemeines Landrecht_ of 1794 bore full fruit. "The organization of the Prussian school system," says Dr James E. Russell in his work on _German Higher Schools_, "waited on the reorganization of the Prussian State." One of the first acts of the great patriotic minister von Stein, upon his assuming control of the civil administration in 1807, was to abolish the semi-ecclesiastical Oberschulkollegium which had been set up as the central authority under the churchly policy of Frederick William II., and to place education under the Ministry of the Interior as a special section. Wilhelm von Humboldt was placed at the head of this section in 1809, and the work which this "great master of the science and art of education" (as Professor Seeley terms him in his _Life of Stein_) inaugurated in his one year of office entitles him to be ranked among the founders of German unity. Humboldt's greatest positive achievements--the foundation of the university of Berlin and its organization under a professorial staff which included Fichte, Schleiermacher, Savigny, Wolf and Niebuhr, as also the internal reform of secondary schools undertaken with the pedagogical assistance of Wolf and under the inspiration of Fichte--lie beyond the scope of this article. It may, however, be observed that Humboldt's policy in secondary education represents a compromise between the narrow philological pedantry of the old Latin schools and the large demands of the new humanism of the period; and the recent reform of the Prussian secondary schools may be said to represent a return to the spirit of Humboldt in this respect. The measure introduced by Humboldt in 1810 for the state examination and certification of teachers checked the then common practice of permitting unqualified theological students to teach in the schools, and at once raised the teaching profession to a high level of dignity and efficiency which of itself sufficed to place Prussia in the forefront of educational progress. It was due also to the initiative of Humboldt that the methods of Pestalozzi were introduced into the teachers' seminaries, through them to vitalize the elementary schools. To the period of the national struggle belong the revival in 1812 of the Abiturientenexamen which had fallen into abeyance, and the institution about the same time of the local authorities called _Schulvorstande_ for the country and _Schuldeputationen_ for the towns.

Reforms of 1825 and 1834. Abiturientenexamen.

Though the period which succeeded the peace of 1815 was one of political reaction, the cabinet order of Frederick William III. in 1825 strengthened the law of compulsory attendance and carried on the work of administrative organization by defining the duties of the Provinzial-Schul-Kollegium and the Regierung. In 1834 an important development was given to secondary education by making it necessary for candidates for the learned professions as well as for the civil service, and for university studies, to have passed the leaving examination of the gymnasia. Thus through the leaving examination the state holds the key to the liberal careers, and has thereby been able to impose its own standard upon all secondary schools. Apart from the privileges relative to professional studies, the system of leaving examinations has exerted a wide influence upon popular education in connexion with the institution of compulsory military service, in virtue of a regulation which entitles those who pass the leaving examination of any of the recognized kinds of secondary schools to the much-coveted privilege of service for one year as a "volunteer" instead of two years as an ordinary conscript.

The revolutionary and national movement of 1848 was followed by a period of further educational activity. The Act of Constitution of 1850 declared teachers civil servants and elementary education free. In practice, the abolition of school fees did not become general until 1888. Since then the view has more and more prevailed that elementary education must be free,[2] and, broadly speaking, fees in elementary schools are now charged only for children attending from another school district.

Kulturkampf and the confessional system.

In connexion with the _Kulturkampf_, or struggle between the state and the Roman Catholic Church, the _Schulaufsichtsgesetz_ of 1872 reasserted the absolute right of the state alone to the supervision of the schools; but the severity of this law as a measure against Roman Catholic clerical education was considerably modified as a result of the subsequent reconciliation with the papacy under Leo XIII., and the Prussian system remains to-day both for Catholics and Protestants essentially denominational. All schools, whether elementary or secondary, are Evangelical, Catholic, Jewish or mixed. In the elementary sphere, in particular, recourse is only had to the mixed school (_Simultanschule_ or _paritatische Schule_), where the creeds are so intermingled that a confessional school is impracticable. In all cases the teachers are appointed with reference to religious faith; religious instruction is given compulsorily in school hours and is inspected by the clergy. The general purport of the Prussian school law of 1906 is to strengthen the system of separate confessional schools, which it extends to certain provinces where it had not previously been in operation.

In financial respects the last-mentioned law effected some readjustment of burdens by charging a proportion of the expenditure upon landed property. Other recent changes relate to the reform of secondary education referred to below. The system of educational administration as it stood in 1909 may shortly be described as follows.

Administrative machinery.

Under the ministerium in Berlin stands the Provinzial-Schul-Kollegium, the chairman of which is the _Ober-Prasident_ of the province, composed of four or five _Rate_ or councillors, generally selected from the directors of training colleges and gymnasia. This body is concerned mainly with higher education.

Each province is divided for purposes of general administration into two _Regierungen_ or governments, and in each Regierung there is a section of usually three or four Schulrate, which controls the elementary schools. This council is usually recruited from the ranks of directors of training colleges and from the inspectorate. The Regierung is divided into _Kreise_ or districts, and in each district an administrative officer, called the _Landrat_, represents the government. The Landrat is concerned with the provision and repair of elementary school buildings; as regards internal organization, the elementary schools are under the Kreisschulinspektor.

Inspection.

In the Protestant districts the inspectors (_Kreisschulinspektoren_) are usually Evangelical clergymen holding the position of superintendent in the Lutheran Church. In the Catholic and certain other exceptional districts inspectors with pedagogical qualifications and the status of full government inspectors are appointed. Every candidate for Lutheran ordination is required to spend six months at a training college, but pedagogical opinion is hostile to the system, which must be regarded as a survival of the traditional union of church and state in educational affairs, retained at the present day from motives of economy and a desire to conciliate the church.

For every school there is an _Ortsschulinspektor_, usually the clergyman of the parish, who discharges the duties of local manager and correspondent. This local inspector is also chairman of the _Schulvorstand_ or committee, elected by the _Schulgemeinde_, and charged with questions of attendance and maintenance rather than with internal affairs. The Schulgemeinde need not coincide with the civil parish. Parishes may unite to provide one school, or within one parish different religious communities may form separate school "parishes."

Thus the administrative system of Prussia in education as in other matters may be described in general as a decentralized bureaucracy. This bureaucracy is somewhat checked by the rights of patronage attaching to the local boards in certain cases, but the exercise of such rights is in all cases subject to government approval. As regards higher-grade elementary and secondary schools, the local boards in the towns (_Schuldeputationen_) are able to exert a considerable influence in the way of selection of the type of school, and even of suggestion for the modification of recognized types, as is shown by the cases of the famous "reformed" secondary curricula of Altona and Frankfort. Still, the legal powers of the local board are restricted to the establishment of an approved type of school, the control of externa, and the right of nominating teachers.

Peculiarities of elementary education.

_Elementary Schools._--The single-class school (_Einklassige Schule_) and the half-day school (_Halbtagsschule_) are features of the Prussian elementary system which require notice. The Einklassige Schule is a school taught by a single teacher, who may teach a maximum number of eighty children. The Halbtagsschule is a single-class school of which half the children are taught in the morning and half in the afternoon. During the summer months, owing to the exigencies of agricultural labour, many single-class schools are taught as half-day schools. The system of course is regarded as a makeshift, but in this, as in the matter of buildings for rural elementary schools, the Prussian administration attaches great weight to the consideration of financial economy. As regards staff, a large measure of economy is rendered possible by the high average standard of merit reached by German elementary teachers, whose powers of oral exposition have struck English observers as specially remarkable, and again by the national readiness to be content with a moderate salary in return for official status. A survival of the old close connexion between church and school is to be found in the _Kirchendienste_, the duties of training the choir, playing the organ, &c., which are attached in many cases to the post of schoolmaster, and afford an additional source of emolument, rendered feasible by the practical absence of religious dissent.

For the preliminary training of elementary teachers there are special schools called _Praparanden-Anstalten_, of which most are state institutions, some are municipal, and a few are private. The training colleges themselves are provided by the state and have a three years' course.

Continuative education.

_Continuation Schools (Fortbildungsschulen)._--Germans have been foremost to realize the truth which is gradually being brought home to English educationists, that adequate value for the heavy expenditure of public funds upon education can only be obtained by providing for the continued education for two or three years of the children of the working classes who leave school at fourteen years of age. One of the educational results of the war of 1870, with its great lesson of the importance of national education, was the Saxon law of 1873 making attendance at continuation schools compulsory for three years (i.e. up to seventeen) in that kingdom: The Saxon law appears to have been justified by the experience of nearly a generation. It must suffice here to note the following features of its working. (1) The schools are taught by the primary teachers, supplemented in the towns by some technical instructors. (2) The school session may be either for the whole year or for only half the year, and may also be held on Sunday, like the old English secular Sunday schools. (3) The schools are brought into close relation with trades, not only for purposes of curriculum, but also with a view to considering the exigencies and meeting the convenience of employers with respect to hours of attendance. (4) The discipline of the continuation school is extended to supervision out of school hours. "Visits to dancing-halls and all such exhibitions as are dangerous to uprightness and purity are forbidden to scholars of continuation schools." Further, useful institutions such as savings banks, and also associations for social intercourse and the promotion of _esprit de corps_, are organized in connexion with continuation schools. There is no doubt that in this matter of continuation schools, as in so many other fields of social organization, the adoption of compulsion has been facilitated by the habituation of the working classes to compulsory military service, which has made the German workman more disciplined, more "organizable" as a social unit, more accustomed to subordinate the principle of individual freedom and self-will to the collective claims of the state, than the workman reared in the traditions of Anglo-Saxon individualism.

Attendance at continuation schools is now compulsory by state law in 12 states, including (besides Saxony) Baden, Wurttemberg and Bavaria. The city of Munich is notable for its highly organized system of technical continuation schools for apprentices. In Prussia compulsory attendance is still the exception (save in the provinces of Posen and West Prussia, where it is enforced by state law), but the permissive act is being rapidly adopted by the great cities, including Berlin.

Grading of secondary schools.

_Secondary Education._--The official classification or grading according to the type of curriculum of secondary schools in Prussia (and indeed throughout Germany) is very precise. The following are the officially recognized types. I. Classical schools: (a) Gymnasium, with nine years' course; (b) Progymnasium, with six years' course. II. Modern schools: (a) with Latin (semi-classical)--(i.) Realgymnasium (nine years' course), (ii.) Realprogymnasium (six years' course); (b) without Latin (non-classical)--(i.) Oberrealschule (nine years' course), (ii.) Realschule (six years' course). The six-year classical and semi-classical schools are comparatively unimportant subdivisions in smaller towns.

Co-ordination of elementary and secondary education.

_Lower-grade Secondary Education._--Inasmuch as French is taught in the lowest class of the Realschule under the official curriculum (English, on the other hand, beginning in Tertia, the fourth class from the lowest), it follows that this, the lowest type of secondary school, is not directly co-ordinated with the elementary school. The Realschulen of Berlin, however, form an important exception to the general rule; their curriculum, sanctioned by the ministry at the instance of the Berlin municipality, provides for the beginning of French in Quarta (the third class from the bottom) and English in Secunda. The consequence is that in Berlin a very large number of pupils pass from the elementary schools to the Realschulen, which take the place of the Mittelschulen or higher-grade elementary schools that are to be found in some towns, though something in the nature of higher elementary education is afforded by the top sections of the elementary schools.

First grade secondary schools.

_First-grade Schools._--One of the most striking features of German secondary education is the careful differentiation of schools according to the type of curriculum adopted. Thus, every German school is a homogeneous unit with a definite educational aim and organization, conforming to a common standard approved by public authority for the particular type to which it belongs. Hence the importance attached by the Germans to nomenclature; so that in selecting a Gymnasium, a Realgymnasium or an Oberrealschule, the parent knows exactly the type of education he is going to secure for his son. In England, on the other hand, as has often been observed, a great school tends to multiply within itself different types of curricula in a haphazard way according to the demand of parents, whose original choice of school is based rather on social than on educational grounds. Modern sides, army classes and engineering classes grow up as excrescences upon an originally classical type, with the waste of power that results from loss of consistency and concentration of purpose. The difference between the English and German systems is due ultimately to the adoption in Germany of the day-school system and the absence, very remarkable in an otherwise aristocratically governed country, of the caste spirit in education above the elementary level, thanks to which the nobly born are not ashamed to sit on the school bench side by side with the children of the trading classes. On the other hand, the English boarding-school system, despite all the want of social solidarity, and all the class jealousy and exclusiveness with which it is inevitably associated, has admittedly favoured those ideals of the cultivation of character as distinct from book-learning which give a special value to what is in England called a public school education.

Rise of semi-classical schools.

The present differentiation of first-grade schools in Prussia is the result of a natural educational development corresponding with the economic changes which have transformed Prussia and the empire from an agricultural to an industrial state. It was in 1855 that semi-classical schools (teaching Latin without Greek) were first recognized for a nine years' course under the title of Realschule I. Ordnung, and in 1871 pupils possessing their leaving certificates were admitted to mathematical studies in the universities. The Latinless Realschule II. Ordnung is the direct product of the great industrial development of the modern empire. In 1882 the Realschule I. Ordnung received the title of Realgymnasium, and the Realschule II. Ordnung that of Oberrealschule, both types being at the same time admitted to certain privileges in the universities, schools of technology and civil service.

The "reform school" movement.

About the same period official recognition was obtained for reformed secondary curricula, first at Altona and afterwards (1892) at Frankfort. These two types differ from each other in detail, but the feature which distinguishes both from the older types is the postponement of Latin to Untertertia. The design is to secure for all types of secondary education a common non-classical base coextensive with the first three years of school life, followed by a trifurcation or threefold choice between the classical, semi-classical and non-classical types. The principle of the "reform-school" has been adopted in a considerable number of German (chiefly Prussian) schools, but it would be premature to see in it at present more than a new variety of Realgymnasium or semi-classical school; it can hardly be said as yet to have affected the course of classical studies in the full sense. The widespread sentiment of discontent with the old philological type of classical school was vigorously expressed in a private letter written by the emperor William II. as crown prince of Prussia in 1885, but not published until some-years later. In December 1890 the Prussian ministry convoked a conference at Berlin of secondary school experts, and the emperor presided in person at the opening session. His majesty delivered a speech criticizing the Gymnasia as wanting a national basis. "It is our duty to educate young men to become young Germans and not young Greeks or Romans" was the keynote of the imperial discourse. The outcome of the conference was a shortening of the hours allowed to Latin in the Gymnasia, a reduction of the hours of study in view of over-pressure, and an expression of official opinion adverse to the Realgymnasium. These changes, introduced in 1892, did not go far enough to satisfy the reformers, whilst the reduction of the hours allowed for Latin caused misgivings among the upholders of the traditional Gymnasium. Moreover, the Realgymnasium showed greater vitality among the large towns than its official critics anticipated. The ensuing decade witnessed a certain reaction in favour of the classical humanities as a barrier against the materialistic influences of the new industrialism. At the same time the protagonists of the classics came to recognize that side by side with the old humanities there must be accorded to modern and scientific subjects that place in the high-grade schools which the practical exigencies of industrial life demanded. Thus, the opinion grew that the best line of defence for the classical schools lay in the concession of equal privileges to the non-classical types; in this way only could the classical schools be kept safe from demands upon their time that could not be conceded without endangering their proper work. It was upon this basis that an agreement was reached between the contending parties at a second school conference that met in Berlin in June 1900. As the result of this conference there was issued a royal decree laying down certain general principles, of which the following are the most important. (1) There must be equality of privileges as between classical, semi-classical and non-classical first-grade schools. The decree recognizes, however, that this principle must be applied with a certain elasticity and with due regard to the necessity for training in particular branches of knowledge as a preliminary to certain lines of university study and certain professional pursuits. Consequently the Prussian system of privileges has become extremely complicated, and it is truer to speak, as the decree goes on to do, of an extension of the privileges of the non-classical schools, rather than of absolute equality. (2) "In thus acknowledging the equality of the three types of higher institutions, it will be possible more thoroughly to strengthen the special characteristics of each type. In this connexion," the royal decree proceeds, "I shall offer no objection to an increase in the number of hours devoted to Latin in the Gymnasium and Realgymnasium." Thus, both as to the place of Latin in the curriculum of classical schools and as to the status of semi-classical schools, the decree of 1900 involves a reversal of the policy of 1890. (3) The decree expresses approval of the reformed curricula of Altona and Frankfort, and a desire for an extension of the experiment where the conditions are suitable.

Notwithstanding the growing official encouragement of education upon semi-classical or non-classical lines, the upper and professional classes of Germany continue to show a marked preference for the fully classical Gymnasium; hence, in Germany as in England, the tendency for a widening gulf to disclose itself between the education of the directing classes in politics and administration and the bulk of the industrial population, which suggests that the problem of combining in just proportions the liberal and practical elements in a thoroughly national system of education has not yet reached the solution that the needs of the age require.

_Switzerland._

Educational influence of federal constitution.

Switzerland affords perhaps the best type of a democratic system of local authorities. The central authority is the canton, not the federation. The interference of the federal authority is confined to the imposition of certain broad principles by the constitution, to the indirect influence exerted by the examination of recruits for the national army, and to financial grants for technical instruction, its most important direct educational work being the support of the technological university at Zurich. The federal constitution (1) states that primary instruction must be under the control of the canton (an important point in view of the strength of ecclesiastical influence in some of the Catholic cantons), and must be compulsory and gratuitous; (2) declares that it must be possible for the public schools to be attended by the adherents of all creeds without hurting their freedom of conscience; (3) forbids the employment of child labour before completion of the fourteenth year, with a provision that in the fifteenth and sixteenth years factory work, together with the time given to school and religious instruction, must not exceed eleven hours a day. (4) All recruits for the federal army (in which service is compulsory on a militia basis) are examined in their twentieth year, and the results are published. This examination affords an instructive index to the state of education in the several cantons and promotes a healthy emulation among them.

Cantonal organization.

The cantonal organization of education presents the variety which the extraordinary diversity of race, language, religion and physical conditions of the component states of the federation would lead one to expect. The large canton of Bern may be instanced as the type of a strong central authority. The commune or parish is the unit for elementary education. The communal council nominates a school board of at least five members, whose function is to spend the money voted for school purposes by the general communal council. Several communes in combination form a district authority for the support of what are in reality higher primary schools, though called in Switzerland _Sekundarschulen_, maintained by the district. The maintenance both of the primary and higher primary schools is aided by grants from the central authority. The true secondary schools, called middle or higher schools, are maintained and controlled by the central or cantonal authority. The existence of separate local authorities for each grade of education is characteristic of Switzerland generally, this system being the opposite to that adopted in England in 1902.

The central grants in Switzerland always take the form of payments to the local authorities of a proportion of the teachers' salaries; they are never, as in England, assessed upon the number of children in attendance, nor are they dependent, as was formerly the case in England, upon the results of examination, nor again are grants made in respect of particular subjects as is the case with the grants for special, i.e. practical, instruction in England.

Religious instruction in the Swiss communal schools generally follows the faith of the majority; in a few cantons separate schools being provided for minorities if sufficiently numerous. In the town of Lucerne, Catholic instruction is given in school hours and Protestant instruction is provided out of school and out of hours for the Protestant minority.

In 19 out of the 25 cantons attendance at continuation schools is compulsory (at least in some districts) for boys up to 17, and in 3 cantons it is compulsory also wholly or in part for girls.

_Belgium._

Belgian treatment of religious question.

The interesting feature in Belgian education is the treatment of the religious question in successive laws.

1. The law of 1842 obliged the communes to provide primary instruction, which was to be free in the case of poor children. The state made grants in aid, subject to inspection. Subject to a conscience clause, religious instruction was obligatory, and was placed under ecclesiastical inspection.

2. The law of 1879 removed religious instruction from the curriculum, and provided for facilities to the clergy to give such instruction outside school hours. This law furnishes a striking instance of the futility of a parliamentary majority legislating in a sense opposed to the convictions of a considerable section of the community. The law evoked a storm of opposition in the country, still profoundly Catholic and attached to ecclesiastical traditions, and within eighteen months the Catholics founded private elementary schools with 455,000 scholars. In 1883 the Catholic private schools numbered 622,000 scholars, whilst the attendance at the communal schools had sunk to 324,000. Their doctrinaire treatment of the education question resulted in the political annihilation of the Belgian Liberals, and was responsible for the strongest and most persistent Roman Catholic reaction that has been witnessed in western Europe since the beginning of the 19th century.

3. The law of 1884 was the work of the moderate Catholic party. It did not make religious instruction obligatory, but it gave liberty to the communes to provide for the giving of religious and moral instruction at the beginning or end of school hours, subject to a conscience clause. Power was given to the communes to "adopt" private confessional schools and maintain them. Provision was further made entitling any twenty parents of children of school age to demand a school of the normal communal type as against a proposal to adopt a confessional school. Power was also given to a like number of parents to compel the adoption of a confessional school in the case of the commune refusing to provide religious instruction of the type demanded by them, or putting obstacles in the way of its being given by the clergy or their representatives.

4. The law of 1895 is the work of the more authoritarian Catholics, and makes religious instruction obligatory, placing it directly under the control of the clergy. It also increased the subsidies to private schools. This law was passed in face of opposition from the moderate section, who saw in it an exaltation of state authority which might be turned by opponents to the disadvantage of the religious interest. It is by no means clear that Belgium has yet attained a final solution of the religious difficulty; the life of the present law is probably to be measured by that of the Catholic political majority.

_Holland._

The outstanding feature of public education in Holland is the strength of the private primary schools. Under the law of 1857 secular teaching alone was provided in the primary schools at the public cost. The law of 1878 allowed communes to make grants to private schools on condition of their becoming neutral in the matter of religion. The law of 1889 allowed private denominational schools to receive government grants while retaining their denominational character, but forbade further grants to such schools by the communes.

In 1905 there were 566,460 children in the public and 278,632 in the private schools.

_Scotland._