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CHAPTER XXXII.

EDUCATION IN THE SMALLER KINGDOMS OF NORTHERN

EUROPE.

CONTENTS.

Scandinavian countries.-Common characteristics-Statistics. Sweden: Report of the royal committee on elementary education. Norway: Investigation of public schools; the system of agricultural education; the State agricultural academy; local agricultural schools; movable agricultural courses; preparation of teachers. Denmark: Introduction; higher institutions; national tendencies. Belgium and the Netherlands.-Introduction. Belgium: System of primary education, organization and statistics, 1912; the Federation of Belgian Teachers; secondary schools; universities. The Netherlands: System of primary education; statistical summary; the universities; activities of the teachers' association; intellectual bonds between Belgium and Holland.

THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES.

COMMON CHARACTERISTICS.

The Scandinavian countries Sweden, Norway, and Denmarkshow in their school administration the signs of a common origin. In all three countries the Central Government exercises supreme control over this interest through a department or ministry of public instruction and ecclesiastical affairs, civil and religious authorities participating alike in this function.

The established or State church in the three Kingdoms is the Lutheran. Full liberty of conscience is allowed, however, and the State has no monopoly of education. Private schools, both denominational and secular, flourish, especially in the large cities. In the three Kingdoms public elementary education is gratuitous and attendance either at public or equivalent schools compulsory for all children 7 to 14 years of age.

The compulsory provisions are so thoroughly carried out and accord so entirely with the disposition of the people that illiteracy is practically obliterated from the Scandinavian countries. According to the latest statistics, the enrollment in elementary schools, either public or under public supervision, equals about 15 per cent of the population in each of the three Kingdoms considered. Denmark has an excellent system of continuation schools, and similar, though less extended, systems have developed in Sweden and Norway. The secondary schools are under public supervision and largely maintained by the State or towns, so that while not entirely gratuitous, tuition fees are small. People's high schools, which

originated in Denmark, are maintained also in Sweden and in a modified form in Norway.

The registration of students in Scandinavian universities in 1912-13 was as follows: Sweden-State universities: Upsala, 2,419 students; Lund, 1,137; Stockholm (State medical faculty), 352. Private University of Stockholm, 6,157; Goteborg (philosophical faculty), 235. Norway: University of Christiania, 1,500 students. Denmark: University of Copenhagen and the Polytechnic Institute, about 4,000.

SWEDEN.

[Report of the Royal Committee on Elementary Education.]

In 1906 a royal committee was appointed by the Swedish Government to investigate the status of training colleges for elementaryschool teachers and to make recommendations for their improvement. The public discussions of the work of this committee, as it proceeded, indicated very clearly the importance of extending the scope of the investigation to elementary schools themselves. Accordingly, the number of members was increased by the addition of several persons of large experience in the conduct of such schools and the practical conditions which they must meet. In 1911 the committee published a voluminous report, treating of training colleges for teachers, and a little later two other reports, dealing with the matter of supervisory boards and school inspectors. On the basis of these reports three Government bills were laid before the Riksdag in 1913.1

The final report of the committee on elementary schools, issued during the current year, deals specially with the question of reforms required in the folkskola (primary school) and its extension by means of the continuation school. The main points of the report are as follows:2

FOLKSKOLA.

The attention of the committee was directed chiefly to the unsatisfactory condition of the elementary schools (folkskolor) in the rural districts, in which about 40 per cent of the children of the country receive their entire education. The defects of these schools are due chiefly to the brief school term and the number of very small schools in poor districts having few inhabitants. The only remedy for these evils, in the opinion of the committee, would be special State appropriations for increasing the salaries of teachers and putting the schools generally upon a better basis. Mere changes in the school regulations and the organization of schools will not reach the evils.

1 For the action of the Riksdag on these bills, see Rep. of Commis. of Ed., 1913, Vol. I, p. 769.

2 From notes of the report furnished by Joseph Alexis, assistant professor of the Germanic languages, University of Nebraska.

In regard to the general organization of the elementary schools, the committee recommends that a normal plan of study be adopted arranged for a course of seven years; that education should be compulsory for every child up to the close of the thirteenth year of age; that distinction be made in the school regulations between the obligatory subjects of instruction common to all schools and additional subjects that may be sanctioned.

The plan of instruction submitted by the committee is more extensive and more varied than that in use, but is intended to require less memorizing and dependence upon textbooks. The plan provides for the correlation of subjects such as geography and natural science in a manner more interesting to the young mind than the original grouping has been. For the first three For the first three years, these subjects are comprised under the heading "hembygdskunskap" (knowledge of one's own surroundings), set lessons in these subjects to be deferred to the fourth year of the course. The relation between geography and natural science is continued in the upper classes, and the teacher is advised to let the two subjects come alternately, so as to be mutually helpful.

In the general plan of instruction larger place is given to hygiene, in order that the school may, at an earlier stage than heretofore, assist the child in forming healthful habits. Formal instruction in the subject is assigned to the sixth year of the course. Special emphasis is laid on the need of instructing children as to the nature and effects of alcoholic liquors, the harmful effects of tobacco, etc. The committee also recommends that appropriations be made for promoting gymnastics in the country schools and that time be given for games and athletic events. The courses in religion are modified in such a way as to make the text of the Bible itself the foundation of early instruction, the teaching of the catechism being deferred to the last two years of the school course.

CONTINUATION SCHOOL.

In the opinion of the committee, the system of public instruction in Sweden has not kept pace with the requirements of the economic and social development of the last four decades. The elementary school, they say, hardly reaches the "upper limit of childhood." It should be extended by a school adapted to the large majority of pupils who, on leaving the elementary school, must devote themselves to earning a livelihood. For such pupils a continuation school is necessary, which offers opportunity for instruction at certain periods of the year or at certain hours during the week, the rest of the time being given by the pupils to their employment. In order that this continuation school should be effective, it must be practical in aim and attendance upon it obligatory. The school should keep

in view the practical work in which the pupils are employed, or which is to be their future life calling, and should make this work as far as possible the center of its instruction; at the same time, it must be considered that the main end of the instruction is to "further the moral and mental development of the pupils and make them useful members of society."

The report emphasizes the fact that the continuation school is not to be a trade school in the ordinary sense, but a school which adopts the point of view of the trade in its instruction. This instruction, it is said, should be "partly theoretical instruction about the trade; partly practical instruction in the trade." It is recognized, however, that the practical instruction can only be given when the school is "provided with a workshop, well arranged and equipped." In preparation for a continuation school of this order, a six-year folkskola would suffice.

Plans and details are given by the committee for different types of continuation schools; namely, schools for agricultural communities, industrial schools in connection with the iron industry, timber industry, and textile industry, and continuation schools for young women, giving instruction in home economics, in sewing, and commercial branches. As subjects common to all continuation schools, the committee recommends "knowledge of industry" (arbetskunskap), civil government, hygiene, and mother tongue. Of these, arbetskunskap is "the central subject, which gathers material from every side according to the nature of the practical work which is the object of instruction." Where no opposition is made, instruction in religion should occupy a part of the time.

In regard to the teachers of continuation schools, it is recognized that these will be drawn from the staff of the "folkskolor," but for the subject arbetskunskap there should be "specially trained men." In the opinion of the committee, courses for training such teachers should be maintained by the State.

As a rule, details regarding the continuation schools must be left to local school boards, but the committee recommends that the obligatory course shall include 360 hours of instruction; that the local authorities have the right to extend the time to a maximum of 540 hours; that the courses shall extend over two or three years; and that the minimum remuneration for a teacher shall be 2 crowns (53.6 cents) for each hour of service, the same to be paid by the State.

NORWAY.

INVESTIGATION OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

Following the precedent set by Sweden, the Government of Norway is considering measures looking to the reorganization of the publicschool system, and as a preliminary has arranged for the investigation

of the public schools of foreign countries which, it is thought, may afford useful suggestions for guidance in this work. The present system is characterized by its special adaptations to local conditions; emphasis is placed in the schools upon the exercises and studies which promote manual skill and interest in the local environment and industries. The need, however, of a broader education for the teachers of elementary schools and of more extended instruction, especially for the rural population, is recognized.

THE SYSTEM OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.1

The existing system of agricultural education comprises a central institution and local schools. The former is the State Agricultural Academy at Aas, which was established in 1856 and organized in its present form in accordance with a law of May 22, 1897.

THE STATE AGRICULTURAL ACADEMY.

The aim of this institution, as stated in the law, is—

to impart knowledge based on scientific principles for the training of agriculturists, silviculturists, allotters, and dairyists, as also to further scientific research in the fields which the academy covers.

The academy is organized in two classes:

(a) A common class of one year.

(b) A. vocational class, divided in the following departments:

(1) The agricultural department, one year.

(2) Department of allotment, one year.

(3) Gardening, one year.

(4) Dairying, one year.

(5) Silviculture, two years.

In the common class the instruction begins in the middle of August and closes June 20 of the following year. It comprises mathematics, surveying, physics and meteorology, chemistry, mineralogy and geology, botany, zoology, study of soils, drawing, bookkeeping, national economy, and, for silviculturists and gardeners, silviculture and gardening.

The vocational classes include the subjects common to all branches of agriculture, with specialties according to the particular department.

THE LOCAL (AMT) AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS.

In addition to the agricultural academy there are numerous local agricultural schools maintained by the amts (counties) with aid from the State. The first local school of this character was founded in 1825, and the number has been steadily increasing; at the present time 17 of the 20 amts have one or more such institutions. They are conducted on the same general plan, under the supervision of the

1 Particulars derived from Det offentlige landbruksvaesen i Norge indtil 1914, by G. Tandberg, the director of agricultural education, published by Grøndahl & Sons, Christiania, 1914.

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