SECONDARY SCHOOLS.

Belgium was one of the first nations to depart from the medieval system of higher education by the provision of two orders of secondary schools. The higher class, of which the royal athénées were the type, prepared students for the universities and highest technical schools; they numbered 35 in 1912 (20 athénées, 15 colleges), with 8,323 students. The lower class of secondary schools were intended to provide advanced instruction for students who did not expect to enter upon the higher professions; at the same time their studies were so arranged that students might pass from them to the upper classes of the athénées. The secondary schools of this order for boys numbered 90 in 1912, with 19,765 students. The corresponding schools for girls numbered 44, with 10,104 students. Professors of the higher orders of secondary education were as a rule university men, but four normal schools were maintained for the professional training of teachers for the lower secondary schools. Of these, two for men had 52 students in 1912, and two for women 157 students.

The secondary schools were established by the State, by communes with the aid of the State, or were subsidized private institutions. Public appropriations for secondary education amounted in 1911 to 6,888,157 francs ($1,377,631). Of this amount the State contributed 66 per cent, the communes 32 per cent, and the Provinces the small balance.1

THE UNIVERSITIES OF BELGIUM

The University of Louvain, which was destroyed August 2, 1914, was founded in 1426 by John IV, Duke of Brabant, and with the approbation of Pope Martin V. It was for many centuries the only institution of higher education in the dukedom. It was suppressed in 1797, and during the Napoleonic era Belgium remained without universities. By a decree of September 25, 1816, a university was reestablished at Louvain; but it was not until December, 1835, that it was reorganized under the Episcopal Body of Belgium; since that date it has been one of the chief Roman Catholic universities of Europe.

The development of the University of Louvain during the last half of the nineteenth century was marked by the organization of special schools and institutes, answering to modern requirements. Among these should be noted the philological institute and a school for instruction in the Scriptures and in oriental languages, both founded in 1844; the latter was the beginning of the oriental school that has since become famous. In 1864 there was established at the uni

1 The statistics relating to education in Belgium were taken from the Annuaire Statistigue de la Belge et du Congo Belge for 1913, published in 1914.

versity in connection with the faculty of sciences a school of civil engineering, industry, and mines; in 1878 a school for the training of agricultural engineers was added and the new anatomic institute, now widely known as the Vésale Institute. A few years later provision for the technical professions and pursuits was increased by the erection of a micrographic institute, an institute of practical physics, a higher brewing school, and a laboratory of bacteriology; the last named has developed into a great institute. These extensions were soon followed by the founding of a chair of electro-technical instruction, and in the faculty of philosophy and letters there was organized a course in moral and historical sciences leading to a special doctorate, and in the faculty of law a practical course in economic and social sciences. During this long period the standard of instruction in the older faculties was well maintained, and new chairs were founded from time to time, so that the University of Louvain offered very complete facilities for acquiring the learned and technical professions.

The scholastic organization of this ancient university, as set forth in the Annuaire for 1914, included the following faculties: Theology, law, medicine, philosophy and letters, and faculty of sciences. Adjuncts of the last-named faculty are special schools of arts and manufactures, civil engineering and mines, and the agronomic institute. The school of commercial and consular sciences is not attached to any one of the faculties, but has its independent organization. Under the stimulating direction of special professors, the student body of the university is organized in several associations which promote good comradeship and intellectual pursuits. Among these is the society formed in the interests of the students of the Flemish districts, a philosophic society under the presidency of the rector of the university, a philological society, and a circle for the cultivation of French literature.

In 1913 the university registered 2,870 students, distributed as follows:

The University of Brussels, like that of Louvain, was of private origin and has remained free from State control. It was founded in 1834 and has been maintained by private subscriptions. The faculties and special schools which the university comprised, with the distribution of students in the same in 1912 and in 1913, were as follows:

The two remaining universities of Belgium, namely, the University of Ghent and the University of Liege, are State institutions, both dating back to a decree issued in 1816 by King William I, Belgium being at the time part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Both institutions were reorganized in accordance with the law of 1835, passed directly after the separation of Belgium from Holland. The development of the two State universities has been marked by large provision for the exact sciences and by the establishment of auxiliary technical schools. At Ghent the development in practical instruction has related chiefly to the arts and manufactures characteristic of that region, to architecture and engineering; while at Liege special attention has been given to mining engineering. The two universities have also been equipped for training professors for secondary schools, the faculty of sciences at Ghent having been utilized for the preparation of professors of sciences, and the faculty of philosophy and letters at Liege for the training of professors of the classic humanities. During the last decade of the nineteenth century the resources of the two State universities were greatly increased by the erection of new buildings and their equipment for scientific and technical purposes. Ghent was provided with an experimental institute of applied mechanics, institutes of hygiene, of bacteriology, and of physiology, and an extensive garden for the use of the students of natural science. Large subsidies were also granted by the Government for the installation of the electrotechnical laboratory. In like manner Liege was supplied with a chemical institute, a clinical institute, fine building for the faculties of philosophy and letters and law, and extensions for the services of physics, hygiene, and the technical faculties. Through the munificence of a private benefactor, Mr. Montefiore, the university possesses an electrotechnical institute which is not only well installed but has received from its founder a capital of a million francs, the income to be used for the maintenance of the plant and the purchase of new apparatus.

The following table summarizes particulars respecting the two State universities as reported in 1912 and 1913:

Since the separation of Belgium from the Kingdom of the Netherlands the latter name has been retained as the official designation of Holland. The Kingdom covers an area slightly exceeding that of Belgium, and like the latter is densely populated. According to the estimates of 1910, the total population of the Netherlands was 5,898,429, and the density 466 inhabitants to a square mile. The colonial possessions form two groups covering altogether an area of 785,000 square miles. The chief group is that of the East Indies, including the rich islands of Java and Sumatra. The second group comprises several small islands in the West Indies, the largest being Surinam and Curaçao.

Primary or popular education is provided by a State-aided system in which schools under private management, chiefly denominational, bear an important part. The public schools are established by the communes or in case of necessity by the Government.

The Netherlands holds high place among European nations for the general diffusion of knowledge and the low degree of illiteracy. In 1900 the record of the army recruits showed 1.4 per cent of illiterates; in 1912 this had fallen to 0.8 per cent. This improvement over a condition which already was very satisfactory is attributed to the effects of the compulsory-education act passed in 1900.

The following table summarizes the statistics of elementary and secondary schools comprised in the report of the minister of education for 1911-12:1

The registration in the State universities in 1912-13 was as follows: Leiden, 1,211 students; Utrecht, 1,096; Groningen, 579. The municipal university at Amsterdam had 1,215 students and the private university in that city 150.

In addition to the schools included in the table there are many technical schools, and also a university of private foundation at Rotterdam with special equipment for the sciences relating to

commerce.

The expenditure by the Government for education amounts annually to about thirteen and a quarter million dollars. The communes increase this by nearly eight millions."

ACTIVITIES OF THE TEACHER'S ASSOCIATION.

The Teachers' Association of the Netherlands (Nederlandsch Onderwijzers-Genootschap), at Amsterdam, has maintained for the past four years a course of instruction in pedagogy for teachers who are interested in the science of education and in researches pertaining to the nature of young children and adolescents. The present year the association looked to the normal school at Brussels for assistance in carrying out its purposes with the result that Prof. Jonckheere was delegated for that mission by the Belgian minister of science and art and eventually submitted a report of the work. The instruction of the session was grouped around three main topics as follows: (1) Normal children and abnormal children; (2) scientific pedagogy; (3) pedology (facts and application). The subjects were treated by different professors or specialists of repute.

1 Published in 1914.

The

2 The organization of a system of public instruction in the colony of the East Indies, one of the most important events in the recent history of the nation, was described very fully in the Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1911, vol. 1, ch. 14.