lessons by the professors were followed by discussions and the endeavor was made to draw out when possible conclusions helpful to teachers in their daily work.1

INTELLECTUAL BONDS BETWEEN BELGIUM AND HOLLAND.

Special interest attaches at this time to the sympathies and sense of kinship cemented between the Hollanders and their Flemish brothers in Belgium, through the influence of a school of Flemish poets and novelists which started in Belgium with the works of Guido Gezelle, called the Burns of Flanders, and is continued by a group of writers who have given very full expression to the Flemish spirit and aspiration. Naturally Holland is the only country outside of Belgium where these writings are read and understood. Dutch publishers compete with each other for the opportunity of publishing the works of these Flemish writers, and the most popular of all the song writers, Emiel Hullebroek, has delighted all Dutch lovers of popular music. To quote a recent article on the subject: 2

Holland repays these beautiful gifts by sending her famous actors, Royaards and Bouwmeester, to play in Ghent, Antwerp, Bruges, Brussels; by sending her scholars to Belgium to lecture before the students of Brussels and Ghent; and every summer members of the university staff at Leiden give a course of holiday lectures to students from Belgium universities.

This intellectual and literary intercourse and mutual appreciation has created, of late years, a strong feeling of what their German neighbors would call "Zusammengehörigkeit." The Dutchman has begun to realize that his nation covers a wider field than a small area inclosed within his frontiers; the Fleming that it is not to France that he must look for inspiration congenial to his mind and natural talents. Both have conceived the possibilities of a "Greater Netherland." Groot-Netherland is the name of a leading literary monthly, which is edited by the Dutch novelist Louis Couperus and his Flemish brother-in-art Cyriel Buysse. An intellectual "GrootNederland" is the aim they have in view.

1 For full accounts of the courses see report by Prof. Jonckheere in Journal des Instituteurs for May 7, 14, and 21, 1914.

2 Mr. A. J. Barnouw, in The Nation, Oct. 15, 1914.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS IN FRANCE AND SWITZER

LAND.

CONTENTS.

France: The system of public instruction-State of primary education-The teaching force: Classification of teachers; salaries; proposed change in method of appointing-Continuation schools-Statistical summary-Secondary education: Current movements; questions discussed at the congress of professors; statistics-The universities: Financial needs; new equipments; University of Paris; departmental universities Scholastic extensions: Paris; departments-Students: Distribution by universities; by faculties Private foundations-Expenditures for the system of public instruction-Higher technical schools-Private and municipal activities-Commercial and trade training in Lyon. Switzerland: Introduction-The Federal Polytechnic Institute-Statistical summary.

EDUCATION IN FRANCE.

THE SYSTEM OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.

The system of public instruction in France is marked by centralized control, close organization, and uniform operation throughout the country. The chief of the system is a cabinet officer, the minister of public instruction and fine arts. The incumbent is naturally changed with every cabinet crisis, but the stability of the system is not seriously affected thereby, the directors of the three great departments of the system, i. e., primary, secondary, and superior, being retained for long periods; even when changes occur the vacancy is generally filled by the logical successor of the departing officer.

The authority of the minister of public instruction is modified by the advice of a superior council of education, which is formed partly by appointment and partly by the free choice of the professors and teachers in the three departments of education. Acting in advice with this council, the minister drafts all laws modifying the system, determines the programs and regulations for all classes of schools, and prepares the annual budget for presentation to the legislature. For local administration the system is divided into academies, 17 in number, each of which comprises a university, secondary schools, and primary schools. At the head of each group is the rector, an official of great dignity, appointed by the President of the Republic and subordinate only to the minister. He is assisted by an academic council, which, like the superior council, is professional in its membership. The rector is the executive head of the university of his area. He has controlling authority over the secondary schools, and,

nominally, also over primary schools; but the latter are under the immediate direction of inspectors (inspecteurs d'académie).

The unit of primary school administration is the Department, a civil district which for educational purposes is treated as a subdivision of an academy. France (including Algiers) comprises 90 Departments, which are unequally distributed among the 17 academies. Chambéry, the smallest academy, comprises 2 Departments; Paris, the largest academy, 9. The Departments vary in extent and in population. The smallest has 101,000 inhabitants; the largest (Seine), four and a quarter millions.

The expenses of primary education are met almost entirely by State appropriations; the proceeds of the local school tax being turned over to the State treasury.

Each Department includes two normal schools (one for men and one for women) and the several classes of primary schools. The civil head of every Department is the prefect, appointed by the President of the Republic, and the only political official who has any authority over schools. His chief function in this respect is that of appointing the teachers of primary schools, a right which has been bitterly opposed for over half a century. It is restricted somewhat by the necessity of making the choice from a list of candidates approved by the academic inspector.

It will suffice here to mention only the councils, academic and departmental, which advise in respect to educational matters and the corps of primary school inspectors appointed for each Department and subordinate to the academic inspector. Every commune in a Department is required by law to establish one or more primary schools, according to the needs of the population.

STATE OF PRIMARY EDUCATION.

France belongs to the group of nations that have made adequate provision of primary schools, and it is further distinguished by the fact that almost every school is in charge of a teacher specially trained for the work. The inspectors of primary education are chosen from persons who have obtained the requisite diploma as the result of a competitive examination, and who have had experience as teachers and school directors; hence there is cordial cooperation between them and the teachers. Provision is also made in France. for adult education through the union of public and private agencies in a work which is nation-wide in extent and in effects.

The system of public primary education is, however, weak in two respects. The compulsory attendance law covers only the ages 6 to 13 completed, with exemption for children who pass the required examination at 12 years of age; there is no general provision for continuing the formal education of the mass of children beyond that period.

The salaries of teachers are also inadequate, and out of all proportion to their needs and the increased cost of living. For the last half decade these conditions have been the subject of great solicitude on the part of the administrative and legislative bodies responsible for popular education. They are conditions not peculiar to France, but of peculiar urgency in that country because of its political organization and the changing conditions of its industrial life.

THE TEACHING FORCE.

The teaching force of the primary school comprises stagiaires, or probationary teachers, and titulaires, or teachers with full appointments. The latter are divided into five classes, with ascending scale of salaries from the fifth to the first class. The law determines the percentage of the entire number allowed for each class.

Teachers may be retired with pension at the age of 60 years if they have been in the service 30 years. Advancement from one grade in the salary scale to the next depends upon the vacancies that exist, and the latter are largely determined by the number of teachers who reach the age of retirement.

The most urgent problem in respect to primary schools is that of teachers' salaries. They are not only inadequate, but they are below the scale that is paid in other branches of the civil service requiring much less preparation than the teaching service. Further, on account of the system of promotion, teachers entering the service must wait a long time before they have any hope of reaching the better-paying positions. The difficulty has become acute; rural teachers have been particularly dissatisfied, and the number of candidates for admission to the departmental normal schools has fallen off. During the current year the Chamber of Deputies voted an amount for teachers' salaries that would have made general promotions possible, but these estimates were reduced in the Senate, and the emergencies of the war prevented any further effort in this direction. The status of the teachers remains, therefore, as it was fixed by the financial law of 1905. The salaries actually in effect for the latest year reported (1912), exclusive of cities having 150,000 inhabitants or more, were as follows:

Additional allowances were, for masters of the sixth class, 200 francs ($40) in lieu of residence; for masters of the first class, 400 francs ($80) in lieu of residence.

An important measure adopted by the Chamber of Deputies during the year provided for the transfer of the appointing power from the prefects of Departments to the academic rectors. In a review of this action, M. Buisson recalls that in 1850, when the law was passed giving the prefects the right to appoint teachers, the action met with intense opposition. It was explained, however, that it was intended at the time to save the teaching force from socialists and reactionary elements and would not be in operation more than six months; but it has been maintained for over 60 years, with the single modification introduced by the education law of 1886, which limited the choice of the prefect by the approval of the academic inspector. The new measure, as it passed the Chamber of Deputies, provided that all deliberations affecting the positions of teachers should be conducted in a committee consisting of the academic inspector, the primary inspectors, and representatives of the normal and primary schools of the particular department.

CONTINUATION SCHOOLS.

Leaders of all parties in France are agreed that the provision of continuation schools is an urgent need. Without them France must fall to a low plane as regards popular intelligence and commercial and industrial efficiency. The work of adult education, carried forward mainly by the unselfish efforts of elementary teachers, does not reach children just free from school, and even in its application to adults it falls short of adequate results, from the want of unified direction and close organization. Measures for prolonging the term of compulsory school attendance and appropriating funds for the establishment of continuation schools have been taken up annually by the legislature for nearly a decade, but no effective action in this matter has resulted. The present premier of France, M. Viviani, championed the cause last year during his brief term as minister of public instruction, but was forced to admit that the time was not ripe for action in the matter. He was not able even to secure a small appropriation, 35,600 francs ($7,120), for the purpose of carrying on an active campaign, under official auspices, in behalf of the cause and of coordinating and directing the work of private agencies in this field of endeavor.

THE EDUCATION OF ADULTS.

The twentieth report on the work of popular education, submitted to the minister of public instruction by M. Edouard Petit, covers the year ending June, 1914. The work was hindered during the year by the severe winter, social disturbances, and the call for all young