RURAL SCHOOLS FOR THE ROMAN CAMPAGNA.

The provision of rural schools for the laborers of the great estates in the Roman Campagna is an enterprise of great interest in the midst of unusual conditions which are described as follows by a recent writer:

The laborers on the great estates of the Roman Campagna have been less in touch with the general movement of progress going on around them than those of almost any other part of Italy. It is indeed difficult to realize the extreme loneliness of Campagna life; its primitive conditions are almost incredible unless one has had experience of them, and the railways and tram lines which cross the great plain in all directions still leave wide tracts of country untouched. There are very few permanent inhabitants in the Campagna, as malaria, until recent times, rendered it uninhabitable for several months of the year; although with the reclamation and improvement of the land the number of fixed settlers is increasing, the bulk of the labor is still performed by companies of guitti, as these peasants are called, who come down from their native villages in the Latian or Abruzzi Mountains every autumn, fix their temporary quarters in those hamlets of curiously shaped straw huts which may still be seen round the various casali or farmhouses, and return home in the summer. One result of this migratory existence is that the school system, which has been so much developed in Italy during the last decades, had just missed the Campagna guitti; for, while schools have been opened in their own native villages, they can not avail themselves of these facilities, as they are at home only in summer time when the schools are closed, and in the Campagna itself the municipality of Rome, under whose jurisdiction they dwell, does not provide for them save in a few cases, as they are not natives of the commune. Communications with Rome are generally too difficult for the laborers to be able to send their children to the city schools, and, moreover, each settlement is so small and so temporary that it would have been impossible to provide them all with regular municipal schools. The hut villages are fast disappearing and their place is being taken by more solid dwellings of brick or concrete, but the temporary nature of Campagna farming has not passed away, and while it survives, the difficulty of providing the laborers with schooling remains.

The effort to provide instruction for this migratory population was undertaken by a group of philanthropic persons who succeeded the first year (1906) in establishing four schools. Teachers were secured from the staff of the Roman elementary schools who, with great selfsacrifice, devoted Sundays and two or three evenings a week to the experiment.

To quote again from the article referred to:

The interest of public opinion in the scheme was gradually awakened; money was contributed by the State, the municipality of Rome, and private subscribers; and the number of schools and pupils increased year by year. Several of the landlords and farmers, especially the latter, were won over and made to realize that they could get better and more intelligent labor from educated peasants than from the wholly ignorant; a few, indeed, such as the lessees of Prince Borghese's estate at Pantano Borghese, became quite enthusiastic over the work and granted every facility to the committee and the teachers. In some villages special huts were erected in the same style as those inhabited by the guitti, but more solidly built and better kept, serving thus also as object lessons; or else wooden "docker" pavilions were set up, provided with all the necessary school furniture, and with wide shutters which when open enable

persons outside to follow the lessons as well as those within; in one or two spots disused railway cars were turned into classrooms. It also became possible to pay the teachers better, although the fees given were by no means proportionate to the great hardship entailed. It was very necessary that the Campagna schools should be easily shifted from one spot to another, so as to follow the constantly shifting population, and in this the committee was successful. In one case a school changed its quarters four times in the course of a year, and every annual report mentions one or more schools as having been closed because there was no longer any population to provide for. In one Campagna village, Colle di Fuori, below Rocca Priora, in the Alban Hills, which is inhabited by a fixed population who migrated years ago from Capranica, above Palestrina, and is better built than the others, a permanent schoolhouse of brick has been erected, most of the money and the labor being supplied by the peasants themselves. The building, which is surmounted by a small belfry for summoning the children to school and decorated by a frieze by a Roman artist, was inaugurated last year with great solemnity, a number of persons from Rome having been invited to attend the ceremony so as to arouse their interest in the committee's work.

In 1912, the number of schools had increased to 43, with 1,280 pupils, and it was intended to open 58 schools during the winter of 1913-14. Better arrangements have been made for conveying teachers to and from Rome, motor-car service having been established by the committee, by means of which the teachers are brought out in the morning or at the opening of schools and returned to their homes at the close. Naturally the teachers who engage in the service are among the most vigorous and enterprising in the city, and in addition to the usual subjects, they instruct in singing, nature study, notions of moral principles, hygiene, and cleanliness. The interest of parents is excited, and they are often to be seen seated beside the children going through the simpler lessons. Where there is no school, the parents demand that one should be opened. They look upon the committee and the teachers as their friends and advisers, and thus the whole character of Campagna life and agriculture is being transformed through the agency of the rural schools.1

SECONDARY AND HIGHER EDUCATION.

Italy is abundantly supplied with secondary schools, universities, and higher technical schools. Indeed, owing to local independence and ambition in this matter, the country suffers from an excess of institutions, which would be strengthened by reduction in some instances and closer coordination in others.

The 21 universities include 17 which bear the designation "royal" and receive State subsidies; 4 are private foundations, that is, religious institutions authorized by the civil powers. Repeated efforts have been made to reduce the number of royal or State universities, which exceed both the needs and the resources of the nation. As a

1 See The Times (London) Educational Supplement, Oct. 7, 1913, p. 153.

consequence, a few vigorous universities are found in the same class with a number of struggling institutions that are quite unable to maintain university standards and prestige. The condition has been the subject of much discussion in the legislature, but so far without result. Meanwhile, complaints have arisen that the standards of secondary education are depressed as a consequence of the competition for students on the part of the universities. These problems occupy at present the attention of the scholastic world and the opinion is generally expressed that their agitation is the preliminary to important reforms in secondary and higher education.

GREECE.

At the breaking out of the Balkan war, Greece had just entered upon educational enterprises of great promise. The awakened interest in child welfare was indicated by the measures for enforcing the compulsory provisions of the education law, and by the passage of a bill (session of 1911-12) forbidding the employment of children under 12 years of age in mills, factories, building operations, etc., and regulating the conditions under which children between 10 and 12 years of age might be employed by parents or guardians in harmless domestic industries. Women's organizations were active in promoting these measures, as well as in plans for rural improvement, which were engaging public attention. Equal interest was shown in the movement for the higher education of women, having particular regard to the growing demand for women teachers.

The territorial changes and general disturbance due to the Balkan wars have hindered the regular course of internal improvement in all the countries involved in the conflicts. In the case of Greece, however, enlarged responsibilities are giving new motives for the renewal of efforts at social reform temporarily interrupted.

The National University, at Athens, in the winter semester 1912-13 registered 2,800 students and reported for that year expenditures amounting to $137,450. The Technical High School enrolled the same session 300 students and had an income equivalent to $400,000. The relations between the two institutions are very intimate, the same professors often conducting classes in both.

THE BALKAN NATIONS.

The nations that were combined together in 1912 in war against Turkey (first Balkan war) had new boundaries settled by the Treaty of London, which bears date May 30, 1913; Albania was recognized

as a distinct principality, with a king nominated by the powers and accepted by the Albanians. Immediately war broke out among the allies (second Balkan war), which changed the new boundary lines (Treaty of Bucharest, signed Aug. 10, 1913).

The latest information that has been received relative to the systems of education in these countries was given in the Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1912 (Vol. I, pp. 575-577). University statistics of later date are as follows:

At the close of the first Balkan war, Turkey retained only a narrow strip of territory on the European side of the Bosphorus, which was slightly extended as a result of the subsequent conflict between the allies. Convinced of the need of internal reforms, the attention of the Government was turned to the Asiatic Provinces, which comprise an area exceeding 700,000 square miles, with a population of more than 20,000,000, as against an area of 9,900 square miles and a population of 2,250,000 in the European division. For the development of the Asiatic territory, important plans were made, involving a loan of $155,000,000 in France in return for valuable concessions granted to French capitalists interested in the construction of railways through some of the richest mining and agricultural regions. Other concessions were secured by German companies. for irrigation works and by French companies for the improvement of ports. These projects for material development were accompanied by measures for the reform of schools and for promoting sanitary conditions in the chief cities.

At Constantinople extensive improvements were undertaken, the buildings under contract at the beginning of 1914 including several new schoolhouses. Similar activities were reported from the cities. of Asia Minor.

In regard to modern education, the dependence must necessarily be for some time upon foreign missionary agencies. The principal

institutions under foreign auspices in the Turkish Empire were described in the previous Report of the Commissioner of Education.1 They include, at Constantinople, Robert College and the American College for Girls, founded and maintained by Americans; and the Syrian Protestant College and the Catholic University of St. Joseph, which are centers of modern knowledge and liberal ideas at Beirut.

1 See Rep. Commis. of Educ., 1913, Vol. I, pp. 851-854.