PROGRESS IN EGYPT.

The advance of modern education in Africa necessarily follows the course of European colonization and commercial developments. Under French rule Algeria has become a separate division of the French system, conforming to it so far as possible in the organization of schools and scholastic standards.

In Egypt modern education is the product of missionary enterprise and of the efforts of the two European powers, France and England, that have exercised chief influence in the government. In respect to internal developments and the organization of schools the country has made remarkable progress since the British influence became supreme. The ancient village schools have been developed by State aid, and the Government supports 30 model primary schools which prepare students for admission to minor posts in the civil service. In the chief cities secondary schools, organized under Government auspices, offer a four years' course preparing students for admission to intermediate civil posts and also to the colleges of law, medicine, and engineering at Cairo. These higher colleges and the secondary schools are largely staffed by English teachers. Schools of commerce and engineering are numerous, and compare favorably with European institutions of the same order. An important phase of the recent development is the increased provision made for the education of girls and the interest in this effort excited among the native population.

Plans for the endowment and organization of a Christian university at Cairo, Egypt, have been recently formed in the United States and a board of trustees appointed to work out the details of the institution. At a preliminary meeting of this board, held in New York, December 1, 1914, the Rev. Dr. J. R. McClurkin, pastor of the Shadyside United Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, was elected president. The scholastic organization as outlined at the meeting includes a collegiate department and a graduate school with courses in Arabic literature and history, Islamic theology and criticism, biblical archæology, political science, education, Christian apologetics, agriculture, engineering, law, and journalism. It was announced by the trustees that subscriptions to the amount of $200,000 had been obtained and that measures were in progress for raising the fund to $2,000,000. The university will not be sectarian. It is intended to draw students not only from schools in Egypt, but from the entire Moslem world.

THE COAST REGIONS.

The coast regions of Africa, both on the eastern and western borders, are comprised in what have been termed "spheres of influence," chiefly French or German. In all the French divisions, schools have been established at the centers of administration. The island of Madagascar, on the eastern coast of Africa, which has been a French colony since 1896, has a complete system of education, gratuitous and compulsory as regards the elementary stage.

THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA.

The Union of South Africa was constituted by an act of 1909, which became effective May 31, 1910. Each of the four colonies comprised in this federation had a system of education well developed before the union, and the independence of these separate systems was guaranteed by the act, for a period of five years. Meanwhile, the entire subject was committed to a commission of investigation in order that measures, which might be adopted at the close of that period, should be determined in full view of the needs and possibilities of the separate provinces. The principal points in the report of the commission were presented in the annual report of this bureau for 1912 (Vol. I, pp. 602–604).

The effect of the union has been to stimulate educational activity. in all the provinces, and as regards the white population, the provision of schools compares favorably with that in European countries generally.1

One of the most important problems resting upon the present Government is that of the training and education of the native races and the colored people, including the children of mixed parentage. Peculiar difficulties are experienced from the fact that separate schools must be maintained for the white and colored children, and a third class for the contingent of East Indians in the several colonies. At present, while Government schools are maintained for the nonEuropean children, the chief dependence for their instruction is upon mission schools.

The twenty-sixth annual conference of the South African Teachers' Association was held at Graaff-Reinet in June of the present year. The address of the president, Mr. C. A. Organ, was a forceful appeal for the establishment of continuation schools, with compulsory attendance provisions. The interesting fact was brought out in this address that compulsory school attendance has been established for the ages 7 to 14, unless exemption is secured by passing

1 For the latest statistics of education in South African provinces, see the Rep. Commis. of Educ., 1912-13, Vol. I, pp. 884-885.

an examination in the studies of the fourth grade. From the ages of 17 to 21, boys are obliged to serve in the Active Citizens Force (Defense Act). This leaves the period from 14 to 17 free from all restraints of general discipline or professional guidance, the period when compulsory continuation schools are expected to do their effective work.

Mr. Organ urged that the upper limit exemption for children in the day schools should be raised to the age of 15; that continuation schools should be gradually provided for boys and girls and placed under the central department; and that statutory power should be given local authorities to enforce attendance from the age of 15 to 17. The institutions of higher education under the central department include the University of the Cape of Good Hope, which is an examining body, a group of seven colleges which prepare students for university degrees, and the South African School of Mines and Technology, situated at Johannesburg. A special commission was appointed to consider the needs and interests of higher education, and the current year has been marked by the issue of the report of that body. This document gives a detailed history of the inception and growth of the colleges and outlines a scheme for their federation in two groups, affiliated respectively to two universities, one in the south and the other in the north. These institutions, if the scheme is adopted, will take the place of the existing university at Cape Town.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

EDUCATION IN AUSTRALASIA.

CONTENTS.-The Commonwealth of Australia: Current activities-Medical inspection of schools-Secondary education. New Zealand: Evidence of progress-Statistical summary.

AUSTRALIA.

CURRENT ACTIVITIES.

In accordance with the constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia, adopted July 9, 1900, education remains as it was prior to that event, under the independent control of the individual States. Nevertheless, the union has had the effect of exciting friendly emulation in respect to public provision for education, while efforts in this direction during the past decade have been greatly stimulated by the increased influence of the Labor Party both in political and social affairs.

The reports of commissions recently appointed in New South Wales and in the neighboring colony of New Zealand, to investigate education in foreign countries and advise as to needed reforms at home, excited attention throughout Australia, and have already resulted in laws or practical measures for the improvement of the school systems. Current educational movements in Australia, therefore, as set forth in official reports, offer many points of interest.

Among important recent developments are those pertaining to administrative services. In Victoria the education act of 1910 provided for a council of education, acting as an advisory board to the minister. In accordance with the advice of the council a system of inspection of registered private schools was adopted the present year. All the important private schools are registered, by reason of the privilege accorded to their teachers of securing a place on the State list, if they have obtained State certificates. This they generally do, as it enables them to offer pupils as candidates for public scholarships. In this way Victoria preserves the "liberty of teaching," while at the same time guarding against the increase of irresponsible teachers.

In South Australia "boards of advice" have been founded in the school districts, half the members of which are elected by the parents. Thus the lively interest of citizens is awakened in the school conditions and at the same time cordial sympathies grow up between them and the officers and teachers engaged in the work. Current reports

abound in illustrations of the practical activities of these boards. Their attention is drawn to details that generally escape a purely official board. The chairman of one district board names the following among many conditions that have been reported for attention: Need of new piping for the cooking stove in the teacher's residence and for the heating stove in the classroom; the provision of a room for the private use of the head teacher; the action of a head teacher in inducing the parents of the school children to contribute half the cost toward installing wire doors and screens for windows, thus preventing flies from entering the classroom; the want of sanitary conditions, especially in the outbuildings of the school.

By the extension of the upper age limit of compulsory attendance from 12 to 14 years of age in Queensland (act of 1910), the period has been made uniform (ages 6 to 14) in all the States, excepting Western Australia and Tasmania, where it is 7 to 13. The necessity of enforcing the compulsory laws has led to various expedients for reaching school children in country districts. Among these expedients are house-to-house schools and itinerant teachers, conveyance of children to central schools, and subsidized private or home schools. The compulsory laws are in a measure also the cause of the general disposition to improve school buildings. The current reports contain many illustrations showing in contrast the old buildings and the modern ones by which they are replaced. This change is taking place not in cities only, but in rural districts as well. Among new types of school buildings in New South Wales are portable classrooms, which are built in sections and erected temporarily to relieve congestion in large schools, and buildings for small country schools in exceptionally hot districts, specially designed with verandas on all sides but the south.

The compulsory requirements have stimulated movements for extending elementary education by means of higher classes and continuation schools to which is imparted a vocational tendency.

The evening schools in New South Wales were recently organized as vocational schools with a two years' course, and placed under the charge of Mr. S. H. Smith, who is known both in Europe and America as an authority on this subject. In his report for 1913, Mr. Smith states that, out of a total of 5,829 pupils, only 373 completed the course, and of these more than one-half came from one school. He regards the results as disappointing, but expresses the hope of improvement in the future, in view of the increased efforts to keep the pupils for the full term and also from the fact that a large proportion of the pupils recently enrolled have come directly from dayschool classes. He says:

It is easier to get in touch, for his educational good, with the lad who has just left day school than with one who has just become subject to the contaminating influences of street companionship for three or four months.