V. Special Schools to meet the educational wants of different occupations, and exceptional classes. VI. Societies and Agencies to promote improvements in Science and Education. Before entering into any details respecting each of these departments of education, we will note the authorities to which they are all and severally subjected. By the law of 1869, a State Board of Education (öfver styrelsen för Skolväsendet), was instituted, consisting of a President and six members; two of whom must be higher state officers, and the other four must have been engaged in scientific and educational work. To one of the four must be assigned the supervision of common schools,* and to the other three, the higher schools. These four give their whole time to the duties of the Board, and must submit to the Senate every year a statistical statement of the schools, and every third year a full account of the state of education with suggestions of improvement in the organization or details of institutions, and the system. Beside the General Board, provision is made for special inspectors of the Popular Schools for defined districts, and in each city, for a local school inspector. Each commune (the lowest territorial organization for civil and ecclesiastical purposes) must elect a popular or common school direction or committee, of which women may be members. Each of the higher schools has a special committee elected by the commune or city in which they are located, whose authority does not extend to the appointment of teachers which belongs to the State Board. By these sev eral committees, institutional, communal and state, the schools of every grade are brought under constant inspection, and the Central Board and the Parliament are kept informed of the practical working of the system, and their respective institutions. 1. LOWER AND HIGHER POPULAR SCHOOL. 1. The object of the Lower Popular School as set forth in the law of 1866, is to assist the family in acquiring a knowledge of the mothertongue, and of the Christian religion, and imparting the elements of arithmetic, penmanship, and singing. Each commune in order to obtain a portion of the government grant, for a Higher Popular School must show that provision is made for instruction in reading, spelling, and the catechism, either in the home, or in an ambulatory or permanent lower school. As to this home and primary instruction, the pastor who is chairman of the communal meeting, must make report to the central authorities at Helsingfors. The ambulatory teacher who is usually a resident of the commune, and paid by the commune, and small fees, gets The appointment was given to Rev. Uno Cygnaeus, who was commissioned by the goveinment to visit Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland, with a view of studying their systems of popular schools, preparatory to a reorganization of the school system of Finland, in which he has taken an active interest. He was the Director and organizer of the first Teachers Seminary at Jyväskyla in 1864. his meals in the farm-house where the few children assemble. In the cities and villages, the Lower School, whether public or private, is per mancnt. 2. In the Higher Popular School the subjects of instruction are: religion, reading, writing, geography and history, arithmetic, weights and measures, first principles of natural philosophy, drawing, gymnastics, and singing. Most of these subjects are taught from the reading-book and orally. To be entitled to a distributive share of the government grant, the school must have been taught at least 30 weeks, and 30 hours per week, by a teacher who has been found qualified by the local committee and State Inspector. Preference must be given to a graduate of the Normal Schools, or a teacher who holds a certificate of qualification from a director of the same. In most of this grade of schools, needlework is taught to the girls, and some simple manual work to the boys. The boys are taught in separate schools, or at separate hours from the girls. The commune must provide school-rooms and residence for the teacher, also ground for a garden, fuel, and the keeping of a cow, in adtion to the money salary, towards which the Finnish goverment appropriates 600 m. to every male teacher, and 400 m. to every female teacher, for the first ten years of their teaching, which is increased at the rate of 20 per cent. for five years, and 10 per cent. for each subsequent five years, until they have taught thirty years, when they are entitled to a retiring pension for life, equal to the government allowance for that year. An allowance is made in case of sickness. In the employment of a teacher to fill a vacancy, preference must be given to the graduate of a Normal School, or holding the certificates of a Normal School director. The appointing is for life, subject to removal after trial by the higher authorities. The statistical returns from this grade of schools are not complete. In 1871 there were 190 schools in the rural districts, and 23 in cities. In the rural districts there were 115 male teachers and 75 females. II. SECONDARY EDUCATION. By the Act of 1872, all institutions which give both an elementary and a higher instruction either in science or languages, or both, to either sex, were classified as follows: 1. Real Schools. 2. Lyceums. 3. Ladies Schools, all of which, before and in this act, are designated as Elementary Schools (Elementarlaroverk). 1. The Real Schools receive their pupils at the age of 9 to 12, to continue their elementary education, and prepare them for the special schools. The subjects of instruction specified in the law are: religion, languages, (Swedish, Finnish, Russian, German, or English), geography, history, mathematics, natural philosophy and sciences, book-keeping, penmanship, drawing, singing, and gymnastics. The pupils continue from two to five years, distributed in classes from 2 to 4, each class occupying one year, except the last, which has two years for the more ad vanced studies. In 1872 there was one in each incorporated city, or 33 schools, with 2,212 pupils. 2. The Lyceums include all the old gymnasiums and higher elementary schools, and teach: religion, languages (Swedish, Finnish, Latin, Greek, Russian, German, French), history, geography, mathematics, logic, natural philosophy and sciences, penmanship, drawing, singing and gymnastics. Each institution is organized with four or seven classes, the highest class occupying two years. In 1872 there were ten schools with seven classes, and eight with four classes, and an aggregate of 2,575 pupils. 3. The Ladies' Schools are organized with four classes, except the one at Helsingfors, which has seven classes. The subjects of instruction are the same as in the Real Schools, except the French language takes the place of the English, and book-keeping is omitted, and the Russian language is obligatory at Helsingfors. In 1871 there were seven schools with 753 pupils. These schools are all under the supervision of the government (Ofterstyrelsen for Skalvasendet), and their pupils are examined yearly, at the end of the Spring term, in reference to their promotion, or graduation. The teachers must all, (except female teachers in the ladies' schools), have graduated in the philosophical faculty, or have passed the teachers' candidate examination, and during one year have witnessed the methods, and tested their capacity in the Normal Lyceum at Helsingfors. In addition to their requirements they must have passed satisfactorily the pedagogical examinations in the principles and practice of teaching by the professor of pedagogy in the university. The salaries of the regular teachers in schools of this grade are: (3.) In Ladies' Schools, from 3,000 to 4,000, including residence for the male teachers; and from 1,600 to 2,400, and residence for female teachers. The principal of each school receives an additional compensation, ranging from 300 to 1,000 marks. The teacher who has taught 35 years can retire with an annuity equal to his whole salary at that date; and after 30 years, with three-quarters of his salary; and after 25, with the half; and after 20, with one-quarter; and in case of incurable sickness at an earlier period, he is entitled to his pension. These schools, although public, are not free-the tuition varying in amount according to the subjects of the instruction-in the lower classes of the Real Schools the fee is 12 marks ($2.50) per year, and in the higher classes 24 marks; in the Lyceums and Ladies' Schools, 40 marks a year in every class, except at Helsingfors, where the fee is 80 marks in the Ladies' School. But there are free places in every school for those whose parents can not pay the fees. III. SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION. A university was founded at Abo in 1640, which was governed by an ordinance issued in 1655, and which continued in force till 1828, when, in consequence of the disastrous fire of 1827, that destroyed all the buildings, and most of the books and collections belonging to the university, and for reasons more satisfactory to the government than to the people of Abo, it was removed and reorganized under the title of the Imperial Alexanders-University, at Helsingfors, which had been made the capital of Finland in 1817. According to its present constitution (fixed by ordinance of 1852), the government of the institution rests with the Chancellor (Kansler), and Consistorium. The former is the eldest son of the Emperor, who is represented at Helsingfors by a vicechancellor, who in turn is represented in the internal management of the university by a Rector, who is designated by the Chancellor every three years, out of three who are elected by all the regular professors. The Consistorium, of which the rector is president, is composed, for the economical purpose, of the 12 senior professors; and for the filling of vacant chairs, appointments to scholarship and stipendiums, and the regulation of scientific matters generally, of all the regular professors. There are four faculties, viz.: Theology, with four regular professors; Jurisprudence, with 4 regular, and 1 extraordinary professors; Medicine with six ordinary and two extraordinary professors; Philosophy, which is divided into two sections-historico-philological section with 10 ordinary and 3 extraordinary, and the physico-mathematical section, with 7 ordinary and 1 extraordinary professors. Each Faculty awards its own diplomas, and has its own Dean appointed by the Chancellor for three years. The Rector and four Deans are a Commission, or Board for Discipline. Every candidate for a regular professorship must hold the degree of doctor in that Faculty, and write and defend publicly a thesis on the scientific aspect of some subject which he will be obliged to teach, and in which he has made original research. To have obtained the degree of doctor, he must previously have been master of arts, and have submitted to a second examination, including the production and defense of a written disquisition. For the position of professor extraordinary, the Chancellor can recommend such candidates as have obtained the degree of doctor, and give evidence of learning and ability. For docents, candidates who show satisfactory credentials to the Consistorium, and for lectors and special instruction in modern languages, gymnastics, drawing and music, the Chancellor can make appointments. The ordinary professors must give 4, and the other professors and teachers at least two lectures a week, for the regular salary received by them. To become university students by matriculation, the candidates must bring evidence of the final examination of the Lyceums, and also pass an examination conducted by a committee of docents, designated by the Consistorium, and enroll himself in one of the four faculties, and one of the six nations, into which the students are divided. These nations are designated according to the division of the duchy from which their members come-each nation having a supervision of the morals of its members, and holding weekly meetings for literary exercises; and their disciplinary power extends to the exclusion of a refractory member for a period not exceeding two years from the university, and from Helsingfors. Each nation taxes its members for necessary expenses, both for its special purposes, and for the general purposes of the six nations acting in concert or as a Student-corps. The corps owns a building (Student-hus), erected by voluntary subscription from the whole country, in which the ladies of Finland took a general interest. In this Students-House are rooms for the meetings of the Nations and of the Faculties, with a reading-room supplied with the leading periodicals of different countries, and a library of 15,000 volumes. In this building is a restauration only for members of the university, and a large hall for public concerts and festive occasions,-each nation holding one every year. At the head of each nation is a professor, designated by the chancellor for three years, called inspector, and a vice-president who is elected by the members out of the graduates belonging to the nation, for the same term, and called curator. In the spring term of 1872 the resident attendants were 621, (exclusive of 150 who were registered, but absent for various reasons from Helsingfors), distributed as follows by nations and faculties. The whole number of professors and instructors in the same term was 60 (with eight places vacant), viz., 25 regular professors, 5 extraordinary, 8 lecturers, 19 docents, and 3 special instructors, (music, drawing, and gymnastics). The regular professors are paid from 5,000 to 8,000 marks; the rector receiving 4,000 additional, and the inspectors of nations, and deans of faculties, 1,200 each. The professors extraordinary receive on an average about 4,500 marks; and the docents are paid from 2,000 to 3,000 marks, and the lecturers and special instructors from Medicine. His, and Philology. Math, and Physics. Total. |