New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-05-18
EDUCATION IN EUROPE.


cording to the education and enlighten
ment of their people Especially in Eu
rope will that nationality stand forth a
the foremost with power to guide ant
rule, as its people are possessed of intelli
gence, industry and virtue. In an exam
ination of the subject we find that tn,
first among nations in maintaining wis'
and liberal educational system, to which
she has been uniformly faithful for three
hundred years, stands Prussia. The en-
tire educational interests of the
nation are held in the strong GRASP
of the central government; nothing
is left to the chances of popular
favor or disaffection. Attendance upon
schools is strictly compulsory between
the ages of six and fourteen. If pow
erty or avarice should tempt parents
to place their children at work, to the
neglect of school opportunities, the at
tempt is frustrated by the law, which
prohibits, by severe penalties, the en-
ployment of any person under sixteen
years of age, unless he produces a certif-
cate that he has acquired the rudiments
| of an education. In relation to religious
training in the public schools, the latest
regulation enjoins that each institution be
left to the conduct of the respective re-
| Ggious bodies. The people have COM
mon pride in maintaining a national su
premacy in this direction. Aside from
governmental support, in no country in
the world is the public outlay of means
for schools of all classes so liberal.
In Great Britain, it is said that great
progress has been made within the last
twenty-eight years, though, according to
the test of education applied by grown
up persons signing their names or making
their mark, great difference exists in the
prevalence of elementary knowledge in
different counties of England By the
returns of 1868, it is shown that one-ffth
Of the grown up persons are without edu-
cation, as far as measured by the test of
writing their names. An important
measure toward the further spread of edu-
cation was passed by Parliament in its
session of last year. By SO Vic, chapter
Is, entitled, "An act to provide for public
elementary education in England and
Wales" it is ordered ''that there
shall be provided for every school
district a sufficient amount of accommo-
dation in public elementary schools
available for all the children resident in
such district for whose elementary edu-
cation efficient and suitable provision is
not otherwise made" 1t is enacted, fur
Their, that all children attending these
schools, whose parents are unable from
poverty to pay anything toward their edu-
cation, shall be admitted free, and the |
expense SO accrued be discharged from
the local rates. The school boards are
invested with the power of making it
upon all parents to give all
children between the ages of five and
thirteen the advantages of education. In
Russia the schools are, for the most part,
placed under the head of government in
'titutions The total number of schools
established directly by the State
in 1867, to $4,000, and the
PUPILS to ], 120, 08S, or about one and a-half
Der cent of the population, taking the lat
er at 70, 0OO,O 600. The expenditure on ed
lcation by the State in 1867 amounted to
J; OOO,00 roubles, being not quite six
oubles per pupil per annum, or 50 IT CO.
'ecks, or about thirty cents per month.
Emancipation and education have ad-
anced in parallel lines. In 1861 there
Tas scarcely public school for the peas
ntry in the whole empire yet at the
lose of the second year of emancipation
light thousand schools had sprung up,
Ii of them supported by the late serfs.
t the present rate of its educational de-
elopment, it can not be many years be-
IRE Russia will be entitled to rank among
he most enlightened as well as the most
Owerful nations.
In France, as in our country, the de- f
rec of education varies greatly in differ |
1T sections, instruction being far more '
eneral in the Eastern and Northern than 7
the Southern districts. Though pub G
c education has made considerable E
rogress in that country, it is calculated t
lat another generation will be required q
extend the benefits of education to c
lie whole population of France. 9
In Austria, until very recently, edu- q
ton was in very backward h
ate, the bulk of the agricultural d
'pulation, constituting two-thirds of v
e inhabitants of the empire, being Z
most entirely illiterate. During the Q
st twenty years, however, vigorous efforts v
We been made to bring about an improve r
ent by founding schools and appointing p
achers, partly at the expense of the s
mmunes and partly, but less, at that of c
e State. 1t was enacted, by series of I
crees issued in the years 1S4S and 1S49, Ii
at education should be general and b
mpulsory, and the principle, though a
It adhered to in Transleithan Austria,
r in those parts of Cisleithan Austria il
hablted by people belonging to the Sla- "
nc race was fully carried out among "
20,