, 1884-01-20
EDUCATION IN SPAIN,
Statistics In Regard to the Subject Com.
piled by a Gentleman Who has
Investigated n
70 the Editor of the Democratic Leader.
investigated II.

missioner of education for the year
1881 is now in my hands. Looking
leisurely over it I find at page cclxiI,
''the latest official statements" regard
ing primary, normal and superior in
~struction in Spain. From the brief
summary there given 1 take the follow
ing figures, which you will please pub
lish for the satisfaction of Catholics in
this city, and for the better informa-
tion of the public in general.
In the year 1890, according to this
report, there were IS. 200 educational
institutions In Spain. which gives a
ratio of twenty-one to every 10000 of
the population. The total of primary
schools, public and private, was 29, 1928.
The number of normal schools is not
given, but that There were 5000 of
them in 1880 no one who examines the
report will hesitate to assert. There
were eleven universities and about
sixty other schools for superior lnstruc-
ton.
The pupils attending the primary
schools in 1880 numbered 1,769, SOP.
How many were being trained in the
normal schools cannot be exactly known.
Thirty seven thousand, three hundred
and thirty-6ve received training in them
from 1871 to 1880. Allowing for the
laws of progress, this total for the
decade would leave about 5000 to, the
year we speak of. In this same year
(1860) the university of Madrid had
6,S4S students. Ten thousand, two
hundred and two students were attend.
ing the universities of Barcelona, Gran
ada, Oviedo, Salamanca, Santiago, Sar-
agossa, Seville, Valencia and Vallado-
lid at the same time, while 1858 stu.
dents were studying advanced branches
Of the sciences and the arts at schools
in the city of Madrid. By the simple
process of addition we find from the
figures above given that the total at
tendance at all the educational institu-
tions of Spain in 1880 was l ,801, go, or
1,O94 out of every 10, 900 inhabitants.
These figures are taken correctly
from the report, and l think the report
contains a correct, though a very meagre
and incomplete summary of ''the latest
official data" about the subject of edu-
cation in Spain, received at the bureau
OF education. The official data, even,
L suspect are meagre, for things were
hardly more than organized under King
Alfonso XII when the ems of 1880
was made. Nevertheless the figures L
have given, though incomplete for 1880,
and much more 80 for 1884, are, l be-
lieye, creditable to Spain. Spain, no
doubt, has degenerated. Nations, like
men, have their years of greatness and
vigor and their years of old age and
weakness. She was once the first state
in Europe. Her place now is among
the second rate powers. Under Ferdi.
nand and Isabella Spain became united
and consolidated. The Moors were
subJugated or expelled, Granada and
Navarro were conquered, America was
discovered, and literature fourished.
All this progress continued under
Charles l.. Within a century Spain
rose to empire and swayed other desti-
MES besides her own. Philip IL sue
ceeded Charles. During his reign
Spain reached the height of her glory.
From his death she dates her decline.
The glories of her golden age, the causes
of her sudden decline, the subsequent
history of that fatal decline and its
effects upon national character and ed
u~cation, must be read In her history,
and when read her present position will
be understood, moi till then.
Spain is now rising slowly from the
zero point to which she fell, and if she
clings firmly to her present form of
government another era of splendid
prosperity may be looked for. Her pro-
gress in the single matter of education
has been astonishing. In 1850 there
were scarcely SOC, 900 pupils in all her
schools. Only twenty-three years have
passed, and to-day 1900, 900 children
crowd her primary schools alone. Three
years ago, in 1880, IS we have seen, the
number was 100000 less. But even
1,S0l, 220 is a good showing for an old
country beginning life anew. AT least
it shows that she is not 10 far behind
as a small paragraph which appeared
in a late issue of the daily Sun would
leak us to believe.
"As an Offset" says the small pla-
oiariaed naraoranh Uto tha o.,o,t;on.