CHAPTER IX.

EDUCATION IN FRANCE."

France, Republic: Area, 204,092 square miles; population, 39,252,267 (1906). Civil divisions having special functions in educational administration: Departments (90 in number, including 3 in Algiers), communes (cities or villages).

TOPICAL OUTLINE.

Administration of the state system.-Summarized statistics.-Current activities. Department of primary education: Laws controlling primary schools.-Statistics of primary schools, 1906-7: Table 1, number of schools, pupils, and teachers; Table 2, distribution of pupils between secular and clerical schools at specified dates.Problem of school attendance: Table 3, results of special school census; juvenile courts. Criticisms of the official programmes.-Provision for prolonging the education of the people: Higher primary schools, statistics (Table 4); relation between higher primaries and practical schools of commerce and industry; funds for promoting attendance upon higher primaries; agencies for the continuation of popular education.-Opinions elicited by an educational inquiry. Department of secondary education: Secondary schools for boys.-Statistics, current and comparative (Tables 5, 6, 7); inferences from the statistics.-Current discussions: The programme of 1902; opinions of professors as to the relative value of the several courses of study; conference on the state of literary studies; official instructions.-The new system of art instruction.-Public secondary schools for girls: Origin; progress; government appropriations; tuition fees and scholarship funds; relation of the schools to the higher education of women. Department of higher education: Institutions comprised in the department.-The state universities: Statistics, current and comparative.-Special schools of university rank.-Private faculties.-Scientific establishments.-Current movements pertaining to the state universities: The University of Paris; the provincial universities; distinctions between universities; means of stimulating the scientific activity of the universities.-Universities in their geographical relations.-Foreign activity of French universities.-Recent measures pertaining to the medical faculties; Paris faculty on administrative reforms.

The system of public instruction in France is at once a political instrument and a teaching agency. This dual character must be kept in mind in order to follow intelligently the record of any events pertaining to the service.

The head of the system is a cabinet officer, the minister of public instruction and fine arts. His control extends also in some measure to private institutions.

a For complete index to articles on Education in France in the annual reports of this office from 1889 to 1903, inclusive, see Report for 1905, Vol. I, chap. 4, pp. 57-58. For more recent articles see: Report of the Commissioner for 1905, Vol. I, chap. 4, pp. 57-86; chap. 5, pp. 87-95; 1906, Vol. I, chap. 11, pp. 19–34; 1907, Vol. I, chap. 4, pp. 127-167; 1908, Vol. I, chap. vii.

Within the system are comprised the three departments of primary, secondary, and superior instruction, each organized under its own chief.or director.

It has been the policy of the Republic to give long tenure to the incumbents of these positions, thereby guarding the actual work of education from the evils of frequent and capricious change of direction.

The central administration includes a corps of inspectors-general, who report their observations directly to the minister, and the superior council, whose functions are advisory and judicial. The council consists of 60 membersone-fourth appointed by the President of the Republic and the remainder elected by their colleagues (professors and teachers). The term of service in this body is four years, but members are often continued for several terms.

The minister is assisted by a consultative committee-a commission of experts, as it were chosen by himself from the highest officials in the service.

For local administration, the system is divided into 17 circumscriptions, called "academies." At the head of each academy is a rector, appointed by the President of the Republic. The rector is immediately responsible for secondary and higher institutions. He is assisted by an advisory council comprising the corps of academic inspectors and representative professors.

The departments (90 in all, including 3 in Algiers) are civil divisions which form within the academies districts for the administration of primary schools. The academic inspectors are, virtually, the superintendents of primary education; they are assisted by subinspectors appointed for each department.

SUMMARIZED STATISTICS.

According to the latest statistics pertaining to education in France, public primary schools, including infant schools, had an enrollment in 1907 of 5,106,200 pupils, and the corresponding private schools, which are subject to a certain measure of state supervision, an enrollment of 1,129,980. Omitting the infant schools, the enrollment in public primary schools was 4,583,053, and in private primary schools 1,001,972-that is, 5,585,025 children of legal school age attended school some portion of the year.

The public secondary schools for boys had an enrollment in 1908 of 96,289 pupils, and the private secondary schools for boys an enrollment of 64,558.

The public secondary schools and secondary classes for girls enrolled the same year 34,671 students. The state universities reported in January, 1908, an enrollment of 39,890 students. The attendance upon other higher institutions dependent upon the ministry of public instruction would raise this total to about 41,000.

For the expenses of the comprehensive system of public, or state, education the Government appropriated in 1908 the sum of 271,221,906 francs, equivalent to $54,244,381. Of this amount 3,798,350 francs, or $759,670, was for the direct expenses of administration, including the salaries of the minister and his clerical assistants; higher education received about 21,500,000 francs; secondary about

34,000,000. The larger proportion, 212,105,906 francs ($42,421,181), equivalent to 78 per cent of the total, was appropriated for the expenses of primary education."

CURRENT ACTIVITIES.

The current year has been characterized in France by unusual activity in regard to education. It is noticeable, also, that this activity has been more marked in respect to purely scholastic problems than to those arising from the political relations of the system of public instruction which have long been uppermost.

The legislative contest between church and state, in which the question of the control of education was deeply involved, ceased for a time with the passage of the law eliminating the religious orders from the work, and the law providing for the separation of church and state. It has been recently charged that the clergy are using their influence to arouse antagonism to the state schools, and instances are cited which lend color to the accusation. On the other hand, several teachers have been accused of violating the principle of religious neutrality by criticisms of church and creed, offensive to the consciences of parents and opposed to the moral well-being of their children. These local excitements have been raised to national importance by the government "anticlerical bill," which provides that every manifestation publicly made in a church against the school shall be deemed an offense, under article 35 of the law of separation. The penalty for a clergyman guilty in this manner is imprisonment lasting from three months to two years; parents who attack the school are subject to a fine of from 11 to 15 francs, and for a second offense may be sent to jail for five days.

The effect of these disquieting incidents is modified by the increasing force of public opinion as a factor in religious and in political affairs. To this end tend the modernist movement in the Catholic Church and the increasing number of associations of teachers and professors, in which their respective interests are freely discussed. The federated associations of elementary teachers have manifested their sympathy with the methods of trade unions, and in 1907 were drawn into serious controversy with the minister of public instruction by the action of their secretary in signing a general protest on the part of syndicates (trade unions) against certain measures of the Government. The course taken by Minister Briand, in that case, is in accord with the programme foreshadowed by M. Clemenceau, when

a The particulars respecting the appropriations for the system of public education and the detailed information given under the heads of the several departments of the service are derived chiefly from the reports on the budget for 1909, namely: Report to the chamber of deputies by M. Steeg, and report to the senate by M. Maurice-Faure.

sary.

* *

he became premier. "As regards professional syndicates," he said, "the Government will propose to you to introduce into the law of 1884 the improvements which past experience has shown to be neces*The Government will submit to you a bill determining the status of civil servants. This bill, while granting them liberty of combination, and guaranteeing them against arbitrary action, will insure the steady accomplishment of their duty to the State, which is responsible for the public administrative services." As a consequence of the recent strike of the postal and telegraph employees, a bill of this kind, defining the rights and duties of officials, and at the same time providing for the correction of the wrongs of which they justly complain, has been pushed to the front in the Chamber of Deputies. As all teachers and professors in the system of public instruction belong to the civil service, their interests are involved in the measure.

It is significant that the syndical uprising is regarded by critical observers as a democratic protest against the evils of the excessive centralization of power under the present parliamentary system.

The educational movements of chief importance during the year have been determined by conditions pertaining to the distinct departments of education-primary, secondary, and superior-and may best be presented under these separate headings. Even in their technical aspects, however, these movements show a common tendency toward the freer expression of private and professional opinion, a tendency, analagous to that which, in the world of industry, seems to be working also toward a readjustment of forces in public and institutional life.

DEPARTMENT OF PRIMARY EDUCATION.

LAWS CONTROLLING PRIMARY SCHOOLS.

Primary schools are maintained and controlled in accordance with a series of laws pertaining to this division of the general system of education. Chief among these is the law of 1833 making it obligatory upon the communes to provide a school, either public or subsidized private; the law of August 9, 1879, placing upon each department the obligation to maintain two primary normal schools, one for men, the other for women; the law of June 16, 1881, making primary public instruction free; that of March 28, 1882, making instruction compulsory for all children of the ages 6 to 13 years; and the law of October 30, 1886, determining all details as to the conduct of primary

schools, and forbidding the future employment of clerical teachers in public schools.

The salaries of teachers, which are paid by the State, and the conditions of their promotion are regulated by laws of July 19, 1889, July 25, 1893, March 1 and December 30, 1903, and April 22, 1905. The local school tax is paid into the state treasury; all the obligatory expenses of primary schools, except for site and building, are borne by state appropriations.

The law of July 1, 1901, regarding associations, the refusal by Parliament in 1902-3 to authorize the continuance of the teaching orders, and the law of July 7, 1904, ordering the suppression of all the teaching orders within a period of ten years, apply equally to the three departments of the system.

In accordance with recent legislation, teachers belonging to the various religious orders have been practically eliminated from the public schools. In 1908 only 400 such teachers were still retained in the total force of 115,000.

As regards private elementary schools, it is reported that between July 1, 1901, and June 1, 1908, there were closed by order of the Government 16,079 clerical schools; of these, 2,719 were schools for boys and 13,360 for girls. There still remained at the last date named 94 clerical schools for boys and 1,044 for girls. During the period specified (July, 1901, to June, 1908) 2,018 private schools for boys and 7,397 private schools for girls were opened. The majority of these are former clerical schools transferred to lay managers.

The distribution of pupils between the various classes of primary schools, as shown in Table 2, illustrates the effect of the measures referred to.