Read Ebook: Essays in Literature and History by Froude James Anthony Belloc Hilaire Commentator

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The activity of the council continued to be marked in 1917. In April of that year, 143 new schools were decreed, 39 for the Federal Capital, 18 for the Provinces under the legal national subvention, and 86 for the Territories , the Congress voting two millions in the national budget for the execution of this decree. The centralizing tendencies of South American countries in general, and the overwhelming dominance of the capital, secured for it so generous a share of this that it is estimated that in the Federal capital there will be for the first time room for all children of school age. For the poorer Provinces, and the Territories, which by the Tainez law of 1886 are absolutely dependent upon the central authority of the National Council, 250 schools of one and two rooms were assigned, but on an estimate about one-third of the children were still left unprovided with school facilities. Attention was repeatedly called to the need of a uniform and rigorously applied national law for compulsory school attendance.

During the year 1918 approximately 400 schools were established, and the council proposes to establish as many more during 1919 in the Provinces and the national Territories. The nation has taken charge of many provincial schools which the respective governments could not maintain by reason of lack of resources. The Province of Mendoza alone transferred 130 schools to the council of education during the month of August, 1918. Relative to the establishment of schools, regard has been had chiefly to the population of the districts which petitioned for them, as well as the number of children of school age, in order that the buildings may be installed in populous centers, where a constant attendance of pupils is reasonably assured.

The general plan of the council for the diffusion of primary education has not been put into practice in full, because of the lack of resources in some instances and in others because of the scarcity of building materials in the country. School equipment has been secured in various countries, supplies necessary having been purchased in the United States to the value of 0,000. The demand has been still unsatisfied, the capital city alone calling for the establishment of new schools every year, because of the increase of children of school age, and the Provinces have always been behind the necessary number of school buildings and facilities and have never reached the goal set by the authorities. An encouraging feature of the situation is that upon the completion of all the school buildings now under construction accommodations for 56,000 pupils in addition will be provided.

Peculiar attention has been given to the development of night schools by the council, 86 having been established and maintained by the council in the four years covered by the report. An admirably broadened scope was given them in the appeal issued by the council to the nation that the full purpose of such schools should be realized not only by the attendance of illiterates, but also of youths and adults "who, possessing some degree of education, are also desirous of improving that as related to the needs of their lives." All reforms and modifications of night schools have concerned themselves with this larger clientele. A further socializing of the night school is seen in the appeal of the council to proprietors, managers of factories, and employers of labor generally to encourage in every way in their power their employees to attend night schools and to offer prizes of various kinds for diligence and progress. Literature bearing on these schools was distributed free by the council.

In 1915 the council was empowered, by the terms of the will of a philanthropic resident of Buenos Aires, Don Felix Berasconi, who bequeathed for educational purposes a sum of three and a half million dollars, to proceed to the erection and establishment of an institution under State control which should give instruction in general primary, scientific, scientific-industrial, physical, and social education. A building was to be begun in 1916, planned in seven sections, conforming to the most modern pedagogical and sanitary demands, and with a capacity of more than 3,000 pupils. Designed to benefit the working people preeminently, it was to be situated in the section of the city showing the greatest proportion of them.

Responding to the general feeling of dissatisfaction with the results of primary education in the city of Buenos Aires, which has been unaffected by criticism for seven years, the council in June, 1917, sent out questionnaires to all inspectors and to the body of teachers calling for an expression of opinion as to the merits and defects of the plans of studies, schedules, etc., then in force; those of projected or possible programs, with additional features worthy to be incorporated; and educational considerations bearing upon the problems of the schools of the capital. The answers showed encouraging grasp of the educational needs of the city, with significant unanimity as to the practical methods of working out necessary reforms. Salient points were:

It is recognized that the clearness and sanity of these answers had a marked effect upon the substance of the law presented to the Federal Congress in August, 1918.

Another interesting instance of the submission of a pedagogic matter to the teachers of the city of Buenos Aires is shown in the questionnaire asking their opinion as to the best method of teaching spelling, sent out by the inspector of the tenth district, to the teachers. In accordance with the answers to this, the vocabulary used in primary schools was reduced to categories corresponding to the several grades, to its difficulties, and to the actual needs of the life and dominant occupations of the quarter of the city from which the children were drawn. This step was highly commended in French educational circles as marking efficient grappling with pedagogical difficulties felt in all cities of whatsoever country.

The regulation of the medical and dental inspection of national schools, under decree of March, 1918, was noteworthy. According to this, professional inspectors, chosen by the Government, must within the first three months of each school year examine individually all children entering school for the first time, periodically inspect the school buildings and ground and the health conditions of the teaching and administrative staffs, and take all prophylactic measures deemed necessary against epidemics and contagious diseases. Such reports shall be transmitted to the medical inspector general. Dental inspection of schools is to have a prominent part. Every month the chief inspector shall assemble for report and mutual discussion all medical and dental inspectors in such territorial divisions as he shall see fit.

Of the regulations in detail promulgated by the council in 1918, the most important is that changing the school year to two divisions, the first beginning March 1 and continuing until June 30, followed by three weeks of vacation, and the second beginning July 21 and continuing until November 20, followed by the long vacation of the year. This change is regarded as conforming with climatic effects upon the health of school children and as being a step long needed.

PROGRESS OF EDUCATION IN THE PROVINCES.

Outside the scope of the National Council are the powers of the provincial councils. These are local, auxiliary, and reinforcing in character. Some of the Provinces are practically inactive on the side of primary education, contenting themselves with the provisions made in that field by the National Government. Others, however, among them Santa Fe, San Luis, Cordoba, Entre Rios, and, of course, Buenos Aires, are worthy of note and commendation for steady interest in matters educational, and in financial support of schools carried on independently of the central authority.

Progress in the Province of Santa Fe, as evidenced by the annual message of the governor of that Province for 1917, was steady, despite the need of economy in provincial finances due to conditions resulting from the World War. An increase of 14 provincial schools over the year previous and of the grades in 36 schools was noted. Two problems were kept steadily in view: The improvement in the teaching personnel, accentuated by the disclosure of the fact that more than one-third of the teachers in the provincial schools lacked teacher training, and the construction of better school buildings. It was estimated that with these from 25 to 30 per cent of additional pupils could be taught by the same teaching force.

In this Province, by volunteer organizations of teachers and others interested, local patriotic conferences were inaugurated on topics of national history, hygiene, political economy, ethics, and themes generally related to home and school matters.

In the Province of Buenos Aires school excursions have been developed and made an organic part of instruction in civic and national spirit. They have been so arranged that children in the several zones may come by personal touch to know and correspond by letter with each other. In some places participation in these excursions has been made a reward of good lessons and conduct. They are to be taken in the last 15 days of October, and children are not to remain more than 3 days in one locality. Groups of not more than 12 pupils are recommended.

In July, 1916, the council general of the Province of Buenos Aires initiated courses in the normal school for the training of teachers and graduates of the normal schools in the recognition and study of retardation and its causes, and in early correction of abnormalities most frequently met. The program of courses includes a series of 16 lessons on related medical and pedagogical topics.

Of direct bearing upon educational problems among the rural population is the project of the law recently sent by the executive of the Province of Buenos Aires to the legislature, providing for the issuance of bonds to the amount of ,000,000 for the expropriation of parts of the great landed estates and the division of the land thus expropriated into small tracts for the use of small farmers. Subsequent purchase under advantageous terms is to be encouraged. According to reports, the prevailing system of "arrendatorios," or small tenants for short terms, has led to so acute an agrarian unrest, with the consequent shifting and aimless wandering of an increasing element of the population, as to constitute a social and economic menace no longer to be ignored. The educational effects in the increase of illiteracy and the general retardation of primary education have been manifest.

In 1918 the Legislature of the Province of Entre Rios enacted into law a series of provisions guaranteeing the stability of the scale of salaries for teachers in provincial schools. Promotion and increase of salary were based rigorously upon merit; teachers were declared unremovable during good conduct and fitness; initial salaries were fixed as follows: For normal teacher, 0 per month; for rural normal teacher, 0 per month; for rural teacher, 0 per month; for special teacher, per month. Every five years the teacher who has worked in the same place for that period shall receive a bonus of 20 per cent on his initial salary.

The government of the Province of Cordoba has approved a plan for the introduction of agricultural courses in the primary schools, presented and prepared by experts in agronomy and pedagogy, without dislocation of existing courses and schedules.

The inspectors of this Province presented for the consideration of the provincial chamber of deputies the project of a law to establish a normal school for the preparation of rural teachers exclusively, the courses offered being:

The development of subjects related to fundamental studies in the primary schools;

Practice teaching adapted to the needs of the primary schools of the locality; and

Elementary teaching, both theoretical and practical, in manual arts, agriculture and cattle breeding, and minor rural industries.

Private schools conforming to governmental requirements were legally recognized and incorporated by decree of 1917 and their consequent validation effected. Pupils of the fifth and sixth grades of such private schools applying for leaving certificates are required to undergo an examination upon all subjects for those grades of the official national programs before a board of three members appointed by the inspector.

Officially apart from the Ministry of Public Education but calling for special mention was the establishment in 1917 under the encouragement of the National Department of Agriculture of 16 schools in rural domestic science in nine Provinces, including Buenos Aires. Courses are offered in minor industries, such as dairying, beekeeping, care of fowls, hog raising, agriculture, horticulture, and canning of fruits and vegetables. Five hundred women have been enrolled. A number of these schools, the largest at Tucuman, have been put on a permanent basis, and private associations are working to effect this in many places.

School celebrations of national festivals, long popular in Argentina, have been especially marked during the year 1918, the centennial year for the nation. They were held in all schools on July 8, the chief feature being the oath to the flag and the singing of the national hymn in the presence of the school and civic authorities.

CHANGES UNDER THE PROJECTED LAW OF 1918.

Following the former order of education in Argentina, the second stage of primary education began with the educational bill submitted with the approval of the President to the Federal Congress in August, 1918. In this were incorporated changes of far wider scope than any ever before projected. Not only primary education, but the entire fabric of Argentine education was to be nationalized in content of courses, in methods of instruction, and in special preparation of teachers for tasks devolving on them under the new r?gime. The bill provided for large development of industrial and vocational courses and called for the use of materials peculiarly national and local. It laid stress upon civic and patriotic training, in view of the heterogeneous constitution of the Argentine population through steady streams of immigration and the necessity of molding these diverse elements into a body of patriotic and intelligent citizens. It provided for the establishment of primary schools throughout the nation under more flexible financial and administrative regulations than the old, for the segregation of specific revenues for the exclusive use of the Ministry of Public Instruction, and the consequent abolition of the old system of national subsidies to individual localities. Especially in the fight against illiteracy did the projected law embody progressive features. The National Council of Education was empowered to establish standard primary schools wherever there were as many as 20 illiterate children of school age. In the message which accompanied the recommendation of the law the President pointed out that the projected law tended to give unity and stability to the several divisions of education under the direction of the department of national instruction and adapted them to the material progress of the nation and to latter-day civilization. His identification of popular education with national progress justifies a quotation at length:

As primary education was established by law in 1864, it contains regulations which in reality have lost their original justification; for Argentine civilization now demands urgent reforms in the matter of general instruction in order to give greater consistency and reason to the latter, and in order to make it more practical, more adaptable to the various regional needs of the Republic. It is especially urgent to carry its action to all the sections of the country not yet reached by the system in order to arrive at the real aims of a truly national education. Chief among these is to eradicate illiteracy, the most patriotic task in which we can engage and the one upon whose successful execution alone can any real national progress and enlightenment rest.

The institutions of higher education have continued to develop in the direction of autonomy and within the limit determined by the law of 1885; but with the primary, they demand modifications in the course and arrangement of studies in order to abolish antiquated practices and methods and to reach the level of the great modern universities of the world.

Secondary instruction, in its turn, has lacked and still lacks a law to fix it in definite form and to define its real character in accordance with constitutional precepts and the nature of our political institutions. It has existed subject to the continual change of plans and regulations, harassed by the application of widely varying educational conceptions, in a state of continuous instability, and therefore reduced to a mere administrative mechanism without power of initiative relative to its immediate needs and without sufficient social influence to realize its true aims. To remedy these evils and to fill these gaps is one of the purposes of this law, in which the attempt has been made to include only that which ought to be general and permanent. The primary aim of secondary education should be to spread education among the towns and cities in such a way that in all the country there shall be trained, educated citizens fitted to play their part in the future civilization of the country. Preparatory instruction has therefore been kept under the control of the universities, which will fix their courses of study, their duration, and their extension both general and special. Both the plans of the preparatory courses, as well as those of the professions taught in the faculties of the university, have been projected along the lines already mentioned. The programs of the normal schools have been formulated in accordance with the technical ideas which should distinguish them, separating the general studies from those properly called pedagogical or professional, arranging them so that the former shall precede and the latter be intensified toward the end of the course.

As regards practical subjects of instruction, the project outlines only the general features according to which they must be taught. Instruction will be imparted in accordance with the necessities of the immediate field of each school, with special regard to natural production, commerce, industries, and aptitudes of the population, all with the purpose of adjusting anew the activities of the Argentine youth, which has hitherto been by preference inclined toward the more speculative studies rather than those of practical and of immediate application. It is left to the authorities of technical education to prepare plans and courses of study adapted to each class of institutions.

Enrollment in all schools has been made absolutely free, a logical consequence of compulsory education, which has as yet never been effective, but which is an indispensible condition to placing all upon the same plane of equality, a thing inherent in the principles of republican institutions.

The Government considers that the power wielded by the nation to spread primary education in the Provinces is so ample, in the form established by this projected law, that the regulations in force concerning financial subventions are without reason or justification. Once the Provinces have complied with the duty imposed upon them by the constitution in this regard up to the limit of their capacity the accompanying responsibility of the Federal Government will disappear.

The executive, knowing the great value of the teaching profession in the general concert of human activities, seeks every means to establish and dignify the career of teacher, making it a real profession surrounded by all the honors and all the public considerations which it can legitimately claim. It is therefore sought in the reform to fix proper conditions for different categories of teachers, as well as a scale of salaries, and proportional and periodic increase, thus guaranteeing the stability of the profession and assuring it an honorable and tranquil retirement. With such aims in view for the retirement of secondary teachers, the executive has believed it equitable to establish similar lines of financial aid for pensions and for increase of salaries as those offered to the teachers of primary education.

SECONDARY EDUCATION.

Reference has been made to the establishment of intermediate schools, at first uniform, later differentiated, substituted for the former fifth and sixth years of the primary school and intended to bridge the chasm between the primary and the secondary schools. This marked a further innovation, in that secondary education had always been left in Argentina to the Provinces, the State nationally exercising only a nominal oversight of this division. For financial reasons, as well as because of the necessity of giving uniformity to a type so widely scattered, the intermediate school was from the very first regarded as national in scope. It may be likened in many respects to the junior high school of American cities. It was designed to give instruction of a general and cultural nature in languages, history, geography, and mathematics, combined with experimental studies in the elements of physical and natural science. Much earlier entrance, its advocates claimed, would thus be possible upon subjects of vocational and technical character, which should test the nascent abilities and aptitudes of the pupil. Especial attention was to be given woodworking, typewriting, stenography, linotyping, decorative design, photography, and special arts and crafts favored by local conditions.

This experiment, though marking an advance in educational methods, was unsuccessful, and after a year of existence such schools were discontinued. They did, however, affect instruction in secondary education, leaving their impress in the radical requirement of early specialization after the fifth and sixth higher primary grades.

The educational policy of Argentina thus returned to its traditional status; and secondary education still centers around the 37 colegios nacionales, institutions for boys of 10 to 14 years of age, which admit those with leaving certificates from the fifth and sixth grades of the higher primary schools, and by revisal of 1911 offer courses arranged by fourfold division of subjects into the physical-mathematical, the chemical-biological, the historical-geographical, and the literary-philosophical groups. A decree of the National Council dated February, 1916, made the certificate of sixth grade of the public school obligatory for admission to the colegio. This was regarded as going far toward settling two fundamental difficulties--the first, the long desired abolition of the entrance examination, as discredited by experience and prejudicial to secondary training, and the second, the official recognition of the compulsory attendance law for children of 6 to 14 years.

Among the new subjects assigned for the colegios is the study of Italian, now restored after being abolished by previous decree. In accordance with this requirement, a course in this language has been instituted in the normal schools for the preparation of teachers.

The close connection of the interests of the colegio nacionale with the university is brought out in the report of the rector of the National University of Buenos Aires for 1916. It is of significance as striking out new lines in what had always been a conservative division, and carried weight in the fluid state of public opinion on education which prevailed just at that time.

Taking up the instructional aspect of secondary education, and the claims put forward by zealous partisans of the opposing views that the colegios should prepare either for higher studies or for practical life, but not for both, he urged legal provisions for both forms of training to supply the demand felt in all modern states for men of thought as well as efficiency in action. In the light of this demand all wrangling as to programs of study could only be to the damage of the State. Since the Argentine colegios half a century ago were modeled after the French lyc?es, with their emphasis upon the cultural studies, the world had moved far, economically and socially, and sane modifications in secondary education now clamored for recognition.

On the side of administration the peculiar question for Argentina, the land of great distances and many climates and productions, was whether the best organization for secondary instruction was the concentration of power in the hands of a council or of the minister of public instruction, or more or less complete autonomy to be granted to the individual institution. In either case the fixed principle was to be accepted that the universities were directly concerned in the discipline and studies of the students they were to receive, and that they should therefore have the right of intervening in matters of organization and studies of the colegios.

A just decentralization of the colegios could be easily realized and would bring such beneficial results as: More direct and immediate action of the authorities; closer articulation of the colegios with the universities in the matter of studies for preparation for the latter; formation of intellectual groups that would be encouraged to take root permanently in the Provinces, thus avoiding the wholesale migration of the directing classes to the capital; ease of reform, as contrasted with the present system, wherein every change in the program of studies was a disturbance whose utility was not always certain; the best selection, so far as possible, of the personal directive staff of the colegios, as the men in higher education would be familiar with the problems of secondary instruction; economy of administrative expense; the possibility of transforming certain of the colegios into schools of arts, trades, and industries in which general instruction, continuing the primary, might be combined with the special and technical preparation so much needed for the material well-being of the several regions of the Republic.

In the projected law of public instruction, introduced in August, 1918, it is provided that all matters relating to secondary education shall be under the authority of the national universities, with full power to regulate content of courses, curricula, etc. This is manifestly a step suggested by the traditional system of Spain, in which the standard secondary schools are arranged according to university districts and are governed by university rector and council. Its wisdom and advisability for a country of the Western Hemisphere have been variously considered.

TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

NORMAL-SCHOOL TRAINING.

The sequence of studies prescribed for pupils of the normal school according to the decree of March, 1916, is also worthy of notice. Immediately following, and based upon the intermediate schools which, as described above, were discarded after trial, the normal school required four years for the teachers' diploma, after which the student might proceed to higher studies for the degree of teacher of modern languages in two years or that of teacher of languages in normal school in three years, or that of teacher of philosophy in any institution in six years. A commendable gain of one year in each of these was effected, and this feature is to be embodied in the new provisions now under consideration. In addition, the new project of educational law outlines a teacher's course of four years, clearly differentiating between the general or cultural and the pedagogical or professional courses. The former are assigned to the first three years as required; the latter are reserved for the last year, constituting an intensive curriculum of pedagogical history and methods and practice teaching in the required annexed practice school. The completion of the Normal School Sarmiento in Buenos Aires, named in honor of the founder of popular education in South America, is to be noted. This school, capable of accommodating 1,000 pupils and equipped with the most modern apparatus, is worthy of comparison with the finest schools in the other countries educationally most advanced.

HIGHER EDUCATION.

With the provision incorporated in the projected law, by which control of national secondary education is vested in the universities, the latter will touch national education much more intimately than ever before. The universities of Argentina are those of Buenos Aires, Cordoba, and La Plata, which are national, and those of Santa Fe and Tucuman, which are provincial but will soon be nationalized. In 1917 there was a growing feeling in university circles in favor of decentralization, with greater degree of autonomy for each university. The report of the rector of the university of Buenos Aires for 1917 was of interest as showing the effect of this upon the colegios as well as the universities. How far this has been checked by the projected provision to intrust secondary education to universities can not be learned.

The unrest among the student bodies in the institutions of higher education has constituted perhaps the most remarkable feature of the educational history of the past year. In Buenos Aires reform was demanded in the statutes under which the university was governed, and the adoption of methods in conformity with new tendencies in university instruction. The students demanded especially the right to vote for the election of the authorities. Satisfactory agreement was reached, and the university, after several days of suspension of classes and demonstrations on the part of the student body, resumed instruction, which was uninterrupted for the rest of the year. At the University of Cordoba the conflict between the students and the authorities assumed more serious proportions. Regular work was suspended, the efforts of the mediator appointed by the National Government to hear the claims of the student body and to decide upon the just and practical course for the university authorities to adopt were unsatisfactory to the complainants, and the authority of the minister of public instruction was invoked. Upon investigation the latter official advocated in his report to the executive a complete reorganization of the university in its statutes, regulations, acts of discipline, and staff of professors. These changes were ratified by the executive and were practically embodied in the project of the law submitted to the Congress in those sections pertaining to university education. In the other three universities, those of La Plata, Tucuman, and Santa Fe, the disturbances which impeded the prosecution of the regular routine of studies were comparatively insignificant, though the spirit of unrest was marked and many of the reforms and changes secured in the two leading universities were readily accepted.

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