PRIMARY EDUCATION, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE.
In 1917 slightly less than 100,000 pupils were enrolled in the 1,014 public primary schools of Uruguay, an increase of 2,500 over the preceding year. Of these, nearly 65,000 were enrolled in the city of Montevideo alone.
In administration and inspection the authorities in this field were active and progressive. Tentative reforms in the programs of study for the schools of towns and villages, a step long urged by them, were outlined by the minister of education; and wider latitude was allowed such individual schools in the matter of adapting nature study and practical courses to regular school work in accordance with local conditions and occupations. This step was in keeping with the attention paid to rural schools, which will be discussed later.
By executive resolution of July, 1917, the long-discussed change in the school year was made by which it shall hereafter open March 1 and close December 15. As with the similar change in Argentina, beneficial results, especially in the rural schools, are expected, as this arrangement is in conformity with climatic conditions. The change was made after investigation among the teaching force, and the country teachers won a victory over their city fellows, who favored vacations in the summer. This is but another and a significant effect of the steady centripetal attraction of the overshadowing capital city, more marked even in the new countries of South America than in the old ones of Europe. The country teachers have openly expressed their wish to spend the longest possible time in the capital, in spite of the inconveniences of such a sojourn in the summer. A further light upon the country teacher’s point of view is shown by the information that the long vacations in winter permit the small landowner to employ his children in labors of battage, which begin in December and last most of the winter. The schools are therefore practically empty in winter. It is manifestly wiser to put the former long vacation of July at this time.
Complaints having become more frequent in regard to the blocking of educational administration in certain departments because of disagreements among inspectors, more drastic requirements were laid down by resolutions of the National Inspection of Primary Instruction, dated February, 1917. The authority of the departmental inspector over the subinspectors was confirmed; in the event of disagreement or insubordination the departmental inspector was required to present the case to the Department of National Inspection; the visitation of schools was distributed as nearly equally as possible; and the responsibility for inaction was put squarely upon the inspectors.
These provisions, rigorous as they were, did not prove adequate, and much of the business of the schools of the outlying departments still remained blocked. The executive, therefore, in November, 1917, transmitted to the Congress, along with a message emphasizing the necessity of the law, a project for the establishment of three divisions of regional inspectors of primary education to exercise general supervision over the departmental inspectors and the schools of the Republic. These regional inspectors acting as a unit were to constitute the technical inspection of the school authorities. Their functions were to be regulated by the executive in accordance with the reports of the national inspection and the general direction of primary instruction. The hitherto existing chief inspectors, technical, adjunct, and chief of statistics were to be transformed into regional inspectors, and under their immediate supervision were to be put all the departmental inspectors. The projected law encountered unexpected opposition, and its passage has not as yet been secured.
Scientific interest in the character of the textbooks adopted for use in the primary schools of Uruguay has been aroused by the Government’s offer of prizes for satisfactory textbooks and by the publication in the Anales de Instruccion Primaria of illustrative lines and themes of treatment. The general assembly has authorized the offer of $6,000 in prizes in the contest for the composition of a book combining in a single volume all the textbook material needed in the fourth, fifth, and sixth classes in the public schools of Montevideo. This offer had as its object to lower the cost of education and thus to facilitate attendance, as the book in question was to be distributed gratuitously in cases of need.
A circular issued by the department of technical inspection in April, 1917, called the attention of teachers to the abuses of assigning written home work and limited such tasks to 30 minutes in classes of the first grade and to one hour for those in higher grades.
By executive decree, school savings funds and a system of aid for necessitous children, supplying clothing, midday meal, transportation, and books, were established and placed in charge of the administrative council for each department, composed of the departmental authorities of primary education, and the civil authorities of the several localities, presided over by the departmental inspectors. The funds for the institution of this system were to be drawn from State subventions to municipalities, school fees, and legacies and gifts to such objects. Although the Congress in October, 1917, appropriated $30,000 to organize the system, financial considerations have as yet prevented its practical organization.
Private instruction.—For the first time in the history of Uruguay systematic steps have been taken to ascertain the real nature and aims of private instruction. By executive decree of May, 1917, the inspector of private instruction and the assistant director general of primary public instruction were directed to address to every private educational institution in Uruguay a questionnaire in duplicate calling for information concerning its teaching staff, the mental and physical condition of its pupils, the hygienic conditions of the building and site, classrooms, dormitories, playgrounds, source and nature of drinking water, lighting conditions, school furniture and equipment, programs of study, methods, textbooks, school hours, and the general organization and administration of the school. No time limit was set for the reply, but it was requested within a reasonable time. The gist of the information gathered and the action of the Government have not as yet been published. Such a move has naturally aroused opposition in conservative and ecclesiastical circles, and its results are awaited with keen interest by other South American countries which have to deal with similar problems.
The issues aroused by the consideration of the private schools continued to grow more acute and culminated in the introduction of a bill in the Congress in March, 1918, forbidding the opening of private schools of any grade without the written permission of the inspectoral department of private instruction or the departmental inspectors of primary instruction; and requiring all teachers in private schools to hold a State teacher’s diploma in accordance with the provisions of the law of public instruction, and debarring the clergy from teaching in any such private schools. The bill naturally became a storm center and is as yet unenacted into law.