There is no obligation upon a foreigner resident in the country to become a citizen before he can start a trade or own estate. Two years' residence is the qualifying period to become a citizen of the Republic. If you enter the public service you can become a citizen earlier. If you marry an Argentine woman you can become a citizen right away. Every child born in Argentina, even though its parents be British and on a fortnight's visit, and have no desire to change their nationality, is counted an Argentine. Thus there are lots of residents with a dual nationality, Argentine in the Republic, but British in any other part of the world.
Though the Roman Catholic faith is that of the State, and other faiths are not restricted, the average Argentine pays little attention to religion. He likes his wife to go to church because it does her good. Education comprises three divisions: primary, secondary, and higher. The former is free, secular, and compulsory for children between six and fourteen years. If religious instruction is to be given it is only for those children who voluntarily remain after school hours on certain days. Public schools are scattered all over the Republic—though there are extensive districts where the population is thin where there is no instruction, and thousands of children grow up illiterate—and are subsidised by both the national and provincial Governments. Also there are primary schools for grown-ups, men whose education has been neglected, and who want to learn reading, writing, arithmetic, and elementary history and geography. This teaching is given during the day or evening, and is free.
Secondary education for pupils over fourteen years is neither compulsory nor free, though the fees only amount to 8s. 9d. a year. This secondary instruction, quite as wide in range as elsewhere, is given in national schools, of which there are five in Buenos Aires and one in each of the capitals of the provinces, and normal schools, which are twenty-eight in number, three in Buenos Aires and the remainder in the provinces. Five years is about the length of tuition at these schools. Then the students can enter one or other of the faculties which form the university. There are three universities in Argentina; the oldest is in Cordoba, and the others are in Buenos Aires and La Plata. To qualify in either of these universities for the practice of medicine, law, or engineering, a seven-years' course is required for the former and a six-years' course for the two latter. Minor terms of special study are required for qualification as a chemist, accoucheur, dental surgeon, surveyor, or architect. In order to obtain the degree of doctor in physical sciences further studies are required outside those of the faculties. The university council cannot grant a qualification for a notary public, which must be acquired before the Supreme Court of the particular province in which the applicant seeks permission to practise.
| THE KINDERGARTEN AT MENDOZA. |
Primary education in the capital and national territories is under the National Ministry of Education. In the provinces it is under the control of the Provincial Council of Education, who receive subventions from the national exchequer as occasion may require. The intuitive method is employed exclusively, and the whole system is modelled on that of the United States. As a rule, Spanish children learn Italian from their classmates, and vice versa. In the elementary higher standards, boys learn manual labour and French, and girls learn French and domestic duties. The schools are well built, well ventilated, the rooms are airy, each child has a separate desk, there is a medical visit every day, and where schools are within reach they are fairly well attended. But only 42 per cent. of the children in the Republic who ought to go to school do so. The low attendance may be put down to the great distances which separate the children's homes from the schools in the country districts. Very general complaints are heard in the villages of the manner in which the schools are conducted, and the small amount of knowledge acquired in spite of the flattering picture presented by the education authorities.
Considerable attention is paid to technical education, which is largely encouraged throughout the country by means of schools and training colleges maintained at the expense of the nation. Prominent among these institutions stands the National School of Commerce, which trains and prepares mercantile experts, public accountants, and sworn translators. There are also commercial schools in Cordoba and Bahia Blanca. These schools are attended by about a thousand pupils, who receive instruction in commercial arithmetic, account and book-keeping, French, German, etc. The schools are open to both sexes, and in them the pupils can qualify for employment as book-keepers, accountants, clerks, etc. The Industrial School has its own workshops for the teaching of trades. The entrance conditions are similar to those for the national schools. Thorough practical instruction is given to about four hundred pupils in a number of subjects, including chemistry, mechanics, physics, optics, electricity, architecture, practical carpentry, mechanical and electrical engineering. The complete course lasts about six years, and the school is said to have given very good results. There is a School of Mines at San Juan, to which was added, by a decree dated April 20th, 1906, a section of chemical industry. There is an important agricultural college known as the Agrarian and Veterinary School at Santa Catalina in the immediate neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, and at Mendoza there is a viticultural training school where the practical cultivation of the vine is taught. Various other agricultural and horticultural schools are being established by the Government, which also supports the National School of Pilots, several conservatories of music, and a drawing school.