The kingdom of Belgium is divided into nine provinces—Antwerp, Brabant, West Flanders, East Flanders, Hainaut, Liège, Limburg, Namur, and Luxemburg (not to be confused with the adjoining political state of the same name). Each province is subdivided into cantons and communes, presided over by a governor nominated by the King.
The children of Belgian subjects are educated at the expense of the State, unless their parents are able to pay a modest fee. The Minister of Instruction regularly receives reports from inspectors who make a tour of all the schools in each province, and, in the grammar schools, the Government has the right to name the teaching staff. State universities are maintained at Ghent and Liège; at Brussels and Louvain there are institutions that afford free instruction in advanced subjects and in law and medicine. There are also many schools that are maintained by the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church. As a result of compulsory education laws, about ninety per cent. of the population are able to read and write.
WRITTEN FOR THE MENTOR BY RUTH KEDZIE WOOD
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 8, No. 3, SERIAL No. 199
COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION. INC.
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN BEFORE THE BOMBARDMENT OF AUGUST 1914
COPYRIGHT, UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD
THE VILLAGE OF DINANT-ON-THE-MEUSE
BELGIUM
The Walloons and the Flemings
THREE
