| 4 lyceums | with | 543 | pupils. |
| 6 superior girl schools | ” | 563 | ” |
| 5 secondary schools | ” | 350 | ” |
| 165 primary schools | ” | 11,784 | ” |
| 200 rural schools | ” | 5,939 | ” |
| 1 school of medicine | ” | 25 | ” |
| 1 school of music | ” | 46 | ” |
| ——— | |||
| 19,250 | ” |
To these may be added the pupils in the private schools and in those of the Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Cluny.
It is very difficult to test the results attained at the official schools, but I think, judging from my own experience in Hayti, that they are small indeed. Some of the commissions appointed to examine the scholars report favourably, but, after the example of Monsieur Pentalon, I put but little faith in these judgments.
In the official report for the year 1878 there is much shortcoming confessed, and the feeling after reading it is, that the majority of the teachers are incompetent, as all negligently-paid service must be. Good teachers will not remain in employment with salaries often six months in arrear, and only those who can find nothing else to do will carry on the schools. Negligence is the result, and negligence in the masters acts on the scholars, and their attendance is irregular; and the means of teaching are often wanting, as the money voted for the purchase of books goes in this revolutionary country for arms and powder. Parents, particularly negro parents, rarely appreciate the value of the knowledge to be acquired in schools, and are apt to send their children late and take them away early, in order to aid in the family’s support.
The best school in the country is the Petit Séminaire, conducted by priests—Jesuits, it is said, under another name. The head of the college in my time, and, I believe, to the present day, was Père Simonet, a very superior man, quite capable of directing the institution aright; and I have been informed that the favourable results of their system of education have been very marked. In September 1883 this establishment was directed by fifteen priests of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, and contained as many as 300 pupils.
The Sisters of Cluny have also an establishment near Port-au-Prince, where the daughters of the chief families of the capital receive their education, and their institution is well spoken of. I attended one of their examinations and school exhibitions, when recitals and acting by the young girls were the amusements afforded us. Some of the pupils appeared to be remarkably bright, and they acquitted themselves of their tasks in a very pleasing manner. Since I left Hayti, these establishments for girls have greatly increased in importance. There are now as many as sixty sisters, and twenty others called “Filles de la Sagesse,” who have established schools throughout the country, which in 1883 were attended by about 3000 pupils.
The Christian Brothers have also many schools dispersed throughout the country, principally, however, in the larger towns, which are fairly well attended. They are reported to have had also in 1883 as many as 3000 boys under tuition.
It is generally thought that the teaching in all these schools is not such as to develop the intellect of the pupils. As might have been expected, too much time is given to trifling with religious subjects, as teaching the girls an infinity of hymns to Mary, and to the study of the lives of the saints. Such, at least, was the complaint made to me by the relatives of the girls. Nothing appears to be able to avert the evil influence of the immodest surroundings of these schools. A gentleman told me that, entering a room where his nieces were sitting sewing, he heard them singing a most indecent song in Creole, probably quite innocent of the real meaning, and they told him that they had learnt it from the native servants at the school; whilst the pupils at the Petit Séminaire have often suffered from the utter depravity of some of the lower portion of the population.
In one of the official reports on the principal lyceum, the Minister of Public Instruction remarks:—“As regards studies, discipline of pupils and teachers, the national lyceum has fallen into a shameful state. It is to the superior direction that this abasement of the lyceum is in part to be attributed. It so far forgets itself, as to give to professors and pupils scandalous spectacles, which attest the disregard of propriety and of the most ordinary reserve that a teacher ought to observe in presence of early age and youth.”
By this account it would appear that the pupils have often but a poor example to imitate. I should have set down to political feeling this strong censure had I not known the lyceum in my time to have fallen very low indeed in public estimation.