(k) Higher institutions of commercial education establish, if not already existing, in their curricula the separation of commercial from economic geography, the study of commercial geography to begin in primary schools, with periodical competitions for the preparation of the best commercial and economic geographies of each country and the exchange of prize works be arranged for.
(l) Institutions of bibliography and information be established, independent of or annexed to seminaries or institutes, for investigation existing or to be founded in America, and providing for the widest exchange of economic, financial, and commercial information collected.
(m) The practice of the professions receiving diplomas from higher institutions of commercial learning in commercial, civil, and administrative matters be legally recognized.
(n) An extraordinary prize to be known as the Pablo Fontaina Prize for Commercial Studies be offered for students of higher institutions of commercial learning. (Sr. Pablo Fontaina is director of the Superior School of Commerce of Montevideo and played a prominent part in the organization and work of the congress.)
(o) Entrance into consular and diplomatic services be granted by competitive examination or to candidates presenting degrees issued by official institutions of higher commercial learning.
(p) Courses of ethics in preparatory studies and lectures on commercial ethics in higher institutions of commercial learning delivered by distinguished professional men be established.
TRAINING OF TEACHERS.
Uruguay has always been progressive in this field. In 1914 Señorita Leonor Hourticou, the directress of the Normal Institute for Girls, submitted to the national inspector of primary instruction a far-reaching and systematic plan of reform in the aims and methods of practice teaching. She urged the establishment of a general directorate of teachers’ practice training, composed of directors of normal institutes and the national technical inspector of schools, which body was to operate through a salaried secretary. Practice teaching for the first grade was to be required for one year with a minimum of 160 sessions and for the second year for at least three months with a minimum number of 60 sessions. Twelve schools for practice teaching were to be established at Montevideo. Local inspectors were to be appointed by the general directorate. While this scheme was not enacted into law, yet it had very great value in focusing the attention of the educational authorities upon the practical problem of reorganizing practice teaching.
These recommendations were allowed to lapse; but along with the demand for improved schools went a similar one for the improvement of the schools in towns and villages. In 1916 a committee of which the directress of the Normal Institute for Girls was chairman was appointed to formulate a training course for nonrural teachers which should be in keeping with the recognized needs of modern schools. In October, 1916, it presented as its report an outline of studies recommended to be incorporated in the three years’ training course for primary teachers.
Taking up for the present only the teachers of the first and second grades, the committee recommended the following courses: Arithmetic, accounting, algebra, applied geometry, penmanship and drawing, elements of biology, zoology, botany, mineralogy and geology, anatomy, physiology and hygiene, physics and chemistry, studies in industries, geography and cosmography, history (national, South American, and universal), constitutional law, sociology and political economy, literature and composition, French, philosophy, and pedagogy with practice teaching. By the approval of the executive these courses were to go into effect in September, 1917.