Interest in the education of girls has made progress in Venezuela, an especially promising liceo for girls having been established at Caracas, offering advanced courses covering two years, with special attention to physical training and modern subjects.
Education in arts and crafts for men has long been popular in Venezuela, perhaps largely because of the national talent in those subjects. The school at Caracas, established in 1916, offers a four-year course, with English as the only foreign language. Within two years it reached an enrollment of 288 in the regular classes and 213 in the night courses.
Commercial education and training in political science courses have grown in popularity during the last biennium. Schools of the former have been established at Caracas, Maracaibo, Ciudad Bolívar, and Puerto Cabello; and of the latter, at Caracas, subsidized by the Government and regarded as an important adjunct in training for the legal profession.
In the field of the primary normal schools, the ministry has seen the necessity of their serving more largely the educational needs of the nation by supplying more and better teachers to the schools. It is, therefore, proposed to revise them thoroughly, especially in regard to the chief defect observed since their establishment, namely, the poor preparation of students who enter. It is proposed to offer, preparatory to the normal school proper, a perfecting course in essentials covering two or three years, to which would be added French, drawing, gymnastics, and music. Such a course would preferably be offered in the higher primary schools. The pupil should then proceed to the specialized subjects of pedagogy, methodology, psychology, and the history of education, these subjects to cover one year.
Another serious problem is the great difficulty experienced in securing suitable candidates for the scholarships offered in the primary normal schools by the several States and Territories. In many of them the memoria reports that the appointments had to lapse in view of the fact that no candidates qualified for them. The minister therefore suggested that a system of boarding departments, annexed to the normal schools, each accommodating about 20 boys of 10 to 13 years, should be established as feeders to the normal school system.
By presidential decree, dated July, 1917, special courses in practical agriculture, horticulture, floriculture, and domestic sciences were established in the primary normal schools, with the view of especially equipping teachers for the rural schools, whose establishment has come to be regarded as so necessary for the nation.
By presidential decree of March, 1917, an experimental station of agriculture and forestry, with an acclimatization garden, was established near Caracas. It is intended to serve as a model for other such stations in other parts of the country. “The objects of the station are the improvement of the methods of cultivation of the chief agricultural products of Venezuela; the introduction, selection, and distribution of seeds; experiments in reforestation; the suitability of soils to crops and of crops to various regions; and practical work for the training of agricultural foremen and forest rangers.”
Transcriber’s Notes
[Page 6]: “Quezaltenango” changed to “Quetzaltenango”
[Page 13]: “themselves especialy” changed to “themselves especially” “educationaly advanced” changed to “educationally advanced”