EDUCATION IN URUGUAY.

The marked educational awakening of Uruguay during the last biennium has been only one phase of the universal demand of the nation for a new social and economic adjustment. Perhaps the chief manifestation of this has been the adoption of the new constitution in place of the old, which had been in force exactly 90 years. At a plebiscite of November, 1917, the constitution as formulated was submitted to the people and adopted by a vote of 85,000 to 4,000; and it became the fundamental law of the land on March 1, 1919. As regards its bearings upon educational administration, the most noteworthy change—and perhaps that around which centered most opposition during its consideration—was the provision which divides the executive power between a President and a National Council of Administration.

The latter body, composed of nine members elected for six years directly by the people, and absolutely independent of the President, has charge of all matters relating to public instruction, public works, labor, industries, public charities, health, and the preparation of the annual national budget. The administrative officers of public instruction of all grades, including the minister, are appointed by the National Council and are subject to its authority according to such particular laws and regulations as the Congress may enact. This substitution of a composite board for an individual as the fountainhead of educational authority is an experiment whose operations will be observed with much interest in a country of South America habituated by tradition to authority concentrated in an individual.

Instruction of adults and the night schools.—The problem of combating illiteracy, as in all the more progressive South American countries during the last biennium, has received more systematic considerationthan during any previous period.[2]As will be seen later in the consideration of the rural schools, measures have been taken which are of unusual importance for the instruction of youthful illiterates. In the related field of instruction of adults who are illiterates or nearly so, work of a creative nature has been done in Uruguay. The mere statistics show progress, the courses offered for adults in the year 1916-17 being 55 in excess of the former year and the enrollment 5,284, an increase of 1,671 over that year; but the new spirit animating this branch is the notable feature. The authorities have kept it steadily in mind to carry adult education out from the capital city to the rural districts; and the national authorities of primary education have cooperated efficiently in lending schoolhouses as places for adult instruction and encouraging primary teachers to assist in this work. The Government has furthered the study of the problem in the researches of Señor Hipolito Coirolo, director of the largest night school for adults in Montevideo. Señor Coirolo spent nearly two years in collecting systematic data from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Paraguay, which were naturally confronted by the same problems in adult illiteracy. In March, 1917, he presented to the authorities the results of his findings in a project for the organic reform of instruction for adults in the night schools. Señor Coirolo maintained that the time was ripe for progress in this field to keep pace with the other educational demands, more especially as it was admitted that the prevailing system was a more or less poorly made combination of regulations and practices covering many localities and periods, and had been only tentatively adopted by presidential decree in 1903, and given legal existence in 1907, when 35 night schools were organized. All familiar with conditions knew that they were now completely out of touch with modern social and educational demands.

[2]See executive message of May, 1917, accompanying project of law for appropriation of $50,000 for appointment of 100 assistant primary teachers for the Departments of the Republic.

Señor Coirolo found the curriculum of night schools too largely theoretical and bookish and in only a few instances offering practical instruction. After careful study of the subjects offered in the night schools of progressive countries, he urged that the night schools of the future be organized upon the following main lines:

1. The completion of 17 years of age requisite for admission.

2. The division into three classes, each occupying a year according to the degree of illiteracy, and the division of each class into three cycles of three months each, the cycle to be the unit of time, without limitation upon the transfer of pupils from one cycle to another.

3. The subjects to be introduced in logical sequence and to be taught in accordance with the development of the pupil and to consistof reading, language work, writing, arithmetic, elements of applied geometry, singing, drawing, moral instruction, elements of anatomy, physiology, hygiene, civic instruction, geography, and history (national and universal); talks and lessons on objects of daily life, manual arts, domestic economy, and household arts; elements of political economy, sociology, psychology, duties of parents, accounting, and industrial training. Individual conferences with teachers, reading, writing, and arithmetic are to be continued through all three years; and each year is to close with a review and finishing course, devoting attention to individual needs.

4. Under the head of general administration the proponent urged the elimination of religious instruction in night schools, less attention to examinations for promotion, the prohibition of holding night schools in buildings occupied by children during the day, and careful inspection of night schools by appointed authorities.

Certain of these provisions were embodied in a ministerial decree of October, 1917, which stressed the importance of this branch of education in the national life, and appropriated $10,000 for the increase of the staff of teachers in commercial subjects and domestic arts.

In 1917 slightly less than 100,000 pupils were enrolled in the 1,014 public primary schools of Uruguay, an increase of 2,500 over the preceding year. Of these, nearly 65,000 were enrolled in the city of Montevideo alone.

In administration and inspection the authorities in this field were active and progressive. Tentative reforms in the programs of study for the schools of towns and villages, a step long urged by them, were outlined by the minister of education; and wider latitude was allowed such individual schools in the matter of adapting nature study and practical courses to regular school work in accordance with local conditions and occupations. This step was in keeping with the attention paid to rural schools, which will be discussed later.

By executive resolution of July, 1917, the long-discussed change in the school year was made by which it shall hereafter open March 1 and close December 15. As with the similar change in Argentina, beneficial results, especially in the rural schools, are expected, as this arrangement is in conformity with climatic conditions. The change was made after investigation among the teaching force, and the country teachers won a victory over their city fellows, who favored vacations in the summer. This is but another and a significant effect of the steady centripetal attraction of the overshadowing capital city, more marked even in the new countries of South America than in theold ones of Europe. The country teachers have openly expressed their wish to spend the longest possible time in the capital, in spite of the inconveniences of such a sojourn in the summer. A further light upon the country teacher’s point of view is shown by the information that the long vacations in winter permit the small landowner to employ his children in labors of battage, which begin in December and last most of the winter. The schools are therefore practically empty in winter. It is manifestly wiser to put the former long vacation of July at this time.

Complaints having become more frequent in regard to the blocking of educational administration in certain departments because of disagreements among inspectors, more drastic requirements were laid down by resolutions of the National Inspection of Primary Instruction, dated February, 1917. The authority of the departmental inspector over the subinspectors was confirmed; in the event of disagreement or insubordination the departmental inspector was required to present the case to the Department of National Inspection; the visitation of schools was distributed as nearly equally as possible; and the responsibility for inaction was put squarely upon the inspectors.

These provisions, rigorous as they were, did not prove adequate, and much of the business of the schools of the outlying departments still remained blocked. The executive, therefore, in November, 1917, transmitted to the Congress, along with a message emphasizing the necessity of the law, a project for the establishment of three divisions of regional inspectors of primary education to exercise general supervision over the departmental inspectors and the schools of the Republic. These regional inspectors acting as a unit were to constitute the technical inspection of the school authorities. Their functions were to be regulated by the executive in accordance with the reports of the national inspection and the general direction of primary instruction. The hitherto existing chief inspectors, technical, adjunct, and chief of statistics were to be transformed into regional inspectors, and under their immediate supervision were to be put all the departmental inspectors. The projected law encountered unexpected opposition, and its passage has not as yet been secured.

Scientific interest in the character of the textbooks adopted for use in the primary schools of Uruguay has been aroused by the Government’s offer of prizes for satisfactory textbooks and by the publication in the Anales de Instruccion Primaria of illustrative lines and themes of treatment. The general assembly has authorized the offer of $6,000 in prizes in the contest for the composition of a book combining in a single volume all the textbook material needed in the fourth, fifth, and sixth classes in the public schools of Montevideo. This offer had as its object to lower the cost of education and thus tofacilitate attendance, as the book in question was to be distributed gratuitously in cases of need.

A circular issued by the department of technical inspection in April, 1917, called the attention of teachers to the abuses of assigning written home work and limited such tasks to 30 minutes in classes of the first grade and to one hour for those in higher grades.

By executive decree, school savings funds and a system of aid for necessitous children, supplying clothing, midday meal, transportation, and books, were established and placed in charge of the administrative council for each department, composed of the departmental authorities of primary education, and the civil authorities of the several localities, presided over by the departmental inspectors. The funds for the institution of this system were to be drawn from State subventions to municipalities, school fees, and legacies and gifts to such objects. Although the Congress in October, 1917, appropriated $30,000 to organize the system, financial considerations have as yet prevented its practical organization.

Private instruction.—For the first time in the history of Uruguay systematic steps have been taken to ascertain the real nature and aims of private instruction. By executive decree of May, 1917, the inspector of private instruction and the assistant director general of primary public instruction were directed to address to every private educational institution in Uruguay a questionnaire in duplicate calling for information concerning its teaching staff, the mental and physical condition of its pupils, the hygienic conditions of the building and site, classrooms, dormitories, playgrounds, source and nature of drinking water, lighting conditions, school furniture and equipment, programs of study, methods, textbooks, school hours, and the general organization and administration of the school. No time limit was set for the reply, but it was requested within a reasonable time. The gist of the information gathered and the action of the Government have not as yet been published. Such a move has naturally aroused opposition in conservative and ecclesiastical circles, and its results are awaited with keen interest by other South American countries which have to deal with similar problems.

The issues aroused by the consideration of the private schools continued to grow more acute and culminated in the introduction of a bill in the Congress in March, 1918, forbidding the opening of private schools of any grade without the written permission of the inspectoral department of private instruction or the departmental inspectors of primary instruction; and requiring all teachers in private schools to hold a State teacher’s diploma in accordance with the provisions of the law of public instruction, and debarring the clergy from teaching in any such private schools. The bill naturally became a storm center and is as yet unenacted into law.

Until the breaking out of the World War, and the consequent upsetting of traditions in all South American countries whose outlet is on the Atlantic Ocean, educational thought in Uruguay concerned itself largely with the capital city. In this respect, as in that of population (one out of three people in Uruguay lives in Montevideo), the centralizing tendency of South American countries is well illustrated. But a vital change began to show itself from 1914 to 1916, and in the latter year it acquired extraordinary impetus from the support of national leaders and of the press. The nation has grown steadily to recognize the proper balance to be observed between the claims of the schools of the capital and those of the rural districts. It has come to see that a healthy national life was possible only with organic changes in the schools of the outlying departments, and that these of Montevideo could without danger be left at their present status until the education of the people from whom the great city was steadily recruited should be attended to. It is in the light of this radical change in the national attitude that the educational history of Uruguay for the last biennium should be read.

This epoch in educational progress has been further marked by the recognition of the need of financial support for rural education, and the further need of differentiating the subjects of instruction proper for rural children from those adapted to the city. In getting this principle clearly before the public mind, the educational authorities of Uruguay have played a part excelled in few countries for skill and devotion to the national interests. Mention should be made of the able contributions of Señor A. J. Pérez, National Inspector of Primary Education, especially of his study entitled “De la cultura necessaria en la democracia” (Anales, 1918), which applies to modern conditions De Tocqueville’s main lines of thought.

A commission of nine experienced teachers, six men and three women, with Señor Pérez as chairman, was appointed by executive decree to formulate the program of study for the projected rural schools. It began its sessions in February, 1917, and met frequently for two months. Its report was presented in May, 1917. Approved by the executive in June, by decree it went into effect on March 1, 1918. The main contentions of the commission in support of its plan are well worthy of notice:

1. Far-reaching changes within a generation in the commercial and industrial life of the nation have affected the rural districts and have called for different subjects and methods of instruction for the children of these districts. The rural school of the future must berecognized as fundamentally an elementary industrial school adjusted to local conditions.

2. The successful rural school must have the following aims: To inculcate conscientious and efficient labor; to minister to a well-regulated and happy home life; to diffuse the knowledge of private and public hygiene, and to further the increase of population and public wealth and, in general, the possession of a well-founded and enduring popular liberty.

3. The intimate relation of the rural schools with the problems of home life requires the new rural school to be taught by women, and therefore the training of young women as teachers in such schools should be at once initiated and continued as the basis of their success. Concrete illustration is found in the successful intensive training of 24 young women in a course of six weeks at the normal institute at Montevideo in the summer of 1917.

4. In the administrative organization the committee was guided by the following general principles: (a) Not to install rural schools by foundation or transfer except in localities where donations of ground of not less than 4 hectares (10 acres) should be immediately available; (b) to urge similar donations, public or private, to existing rural schools which lacked grounds of the minimum area above indicated; (c) to propose and encourage the transfer of rural schools that had no grounds annexed nor could obtain such by donation to another parish where such advantages could be obtained without prejudice to the interests of the rural schools in the district.

5. No child below 7 years of age should be admitted to the rural schools.

6. The programs of study for the rural schools occupied the greater part of the commission’s time. The subjects of instruction as reported covered three years, and were reading, language work, writing, arithmetic, drawing, agriculture, domestic economy, elements of applied geometry, geography and history (local, national, and universal), singing, and gymnastics. In the view of the commission itself, the feature which peculiarly differentiates these new programs is the complete application of practical methods and aims to each of these subjects, the elimination of abstract and memory teaching, and, above all, the development of the subjects of drawing, agriculture, and domestic economy. The fundamental aim throughout was to correlate instruction with the conditions and occupations of life in the several communities and to lead the pupil to see each subject as related to practical utility.

Following the promulgation of the report of the commission, lively interest was manifested by the nation at large in the initiation of such rural schools. Practical difficulties, however, were foreseen in securing funds for their launching upon the nation-wide scale hopedfor, and restlessness in certain quarters was manifested, though the Chamber of Deputies promptly voted the funds necessary. The National Rural Congress of Uruguay, in session in August, 1917, addressed to the minister of public instruction an urgent plea for carrying out the terms of the report in time for the opening of at least a part of such schools with the new school year.

The medical inspection of schools has been favorably regarded in Uruguay for a number of years. It was initiated by law in 1913 with the examination of the pupils of the normal schools in Montevideo and the division of urban and rural schools into five groups. Since then popular approval of its application to the schools of the nation has steadily grown.

Under the present law individual inspection of the physical condition of pupils concerns itself only with those who enter for the first time. Naturally the law is applied with varying degrees of rigor, the schools of the capital being visited regularly by the medical inspectors, while those of the outlying departments are dependent upon the energy and faithfulness of the individual inspector. The law assigns to each a certain number of schools to visit. Capable medical inspectors have served their nation well in pointing out the grave disadvantages from the use of primary schools for night schools for adults, especially the danger of tuberculosis.

Medical inspectors are also required by law to include in their tri-monthly reports recommendations for repairs, alterations, etc., of school buildings and grounds called for by sanitary or hygienic considerations.

Dental inspection has also been systematically carried on in most of the schools of the capital, the reports of oral and dental affections observed in the children reaching 76 per cent of the total ailments noted. Ocular inspection in the schools of Montevideo has also been made a separate field within the last biennium.

By an amendment of 1916 to the existing law an annual physical examination of teachers in the schools of Montevideo will be required. This was naturally, and in certain instances bitterly, opposed; but the opposition has largely died down, and the teachers themselves have come to realize the benefits involved.

In accordance with the wish of educational officials to diffuse among the schools of Uruguay the benefits of international progress in the physical betterment of school children, a commission was named by the executive in April, 1916, to draw up a plan of physical educationin schools. This commission, acting in cooperation with the general direction of primary instruction, recommended to the executive the appointment of a permanent technical commission of physical training for schools, and this recommendation was approved by executive decree of March 8, 1918. The commission so appointed was to consist of a member of the general direction of primary instruction, one of the national commission of physical education, a physician of the medical school staff, a physician to be named by the National Council of Hygiene, the technical inspector of primary education, the technical director of the National Commission of Physical Education, the teachers of gymnastics of the normal institutes and of the primary schools of the capital, and two physicians who were specialists in diseases of children.

The province of the commission was to draw up for the general direction of primary instruction programs of physical exercises for schools; to outline methods of instruction; to see that these programs and methods were practically carried out in the public schools, to inform the school authorities upon points of deficiency in instruction and to indicate measures of correcting these; to organize gymnastic meetings and exhibitions for schools, and in general to promote the diffusion of physical education in the schools.

In furtherance of the awakened national interest in physical education, the executive has appointed departmental commissions in various departments for the immediate provision of adequate playgrounds and the acquisition of apparatus for games to be installed in town and village plazas. These have cooperated with the National Commission for Physical Education, the latter having decreed the establishment, upon application of residents, of neighborhood and community playing centers. All games, especially those of North America, which are adapted to the climate and environment have been systematically encouraged. In localities where it was required by law the executive has authorized the municipal authorities, with the consent of the national commission, to negotiate such loans as were necessary for the financial carrying out of this nation-wide scheme. These are steps of very great significance in a country of South America not by tradition or racial inheritance addicted to outdoor sports.

By executive message of February 14, 1918, the work of certain of the departmental liceos in discovering boys of talent in the higher elementary schools who were without means of continuing their education, and giving them opportunities to pursue their studies by means of a system of scholarships, was highly commended, especiallyas a beginning of bridging the chasm between elementary and secondary education.

In response to popular demand, courses in Italian and Portuguese were incorporated by decree of the secondary education division of public instruction in 1917. With the object of making known to teachers in secondary education the international progress in this field, a journal entitled “Revista de Enseñanza Secundaria” was established by executive decree under the direction of the secretary of this division. All reports and public business concerning this division are to be published in this journal.

By executive decree of November, 1917, all courses for the training of primary-school teachers maintained since April, 1916, in the liceos of the outlying departments were discontinued. They had been originally instituted by way of experiment for supplying teachers for the rural schools, and were not regarded as serving this purpose. Furthermore, in view of the agitation for improved rural schools, it was regarded as useless to continue a system of training which had proved, because of its environment, impracticable to harmonize with modern schools.

The past biennium has seen a considerable development of interest in commercial education. By executive recommendation and by law of January, 1916, there were introduced in the liceos and national schools of commerce in the capital and three of the larger cities courses of varying length for the training of boys for the consular, diplomatic, and foreign agency services. By ministerial decree of April, 1917, there were incorporated in the national schools of commerce courses in civil and commercial law, American history, and advanced courses in accounting and bookkeeping; and legal permission was given the individual school to extend the latter courses into the fifth year wherever deemed suitable. In common with students finishing the courses in the liceos, those from national school of commerce were granted opportunity to compete for scholarships abroad offered by decree of January, 1918. These scholarships are good for one or more years according to the success of the holder, and are apportioned among the departments according to the discretion of the council of secondary and preparatory education. Among the usual scholastic requirements called for are periodical reports from the holder of such a scholarship concerning the social and economic conditions of the people among whom he has been sent to study.

Following the plan drawn up at Montevideo in the summer of 1918 by governmental and educational representatives from most ofthe South American countries, invitations were sent to all interested in commercial education to attend the South American Congress of Commercial Education to be held in that city in January-February, 1919. The best talent in this division of education was assigned the discussion of topics which were considered as most urgent at the present time. They were treated under two main heads, those of (a) economic commercial expansion and (b) commercial instruction. The former head, not being essentially educational, calls for no notice here. The latter included the following topics:

1. From what points, how, and by what means commercial education should be developed on the American continent; extent and sub-division of such instruction.

2. Means of stimulating acquaintance among the peoples of the Americas.

3. The centers of commercial education as professional schools, and as institutions of modern culture.

4. Should courses in business ethics be included in the curriculum of the advanced classes? Morale, character, and culture of students of commerce and of consular service.

5. Universal history of commerce as an indispensable element in the training of competent consuls.

6. Are screen films necessary in giving instruction in commerce and geography?

7. Countinghouse practice.

8. How should commerce be taught?

9. Teaching of languages in the centers of commercial education.

10. Preparation of women for a commercial career.

Among the resolutions officially adopted by the congress which had educational bearing were those recommending that—

(a) Institutes or sections of economic expansion in faculties of economic science, schools, and higher centers of economic and commercial study be established which should devote themselves especially to the study and practical solution of the various economic questions affecting inter-American relations and solidarity.

(b) For social and economic ends American countries create and aid industrial schools for fisheries and derived industries.

(d) There be included in programs of higher commercial study courses of comparative American economy and comparative customs legislation (the latter for consular courses), and that existing seminaries of economic investigation or higher commerce schools write the economic and financial history of their respective countries.

(e) The interchange of professors and students between the higher institutions of commercial learning be initiated.

(f) International agreements be concluded for the reciprocal recognition of degrees issued by institutions of commercial learning and that scholarships be granted for the interchange of students.

(g) The compilation of legislation of American countries concerning commercial education be intrusted to the permanent commission created by the congress. The commission will be assisted in this work by a committee of professors and experts in commercial education and will be charged with proposing plans and curricula in accordance with the following: Commercial instruction, which presupposes primary education, to be divided into three categories—(a) Elementary instruction, which may be dependent or independent; (b) secondary instruction; (c) higher instruction. The purpose of these branches is: (a) To train auxiliaries of commerce; (b) to prepare for commerce in general; (c) to furnish economic, financial, and commercial knowledge preparing for directive functions in commerce and industry, insurance and consular work, etc.

(h) Preliminary cultural studies of two grades be established, one confined to the first and second categories of commercial instruction, and the second for broader instruction in the third category.

(i) The study of the proposal of the National Institute of Commerce of La Paz, Bolivia, concerning education of women be referred to the permanent commission.

(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.

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.

Training of rural teachers.—The movement to improve the conditions of rural life which has been mentioned before began in earnest in 1914. In that year a report based upon an intensive study of the social and economic needs of the rural districts was presented to the general direction of primary instruction by a committee of teachers especially appointed for that purpose. Though no official action was taken at the time, the ventilation of the subject was very opportune and aroused public interest in a field so vital to the welfare of the nation. In every phase of rural education, and especially in the training of the teachers required, practical reforms were recognized as urgently necessary. From the strictly pedagogical point of view, the projects for teacher training as laid down in that report were of supreme interest, as constituting the basis upon which all subsequent suggestions have rested. They called for the establishment of a normal school exclusively for women rural teachers, which was preferably to be located either within the capital city or within easy access of it. This school was to work along the three main lines of agriculture, horticulture, and domestic science. For admission there was to be required, in addition to the usual certificates of mental, moral, and physical fitness, the certificate of completion of at least the third year of the program of the rural schools.

The courses were to cover at least two years, preferably three, with provision for four-year courses for pupils aspiring to the post of rural inspectors, an aspiration which was encouraged in the report. Only two or three scholarships were to be offered in each department, and the number of pupils was to be restricted to 50 for the first year. No purely theoretical instruction whatsoever was to be allowed. Increasingly specialized work in the practice school annexed was to be required of every pupil each year. For the last two years the work of practice teaching was to be so arranged as to alternate by semesters with the classroom work assigned. The latter, toward the end of each semester, was to review all the work from the beginning.

The projected institute was to be provided with all grounds, buildings, and equipment necessary for the teaching of every phase of rural life, including the care of fowls and cattle, with library and laboratories, with a modern gymnasium, with a hall for the teaching of the fine arts, and, most important of all, with a mixed practice school under the direction of the authorities of the institute, consisting of at least three grades and preferably four.

Summer courses for teachers, both men and women, were to be offered, emphasizing practical work in all courses related to rural life. Traveling schools of agriculture were outlined to appeal especially to youths of years beyond the rural school age and already engaged in farming, each class to have not less than 8 pupils and not more than 15, and to continue for periods ranging from one weekto two months according to the demand in each locality. These traveling schools were to be organized for the same unit of territory as the rural schools already in existence. Each course was to be arranged in cycles as follows: (1) Three years’ course in dairying; (2) four years’ course in domestic science; (3) three years’ course for rural teachers, men and women. Suitable certificates were to be awarded students satisfactorily completing these courses.

As regards the courses in rural schools, the committee found that the advantages accruing did not justify instructing pupils below 8 years of age in formal agriculture, satisfactory progress being made if the pupil was awakened to a love of nature and an interest in the life of the farm. Pupils above 8 were to be instructed in agricultural courses progressively adapted to their maturity and to the peculiar conditions of locality, soil, and climate.

As regards courses in domestic science, though the subject does not permit of a sharp age line of cleavage, yet the youngest girls might most profitably be given the elements, while the older girls might, in the discretion of trained teachers, take up the formal and technical study of food values in connection with elementary chemistry, physiology, and biology.

Anticipating the establishment of the normal schools for the exclusive training of teachers for the projected rural schools, the executive in November, 1917, sent to the Congress, along with the accompanying message, the project of a law for establishing two normal schools of agriculture in the Departments of Colonia and San Jose. These schools were intended to minister to the special need of these outlying departments. Their courses were to be intensive in character, adapted especially to the training of teachers for these localities, and to cover a year. Indeed, the bill specifically mentioned their purposes as intimately related with the forthcoming rural schools. The bill at once became a law, and the schools were to begin operation in March, 1918.

In the field of university education no changes, administrative or instructional, are recorded for the past biennium; but there has been a certain amount of dissatisfaction with the administrative government of the University of Montevideo. In September, 1918, the executive sent to the Congress, along with an accompanying message, the project of a law clearly defining the constitution of the directive councils of the several faculties of the University of Montevideo as established by the laws of 1908 and 1915. Contention had arisen as to the right of electing representatives to each of these councils. By the new law each such council was to have 10members and a dean. In the faculty of law four of these were to be elected by the attorneys who were also professors; four attorneys to be selected by those neither professors nor substitutes; one minor attorney by those neither professors nor substitutes; one student delegate by the students themselves.

In the faculty of medicine four members were to be elected by the professors, substitutes, and chiefs of clinics and laboratories; three members to be elected by the physicians not embraced in the above categories; one member to be elected by the pharmacists; and one by the dentists not included in the categories above; one member to be elected by the students of medicine, pharmacy, and dentistry.

In the faculty of engineering four members were to be elected by the professors and substitutes; three members to be elected by the engineers; and two by the surveyors who were neither professors nor substitutes; one member to be elected by the students of engineering and surveying.

In the faculty of architecture five members were to be elected by the professors and substitutes; four members to be elected by architects who were neither professors nor substitutes; one member to be elected by the students of architecture.

By decrees of 1917 enacted into law, seven years of advanced courses were required for the degree of doctor of medicine and five years for the degree of architect. Special courses of one and two years in construction and materials, leading to certificates but not to degrees, were formulated and allowed by the ministry of public instruction.

In pursuance of the policy of exchanging professors between the various countries of South America formulated at the Pan American Conference held at Buenos Aires in 1910, special exchange was arranged with Chile in 1916.

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