The subjects which must be taught in every primary school, in addition to moral and religious teaching, are reading, writing, arithmetic, the elements of French grammar, and the French system of weights and measures; there are other .subjects which are facultative—which, 'whole or in pert, may be taught, that is, if of the commune should so desire, and the departmental council give its consent. These facul tative matters are the applications of arithmetic; the elements of history and of geogra phy; the elements of physics and of natural history; elementary instruction in airricul tore, the arts, and hygiene; surveying. leveling, drawing, singing, and gymnastics. For girls, there are superior primary schools which teach the facultative matters only; and in girls' schools instruction is usually given in needle-work for about three hours a day.
For the preparation of male teachers, the law requires every department to maintain a normal school; in some cases, however, two departments are allowed to maintain one jointly: there are now 70 of these schools. There are separate normal schools for female teachers; ut these. the number was recently 34; now that the law is about to add largely to the number a girls' schools, it will probably be increased. The members of the religious orders devoted to teaching, which perform a great part in primary education, are trained for their duties in the establishments of their respective orders. (Of these orders, the most in.portant is that of the brethren of the Christian schools.) The instruc tion of she normal schools is meager; it scarcely exceeds the subjects of primary instruc doll; a considirable proportion of the students, indeed, acquire only all imperfect knowledge of the famhative subjects. School-method is what, in the normal schools, it is deemed 'float important to teach. The examination for primary school-masters which is conducted by a commission appointed by the departmental council—is limited to the subjects taught in the schools. There are two classes of certificates, according as tile teacher passes in the obligatory subjects only, or in the whoie or part of the faculta tive subjects also. Every nude teacher, public or private, is required to have the certifi cate of capacity granted after an examination; also, excepting in the case of religious pet-sons, a certificate of morality. The law recognizes a certificate of stage, to bcgranted. to assistant's who have served as such for three years, as a substitute for the certificate of capacity, but this provision has been unpopular, and the qualification of stage is practi cally unknown. Female lay teachers require the certificate of capacity; female teachers )f the religious orders are exempt from it. No person can be appointed a regular coin muual teacher unless he be twenty-foam' years old, and have served for three years since his twenty-first year as an assistant, or as a supplying teacher. The supplying teacher
gets a lower salary, and may be employed in the poorer communes. The salaries are low even in the towns; in many of the country COMIllones, the legal minims are not exceeded: these are—for an ordinary communal teacher, £24 a year; for a female teacher, or a sup plying teacher, £20 a year. The commune pays £8 a year, besides the school-fees; whatever is required to make up the legal minimtun, the government supplies; and, since 1862, the government has, upon certain conditions, made slight allowances in addi tion to the minimum.
It is in secondary instruction that the education of France has a decided superiority over that of England. The primary instruction is scarcely equal to that given in Eng lish of the same grade. Mr. Matthew Arnold has reported that, in 1859, he found in French primary schools the writing fair. but scarcely so good as in English schools; the reading better, the arithmetic much better, than in English schools. Of history and geography, the pupils were far more ignorant than English school-children of the same age. The ministry of M. Duruy, however, was an era of marked improve ment; much more attention is given to the facultative matters now; especial attention to agriculture and the subjects connected with the daily life of the peasant. Mr. Arnold same to the conclusion, that even in the great towns there were no masses of children left altogether uneducated, that almost all passed at some time through the schools. Adult classes, taught in the evenings, have greatly increased in numbers of late years, and are now aided by the state.
In 183-I—just after the passing;. of M. Guizot's law—the number of 'primary schools, public and private, was 10.316; in 1857 it was 65,100: in 1872 it was 70,180, of which 38,850 were boys' or mixed schools, 17,460 girls' schools, and 11.000 were free schools, In the primary schools alone there were, in 1872, 4,722,000 scholars-3,500,000 more than the number of scholars in 1329. In 1872, the year of the census. a careful inquiry was made into the condition of the French people with regard to primary education. Of the total population above the years of childhood, it was found that .30.77 per cent could neither read nor write. 10,94 could only read, and but 58.29 could do both. There was a most extraordinary difference between one department and another in this respect, the percentage of utterly illiterate persons ranging from 6.9 per cent in Doubs to 61.8 in Haute-Vienne; the most favorable figures indicating universally the north-eastern depart ments. In 1872 the state and the communes expended 85.000,000 francs on primary education alone. The item of public instruction stood at 49,211,000 in the budget of 1877. For the means of higher education in France, see UNIVERSITY OF FRANCE.