In a few countries there is a surprisingly strong tendency toward coeducation in the ele mentary schools, but in general the policy is segregation of the sexes. In cities and larger towns segregation is practised in all grades. In smaller communities boys and girls are taught together in the first two or three grades and segregated in the higher grades. In rural and small village schools where the range of instruction is limited (from two to four grades) the classes are usually open to both sexes.
Except in the federated republics (Argen tina, Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela) the primary school system is thoroughly central ized and directed even in the smallest details from the national capital. The funds are ap propriated from the national treasury, the ad ministration is vested in the council of ele mentary education under the Minister of Pub lic Instruction. This council fixes the cur riculum and methods, provides the building and equipment, establishes qualifications of teach ers, assigns teachers to their posts and fixes their salaries. Frequently there is a local board of education chosen by the municipality or named by the governor of the province. Its authority is, however, carefully limited. Its principal functions are to care for the material equipment (building, etc.), to recommend suit able teachers, and when the teacher has been appointed, to see that he performs his assigned duties and maintains a proper scholastic, moral and civic attitude. Sometimes the local board is expected to provide from local funds the building and equipment. Great numbers of primary schools are conducted in rented build ings.
In the federated republics the state systems are a copy of the national system of the cen tralized republics. The tendency, therefore, is toward centralization over a larger or smaller extent of territory and close uniformity. Such a system has undoubed advantages and was the only one that could cope with the difficulties that confronted popular education in Latin America. In Argentina the national govern ment has recently asserted the right to estab lish, maintain and control national elementary schools in those states where the local author ities do not provide an adequate system. In some countries, especially in Mexico, the municipalities establish and maintain elemen tary schools irrespective of the state system. These schools are usually better equipped and conducted than the state schools since the very fact of their establishment is an indication that state-wide interest in popular education is de ficient or non-existent.
Normal Schools.-- Those countries which have done most for primary education lay great stress on their normal high schools, which have come to be the secondary schools of the com mon people, as well as training schools for primary teachers. These schools were origin
ally an importation and came with the impetus for universal and obligatory primary instruc tion. Many of the first masters were brought from Europe and the United States, and the schools were organized on the model of the French primary normal school and the original independent normal school of the United States. The requirement for entrance is completion of the elementary school course (six years) or its equivalent. The curriculum covers four, five and six years. The studies embrace what is usually found in grades 7 to 12 of American junior and regular high schools with the addi tion of pedagogy, observation of teaching and practice teaching in the annexed model school. Many normals are boarding schools. Whether boarding or day schools the usual practice is for the state to maintain the scholars, lodging, feeding and clothing them in the boarding schools, or paying them a commutation in the day schools. In return the scholars enlist in the teaching service of the state for a certain number of years. In case they do not serve out their enlistment, they agree to reimburse the govenment. A bond is given to ensure the observance of the contract. Unfortunately, in many countries this contract is not always ob served. The normal school students come from the lower middle class, if indeed one can speak of a middle class in the average Latin-Ameri can society, and their advancement into the higher grades of instruction, even with indus try and ability, is difficult and rare. Their limited education is a handicap, and the line of demarcation between the normal and ele mentary schools on one hand and the secondary and university education on the other is so sharply drawn that it is next to impossible to pass from the one to the other. Chile and Argentina maintain higher normal schools of college rank for the training of primary nor mal school instructors, and, to a limited ex tent, for the training of regular high school teachers, but the latter are more usually re cruited from the universities and lack distinct pedagogical preparation. The boarding normal schools very naturally are for one sex or the other, but in the day schools coeducation is surprisingly common. A model school is always attached to a normal school, and much stress is laid upon practice teaching, although much more time is devoted to observation than to actual practice.