EDUCATION. Owing to the diversity of race and language which prevails in the various provinces of Austria, the system of public edu cation presents many differences in the various crown-lands of the Empire. In general, the organization and management of all public insti tutions of learning in Austria (Cisleithania) are left to the provincial authorities; but these are required to conform to a uniform scheme of instruction established by act of the Imperial Parliament and applied by the minister of public instruction. School adminis tration is under the supervision of local, dis trict, and provincial boards, and district and provincial inspectors. The features common to all the crown-lands are the division of educa tional institutions into primary, secondary, and higher schools, and the very low cost at which instruction in schools of all grades is imparted. Characteristic, too, of all the Austrian prov inces is the high degree of excellence which technical education has attained. The care of primary instruction is incumbent on the local communities, and attendance at the primary schools between the ages of 6 and 14 (in three provinces between 6 and 12) is compulsory. The course of instruction includes, besides the ordinary branches, the subjects of religion, physical training, and, in the case of girls, do mestic science. In 1893 the number of national schools and grammar schools ( Folksack/tie, Biir parseh.ule) in Cisleithania, in which elementary education was imparted, was 18,307, with a teaching force of 67,354 men and women and an enrollment of 3,160,837 pupils. In 1898 the number of schools rose to 19,735, the number of teachers to 74,783, and the number of pupils to 3.483,646.
Above the elementary schools are the Gymnnsia and the licalschulen, offering courses of eight and seven years respectively. The Gymnasia-pre pare for the universities, the Realschn-len for the technological institutes. For the support of the secondary schools, the State, the provinces, and the larger communes eo6perate. In 1896 there were
182 Gymnasia, with a teaching staff of 3699 and an attendance of 59,975, and 84 Realschulen, with 1579 teachers and 26,429 students. In 1901 the number of Gymnasia was 212 and the attendance 69,788, while the Bralschulen had increased to 106 in number, with 35,192 students; in other words, the number of pupils in the Realsehulen increased at a rate almost double that in the Gymnasia. Universities of Cisleithania, eight in number, supported by the State, are located at Vienna, Prague (two, German and Czech) , Gratz, Innsbruck, Cracow, Lemberg, and Czernowitz. Each comprises faculties of theology, jurispru dence and political science, medicine, and philoso phy. The universities at Vienna and Cracow and the German University at Prague, date back to the Fourteenth Century; and of these, the first ranks among the foremost universities of the world, especially as to its faculty of medicine. In 1893 the number of professors and tutors in all these universities was 1140 and the num ber of students 13,528. In 1901 the combined faculties included 1395 instructors, and the stu dents numbered 17,132, showing an increase of nearly 25 per cent. in the student body and teaching staff. The number of students at the University of Vienna, in 1900, was 6981. In 1898 56 theological seminaries (of these 42 Catholic) gave instruction to 1978 students. Of the technological institutes, the most important are the six State high schools at Vienna, Prague (two), Gratz, Briinn, and Lemberg; and the mining academies at Leoben and Pribram. In addition, there are numerous schools of agricul ture, forestry, and mining, industrial schools, military and naval academies, and schools of fine arts and music. In all, the special schools of Austria in 1898 numbered 3599, with a recorded attendance of over 225,000 students. General culture is highest in the German-speaking inces (Bohemia included) and lowest among the Slavic races of Dalmatia, Galicia, and Bukowina.