Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/333

Rh improvements, and a house of correction for young delinquents is helpful in reclaiming some of the less hardened villains.

From statements recently published we learn that "primary education has been declared compulsory, but the law is not enforced. In 1884 there were in Mexico 8986 public elementary schools, with nearly 500,000 pupils, and 138 for superior and professional education, with an attendance of 17,200. The government spent on education in 1884 more than $3,000,000." Thus we

see that education has made slow but steady progress since the separation of Church and State, in 1857. At that time the University of Mexico—entirely a Church institution—was abolished by the republicans, and a number of special schools took its place for law, medicine, art, science, agriculture, mines, military and civil engineering, etc. In these institutions nearly four thousand students are now pursuing their studies. Besides these are asylums for the blind, the deaf and dumb, and