Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/100

 the latest year for which statistics are published, 4,062,418 children received education out of a total of 7,125,966, the percentage of school-goers being 68.91. The desire for instruction is keener among boys than among girls: of the former, 82.42 per cent attend school, and of the latter only 53.73.

There are 26,322 public Common Elementary Schools, and the total annual cost of maintaining them is £1,715,469. Hence the average yearly expense of each school is £65; the average number of students 154, and the average annual cost per child 8s. 6d., to which the child's parents contribute 1s. 9d. yearly, or 1¾d. per month. These Elementary Schools form part of the communal system, and such portion of their expenses as is not covered by tuition fees, income from school property, and miscellaneous sources, must be defrayed out of the proceeds of local taxation. The tax-payers' burden on this account is £1,150,446, and it thus appears that the four years' course of elementary education given to a Japanese child costs the tax-payer 22s. 6d., and costs the child's parents 7s. The expense to parents will be still less in future, for by an Ordinance issued in August, 1900, it was enacted that whereas the payment of tuition fees had hitherto been the rule, and exemption from payment the exception, hereafter exemption should be the rule and payment the exception. In short, elementary education will be virtually free.