Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/771

 INSTRUCTION

415

1

Universities

Students of

Total

Theology

Jurispru- dence

Philoso-

Medicine Sciences

Brussels. Ghent Liege Louvaiu.

— 239 i 103

— 1 109 76

— 209 130 49 342 242

423 191 1,006 148 113 446 227 431 I 997 410 j 224 1,266

Attached to the universities are various special schools of en- gineering, arts, manufactures, mining, &c., with a combined at- tendance of 1,084 students in 1896-97. Other special schools are the Royal Academy of Fine Arts at Antwerp, with 1,426 stu- dents in 1896; schools of design, 17,632 students; royal con- servatoires and other schools of music, 16,854.

The following are the statistics for the end of 1895 of the various classes of public schools : —

—

No.

Pupils

—

No.

Pupils. 1

Royal Athe-

M i d d 1 e-cl a s s

1

n?eums and

normal schools

4

129

colleges.

35

7,324

Primary normal

Mid die-class

schools.

53

' 3,196

schools (male).

88

15,789

Primary schools.

6,546

752,062

Middle-class

t

Infant ,,

1,769

164,540

schools (female)

40

6,941

1

Adult ,,

1,937

80,959

Besides the above public schools there are many private or free schools — about 80 colleges, 65 middle-class schools for boys, 150 institutions for girls, besides many infant, primary, and adult schools, mostly under ecclesiastical care.

By a law of 1842 each commune was required to have at least one primary school. The Acts now in force are those of 1884 and 1895, by which the cost of primary instruction de- volves on the communes, while the State and provinces inter- vene by way of subsidies. The total sum spent on elementary education in 1895 was 32,867,773 francs by State, provinces, and communes,and including fees, <fcc.

There were in the school year 1895-96, 38 industrial schools, with 12,009 pupils, and 48 professional schools and courses with 6,775 pupils.

The proportion of the population above fifteen years who could not read or write at the census of 1890 was 26*9 per cent., and between seven and fifteen years 26*7 per cent. In the year 1896 there were 63,401 young men called out for military service, and of this number 8,002 could neither read nor write ; 31,401 could