Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/764

 642 HUNGABY

Instruction.

Public education in Hungary comprises the following grades : — (1) Infant schools ; (2) elementary schools and repetition courses; (3) middle or secondary schools, gymnasia and realschools (in Croatia and Slavonia, realgymnasia) ; (4) preparatory and training institutions for infant-schoolteachers and male and female teachers ; (5) academies (high schools) of law ; (6) institutions for religious education ; (7) universities ; (8) polytechnicum (technical high school). The schools for special subjects, such as agricultural, industrial, commercial, mining, and military schools, are for the greater part administered by the competent ministries, while the philanthropic and artistic schools are placed under the authority of the JMinistry of Public Instruction,

The progress of elementary education in Hungary in two intcrcensal periods is shown in the following statement : —

Civil Population ! 1890 i 1900 1910

Read and write. . . | 7,326,372 | 9,483,930 11,774,687 Readonly. . . . ! 557,854 | 507,034 j) _„ Neither read nor Avrite . . i_9,46_5J^7^_ I 9,131, 376 if

Total. . . I 17,349,398 | 19,122,340 j —

1 Civil and militarj^ population. 2 N'ot yet available.

School attendance is compulsory for children of six to twelve years, and re])etition courses for children of twelve to fifteen years ; the industrial law of 1884 requires special courses for apprentices ; and by the law of 1891, children from three to six years of age may be sent to infant schools, unless otherwise provided for.

Every parish or commune is bound to maintain an infant school. There were in 1911 altogether 2,817 infants' schools with 247,344 infants, and 10 training colleges for nurses.

Primary education is of three grades : — (1) Elementary schools connected with a repetition school ; (2) high primary schools for boys and girls scparatel}^ with, respectively, a three and two years' course for commercial or industrial education, and closely associated with the sixth class of the elementary school ; (3) the so-called 'burgher' schools (Polgari iskolak) for boys and girls separately, Avith, respectively, a six and a four years' course, and connected with the fourth class of the elementary school. There are also high schools for girls mostly supported by the State.

Every parish or commune is bound to have a school if the number of children of school age is thirty. For the support of the elementary schools every commune can levy an additional tax of 5 per cent, on the direct State taxes. There were in 1910-1911, 19,339 primary schools with 47,487 teachers, and 2,938,091 pupils. The number of the children of school age was 3,545,014, number of training colleges 9C, with 1,201 teachers and 10,271 pupils. There were besides 200 'humanistic' schools, and 48 prison schools with a total attendance of 68,873.

In the gymnasia and realschools (in Croatia and Slavonia, the realgym- nasia) the curriculum extends over eight years. They are maintained by the State, by the larger communes, or (in the case of the denominational schools) by ecclesiastical foundations, with sometimes a subvention from the State. There were in 1910-1911, 187 gymnasia, with 3,882 teachers and 63,544 pupils;- 42 real schools, with 1,020 teachers and 14,072 pupils.

There are live universities maintained by the State, each comprising