Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/61

* ITALY. 45 ITALY. introduction of the policy of giving elementary instruction to illiterate conscripts. The percent- age of illiterates married decreased for males from 57.73 in 1871 to 33.80 in lUOO, and for females from 76.73 in 1871 to 47.95 in 1900. In the Province of Cosenza the male illiterates at the time of marriage were still in 1900 over three- fourths of the total. The national scheme of education comprehends the entire scope of education, including kinder- garten, primary, .secondary, technical, and higher instruction. In 1899 there were 340,837 children in attendance at kindergartens. Private societies and citizens, besides the communes, support the kindergartens. The primary course of instruc- tion is divided into two grades. The first grade corresponds to the compulsory period, or the first three years of a child's school life. The second frade is a supplementary course of two years, ut comparatively few- pupils continue in this grade, the enrollment being less than a tenth of that in the lower grade. The attendance at the public primary schools in 1898-99 was 2.444,288, and at the private schools of the same rank 192,669. The private schools are required to follow the same programme as do the State schools. JIany of the communes have established night or Sunday schools for the special benefit of children who do not continue into the sec- ond grade of the primary course, and also for the benefit of adults. The enrollment at these schools in 1898-99 was 138,181, which was less than was at one time attained, the attendance having decreased since the cessation of the State subsidies. A still higher grade of schools has been established for the benefit of girls who wish to prepare for normal .schools or for a practical career, the instruction including book- keeping and technical branches. The attendance at these in the above years was 7459. There is a large number of convitti for females (1450 in 1895-96. attended by about 49.467 pupils). Jlost of these institutions are endowed or private. Instruction in the.se schools is, as a rule, given by nuns, and in some the instruction is free. The elementary school buildings are generally throughout the rural districts of a very inferior and inadequate kind. Often rooms are rented for school purposes, and their selec- tion is not infrequently made by officers who are incompetent, or who subserve their personal intere-it. In many cities, however, the buildings and their equipment are of the most approved type. In 1877 religion was eliminated from the State schools. Religious instruction is only given when demanded by parents of the pupils. The private schools are generally in charge of religious Orders. In the last years of the nine- teenth century much progress was made in the introduction of agricultural courses into the ele- mentary school system. The communes bear the main burden of elementarj- education, although the State assists and to a small extent the provinces assist also. The State, provinces, and communes share in varj'ing proportions in the support of other branches of education, the local Chamber of Commerce also sometimes aiding in the support of special schools. A large number of the .secondary' institutions are supported by religious denominations. The attention given to higher education is re- markable, considering the backward condition of elementary education. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century the gain in graduates from the twenty-one Italian universities has been about .seven times the corresponding rate of increase of the Italian population. This result is largely due to the fact that public offices must be entered by way of the universities. The State maintains seventeen universities, as follows: Naples, Turin, Rome, Padua, Bologna, Palermo, Genoa, Pisa, Paia, Catania, Modena, Messina, Parma, Cagliari, Siena, Sassari, Macerata, which, to- gether with the four free universities in Perugia, Camerino, Urbino, and Ferrara, had a total en- rollment of 22,475 in 1901. The first nine of these exceeded an enrollment of 1000 each, and Naples had 5144. Besides the foregoing, there are thirteen university institutions. Italy is known inteinationally for its art institutions, of which there were thirteen Government and thir- teen non-Government in 1898, with aggregate enrollments of 2198 and 1688, respectively. There are six Government and a number of private music conservatories. There are also a number of commercial, agricultural, and other industrial schools of academic rank. For the training of teachers there are about 150 normal schools, the greater part of them being under the control of the Government. The attendance at these in 1899 was 21,488, of whom 20,034 were females. Compared with American or even Northern European standards, the teach- ers are underpaid, but their salaries do not com- pare unfavorably with those received by other classes of the Italian population, Male teachers of a superior degree receive from $200 to $264 a year in the cities, while female teachers of an inferior degree receive from $112 to $130 in the countrj'. The provision of the law that calls for an increase in salary everj' six years of unin- terrupted service is evaded by dismissing teachers before the expiration of that period. Provisions are made for the pensioning of teachers, both the: communes and the teachers' salaries being levied upon for the pension fund. The secondary educational system is divided, into two groups — the classical and the technical, the latter having greatlv increased in popularity during recent years. There are two kinds of classical schools, the ginnasii and the lieei, the former being a five years' course, and receiving pupils of the age period ten or eleven to fifteen or sixteen. The latter is only a three years' course. A few of the licei have recently reformed their curriculum by substituting mathematics and a modern language at the expense of Greek and the sciences. In 1895-96 there were 703 ginnasii, with 59.578 pupils, and 332 licei, with 17.689. The technical instruction is given at technical schools, of which there were 361 in 1895-96, with 37,305 pupils, and at technical institutes, of which there were 74 in the same year, with an attendance of 10,274. Ethnology. Of the so-called earliest Paleo- lithic epochs or culture stages of Europe there are no relics in Italy, Exceptional finds belong- ing to later periods occur north of the Po. The northern slopes of the Apennines are said to be rich in chipped implements called coups de poing, which correspond to the chipped disks found in Ohio mounds. Scrapers also abound, and leaf- shaped objects of Solutrean type, but little of the later Paleolithic form. In places favorable to such life cave-dwelling is not without its witnesses. The stone-workers of the earliest