In the intervening years the minister of public instruction has published an annual summary of the state of primary instruction. The sources of information for these annuals, as also for the more detailed quinquennials, are chiefly the annual statement submitted by the primary inspectors (450 in number) for their respective districts and by the academic inspectors of each department. These are collated by the central commission. The financial statistics are drawn in the same way from the annual accounts of the prefects of departments and the detailed statements of receipts and expenditures prepared annually for the Government.

PRIMARY SCHOOLS, CLASSIFICATION AND SUPPLY.

The classes of primary schools recognized under the law of October 30, 1885, are infant schools (écoles maternelles) for children 2 to 6 years of age, elementary primary schools for children of the obligatory school period, 6 to 13 years of age, and superior primary or high schools. Every commune must support at least one public primary school unless especially authorized to combine for this purpose with another commune (law of 1833), and every commune of 500 inhabitants must maintain a separate school for girls (law of April 10, 1867) unless authorized to substitute a mixed school (for boys and girls.)

The extent to which these requirements have been met in 1891–92, and comparison in this respect with 1886-87, are shown by the following statistics:

From the foregoing table it is evident that the provision of public. schools increases. Only 50, or one-tenth per cent of the whole number of communes, remain to be brought into compliance with the law. The provision of separate schools for girls accords with the sentiments which long adherence to the Catholic Church has fostered in the common people of France. The number of communes making such provision exceeds the number coming under the provisions of the law of 1867, although a few communes having the required population have not fulfilled the law.

The table refers to the elementary primary schools (i. e., for children. of the obligatory school ages, 6 to 13). It may be added that the establishment of an infant school (école maternelle) is obligatory only for communes having a population above 2,000 inhabitants, of whom at least 1,200 are collected at one center. The number of such communes is about 8,000 and the number of infant schools 5,411 (public, 2,603; private, 2,808). In reality, the commission say less than 3,000 communes are without an infant school or an infant class attached to a primary school.

School enrollment.-The enrollment in primary schools (public and private) is for France alone, 5,471,402; for Algiers, 85,068; total, 5,556,470. Since 1886-87 there has been a loss of 40,000, or seven-tenths per cent, in the total enrollment, and of 54,963, or nine-tenths per cent, in that of France alone. To understand the bearing of this fact it will be necessary to follow the report in its analysis of school population and enrollment. In this consideration Algiers is omitted. The enrollment for France is equivalent to 14.35 per cent of the population (actually present, census 1891), as against 14.72 per cent of the population enrolled in 1886-87. Part of the loss in enrollment is accounted for by the relative diminution of the school population (i. e., ages 6 to 13), which was only 12.1 per cent of the total population in 1891, as against 12.4 per cent in 1886.2 While the actual population of obligatory school age (6 to 13) was 4,663,671 in 1891, the enrollment for those ages in the primary schools was 4,408,268. The enrollment for the same ages in the infant schools (113,892) and in the elementary departments of secondary schools (64,413) brings the total to 4,586,573, about 77,000 less than the population of the ages specified. Of these 5,000 were known to be receiving instruction at home. As to the remainder, a little above 1 per cent of the school population, it is not to be supposed that they have never been or will not be instructed. The laws regulating child labor, together with the law of compulsory education, form an effectual

1 For obvious reasons comparisons between school enrollment and population in Algiers would be valueless, so far as European countries are concerned.

2 The diminution in the ratio of school population to total population is attributed by the report to the low rate of births and to immigration, which is almost wholly of adults. That the ratio is below the average of other countries would be explained by the same reasons, with the added consideration of the strong vitality of the French adult population.

3(France. Law of June 2, 1874). Children below 10 years and girls below 21 years shall not be employed in any work on Sundays by their patrons, in manufactories, mines, wood (or dock) yards, and workshops. In workshops where constant fires are kept up children may be employed on Sundays and holidays in indispensable work conformably to the public administrative regulations.

(a) Children shall not be employed in any kind of work before having completed their tenth year.

(b) Restrictions with respect to children from the beginning of their eleventh year until their twelfth year complete:

safeguard against illiteracy, provided they be enforced. The machinery for enforcing the laws exists; nevertheless, the opinion is expressed in the report of the commission that in some localities the authorities have relaxed their vigilance in these matters. It is further suggested that discrepancies between the census and the school tabulations may have arisen from different constructions of the age limits. It is evident that a portion of the children of school age not enrolled belong to the floating population (mariners and foreign merchants), passing from school to school, one day here and another there, and being actually registered nowhere. That there is quite a large contingent of such children appears from the fact that certain localities have established special schools for them. The number of children under 6 years of age enrolled in the elementary primaries is 545,706 and in the infant schools 567,856, a total of 1,113,562, just about 41 per cent of the whole population of those ages. Of youth 13 to 16 years of age, 525,055, or 23 per cent of the census number, were on the rolls of the primary schools.

From comparison of the statistics for 1891-92 with those of 1886-87, it appears, (1) as regards children of the obligatory school age (6–13), that the census shows a decline of 1.4 per cent between 1886 and 1891,

1. No child must be employed unless it be shown that he actually attends a public or private school.

2. Children of this age must not be employed except in industries specially designated by a public administrative regulation (spinning factories of all classes, twisting work, printing on cloth, paper industries, glass manufacturing work, etc.). 3. Children shall not be subjected to work for any length of time exceeding six hours a day.

4. The working hours must be divided by a recess.

5. Children shall not be employed in any kind of night work. All work between 9 o'clock in the evening and 5 o'clock in the morning is considered night work.

6. They shall not be employed in work on Sundays or legal holidays.

(c) Restrictions with respect to children from the beginning of their thirteenth year until their fourteenth year complete:

1. They shall not be employed more than twelve hours a day. Before the age of 15 years complete, no child shall be permitted to work more than six hours a day except it be proved that he has acquired an elementary primary school education. 2. The working hours shall be divided by recesses.

3. They shall not be employed in any night work.

4. They shall likewise not be employed in any work on Sundays or legal holidays. 5. The work of children in subterranean passages is not permitted, except under the special conditions determined by the public administrative regulations. (d) Exceptions:

1. In workshops where continued fires are maintained children may be employed at night or on Sundays and holidays in work determined by the public administrative regulations.

2. The public administrative regulations determine the different kinds of work which, because they are sources of danger to children or exceed their strength, are prohibited.

3. Children can not be employed in the manufactories and workshops indicated in the official list of unhealthy or dangerous establishments except under the special conditions set forth by the public administrative regulation.

and the school registers (all classes of schools included) a loss in enrollment of 3.3 per cent during the same time. This diminution has occurred wholly in public schools, the private primary schools showing an increase of 14 per cent in their enrollment. (2) The census shows a diminution of 3.8 per cent in the number of children from 2 to 6 years, inclusive, with only a decline of one-tenth per cent in the number of those ages enrolled in infant and in primary schools. (3) As regards youth above the obligatory school age, or from 13 to 16, there is shown an increase of 4.2 per cent between the census of 1886 and 1891 and an increase of 8.3 per cent in the number enrolled in primary schools (chiefly superior primary). The enrollment for these ages in 1891-92 was 25.5 . per cent of the total population of these ages, as against 24.5 per cent in 1887.

DISTRIBUTION OF PUPILS IN VARIOUS CLASSES OF SCHOOLS.

The distribution of pupils in the various classes of schools is interesting as an index of the social influences affecting them. Here are to be considered the distribution in mixed and in separate schools for boys and girls and in secular (lay) and church schools. In these considerations Algiers is included. Under the first head it appears that for every 1,000 pupils enrolled in public primary schools 166 were on an average in mixed schools in 1891-92 (165 in 1886-87). At both dates 54 per cent of the pupils in mixed schools were boys and 46 per cent girls. In the private primary schools the proportion of pupils in mixed schools is much less, i. e., only 26 on an average in every 1,000. Here the proportion of girls is higher than that of boys, i. e., G1 per cent, as against 39 per cent. The fact of a slight increase in the enrollment in mixed private schools (9 per cent since 1887) indicates at least that the prejudice against coeducation for children is not increasing.

The following table shows for the first and last years of the quinquennial period the distribution of pupils in secular and in church schools, public and private:

From an examination of the above tables it appears that the relative ratios of pupils in secular schools and in church schools were very nearly the same at the end as at the beginning of the period, being for the secular schools 70 per cent in 1891-92, as against 69.5 per cent in 1887-88, and in church schools 30 per cent and 30.6 per cent at the respective dates. The proportion of the pupils in the public secular schools varied slightly, the former gaining about 1 per cent and the latter losing one-half per cent on the total enrollment. In the church schools, on the other hand, the changes are more marked, public church schools losing above 4 per cent on the total enrollment, while private church schools gained 3 per cent. It appears that the loss in the enrollment of public church schools was very largely due to the transfer of boys to private schools, church and secular. This movement is an outcome of the execution of the clause of the law of October 30, 1886, relative to the "laicization" of schools; in other words, substituting lay teachers for those belonging to religious orders.

It was ordered that the law should be carried into effect with respect to all schools for boys in five years from its passage; that is, by October, 1891, whereas no limit was put to the time in the case of schools for girls. The ratios of actual gain or loss in the several classes of schools in the period considered, 1887-88 to 1891-92, are shown in the following table:

Average attendance.-The statistics of enrollment are of first importance as showing the actual spread of instruction. The details of the classification of pupils are interesting as an index of the relative strength of public and private schools. Neither of these particulars, however, gives any idea of the hold which the schools have upon the pupils. This, indeed, it is difficult to express by statistics; the item which bears most directly upon the subject, i. e., average attendance, does not seem to be kept at all in the registers of French schools. In place of this an enumeration is made from time to time, under the order ED 94-13