STEPS OF PROGRESS
are 1,600, employing 5,346 teachers and having 149,230 pupils. The tendency of the system pursued by the State is to discourage private education, for unless a private school brings its curriculum into accord with that prescribed for public institutions, its students are denied the valuable privilege of exemption from conscription, as well as the other advantages attaching to State recognition. Further, the disposition to present large sums for educational purposes has not yet become widely effective among private individuals in Japan. Voluntary contributions in aid of public schools aggregate about £90,000 annually, but the efforts made by the people on this account are still comparatively insignificant.
At first, when the above system was introduced, students showed a dangerous inclination to neglect hygienic considerations altogether, and abandon themselves wholly to the task, of acquiring the new knowledge rapidly. It seemed as though the rising generation was destined to lose its physical stamina altogether, and to take for permanent companions consumption, impaired vision, and stunted stature. Many gifted youths perished on the threshold of promising careers, and others barely survived as invalids. Happily foreign teachers assisted to correct this fatal tendency by example or advice, and the Government, appreciating the danger, took steps to encourage gymnastics and athletics of every kind. Marked improvement resulted. It cannot yet be said
83
