812
NETHERLANDS
ill 1848, secular instruction was separated from religious or sectarian instruction. Elementary education is now regulated by the Primary Instruction Act, passed in 1857, supplemented by an Act of 1878, and again considerably altered by the Act of December 1889. By the last Act public instruction is diminished and a greater share in the education of the youths left to private instruction, which is now supported by the State. According to the regulations of the present Act the cost of public primary instruction is borne jointly by the State and the communes, the State con- tributing to the salaries of the teachers and being responsible for 25 per cent, to the costs of founding or purchasing schools.
The following table is taken from the Government returns
for 1896-97 :—
Institutions
Number
Teaching Staff
Pupils or Students
Universities (public) ^ .
4
165
2,936
Classical Schools .
29
428
2,462
Secondary Day and Evening
Schools
39
465
5,695
j Navigation Schools
11
68
709
Middle Class Schools
74
965
8,911
Polytechnicum
1
24
450
Elementary Schools :
Public ....
3,069
15,040
487,774
Private ....
1,414
6,785
220,880
j Infant Schools :
1 Public ....
139
+ 825
25,865
Private ....
896
± 2,635
84,837
1 Leiden, Utrecht, Groningen, Amsterdam. . ,
Besides the schools named in the table, there is a great number of special schools— viz., agricultural (1), horticultural (2), deaf and dumb (3) and blind (1) schools, 1 school for philology, geology, and demography of the East Indies (for the Indian Civil Service), several military schools, a national Academy of Art, a royal school of music, a national normal school for drawing; teachers, several technical schools and normal schools for the training of teachers. Since 1880 there is also a private university, with 110 students in 1S95-96.
1893
1S04 i
1895 £
189G
£
£
On Primarv Education —
The Government spent .
471,433
486,759
495,667
512,233
The Communes spent .
679,523
663,489
678,925
715,878
On Normal Schools were
spent in all
86,852
95,359
99,229
105,875 1
The total expenses for Edu-
c;ation were : —
For the State
728,416
737,250
764,917
791,883
For the Communes
833,500
828,750 i
841,917
873,583
Of the conscripts called out in 1897, 4'0 per cent, could neither read nor write, the percentage being highest in Drentho, 9*6. In 1875 the total percentage was 12 '3. Of the total number of childi-en from 6 to 12 years (school age) on 31 December, 1896, 9 '22 per cent, received no elementary instruction. In 1885 it was 12'70,
