EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS--SYSTEMS OF INSTRUCTION
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO DON BOSCO COLLEGE, LA PAZ.]
Long after the successful War of Independence had given political
freedom to South America, and republican rule had been established in
every Spanish-speaking country from the Caribbean Sea to Cape Horn,
the deleterious effects of the restricted system of education which
Spain had imposed on her colonies through nearly three centuries
were still to be noted in the habits of thought prevailing among the
people as a whole. Inherited tendencies must be held responsible for
the inadequate standard of national culture which governed the South
American republics more or less until within a comparatively recent
period. Considering the enormous obstacles which had to be overcome,
evolution has been rapid under the stimulating influence of national
liberty, and to-day there are few South American countries in which
popular sentiment has not outgrown the purely theoretical tendency of
the antiquated Spanish system of education, with its class distinctions
and limited scope. From time immemorial the power of Spain had been
represented by the Church and the army, and education was for centuries
held in esteem only as it promoted the influence of the one and the
prestige of the other. It is not surprising, therefore, that its
compass was narrowly limited, and that it was of a character little
adapted to popular needs. Religious and military training received
careful attention, but the masses of the people were entirely neglected
in the provision made for general education. The entire Spanish system
had, besides, such a pronounced tendency to develop theoretical
knowledge exclusive of its practical application, that the result was
a superfluity of orators, poets, and philosophers, but comparatively
few scientists, inventors, or geniuses in the art of construction.
It is true that under the Spanish system the celebrated University
of San Francisco Xavier flourished in the capital of the Audiencia
of Charcas, now Sucre, and that to its students is to be attributed
the first revolutionary movement in favor of South American liberty;
but in contrast with the few brilliant examples of intellectual vigor
and enterprise brought into prominence through the events of the War
of the Independence there were thousands of sentimental dreamers
in the various colleges of the viceroyalties, who, educated in the
prevailing ideas of those days, absorbed knowledge as it was given to
them, without evincing any evidence of mental initiative, and without
contributing anything of value to the cause of human progress.
The University of San Francisco Xavier is famous as having been one
of the few notable exceptions to the inefficiency of educational
institutions in the Spanish colonies; for, although its curriculum of
studies followed the limited system of Spanish education in general,
yet it developed superior intellectual quality, and its graduates
adorned the highest circles of learning in America and Europe. The
university was founded in the year 1623, in accordance with the same
rules and enjoying the same privileges as the University of Salamanca
of Spain, which is one of the oldest and was at one time the most
celebrated of all European institutions of learning. The establishment
of universities in America began within fifty years after the conquest,
the first, that of Lima, being founded by a royal decree, granted in
1551 to a friar of the Dominican order, who was afterward the first
Bishop of Chuquisaca. The Universities of Lima and Mexico, the latter
founded a few years after that of Lima, constituted the only advanced
institutions of learning in America for many years, although, in order
to attend to the necessities of the Church and to avoid annoyance and
expense to students living at a great distance, concessions for the
opening of others began early to be granted to the religious orders,
and bishops were permitted to confer academic degrees on scholars who
had studied a certain number of years in Dominican and Jesuit colleges.
The Universities of Quito, Bogotá, Córdova, and Chuquisaca were founded
in quick succession. According to chronicles of the times, the studies
pursued in these universities were limited to a knowledge of Latin,
the students devoting themselves especially to the study of poetry
and philosophy, including logic, theology, ethics, metaphysics, and
kindred subjects. The extraordinary power which the University of San
Francisco Xavier wielded in South American politics at the beginning of
the nineteenth century is attributed partly to the advantages of its
location, and partly to the peculiar character it developed under the
influence of rich _criollos_, many of whom were descendants of
those belligerent Vicuñas who in an earlier period had so persistently
demonstrated their patriotic antipathy to the avaricious Vascongado
Spaniards, gradually gaining advantages over them, and compelling them
to recognize native rights in the distribution of the enormous wealth
of Potosí and Chuquisaca, much of which finally found its way into
the pockets of the _criollos_. Remote from the domination of the
viceroy, and gradually increasing in power as the combined possession
of wealth and intellectual acumen became more effective to carry out
its plans, this remarkable institution finally succeeded in making
its influence felt in every act of the government, whether through
the Audiencia, the Cabildo, or the Church. It achieved a distinction
and a destiny which could only have been possible to a people of
innate independence of character and great mental vigor, capable of
appreciating and dominating the enormous influence of Church and
state, which was at that time arrayed against patriotic principles.
The national characteristics, which were so conspicuous in the acts
of the revolutionary _criollos_, have been no less apparent in
the events marking the progress of the republic, which, even in its
stormiest period, has continued to reflect the activity of vigorous
health, requiring only the wise direction of mature judgment to control
abundant mental and moral force. And mature judgment is not so much a
question of years as of education.
[Illustration: SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, LA PAZ.]
Under the modern system of education which Bolivia has adopted,
in common with the most advanced South American countries, many
long-cherished ideals have been swept aside. The aim of the present
government is to provide instruction suited to the demands of
the day; and in doing so it has been necessary to reorganize the
educational system, leaving out those features which belonged rather
to a sentimental past than to the urgent present, and adopting others
distinctly modern and progressive. The national edifice of learning had
become overgrown with accumulated traditions, which had to be brushed
away to give better opportunity for the remodelling of the structure
as modern needs demanded, even though regret sometimes accompanied the
banishment of those charming relics of historic association which cling
about every ancient institution.
By a supreme decree, issued in 1903, the promotion of national
culture in Bolivia, general, scientific, literary, and artistic, is
intrusted to the minister of public instruction. Under his direction
the educational system has been centralized as far as possible, with
excellent results, already showing a marked tendency to unity of method
and general progress. The country is divided into seven university
districts, corresponding to the seven departmental divisions. La Paz,
Oruro, Cochabamba, Chuquisaca, Potosí, Santa Cruz, and the Beni,
each district being under the jurisdiction of a University Council,
authorized to supervise its public instruction, under the direction
of a rector, deans, and directors of secondary instruction, of whom
the council is composed. In the interests of primary instruction, each
council has a special inspector. Education is free and obligatory;
and instruction is divided into two classes, general and special.
General instruction is embraced in three grades, primary, secondary,
and superior, or professional; while special instruction provides for
training in the arts and sciences, and in commercial and industrial
branches.
The importance given to primary instruction under the present
government augurs well for educational progress in general, as the
attention paid to this branch in any country is an infallible index
to the character and degree of culture attained by the nation as a
whole. It is not in the university, but in the public school that the
average amount of talent is to be found the world over; and that nation
which can show the highest average is further advanced in progress
than the one which can produce the most distinguished examples of
university scholarship. Bolivia, in directing especial attention to her
primary schools as a means of raising the average of mental culture
in all classes throughout the republic, is demonstrating her serious
determination to march in line with the most progressive countries,
and to establish a new epoch in national development. With this object
in view, commissions have been appointed by the government to study
primary school methods in other countries, new school buildings have
been erected and older buildings have been enlarged and improved to
meet the growing needs, and purchases have been made, chiefly in the
United States, of textbooks, desks, charts, and other requisites for
primary teaching. Many of these purchases have been destined to the
use of travelling teachers, who distribute them among the Indians, the
government manifesting a firm desire, as the president stated in his
last annual message, to have the Indians incorporated in the programme
of national culture. Frankly and fearlessly, the government is laboring
to extend the benefits of education throughout the length and breadth
of the land, appealing to the people to lend their coöperation in the
establishment of better educational laws, declaring, with its usual
clear-sighted judgment, that education is the basis and foundation of
national prosperity, and that, in Bolivia, “the great deficiencies
which embarrass free and positive progress arise out of the inefficacy
of the national education.” When the need of a reform is so boldly
recognized, and the chief authorities of the nation deliberately set
themselves to the task of improvement, the outlook is very hopeful,
especially when, as in this country, public opinion is constantly
growing in sympathy with the efforts of the executive power.
Primary, or, as it is sometimes termed, popular, education is in charge
of the municipal councils, with the exception of the _escuelas
fiscales_, or fiscal schools, which are maintained by the state.
It embraces three courses and is completed in three years, there
being nearly eight hundred primary schools in the republic, with an
average attendance of forty thousand pupils. The annual appropriation
for primary education is about six hundred thousand bolivianos.
According to recent statistics, the department of Cochabamba shows a
higher average of primary school attendance than any other district,
Chuquisaca ranking second and La Paz third, in proportion to
population. The attendance at private schools and mission settlements
is not included in the foregoing statement, of which the statistics
are incomplete. Secondary education embraces the instruction given in
colleges and other institutions which are under the direct control of
the universities, and it is entirely maintained by the state. Seven
years complete the instruction provided, the first year being entirely
preparatory, while the remaining six are given to general high school
work, the graduate receiving the degree of bachelor of arts, which
entitles him to enter any of the professional courses given in the
universities. The appropriation for secondary instruction is one
hundred thousand bolivianos per annum, the attendance being about
three thousand, distributed among eight colleges, five theological
seminaries, and a number of private schools. Superior or professional
instruction is given in three courses, of which law requires five
years for completion, medicine seven years, and theology four years.
Law is one of the courses given in all the universities; medicine and
theology are included in the courses of study in the University of San
Francisco Xavier and in the universities of La Paz and Cochabamba;
a course in theology is also given in the University of Tarija,
and Pichincha College of Potosí has a full curriculum of studies.
The famous University of San Francisco Xavier is still a leading
educational institution of the country, having in the law faculty
five professors and about one hundred students, in the faculty of
medicine six professors and fifty students, and in that of theology
two professors and twenty-five students. The College of Junín, the
Theological Seminary of Sucre, and the Córdova Lyceum prepare students
for this university, the rector of which, Señor Dr. Ignacio Terán, is
one of the leading educators of Bolivia, esteemed for his superior
intellectual talent, not only in his own country, but abroad. Dr. Terán
has contributed to the national literature several important treatises
on education, besides which he has made a scientific study of various
subjects relating to South American geography and history, as shown by
his interesting works, _El Gran Cataclismo_, _Diluvio Universal
y Tiahuanaco_, and others of a similar character. He has always
stood in the foreground of the struggle in favor of modern educational
methods, having been one of the first to recognize the importance
of the present system of unity in school government, in the use of
textbooks, etc., which he advocated years ago under the name of the
_sistema gradual concentrico_. There have been comparatively few
contributors of note to the educational literature of Bolivia, though
important treatises have been written on various scientific subjects by
leading professors of the universities and by scholars of note, among
others Don Samuel Ugarte, author of a work on chemistry, Señor Davalos,
whose treatise on the light and heat of the sun has been translated
into several foreign languages, Don Rafael Peña, Don Demetrio
Calvimonte, Don Emilio Molina, Don E. Villamil de Rada, author of _La
Lengua de Adan_, who is considered the first philologist of South
America, Don Facundo Quiroga, Señor Vila, Señor Andrade y Portugal,
and others. General Camacho has written important works on military
instruction. The _Revista Universitaria_, which is published
monthly under the auspices of the University of San Francisco Xavier,
is probably the most important educational periodical in Bolivia.
[Illustration: SEÑOR DR. IGNACIO TERÁN, RECTOR OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO XAVIER, SUCRE.]
By a supreme decree issued on February 19, 1906, preparatory
engineering was added to the other courses given in the University
of La Paz, marking the tendency toward a practical application of
university training in its broadest sense. The present rector of
the university, Dr. Manuel B. Mariaca, has accomplished a great
deal through his indefatigable efforts to promote the interests of
intellectual culture in Bolivia. He is one of the leading men of his
country, and has contributed much to its educational progress. He is
president of the Medical Society of La Paz. Prominent among national
educators, Dr. Rodolfo Soria Galvarro, rector of the university of
Oruro, possesses the versatile intellectuality which distinguishes
many of the brilliant leaders of his country. He is a diplomat and
an orator, as well as an educator, and writes with facility and in
vigorous style on a variety of subjects. The University of Oruro has
attained a higher degree of learning under his direction than ever
before.
In all the universities of Bolivia especial attention has been paid
to the study of law, and graduates in this course are to be counted
among the best jurists that South America has produced. It may even he
said that this branch of university education has been promoted at the
expense of others, though the tendency to give it undue importance is
growing less as educators recognize more and more the necessity for
directing the intellectual energies into various channels rather than
concentrating all effort along any one line. The science of medicine
attracts an increasing number of students each year, and the outlook
is promising for a greatly improved standard in this profession in
Bolivia.
[Illustration: BOOKBINDING DEPARTMENT OF DON BOSCO COLLEGE,
LA PAZ.]
When the Jesuits founded the University of San Francisco Xavier,
philosophy and theology were the only studies included in the
curriculum. After the expulsion of the Jesuits from all the Spanish
possessions, in 1767, when it became necessary to reorganize the
university, the proctor at that time, Don Martin de Mendoza, asked of
the Junta de Temporalidades: “that four professorships of theology be
established, including prime, vespers, holy scripture, and dogmatic
theology; that two each be devoted to philosophy, canons, law, art, and
Latinity, and one each to medicine and mathematics; that the printing
press used in Córdova del Tucuman be brought to Chuquisaca in order
that the university may be advertised, and that the courses of study,
sermons, allegations in law made by the Audiencia, and all kinds of
matter written by the natives, whose extraordinary mental gifts remain
unrecognized through lack of means to make them known, may be published
and distributed abroad.” A royal decree of 1798 conceded the request,
but the professorships in medicine and surgery were not established
until after the inauguration of the republic, when, in 1826, Dr. Miguel
Luna, the chief surgeon of the Liberating Army, and General Sucre’s
personal friend and physician, opened the first class in medicine in
this country, at Chuquisaca. An associate of Dr. Luna, Dr. Carlos
Augusto Torrally, may be equally considered as the founder of Bolivian
medicine. He was chief physician of the Hospital of Santa Barbara, of
Sucre, for many years, and was noted for his advanced ideas. To his
instruction Bolivia owes one of her greatest scholars in medicine,
Dr. Manuel Cuellar, whose name is known throughout South America.
The progress of education in medicine, as in all other studies, was
retarded by unsettled political conditions, and medical colleges
which were from time to time established in La Paz, Cochabamba, and
other cities, during the first fifty years of the republic were of
intermittent duration. Medical classes were held in the University
of La Paz, in Junín College, Sucre, and in Cochabamba, but the work
accomplished was of an uncertain character, notwithstanding the efforts
of Dr. Cuellar, Dr. Ignacio Cordero, Dr. Pedro Ascarrunz, and others,
who labored constantly to improve this branch of professional training.
When, in 1866, the first classic models and skeletons were purchased
by the government and placed in the medical schools of La Paz, Sucre,
and Cochabamba, the acquisition was regarded as marking an epoch in the
progress of medical instruction. Within the past ten years, however,
phenomenal advances have been made. The Instituto Médico Sucre, of
which Dr. Valentin Abecia is president, has achieved fame throughout
South America by the excellent work it has accomplished, especially in
the bacteriological department. When the terrible epidemic of smallpox
swept over Valparaiso a year ago and vaccine was sent from various
countries to supply the urgent demand, it was found that the quality
of that which was furnished by the Medical Institute of Sucre gave
the most uniform and satisfactory results, as a letter of thanks from
the Chilean authorities gratefully acknowledged. The Instituto Medico
Sucre has, in addition to its well-equipped bacteriological laboratory,
a museum of anatomical specimens and models which is one of the most
complete in South America. Meteorology also receives attention, an
office having been established for observations of this character in
the same building as that occupied by the Instituto Médico Sucre.
[Illustration: PATIO OF PICHINCHA COLLEGE, POTOSÍ.]
The theology course, which is given in all the universities, is one
that has occupied especial attention ever since the establishment of
the first colleges in Spanish America. Its graduates have been counted
among the most renowned scholars, as well as the most gifted orators,
of the country. The seminaries and schools devoted to education
in theology are among the important institutions of secondary and
professional instruction. At the recent celebration in honor of the
inauguration of the new edifice of the Seminario Conciliar de San
Gerónimo in La Paz, the purpose of this class of schools was eloquently
set forth in a brilliant address by the visiting papal legate,
Monsignor Alexandro Bavona, who described the Seminario as the place
“where those aspiring to the priesthood could educate themselves in
meditation and study, make themselves docile by obedience, become
transfigured by humility, and acquire that spiritual energy which
will be an armor in the hard struggle of the ministry, to the end
that, under the guardianship of virtue, they may penetrate that holy
of holies, the conscience, and make fruitful the precious seeds of
redemption.” The Seminario Conciliar, the oldest college in La Paz,
was originally founded in 1674, under the name of San Gerónimo, by a
bishop of the Franciscan order, though it was later submitted to the
direction of the Jesuits for many years. By a decree of the supreme
government, issued in 1859, the college was placed again under diocesan
authority, and installed in its present locality. Bishop Calixto
Clavijo reconstructed the college at his own cost, establishing six
classes in secondary instruction and four in theology, and at the
present time this is one of the best institutions of learning in the
republic. The average attendance is about three hundred. The college
has its own printing press, in which the textbooks and other important
works are published, a valuable library, and a conservatory of
religious music. It has also a handsome chapel, where divine services
are held, a universal feature of the educational institutions of Roman
Catholic countries. The name of Bishop Calixto Clavijo is perpetuated
in one of the most successful colleges founded in Bolivia within the
past twenty years. In 1881 Bishop Clavijo sent to Lima for the Jesuits
to come to La Paz and establish a college of secondary instruction,
which was inaugurated in 1883 under the direction of Padre Antonio
Perez, and with the title of Colegio San Calixto. The house which had
once been the residence of General Santa Cruz was purchased for the
college, and since that time, little by little, neighboring properties
have been acquired and new additions built to the original structure,
until now the college is a handsome edifice of three stories, with
modern installations, well ventilated, and provided with everything
required for the educational purposes of the institution. Acetylene gas
is manufactured in the college for lighting. The attendance for 1906
was four hundred and fifty, including both boarding and day pupils. The
instruction given embraces three years of preparatory work, six years
of intermediate, and three commercial courses, if desired. The present
director of the college is a distinguished scholar and linguist,
speaking English and other languages with fluency. Not only in the
establishment of the Colegio Seminario and the Colegio San Calixto is
the energy of Bishop Clavijo in behalf of education to be noted: to
his effort is also due the existence of the Colegio de los Sagrados
Corazones, which he founded in 1883, bringing twenty nuns from Europe
at his own cost to direct the school. In addition to the subjects
usually taught in convent schools, such as embroidery, languages,
music, and composition, the pupils are instructed in hygiene, natural
history, physics, and kindred subjects, and are trained to become
teachers. Many young girls of the best families come from the various
cities of the republic to attend this college, which has also free
classes for the education of girls of all grades of society.
Under the head of special instruction the military schools of the
republic are included, the Colegio Militar of La Paz, the Escuela de
Clases, and the Academia de Guerra. In consequence of the recent
military reorganization of the country, public interest has been
stimulated regarding the national defence, and military instruction
has received a marked impetus. One of the purposes of the government
in paying especial attention to this branch of national education,
aside from its military importance, is to promote athletic training
and encourage the self-control and endurance which are developed under
systematic discipline. In the Colegio Militar calisthenic drills are
practised daily, the extensive grounds of the college being especially
suited to such exercises. Target practice is provided for in a spacious
polygon, the finest of its kind in Bolivia, which was constructed by
the order of General Pando during his term of office as chief executive.
[Illustration: SEÑOR DR. RODOLFO SORIA GALVARRO, RECTOR OF
THE UNIVERSITY OF ORURO.]
In a country which owes its chief wealth to the products of mining,
it is natural that the system of education should include instruction
in mining and metallurgy, and the present government has recently
established colleges for this purpose in Oruro and Potosí, under the
direction of expert mining engineers and metallurgists. In the historic
building of the Mint the Potosí School of Mines has its classes, in
rooms spacious and well lighted, under domes thirty-four feet high,
and protected by walls of massive solidity. The Oruro School of Mines
was inaugurated by the minister of public instruction on February 8,
1906. The director of this school, Señor A. F. Umlauff, is optimistic
regarding its future, believing that the government will be fully
recompensed, in results which can be foreseen from the beginning, for
the efforts that are being made to establish this school on a sound
basis, even at great expense. As it is not yet a year since the college
was opened, the course of studies has not been perfected, but it will
include mathematics and natural science as preparatory to later studies
of a more specific character.
The principal industrial schools of Bolivia, called _escuelas
de artes y oficios_, are under the management of the Salesian
brotherhood of Don Bosco, who have colleges all over the world. In New
York and Troy, in the United States, these schools have an extensive
patronage, and in all South American capitals they are established on
a successful basis. Buenos Aires has six of these schools; Brazil,
Chile, and Peru have one or more in each of their larger cities; Sucre
has one; and La Paz considers the Escuela Don Bosco as a most important
factor in the instruction of the working classes, particularly as the
system of teaching trades is effective and practical. The original
founder of the schools, Don Bosco, lived in Turin, Italy, from 1815
to 1888. The Don Bosco college of La Paz has about two hundred and
fifty pupils, who are engaged in practising some industrial art or
trade, such as printing, bookbinding, shoemaking, tailoring, iron work,
mosaic work, etc. The mosaics in the floors of the principal public
buildings of La Paz were made by the pupils of the Don Bosco school.
They study music and have a band of forty pieces. Frequently, concerts
are given by them in the city. The Colegio Don Bosco was established
in 1896, and has continued to show an increase in attendance every
year. The director of the La Paz school is Dr. José M. Reyneri, who
takes great pride, and with reason, in the excellent work of his
classes. In bookbinding the school can present the highest examples
of the tooling art. The college occupies an area of twenty thousand
square mètres in the heart of the city, bordering the picturesque
avenues of the Alameda. Its schoolrooms are spacious and airy, and the
playgrounds particularly well laid out. Schools of agriculture and
commercial colleges flourish under the present government, which sees
in these institutions the realization of plans for development in the
departments of national progress which have formerly been neglected.
The minister of instruction, in addition to the supervision which his
department exercises over the institutions of education, is also in
charge of the interests of national culture as it is represented in
the public libraries, museums, archives, and scientific societies of
the country. In 1838, General Santa Cruz ordered the installation of
public libraries in all the departmental capitals, the principal ones
being now in Sucre and La Paz. The _Archivo Nacional_ is preserved
in Sucre, and is said to be the most complete historical record in
possession of any South American country. The Colegio Nacional and
the Convent of San Francisco in Tarija have libraries of historic
value, numbering about ten thousand volumes. In La Paz, the convents
of San Francisco and the Recoleta have together about nine thousand
volumes. The Seminario, the University, and the Colegio de Abogados,
or law college, have fairly good libraries. The library of the Oficina
Nacional de Inmigracion y Estadística contains nearly ten thousand
volumes, and the geographic societies of Sucre and La Paz have valuable
collections of books and pamphlets.
Bolivia is in the transition period of educational development, showing
the influences both of past conditions and present aspirations, and
it would not be fair to the present educational outlook to give, as
indicative of existing conditions, the statistics that have been
collected under a system of instruction entirely inadequate to the
needs of a progressive people. The last statement of the Oficina
Nacional de Inmigracion, Estadística y Propaganda Geografica, published
six years ago, shows that only about three hundred thousand out of
the entire population can read and write; but when it is considered
that this number is equivalent to the population of unmixed European
descent, it may be presumed that the illiteracy is confined chiefly
to the Indians and _mestizos_. The sparsely settled country,
the difficulties of intercommunication, inherited tendencies to look
upon education as a right of privileged classes alone, have delayed
progress in this direction, and the reforms which have recently been
inaugurated in behalf of a broad national education require resolute
determination to make them effective, especially in regions so remotely
situated as are some of the interior school districts of Bolivia. But
it is hoped that improved systems of communication will aid in bringing
all sections within more accessible limits, and will contribute to
facilitate the general efforts toward development. The vigor of a
new intellectual force is apparent in the reorganization of public
instruction; and a growing sense of the possibilities of national
culture is bringing about a combined effort of the whole people toward
a realization of higher intellectual ideals.
[Illustration: PATIO OF JUNÍN COLLEGE, SUCRE.]
[Illustration: PUENTE SUCRE, A BRIDGE OVER THE PILCOMAYO
RIVER, CONNECTING THE DEPARTMENT OF SUCRE WITH THAT OF
POTOSÍ.]