In 1917 slightly less than 100,000 pupils were enrolled in the 1,014
public primary schools of Uruguay, an increase of 2,500 over the
preceding year. Of these, nearly 65,000 were enrolled in the city of
Montevideo alone.
In administration and inspection the authorities in this field were
active and progressive. Tentative reforms in the programs of study for
the schools of towns and villages, a step long urged by them, were
outlined by the minister of education; and wider latitude was allowed
such individual schools in the matter of adapting nature study and
practical courses to regular school work in accordance with local
conditions and occupations. This step was in keeping with the attention
paid to rural schools, which will be discussed later.
By executive resolution of July, 1917, the long-discussed change in
the school year was made by which it shall hereafter open March 1 and
close December 15. As with the similar change in Argentina, beneficial
results, especially in the rural schools, are expected, as this
arrangement is in conformity with climatic conditions. The change was
made after investigation among the teaching force, and the country
teachers won a victory over their city fellows, who favored vacations
in the summer. This is but another and a significant effect of the
steady centripetal attraction of the overshadowing capital city, more
marked even in the new countries of South America than in the old
ones of Europe. The country teachers have openly expressed their wish
to spend the longest possible time in the capital, in spite of the
inconveniences of such a sojourn in the summer. A further light upon
the country teacher’s point of view is shown by the information that
the long vacations in winter permit the small landowner to employ his
children in labors of battage, which begin in December and last most
of the winter. The schools are therefore practically empty in winter.
It is manifestly wiser to put the former long vacation of July at this
time.
Complaints having become more frequent in regard to the blocking
of educational administration in certain departments because of
disagreements among inspectors, more drastic requirements were laid
down by resolutions of the National Inspection of Primary Instruction,
dated February, 1917. The authority of the departmental inspector
over the subinspectors was confirmed; in the event of disagreement or
insubordination the departmental inspector was required to present
the case to the Department of National Inspection; the visitation
of schools was distributed as nearly equally as possible; and the
responsibility for inaction was put squarely upon the inspectors.
These provisions, rigorous as they were, did not prove adequate,
and much of the business of the schools of the outlying departments
still remained blocked. The executive, therefore, in November,
1917, transmitted to the Congress, along with a message emphasizing
the necessity of the law, a project for the establishment of three
divisions of regional inspectors of primary education to exercise
general supervision over the departmental inspectors and the schools
of the Republic. These regional inspectors acting as a unit were to
constitute the technical inspection of the school authorities. Their
functions were to be regulated by the executive in accordance with
the reports of the national inspection and the general direction of
primary instruction. The hitherto existing chief inspectors, technical,
adjunct, and chief of statistics were to be transformed into regional
inspectors, and under their immediate supervision were to be put all
the departmental inspectors. The projected law encountered unexpected
opposition, and its passage has not as yet been secured.
Scientific interest in the character of the textbooks adopted for use
in the primary schools of Uruguay has been aroused by the Government’s
offer of prizes for satisfactory textbooks and by the publication in
the Anales de Instruccion Primaria of illustrative lines and themes
of treatment. The general assembly has authorized the offer of $6,000
in prizes in the contest for the composition of a book combining in a
single volume all the textbook material needed in the fourth, fifth,
and sixth classes in the public schools of Montevideo. This offer had
as its object to lower the cost of education and thus to facilitate
attendance, as the book in question was to be distributed gratuitously
in cases of need.
A circular issued by the department of technical inspection in April,
1917, called the attention of teachers to the abuses of assigning
written home work and limited such tasks to 30 minutes in classes of
the first grade and to one hour for those in higher grades.
By executive decree, school savings funds and a system of aid for
necessitous children, supplying clothing, midday meal, transportation,
and books, were established and placed in charge of the administrative
council for each department, composed of the departmental authorities
of primary education, and the civil authorities of the several
localities, presided over by the departmental inspectors. The funds for
the institution of this system were to be drawn from State subventions
to municipalities, school fees, and legacies and gifts to such objects.
Although the Congress in October, 1917, appropriated $30,000 to
organize the system, financial considerations have as yet prevented its
practical organization.
_Private instruction._--For the first time in the history of Uruguay
systematic steps have been taken to ascertain the real nature and
aims of private instruction. By executive decree of May, 1917, the
inspector of private instruction and the assistant director general of
primary public instruction were directed to address to every private
educational institution in Uruguay a questionnaire in duplicate calling
for information concerning its teaching staff, the mental and physical
condition of its pupils, the hygienic conditions of the building and
site, classrooms, dormitories, playgrounds, source and nature of
drinking water, lighting conditions, school furniture and equipment,
programs of study, methods, textbooks, school hours, and the general
organization and administration of the school. No time limit was set
for the reply, but it was requested within a reasonable time. The gist
of the information gathered and the action of the Government have not
as yet been published. Such a move has naturally aroused opposition in
conservative and ecclesiastical circles, and its results are awaited
with keen interest by other South American countries which have to deal
with similar problems.
The issues aroused by the consideration of the private schools
continued to grow more acute and culminated in the introduction of a
bill in the Congress in March, 1918, forbidding the opening of private
schools of any grade without the written permission of the inspectoral
department of private instruction or the departmental inspectors of
primary instruction; and requiring all teachers in private schools to
hold a State teacher’s diploma in accordance with the provisions of the
law of public instruction, and debarring the clergy from teaching in
any such private schools. The bill naturally became a storm center and
is as yet unenacted into law.