SCHOOLS IN RUSSIA. [From United States Commercial Agent Greener, Vladivostok, Siberia.] ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. Within the jurisdiction of the ministry of education there are 37,000 elementary schools, whose maintenance costs $15,601,666. Of this amount only $2,008,500 are appropriated by this ministry-that is, a little over one-eighth of the annual cost. The remainder is supplied by the local communities by a charge for admittance to school and by private donations. The amount which denotes the share the ministry takes in the support of elementary schools must also be curtailed a little, for it includes the appropriation for the department of inspection, which bears an administrative but not an educational character; so that the direct support by the ministry to the elementary schools constitutes only one-eighth of the amount they actually cost. Notwithstanding the large number of schools there are 7,250,000 children of school age who remain without any education. The small share the ministry takes in the establishment and support of elementary schools depends on a principle prevalent in this ministry from the times of Count D. A. Tolstoy, that the Government's business consisted only in controlling the schools, and that the money for their support should be provided by the local communities. The change of opinion evidently taking place in the ministry at present is therefore welcome. The chief secretary of the ministry published an article in which are found these momentous words: After having satisfied many cases of utmost need it appears that the ministry has full reason to give more scope to its own initiative and introduce gradually a new system of action that is not so closely dependent on private and local initiative as at present, which will lead the way gradually to guarantee to all children of school age the possibility of obtaining an elementary education. The secretary says that for this object it would be necessary to open 150,000 new schools. The appropriation for them would amount to $55,875,500. Of course such a reform can be introduced only by degrees. In the province of Moscow alone 15,323 new schools are required, to cost $6,180,000. He proposes that this number of schools should be gradually opened each decade. But, says the newspaper Novosti, at such a rate it would require a century to plant all the necessary elementary schools in Russia. This paper rejoices, however, in the good symptom that the ministry is at present acknowledging its own duty to take the initiative of extending elementary education in the Empire and of appropriating the necessary funds by the Government. In doing such a thing the ministry is rendering the country an inestimable service. According to the published returns of the Russian ministry of finance the 34 provinces that enjoy local self-government have expended $6,180,000 for public education during the year 1902. The population in these provinces amounts to 66,500,000. The average expenditure has, consequently, been at a rate of about 9 cents a year per head. The ministry of the interior publishes that there are at present in the 34 provinces where local provincial self-government is instituted 16,760 schools and 23,421 teachers, of whom 14,957 are religious teachers. As is well known, the teachers and pupils in the normal schools are all exempt from corporal punishment, even though they be of the peasant class. At present the ministry of education considers it just and right to abolish whipping, even of peasant children, in all of its lower and middle schools throughout the Empire. The Russian minister of war has informed the minister of education that there are no obstacles to the appropriation of the necessary funds for the support of a real grammar school for girls beginning January 14, 1904, at Port Arthur. It is consequently expected that such schools will be opened in the fall of the current year. The professor of the Korean language at the Oriental Institute in Vladivostok, G. V. Podstavin, has translated the common prayers and the creed of the Russian Orthodox Church into Korean. The Russian Church mission in Seoul will have them printed for distribution in Korea and among the Koreans in the maritime province. COMMERCIAL AND TECHNICAL SCHOOLS. The ministry of finance reports that 149 commercial schools were opened in Russia between 1896 and 1903. Of these, 147 are in existence at present. The majority of these schools were established without any subsidy on the part of the Government. At the beginning of 1903 there were in these 147 commercial schools 2,180 teachers and 32,251 pupils. The schools are spread all over Russia, in an unequal manner. For all Siberia and the central Asiatic provinces there is only 1, at Tomsk; whereas St. Petersburg and the adjoining region have 58. The Government has, however, appropriated a sufficient amount for the erection of a separate building for the Deep Sea Navigation School at Vladivostok. The city authorities have allotted a spacious piece of ground opposite the Naval Club for this purpose, have granted $5,150, and promise $1,545 yearly, taxing merchant licenses 10 per cent additional to make up this sum. They expect to begin building in the spring of 1904. The teaching of the Chinese language will be introduced in the newly opened Deep Sea Navigation School. An official of the navy department, Mr. Mihailofsky, will be the teacher. The ministry of finance has had charge of all commercial and some technical schools. There was a plan to transfer all these to the ministry of education. Now they are to be placed under the control of the new board of commerce and navigation. The report of the Habarofsk Technical Railroad School for 1901-2 is published. The school was established seven years ago. At the end of the present school year the number of scholars was 49. Progress made by the young men was not very satisfactory, because their previous education had been defective. The course of studies commenced on August 14 with seven hours of work per day. The second class studied the work of locksmiths and the third class that of blacksmiths. During the summer months the young men are occupied with carpenter work, surveying, and with erection of buildings. The graduates are obliged to stay in the employ of the local railroads for practical work from July 15 to September 10. The total number of graduates for the seven years was only 58, and only 13 of them still remain in the employ of the railroad; so that the chief aim of the school to provide efficient and experienced agents for technical work on the railroads is evidently not yet realized. A part of the graduates enter into the employ of the navy department, where they get better pay than on the railroad. The Russian Government is working on a project to organize a course of lectures for the training up of agents for the railroad trains. The special subjects of study will be the technical parts of trains in motion, commercial exploitation, the telegraph, bookkeeping at the stations, keeping of records, and the administrative duties. The supplementary studies will comprise drawing, statutes on transportation, knowledge of merchandise, essential principles of railroad tariffs, and elementary knowledge of electricity in its application to railroads. In order to raise the level of general education among the employees on the Government railroads, special evening schools are established at the stations. Forty-three applications from different parts of Russia ask for the opening of commercial schools. Of this number 13 come from the Warsaw district alone. The chief inspectors of schools in the Amur provinces informed the mayor of Vladivostok that upon the solicitations of the general governor to have a technical school in this city, the Government at St. Petersburg ordered: (1) To prepare plans and estimates for the erection of such a school, not to cost above $180,250; (2) to appropriate $25,750 annually for the support of such a school; (3) to confer with the navy department whether it is willing to contribute a part to these appropriations, and (4) to have the school opened some time during the next five years. PROPOSED UNIVERSITY AT VITEBSK, RUSSIA. For the purpose of having a university established in the city of Vitebsk, western Russia, the city council donates 119 acres of urban land. Several councilmen offer 108 acres additional. The land is valued at $240,000. There is an appropriation by the city of $300,000. The donations amount to over $500,000. NAVIGATION SCHOOL IN ODESSA. On November 30 last a new building for a navigation school was opened in Odessa, which cost $125,000. The money was supplied by the Government, the city, and merchants. R. T. GREENER, Commercial Agent. VLADIVOSTOK, SIBERIA, December 18, 1903. CHAPTER XV. FOREIGN UNIVERSITIES AND OTHER FOREIGN INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN 1903. I. Universities arranged according to date of founding. II. Other seats of learning arranged according to date of founding. IV. The same arranged alphabetically. V. Universities arranged according to countries. VI. Polytechnica arranged alphabetically. VII. Agricultural, forestry, and mining schools arranged alphabetically. INTRODUCTION. The author of "Minerva, Jahrbuch der Universtäten der Welt" (K. Trübner), which is the chief source of information offered in the following lists, says that he has submitted his work at various stages of completion to different professors of the countries mentioned, so that he is assured that his decision as to which of the learned institutions of the world should be regarded as universities is upheld by the most trustworthy authority. He describes his Jahrbuch as a collection of names of teaching bodies, of universities, or similar institutions of the world. Since Volume 2 of this Report of the Commissioner of Education contains direct information concerning the higher institutions of learning in the United States, they have been omitted from the following lists, which are devoted exclusively to foreign institutions: |