E.—l2

FRANCE.

Teachers. admission. Pupils enter about eighteen. The course of study is for three years. A primary school, in which pupils are exercised, is annexed to each normal school, and near outside is a maternal school. The institutions are boarding schools, 1 although a certain number of half-boarders and day scholars are received; but instruction and board are given gratuitously. There is no religious teaching. There are also two superior normal schools ("ecoles normales superieures"), one at Fontenay-aux-Roses for girls, 2 and one at St. Cloud for boys, for the purpose of training teachers to superintend teaching in normal schools. 3 Applicants for admission must be at least (a) twenty years of age; (b) possess the superior certificate granted to teachers ; and (c) succeed in an admission examination which comprehends written and oral proofs of capacity, including the practice of teaching.^ Both classes of establishments are national institutions, non ecclesiastical, and mainly residential in character. Teachers for primary schools must be exclusively laymen, and are nominated 1 on the proposition of the departmental Inspector (" Inspecteur d'Academie," who represents the University of France and the Minister of Public Instruction), by the Prefect of the Department, who, as chief of the departmental administration, is nominated by the Minister of the Interior; but he refers to the Minister of Public Instruction on all scholastic affairs. 5 The Inspector, however, " always acts in concert with, and takes the opinion of, the rural municipality before naming the teacher." The pupil-teacher system is virtually defunct in France, 0 the former system of monitors, which somewhat corresponded to our pupil-teacher arrangements, having become substantially a thing of the past. Women are much more fully employed as teachers than in Germany or Switzerland. Professors and teachers of all grades are very poorly paid; and if Victor Hugo's definition be correct that the schoolmaster in France is the highest functionary of the State, 7 they certainly do not pay their highest State functionaries adequately. The following data gives an idea of the salaries paid, which are always "fixed."

Superior normal sc 00 3"

Salaries of teachers.

as they do in Prance—with University instruction of the highest class. For further details see his May, 188G, rep. pp. 18 and 19; R.E.C., Mr. M. Arnold, 5274 and seq. ; and Amcr. Gommr. Rep., 1885, for 1883-84, p. coviii. "Generally, the director of a normal school ; has been an elementary teacher. The best work is conducted by specialists who visit the colleges."— R.E.C., Mr. M. Arnold, 5111 and 5288 and 5289. See Decret et arreto du 28 juillet, 1885, relatifs aux > examens pour l'obtention du certiflcat d'aptitude au professor at des ecolcs normales. 1 See also R.E.C., Mr. M. Arnold, 5131. 2a „ j. in or bee note 14, p. db. . _ 3 See note 12, p. 3G. See also M. Damont, p. 152; and R.C., Ist rep., p. 8. I 4 " By recent law passed this year (188G), woman are adrnitted as teachers in schools at the age of seventeen,

| but men not until eighteen."—See " Journal of Ed." I Oct. 188G, p. 415. 5 For exclusion of monks and nuns from teaching inmunicipal schools, see P. M. Budget, 25 March, 188G, p. 32. 6 See — ; (a) Hon. L. Stanley, and , (b) 8.C., Ist rep., p. 13, and compare N.Z. 1877 Act, s. 50, and Gazette 92, 1878. 7 See also Luther's extolment of the office of schoolmaster, Franz Noir, Pad Aphorismen. 8 See also— (a) R-C Ist rep., p. 7 ; {") *J- an<l "■< PP' 7-13 ; and Mr M _ ArnoUVs ( MaV) 1886 ) roport> p . 2 1, and his ' evidence, R.E.C., 5295 and 5296, and 5532 and seq. t S ee also B.E. rep., pp. 438 and 439. | No such element as payment by results exists, but note ; advocacy of it—" Abbe M."

37

Number of Teachers. Class of School. Amount of Salary. 'rimary Schools 8 2,487 19,058 5,326 13,746 7,426 22,355 5,969 2,260 1,364 786 579 £24 and under £26 £26-32 £32 to £36 £36 to £40 £40 to £52 £52 to £64 £64 to £76 £76 to £88 £88 to £104 above £104 81,356 iyceums 9 ... The salaries in Paris range from £84 to £330; in the Departments £230.