SYSTEM OF STATE EDUCATION IN FRANCE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 670, 7 April 1879, Page 2

SYSTEM OF STATE EDUCATION IN FRANCE.

The bill which has just! been brought in by the French Minister of Public Instrubtian declares primary instrucifdn compulsory for all children of both sexes betweeiji m and d3) jeani of mge; |n •ach commune, there is .to be formed a commission charged to Me that the schools are properly attended, and to grant exemption in certain oases^Shouid a father neglect to send -his children . to school he will, in the first instance, be admonished by the mayor, and in the event of the offence being repeated^ Jiis name will be posted up at the town hall. Should this not have the desired effect, the recalcitrant father will be deprived of political right* fpr a period varying from one to five years. No citizen will be admitted to fill a public office unless he can show that his children have received primary instruction. Conscripts who cannot read and write, and ,who would, according to the present law, serve in the second portion of the, contingent (for one year), will be embodied in the first portion and have to serve five years. 1 ' It ib proposed that this law shall come into force in 1881, by which time all the rural sehoplhouses will probably be qonstructed. M. Bardouxls bill^eart a r gobdT deal 6t resemb-, lance to that which was passed in the 29th Frimaire, Year 11. (December 19, 1873), when Danton; stood up in Convention and declared it was high time to establish this great principle, that children belonged to the, Republic before belonging to their parents. ', The law of Frimaire declared instruction to be free and public, and parents who neglected to send $heir children to primary schools were liable for the first offence id a fine e^ual to a fourth of their taxes, and for a second offence to a double fine and the loss of the rights of citizenship for 10 years.