d-2 47. Elementary Education.

There are signs of a decline of interest in tlie promotion of elementary vernacular education, due, in some measure, to the feeling that, in view of the imminence of local taxation for educational purposes, private benevolence is no longer called for. Tlie Provincial Councils are, however, now at work, and as they are specially charged witli the supervision of elementary schools, for which seven-tenths of the total expenditure on education in their budgets is reserved, it may be hoped that the development of vernacular instruction will receive a new impulse.

During 1909 the present system of Government inspection combined with grantsiii-aid has shown a satisfactory rate of progress, as may be seen from the following table:— I Number of ' private j iCuttabs inspected.

Number of Kuttabs awarded a grant.

Total amount of grant.

1008 ..

1909 ..

8,079 8,582 2,919 8,051 £E. 19,992 21,479 It should be explained that the reduction in the number of Kuttabs under inspection shown in the first column is the result of the incorporation of small and inefficient schools into larger ones already existing in the same neighbourhood; the total number of pupils in the schools shows a considerable advance, the figures being as follows:— Boys. Girls. Total.

1903 1909 100,789 174,023 13,753 16,852 174,542 100,875 Substantial progress has, further, been made in the efficiency of the Kuttabs, 1,142 of the head teachers being now considered fairly qualified for their duties. In 1,109 Kuttabs the teaching was reported to be good, and 1,522 are classed as well managed by the inspectors. Classification by religion shows that all but 28 of the 3,.582 Kuttabs under inspection in 1909 were Moslem schools. Of the 28 Coptic Kuttabs there were only two which did not receive a grant-in-aid. The total number of non-Moslem children was 2,989, or less than 2 per cent, of the aggregate number of pupils.

In addition to the 3,582 independent Kuttabs under inspection for grants-in-aid, the Ministry of Education had in 1909 under its direct control 144 Kuttabs with a staff of 355 men teachers and 57 women teachers, attended by 9,183 boys and 4,182 girls, making a total of 13,365 pupils. The attendance shows a considerable advance over 1908, when there were 8,806 boys and 3,563 girls.

48. Primary Education.

The number of boys’ higher primary schools under the direct Control of the Ministry remains at 32, four of which have boarding departments. The boys in attendance number 7,941, a decrease of 223 over last year, chiefly accounted for by the stringency with which the age rule was applied last October, in order to avoid the evil of taking older boys into schools which are intended for children of the primary standard. Moreover, the number admitted to certain schools which had been overcrowded was limited, with the result that 80 candidates were refused in Cairo at the beginning of the present session for want of room, A satisfactory feature of these schools is the regularity with which the pupils attend, the average number of those in attendance in 1909 being 96 percent, of the number on the registers, a percentage which compares favourably with other countries.

The quality of the teaching staff has also Improved owing to the appointment of House of Commons Parliamentary Papers Online. Copyright (c) 2006 ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved.