Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/419

EDUCATION. 841 Education. Tho French Government has endcuvourod to secure the supiwrt of Inlam by endowing tho Mus-sulniun priesthood ; but it has hitherto done little to raiio the natives to tho level of Euroi)eun8 by education. Tho French HchooU specially ojK^nwl for tlie Arab and Ik'rbt>r childn'ii are few in number and for the njost part badly 8Ui)i)orte(l. The European schools are doubtless also open to the Mussulmans, and are frequented by a few hundred natives. But the proportion of those receiving regular instruction is very low in a population of nearly three millions. The zawyas, of which nearly one thousand are sup])osed to exist in Algeria, are sometimes spoken of as real schools ; but they have little claim to the title, the children who frequent them, to the numlK'r of abfjut thirty thousand, being taught little except to recite verses from the Koran. Girls are seldom admitted, nor do they enter the schools of European foundation, except in very rare cases. It could scarcely be otherwise, so long as custom requires them to marry at an age when European children are still playing with their dolls. Amongst the Kabyles, instruction is more highly prized than amongst the Arabs, and all schools opened for them by the administration or by the Catholic and Protestant missionaries are eagerly frequented by both sexes. All the tribal assemblies have petitioned for French schools to be established in their communes, readily accepting the condition of gratuitous and obligatory instruction. Education is also held in great honour by the Berbers of the Saharian oases, and in several towns, notably Biskra, all the children already s{x^ak and write French. Of the whole population, over a million now speak French, either as their mother tongue or as an acquired language. Arabic, notwithstanding the wealth of its former literature, no longer lends itself readily, at least in Algeria, to the requirements of UKxlern culture. With the exception of an official journal and a few legal and administrative documents, all tho local periodical literature is European, and mostly French. The only Arab works printed are translations made by Europeans, or else historical records published by the learned societies ; nor has any revival of native letters made itself felt after half a century of French occupation. Amongst the Euroixuin settlers, instruction is relatively more widely diffused than in the home country. At present education is somewhat less general amongst the Jews than amongst the French, a circumstance due to the state of degradation in which the race was long held by its Mohammedan ojjpressors. But on tho other hand, the Jews pay more attention to the instruction of their children than any other section of tho community. Public instruction, en which the Algerian communes spend on an average 17 per cent, of thrtr income, is organised on tho same model as in France. According to a law of 188U, every commune is bound to maintain one or more primary schools, open gratuitously to European and native children. A school for girls must also be established in all communes with over five hundred inhabitants.