No. 104.
Mr. Williamson to Mr. Fish.
Guatemala, January 23, 1875. (Received March 11.)
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that the government of Guatemala to-day published a decree, No. 130, upon the subject of primary public instruction, which is quite interesting.
The decree is very long and minute in its details, and, therefore, I only furnish a synopsis.
It makes primary education between the ages of six and fourteen compulsory as to both sexes, and allows but three excuses which are as follows:
- 1st.
- That the government is convinced the children who do not attend the public schools are being properly instructed at home by a teacher, or in some private school.
- 2d.
- In cases of physical or moral inabilities.
- 3d.
- In case the children have not proper clothing and the parents or guardians are not able to supply them.
The last-named excuse is ordered by the law to be immediately removed by the municipal authorities as soon as it is known.
Primary education is made gratuitous. The government assumes all the expense of education, including salaries of teachers, school-furniture, books, maps, &c.
The whole administration of the educational fund, and the execution of the law, is charged upon a commission called “General Direction of Public Instruction,” with numerous subordinate commissions in the different departments and towns. The whole is under the control of the minister of public instruction, who is a young man of less than thirty, with but a small experience in schools, and whose life has been passed in Central America.
The law contains many arbitrary provisions. They are so numerous that even in this country, where laws are usually made and executed by the simple mandate of the President, the minister who presented the law accompanied it with a report in which he points out the necessities that unhappily compel the government to the adoption of such measures.
It is to be hoped the system may be successfully carried out. There will be many and apparently insurmountable difficulties to overcome. Chief among them appears the lack of competent teachers. This deficiency the normal school, proposed to be established, may in time supply.
The present attempt at organizing a public-school system, is, in my [Page 149] judgment, one of the most laudable acts of the present government, for which it should be entitled to credit, whether there be success or failure.
My opinion is that there are too many obstacles to be overcome for the plan to be successful, and that the government is undertaking a grave experiment which is likely to create great dissatisfaction and may result in revolution. But having driven out most of the priests and nuns, who were heretofore the instructors of the people, it seemed necessary the government should try to supply their place. It proposes to make the attempt in a very bold if not somewhat reckless way.
I have, &c.,