Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XI. The Government of Finland and its Future
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schools and other institutions for instruction which are
now established in sufficient numbers, both for those
who speak Finnish and for those who speak Swedish.
They are founded by the State and by the Communes,
as well as by private persons who now receive
considerable subventions from the government. The teachers
are comparatively well paid. A great part of these
schools are common to boys and girls. In the private
elementary schools the girls form one-third of the
scholars. There is a happy variety of studies, and the
scholars have to a certain degree a free choice of
subjects. English is among the languages comparatively
little studied, and notwithstanding their intellectual
connection with Western Europe the Finlanders have
until now been little in touch with English thought,
literature, and language. To some extent, this is in
consequence of the necessity for learning both Swedish
and Finnish, and, in some cases, the foreign and very
difficult language of Russia. English is undoubtedly
at present as important as German and French.
Of the greatest importance, however, is the recent
organisation of the public elementary schools, and
especially their relations to the clergy. For several
reasons compulsory education has not been thought
desirable. The extent of the country makes it difficult
to enforce, and there was, too, a certain fear of
putting education, and with it the national life, into the hands
of public authorities. Neither was it really necessary
to introduce other constraint than the demand of the
Lutheran Church, that all young people must be able
to read if they want to be confirmed and married.
Except among sick, feeble, and abnormal children,
there are hardly any who do not know how to read.
Elementary instruction is mostly given at home, but
there are also elementary schools of different kinds
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