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POPULAR EDUCATION.
299
Particular places. The foregoing account applies to the actual state of
things in general. For certain places, however, the character is slightly different.
For Stockholm and Gothenburg there are special school regulations, according to
which all the parishes in each of these towns form a single school district with
a common Board. The same is the case in Malmö. In the above cities and in
Norrköping, the teachers are not elected by the vote of the church assembly but
are appointed by the school Board. In Gothenburg, matters pertaining to the
common schools are not managed by the church assemblies but by the town council.
In the northernmost parts of the country, the people in certain places speak
Finnish or the Lapp tongue, and, in consequence of their sparsity and poverty,
have great difficulty in putting common school teaching on a satisfactory basis. The
State, therefore, to attain this object, has been obliged to make greater sacrifices
here than in other parts of the kingdom. In Haparanda and at Mattisudden, two
seminaries have been established out of public funds for training infant school
teachers, one for the Finnish, the other for the Lapp children. For such pupils
at the common school seminaries as can speak Finnish or the Lapp tongue, and
bind themselves after passing their examination to perform the duties of teachers
for Finnish or Lapp children, larger pecuniary aids are paid than the ordinary.
Many common schools in these regions obtain also a larger subvention from the
State, or are wholly maintained by the State.
With regard to the results of the common school teaching it has
been already shown in a previous section (diagram page 137 ) that in
Sweden, at the present day, practically all the young men enrolled
as conscripts are able to read, the slight exception of about 1 per
1,000 arising from a few Finns from the extreme north. Sweden
has also in this respect gone as far as any other country, and can be
compared with Germany and Denmark. The important fact has been
pointed out several times in the preceding that this general knowledge
of reading is of ancient date in Sweden, a considerable part of the
people having been able to read a book even so far back as two
centuries ago.
Of course, the last word is not said in merely stating that reading
is a general accomplishment It will be found that out of all the
conscripts in 1900, 69 s % could read fluently, and 30 a % fairly well.
There is thus still a large field for progress even with regard to such
an elementary subject as reading. That such progress is being made,
is proved from the fact that in 1875 only 52-4 % of the militia received
certificates of good skill, but, on the other hand, in 1900 — as we have
just mentioned — 69-8 %■
The Expenses of Common School Teaching are not met by the
pupils but entirely by public grants. For their amount cf. Table 48.
The burden of these expenses falls partly upon the School districts, and
partly on the State. The School district is bound to erect and support school
buildings, provide them with furniture and the materials of instruction, and
attend to heating and cleaning; moreover, it must provide the teacher with the
statutory allowances in kind and a salary as laid down by law; it also is bound
to contribute a yearly fee towards pensioning hirn. As far as salaries are concerned,
it is to be observed, however, that the district generally is reimbursed by the
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