EDUCATION IN NAPLES.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 47, 21 April 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

EDUCATION IN NAPLES.

The cause of public instruction is receiving a great impulse in Naples ; and you will not be displeased to receive some details regarding what may be considered the chief want of the Southern Italians. Quick to a proverb, full of talent, perhaps there is not a less instructed people in Europe ; yet evidently involuntarily so, for I have been struck in many cases with the eagerness with which they hasten to avail themselves of the advantages which are now offered to them under the government of Victor Emanuel. The first educational establishment of this province is the University, which now numbers near ten thousand students — a vast increase within the last two years — for under the Bourbons the youth of the country were condemned to an exile from the capital, and were limited to such inferior instruction as was offered by the Provincial Lyceums. Considerable dissatisfaction is, however, felt with some of the Professors who have heen chosen, and with the comparative non-attendance of many ; so much so, that on Saturday last the students got up a demonstration against them. Next in order to the University we must place the Victor Emanuel Lyceum, which is attended by three hundred students. At present we have only one such establishment ; but from the same royal fund another, at least, is to be formed, There are twenty-five Professors, whose minimum pay is one thousand five hundred lire and maximum two thousand five, hundred lire per year. The course of instruction includes Latin, Greek, French, history, geography, natural history, physics, and philosophy. Lower in the scale come the schools provided by, and under the more immediate inspection of, the municipality ; most of these are yet in embryo. A commission of public instruction has proposed the establishment of eightytwo elementary schools for Naples and the neighboring hamlets, twelve infant schools, and twelve evening schools ; but the project has not yet been adopted. Four infant and two evening schools, however, are already in operation, and forty-seven elementary schools belonging to the old foundation. For the support of the infant schools about twenty-nine thousand ducats have been collected by private subscription, of which five thousand ducats have been already expended. Besides these schools, which are conducted strictly on the Government plan, there are others maintained by private enterprise ; and I beg to call your attention to one or two Evangelical schools, the leading feature of which is that the Bible is introduced in the course of instruction several times in the course of the week. It is needless to say that such schools owe their existence to the exertions of Protestants. The principal establishment of this kind is in the Strada vSan Pietro a Majella, at the top of the Toledo ; and though in the present state of the country, of public opinion and feeling, I am opposed to any plans which at all savour of proselytism, I must confess that this school has hitherto met with a gieat success. It opened with four pupils, and now numbers sixty-five, from six to fourteen years of age. The regular master was educated for the priesthood, which he has abandoned, and three or four times a week the scriptures are explatned to the pupils by the Rev. Mr Buscarley |of the Scotch Presbyterian Church.' J Besides these efforts, which are strictly ( Neapolitan, the Philanthropic Association of Italian ladies residing in Turin is attempting much to elevate the character of the Southern population, and I call attention to it in an especial manner, because a great proportion of their funds is derived from contributions made in England. Their first grant was made in support of an idea of my own, which was, that in order to meet the great necessity of the present day, good teachers, missionary teachers, should be employed to visit and reside in the small communities for longer or shorter intervals, to instruct the teachers nnd to organise the schools. It is supposed by many that the normal school supply this want, and it is the fact that lists of certificated teachers are sent round to the communes for selection ; but it is like spreading out a feast for a man who is unable to pay for it. Such teachers expect as a minimum salary L2O or L3O a year, whilst there are many communes which do not offer more than from L5 to LlO a year. For the present, therefore, and until the communes have become sufficiently alive to the value of education, so as to make a greater effort, certificated masters from the normal schools are out of the question, and the rising generation must depend on the wretched class of teachers now actually in office, and many of them can scarcely read ; or teachers must be created on the spot by peripatetic or roissianary instructors. The plan is now on trial under my own eye, and so far has well succeeded. Another act of the Ladies' Association is to form a school for one hundred girls in Torre del Greco. They are to be educated, fed, and to receive

some articles of clothing, and the principle of the Association is to reject no one on the ground of religious opinion, though such is the benighted state of this country that it has been found necessary to keep this principle out of sight, as soi-disan l liberals inter-

pret liberty as meaning exemption from persecution for themselves. Take it altogether, however, great strides are being made here in public instruction, and the next generation will be far in advance of the present. —W. in

Atkenmum*