f essors, which is being largely assumed by the Government. Their curricula are still drawn up by the Faculties, but have to receive the approval of the Superior Council of Public Instruction, which is entirely nominated bJ the Minister. Finally the Minister has instituted an internal university police (legalised espionage?) , formed from among the subordinate civil servants and the ushers. (Royal decree No. 2102, September 30, 1923.) The Secondary Schools have been deliberately transformed ·with a view to keeping away from them as many pupils as possible and diverting pupils to the private schools, even if there is a deficiency of the latter or they are less efficient than the State schools. (Royal decree No. 1054, May 6, 1923.) The first steps taken by the Ministry resulted in the refusal of facilities for admission to the Secondary Schools to some 50,000 candidates. This aroused a revolt in the Press and among the students' families, and was modified in some degree by combining courses (Royal decree No. 2370, October 15, 1923), raising the class numbers to 40, and other similar devices; even so the Minister has had to confess that 18,301 students have failed to gain admission, not through failure to come up to the educational standard, but through local deficiencies ; in the smaller centres and in various districts, by the Minister's own admission, the public Secondary Schools have 65,607 vacancies! So enormous are the miscalculations and failures of o.rganisation in his reform. The new Girls' Lyceums, intended for the middle class only, have enrolled, absurdly small numbers of students ; as to the new Complementary Schools, for the proletariat, parents refused to send their children to them as they were first planned. Meanwhile, nothing has been done for the Technical Schools, some of which have been suppressed. Heaviest of all is the blow BibliotecaGino Bianco
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