316 RURAL DENMARK 



as to the condition of the schools, and also from the 

 Bishops and Deans after their visitations. 



In addition to the ordinary public schools, which 

 admit all children without fees and are called u free " 

 schools, there exist in Copenhagen and most of the 

 Danish towns other public schools in which the pupils 

 pay and receive a higher education. These schools are 

 called " payment " schools, secondary schools, and muni- 

 cipal high schools. Copenhagen has twenty-four free 

 schools and twelve payment schools. In the latter the 

 fees demanded are very low, only one krone (? per week). 

 Of late years many towns have instituted secondary 

 schools, in which either no fees are demanded or such 

 fees are only payable by the pupils in the highest class, 01 

 only from certain pupils in each class. 



In addition to the secondary schools that give highei 

 instruction there exist, especially in the country districts, 

 about two hundred private schools where the teaching 

 given does not go beyond that furnished in the common 

 public schools. Most of these have been instituted 

 by adherents of the Grundtvig movement, who have 

 also founded most of the High Schools, such as Askov, 

 or by religious sects that do not belong to the State 

 Church. These schools receive subventions from the 

 Government and also from certain of the big com- 

 munes. With the exception of Copenhagen, any in- 

 dividual may teach privately or set up a private school 

 without having passed an examination as to efficiency, 

 and without receiving any pecuniary allowance from 

 the educational authorities. While the number of pupils 

 attending a country school is in most cases under ioo, 

 in the towns it reaches to about iooo, and in Copen- 

 hagen to over 1500. The result is that the various schools 

 are divided into classes, but these differ greatly in their 

 number. In the country districts there are, as a rule, but 

 two or three classes, in the towns 13, and in Copenhagen 

 as many as 43. The average number of pupils in each 

 class must not now exceed 37 in the country and 35 in 



