APPENDIX E 317 



the town. In each common school, with the exception of 

 a few in the moorland district of Jutland, the pupils are 

 divided into at least two classes one for the elder and 

 one for the younger children. 



In the towns the number of classes is generally six. 

 This is also the arrangement in Copenhagen and Fre- 

 deriksberg, but in these cities there is further a superior 

 class of pupils who have passed the usual school standards. 

 Also there exists what are known as " help " classes for 

 backward children. 



In the country districts boys and girls generally attend 

 the same class. In the towns, however, this only happens 

 in one-fifth of the classes, and in Copenhagen but very 

 rarely. 



In the public schools of Copenhagen all the children 

 attend school either in the morning or the afternoon on 

 every weekday, the attendance averaging from twenty- four 

 to thirty-six hours a week. The same is the case in the 

 free schools of other towns, though the average number 

 of hours of attendance demanded is less. In the " pay- 

 ment " schools, except those of Copenhagen, the general 

 rule is that the pupil must attend every day, such attend- 

 ance amounting to a maximum of thirty-six hours a week. 



In Frederiksberg and some other towns the whole- 

 day attendance is a matter of choice. If a pupil, however, 

 stays away from school without -good reason for his or 

 her absence, he or she is penalised by being transferred 

 to a half-day school. In the country different classes of 

 pupils attend school for the whole day of from five to six 

 hours in rotation. In what are called the Islands, it is 

 usual for the various classes to attend school for three 

 days a week. In Jutland, however, owing to the neces- 

 sities of agricultural work, the custom is to arrange that 

 the older classes should attend on many more days in 

 the winter than in summer, whilst the younger children 

 who are not employed in the fields reverse this order of 

 attendance. 



The various communes are allowed to regulate their 



