^34 Norivay and the Norwegians 



The public examinations, or inspections, take place 

 yearly ; and the inspectors are not appointed by the 

 school board. Boys and girls are generally taught 

 separately, but, as a rule, by the same master. Board 

 schoolmistresses, however, are beginning to be intro- 

 duced in the towns. Training colleges have been estab- 

 lished for schoolmasters and schoolmistresses. 



At the end of 1875 the number of children of an 

 age to receive primary instruction in the towns and 

 in the country was 270,780. Of these 213,842 were 

 attending the fixed schools; 31,156 were being in- 

 structed by the peripatetic schoolmaster in the manner 

 that has been described above ; 3000 were receiving 

 in private schools an education as good as that in the 

 Board schools; in addition to these, 18,000 were at- 

 tending the higher, or secondary schools, or receiving 

 private instruction of a higher grade: 4769 children 

 were receiving no education at all. The masters and 

 mistresses employed in tliis work were 3942. The 

 number of fixed schools at the same time in the country 

 was 4591. Of these, 2100 were buildings constructed 

 for that special purpose; the remaining 2491 buildings 

 hired, only temporarily, for the purpose. The number 

 of peripatetic schools was about 1860. The number 

 of children taught in both was 209,461. This for the 

 country ; in the towns, instruction was given during 

 the same period to 35,537 children by 670 masters and 

 mistresses. The number of school buildings used for 

 this purpose I have not been able to ascertain. The 

 cost of educating the 209,461 children taught in the rural 

 districts was 3,950,000 kroners, or rather less than fifteen 

 shillings a head ; a cost which seems incredibly small — 



