| OCR Text |
Show The school period assumed (six to sixteen years) is taken simply as a standard of comparison. In some oases it will be desirable, where school facilities can be provided, to receipe Indian children into home or kindergarten schoelg much earlier than six years of age; and donbt-less for some years to come it will also be desirable to have Iodian youth who are strong in body and susceptible of culture continue in school beyond the age of sixteen years. How much the number of In-dian school pupils will be modified by these considerations is simply a matter of conjecture. Twenty per cent. has h ~ a uas sumed as the relative proportion of In-dian youth from six to sixteen years of age, as compared with the total population. This percentage may not be exact. The proportion of , youth from six to sixteeu years of age to the total population of the United States is 238 per cent., according to the United States Commis-sioner of Education, H6n. W. T. Harris. Whether this weald be a mere accurate standard of comparison for the Indians can net now be determined. The percentages of enrollment and average attendance aie based, so far aa knowledge of the past experince in Indian education will warrant, upon records in the Indian Office. They. are necessarily somewhat elastic. But it is safe to assume that it is reasonable for the ,, Government to at least attampt to secure the enrollment and average indicated in Table 1. Cerbaioly nothing less than this shenld be at-tempted, andif future experience wili warrant it, it will be avery simple matter to extend the estimates to make them commensurate with the increased attendance which may be secured. . . TABLE 2.-Present achool aaommodations. -pila. Government boarding-sohools ...................................... 7,145 Government day sohools ............................................ 3,083 New boarding-schools (1690) ........................................ -445 Total.. ...................................................... 10.67Z Table which exhibits the present accommodations provided in Qov-emment schools, shows that provision has been made for over 10,000 pupils. Regarding thiti it should he said that in maby. cases, if the at-tendance at theschool sbould equal the capacity given, the pupils would I be very uncomfortable and in some oases their health would he endan-gered. Mo ~otC the Government school buildings now in existence, in order to acoom~oodatep roperly the number of pupils indicated as the capacity of the boildings, would need extensive repairs and added'fa-cilities in the way of shops, hospitals, dormitories, bath-rooms, lann-dries, etc. By an arhitrarx assnmytion it is proposed to provide for 17,000 pupils in Government bearding.sehool buildings, and for 7,300 pupils in Gov-ernment dagschool buildiugs. Hew far this proportion may prove to |
