PUBLIC SCHOOLS. The history of education in Cuba under the Spanish government will be found in the report on the census of Cuba of 1899, and in a report on the subject made by Mr. R. L. Packard to the United States Commissioner of Education and published in the Report of the Bureau of Education for 1897–8. The present public school system was instituted by the American Military Governor during the first intervention by the United States in 1900. In 1900, the number of teachers and of school rooms was 3,567. The number of enrolled pupils in the last month of that year was 172,273 and the average attendance for the year was 123,362. The figures presented in the following pages are taken from a report by Dr. Lincoln Zayas, Director of Public Instruction, and relate to December, 1906. The total number of schoolhouses was 2,149; of these, 1,809 were rented buildings, and 246 were owned by the government or by individuals who allowed them to be used free of rent, while the status of the remainder is unknown. The total number of school rooms was 3,566. The average rent paid per house was $16.79, and per room, $10.42. The total number of teachers was 3,649, of whom 3,437 were white and only 212 were colored. The number of women largely exceeded the number of men, there being only 1,286 of the latter to 2,363 of the former, or nearly twice as many. They were grouped by ages as follows: 1 Nearly one-half of the teachers were between the ages of 20 and 29 and twothirds were under 30. The total number of pupils registered was 122,214. This is 4 per cent of the total population and is 36 per cent of the number of children of school age, as determined by the school census of 1906, which showed 336,524 persons between the ages of 6 and 18 years. Of the total number of pupils, 66,322 were males and 55,892 were females, the excess of males being 10,430. As to color, 82,164 were white and 40,050 colored, the proportions of the two races in the schools being very nearly the same as the corresponding proportions in the population. The average daily attendance was 96,301, or 78.8 per cent of the number registered. This proportion is very high, comparing favorably with that for the United States (70 per cent). There is very little difference in the daily attendance of the males and the females or of the whites and the colored. The following is a classification of the registered pupils by age: The following table gives the number in each school grade: Total. Kindergarten. GRADE. Number of pupils. 122,214 1,710 14,438 12,060 10,392 10,820 15,102 15,630 17,299 13,566 7,456 3,741 Number of pupils. 122,214 1,702 74,174 30,095 12,821 2,835 587 VITAL STATISTICS. For many years records of births, deaths, and marriages have been made in nearly every part of the island, and since the first American intervention these registrations have been extended throughout the republic. Information relative to deaths is sent to the local judges, who in turn send it to the Central Board of Health; in addition the head physician makes a statement in each case. Inasmuch as the law prohibits the granting of a burial license unless the death is properly reported, the health authorities believe that a complete registration of deaths is obtained. The following table shows the approximate population, the number of deaths, and the death rate per 1,000, by years, from 1900 to 1906. The estimate of population has been made by adding to the number of inhabitants in 1899 one-eighth of the increase shown by the census of 1907, for each year that has elapsed since 1899. It is evident that the rates are too small, and even the fact that the sanitary condition of the whole island is satisfactory and yellow fever and smallpox have been wiped out, does not afford an adequate explanation. In Porto Rico, for instance, where sanitary conditions are equally satisfactory, and in Spain, the death rates are higher. The United States, which has a more vigorous and long-lived population, has a higher death rate than that reported for Cuba. The death rate for the island decreased from 1900 to 1903, in which year it reached the minimum of 13.3 per 1,000; it then increased until 1906. The following table shows the number of deaths and the death rates in each province, by years, from 1900 to 1906: From these figures it appears that in certain provinces there has been a failure to report properly a considerable number of deaths. It is probable that such omissions were more frequent among the lower than among the upper classes and in the case of young children than in the case of adults, and more numerous in rural districts than in cities. The rates differ greatly in the different provinces, as shown by the following statement, which gives for each province the average death rate for the 7 years from 1900 to 1906: According to the reports of the municipalities for 1906, Santiago de las Vegas, province of Habana, had the highest death rate, 39 per 1,000 of population, and Santa Cruz del Sur, province of Camagüey, the lowest, 3 per 1,000. For the city of Habana, the death rate was 20; for Cienfuegos, 18; for Matanzas, 17; and for Santiago de Cuba, 21. In 8 of the municipalities the proportion of deaths exceeded 20 per 1,000 of population; in 21 the rate fluctuated between 15 and 19; in 37 the rate fluctuated between 10 and 14; and in 16 the rate did not reach 10 per 1,000. The following table of death rates, by ages, has been prepared on the basis of the population enumerated in the census of 1907, and of the number of deaths registered in 1906: The following table gives the number of deaths among the white and the colored, and also the proportion of the total number of deaths for each class: The following table shows the deaths of the white and colored in cach province in 1906, together with the proportion of the total number of deaths for each element: The number and percentage of deaths from the principal diseases were as follows in 1906: |