General View. 
91 
Another important feature of the German school system is the 
enforcement of compulsory education. All children, mentally 
and bodily capable of instruction, are required to attend an elemen- 
:ary school, the age of entrance differing slightly in the various 
German States. Excepted are only those children that can be proved 
to receive equivalent private instruction, or that attend higher-class 
schools. 
The number of those who, in spite of these regulations, still 
manage to evade teaching, is a comparatively very small one. They 
are found chiefly in the families of strolling actors, acrobats, and the 
shifting population engaged in river navigation. In 1895, of the 
5317037 children on the registers, in 36138 Prussian public elemen- 
tary schools, only 487 evaded attendance. In 1901, this number, 
among 5754728 children on the registers, in 36756 schools, had risen 
to 548. 
The compulsory attendance applies not only to the entrance of 
the children into the schools, but also to their continuance in them 
up to a certain age. In the same manner as entrance may be 
deferred in the case of illness or weak constitution of the children, 
especially where the distances to the school are considerable, so 
also, under certain circumstances, and with the sanction of the 
authorities, the children may be dispensed from attendance up to the 
and of the course of instruction. Negligent parents or their repre- 
sentatives are liable to punishment by fines, or even by imprisonment. 
[n the year 1901, among the children of school age, 10672 were un- 
able to attend on account of mental or bodily defects; 16109 could 
aot be received immediately after the completion of their sixth year; 
33794 were dispensed from attendance before the end of their four- 
teenth vear. 
Not only entrance into the schools and completion of the 
course are enforced, but also regularity of attendance during the 
latter. Infringements in this respect are likewise punished in the 
manner mentioned above. 
So as not to render compliance with the law impossible, care is 
taken to provide the necessary school buildings within reasonable 
distance from the homes of the pupils. Scarcity of school buildings 
may specially occur in newly rising towns, where, not infrequently, 
the erection of schools cannot always keep pace with the increase 
of population caused by the establishment of new branches of industry. 
Long distances between school and home are a misfortune occurring