[1] Except a few privileges likely for some time to be reserved for men at Oxford and Cambridge, and certain which cannot legally be bestowed (_e.g._, scholarships with special trust deeds limiting them to men). THE GENERAL EDUCATION SYSTEM. Elementary education is entirely free in public schools, supported jointly by the State and the Municipal and County Councils. Many of the good Secondary Schools, moreover, have preparatory departments, in which fees are charged; and there is a large number of private Kindergarten and other Preparatory Schools, charging small fees and offering a mediocre education. Middle-class parents prefer to send their children to these rather than to the public Elementary Schools, fearing possible contamination to morals and manners in the latter. Secondary education in England and Wales is carried on in several classes of institution. 1. "High Schools," under the management of specially established educational corporations, pioneers in secondary education. 2. Endowed Schools—few in number for girls. 3. Municipal or County Schools—some for girls only, others for girls and boys. These have usually been started on a lower educational level; but they are rapidly improving, and many of them now give an education quite equal to that given by the good High Schools which led the way. 4. Private Schools; of which some are expensive, and excellently equipped and staffed; others expensive and poorly provided, relying mainly on their social prestige; others inexpensive and poor. Many parents of the more wealthy or aristocratic families still entrust the education of their girls to private governesses, from whom they require chiefly a knowledge of languages and the usages of polite society, supplemented, perhaps, by music and painting. The movement for the more complete education of women has not as yet gained much strength among those sections of society in which a girl is not expected to earn her own living. Teachers of the public schools are for the most part prepared professionally, after completing their Secondary School course, at special Training Colleges, supported by State and Municipal grants—in some cases supplemented by fees from the student. This professional course for teachers in Elementary Schools covers two years. In a few of the Universities also, arrangements are made for a two-year course; in others, however, only teachers for Secondary Schools are now prepared. These study first for their degree (Bachelor) during three years, following this up by a fourth year devoted to professional training. During the whole course the University fees are paid by the State through the Board of Education, and a substantial grant is made to the student for maintenance. Many women who could not otherwise meet the expense of a University career are thus enabled, at the cost of undertaking to teach for a certain number of years, to pass through the University practically without expense.