Private schools conforming to governmental requirements were legally recognized and incorporated by decree of 1917 and their consequent validation effected. Pupils of the fifth and sixth grades of such private schools applying for leaving certificates are required to undergo an examination upon all subjects for those grades of the official national programs before a board of three members appointed by the inspector. Officially apart from the Ministry of Public Education but calling for special mention was the establishment in 1917 under the encouragement of the National Department of Agriculture of 16 schools in rural domestic science in nine Provinces, including Buenos Aires. Courses are offered in minor industries, such as dairying, beekeeping, care of fowls, hog raising, agriculture, horticulture, and canning of fruits and vegetables. Five hundred women have been enrolled. A number of these schools, the largest at Tucuman, have been put on a permanent basis, and private associations are working to effect this in many places. School celebrations of national festivals, long popular in Argentina, have been especially marked during the year 1918, the centennial year for the nation. They were held in all schools on July 8, the chief feature being the oath to the flag and the singing of the national hymn in the presence of the school and civic authorities. CHANGES UNDER THE PROJECTED LAW OF 1918. Following the former order of education in Argentina, the second stage of primary education began with the educational bill submitted with the approval of the President to the Federal Congress in August, 1918. In this were incorporated changes of far wider scope than any ever before projected. Not only primary education, but the entire fabric of Argentine education was to be nationalized in content of courses, in methods of instruction, and in special preparation of teachers for tasks devolving on them under the new régime. The bill provided for large development of industrial and vocational courses and called for the use of materials peculiarly national and local. It laid stress upon civic and patriotic training, in view of the heterogeneous constitution of the Argentine population through steady streams of immigration and the necessity of molding these diverse elements into a body of patriotic and intelligent citizens. It provided for the establishment of primary schools throughout the nation under more flexible financial and administrative regulations than the old, for the segregation of specific revenues for the exclusive use of the Ministry of Public Instruction, and the consequent abolition of the old system of national subsidies to individual localities. Especially in the fight against illiteracy did the projected law embody progressive features. The National Council of Education was empowered to establish standard primary schools wherever there were as many as 20 illiterate children of school age.