In the field of primary instruction the interest aroused in rural schools has been the most marked feature in the past biennium. The ministry of public instruction has paid special attention to the project of establishing rural schools, fixed or traveling, in the vicinity of the main manufacturing, industrial, or commercial centers of the country, and the President by decree of July, 1917, in commending the project, urged upon the juntas wherever possible to develop this type of schools. Especially in the agricultural or cattle-raising sections was the project received with enthusiasm, applying, as it did, directly to the problems of illiteracy and the training of the country population in practical subjects related to daily life. By special decree the President urged the introduction of elementary courses in agriculture in the established schedule of studies. Among the States which definitely established such schools the State of Trujillo, fourth in population, took the lead by establishing 14, with predominant emphasis upon practical courses in agriculture and related subjects. Such schools began at once to serve as centers for the instruction not only of the children of school age but of the population generally in new methods, the use of machines, cooperative societies, etc. Similarly in sections devoted to cattle raising they were centers of inspiration and instruction in related subjects. During the last biennium the industrial plants located in the centers of Venezuela have established primary schools for the children of their operatives, with the approval of the authorities, State and municipal. The minister of public instruction, in his memoria for 1918, urge upon the Congress the passage of a law recognizing the work of these schools, arranging for their inspection by the governmental technical inspectors and the classification and certification of pupils completing the courses offered in them. Such schools have also done much in combating the illiteracy among adults by means of night schools, and they have in many places, by employing excellent teachers, served the very useful purpose of raising the standard of requirement in various districts for the public schools, State or municipal. Secondary education in Venezuela, according to the memoria referred to, suffers much from the insufficiency and irregularity of the revenues devoted to it, with the consequent inefficient equipment for modern and scientific subjects and the inadequate salaries of the teachers. On the pedagogical side the memoria found the effects experienced by secondary education from the mechanical and memory instruction, too largely prevalent in primary education, a permanent obstacle to any hope of real reform in secondary education.