The local administration is complicated. The whole country is divided into ten university districts, at the head of each of which is the Rector of the university. He, _inter alia_, exercises a general supervision over all the schools in his district, appoints teachers whose salary is below 1,000 pesetas per annum, and proposes to the Minister of Education the appointment of those of higher grade or salary. He is assisted by a consultative Council. The teachers are appointed after some sort of competitive examination. The Civil Governor of each province is responsible for the fulfilment of all the obligations imposed by the law, but has no voice in the internal management, teaching, &c., of the schools and colleges. He, too, is assisted by a provincial consultative Council. Lastly, in the municipality, the Alcalde, the President of the _Ayuntamiento_, has the same functions in his district as those of the Civil Governor in the province.[23] The Alcalde also has his local consultative committee, whose functions are not unlike those of school managers in England. The inspection of all schools except the elementary is the duty of the Rector of the university. The inspection of elementary schools is committed to an Inspector-General, under the immediate orders of the sub-Secretary of State, and forty-nine inspectors, one for each province. Elementary education in Spain has been compulsory since 1857, and free, since 1901, to children whose parents “are unable to pay.” The compulsory school age is from 6 to 12. The provision of schools and the upkeep of the buildings is the duty of the _Ayuntamiento_, and a small sum is set aside in the annual Budget of the kingdom for grants in aid to poor districts. The system under which the teachers are paid is peculiar. The locality finds the money and hands it to the Ministry of Education, which pays the salaries. The reason for this arrangement is characteristic. It was made because of the irregularities in the payment of the teachers which frequently occurred when the local authority administered the funds. The salaries of the teachers in the Elementary schools are from 500 to 3,000 pesetas--say £20 to £120 a year, with a house, and they are entitled after twenty years’ service or upwards, to a pension of from 50 to 80 per cent. of their salary. They also have a right to the fees of “children who can pay them.” It is easy to see that this system of overlapping authorities and divided responsibility must necessarily lead to waste of time and general inefficiency, even assuming that every one concerned is genuinely anxious to do his duty and to work for the good of education, an assumption which it would be very rash to make.