Palestine]
Turkish provinces only in that the Sanjak of Jerusalem is directly under the Porte.[1]
Lebanon has been, since European intervention of 1861, which followed the massacres of 1860, a separate sanjak under a Christian mushir, advised by a Central Council of Twelve, of whom only two are Moslems. The ordinance of 1861 was revised by the Porte in 1864, in concert with the six great protecting Powers.
The administrative divisions of Syria and Palestine have already been enumerated.[2]
(3) Public Education
General.—In Syria and Palestine elementary education is nominally compulsory for all. It may be given in other than State schools. For example, in Aleppo, a city of 250,000 inhabitants, there are stated to be 710 Moslem, 250 Christian, and 30 Jewish schools, with 19,000, 8,000, and 2,000 pupils respectively. This represents a school attendance of about 10 per cent. of the population. But, as the average number of pupils throughout the Turkish Empire is 4 per cent., that figure would probably be a fair estimate for Syria and Palestine also. The general level of efficiency in the State schools is low. Elementary education of a conventional kind is supplied gratis in the schools attached to the mosques.
Educational Work under British Control.—Ten British missionary societies report 19 educational institutions and boarding schools with close on 1,000 pupils; and about 120 elementary and village schools with about 9,000 pupils, of whom over two-thirds are girls. In Gaza alone 400 girls are in the mission schools.
The most important institutions are:In Syria: the Girls' Training College of the British Syrian Mission at Beirut (staff, 6 Europeans and
