stronger academies persisted before being dissolved during church education cutbacks in the 1920s. Release-time seminary classes started in 1912 at Granite High School in Salt Lake City, and grew to serve 26,000 students by 1930. Seminaries and Institutes of Religion In 2014, the Seminaries and Institutes programs served over 744,000 students in seminaries and institutes in 137 countries. Seminaries In the LDS Church, the word seminary refers to religious education programs designed for secondary students. These are programs of religious education for youth aged 14–18 that accompany the students' secular education. In areas with large concentrations of Latter-day Saints, such as in and around the Mormon Corridor in the United States, instruction is offered on a released time basis during the normal school day in meetinghouses, or facilities built specifically for seminary programs, adjacent to public schools. Released-time seminary classes are generally taught by full-time employees. In areas with smaller LDS populations early-morning or home-study seminary programs are offered. Early-morning seminary classes are held daily before the normal school day in private homes or in meetinghouses and are taught by volunteer teachers. Home-study seminary classes are offered where geographic dispersion of students is so great that it is not feasible to meet on a daily basis. Home-study seminary students study daily, but meet only once a week as a class. Home-study classes are usually held in connection with weekly youth fellowship activities on a weekday evening. The church is piloting an online version of home-study seminary which allows for more student participation and communication. This helps provide a greater sense of community and connection as well as a chance to learn the gospel in a similar way that students do in areas with a larger concentrations of LDS youth. The seminary program provides extensive study of theology, using as texts the church's "standard works" (Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants) throughout the school week, in addition to normal Sunday classes. The four courses are taught, one per year, on a rotating basis. Historically, seminary students were encouraged to study each scriptural text on their own time and to memorize a total of 100 scriptural passages or "scriptural mastery" verses during their participation in the four-year program. In 2016, the focus turned from scripture mastery to doctrinal mastery. For many years, the curriculum has followed the standard school year for most seminary students. However, in March