STEPPING FORWARD.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17106, 30 March 1921, Page 9

STEPPING FORWARD.

♦ DOMINION'S EDUCATIONAL EXPANSION AND DEVELOPMENT SINCE 1885. Bitriag the course of his speech at a farewell dinner tendered hiin by members of the Educational Department at Wellington, the retiring Director of Education (Dr. W. J. Anderson) cited interesting statistics setting out the prowth and development of education in tho Dominion since tho year 188.3. The Jirst table given tra3 as follows: 18S5. 1919. Poiu'lation .. G-20,475 1,21t,18t Prim. School Roll .. .. lO'J.OOO 199.183 Native School Roil _ .. 2,161 5,193 So.". Kilucation (inciu'liri^ Sfo. D.IL.S. and Tec. H.b.) .. .. 2.57S 16.427 (13 per 1000 94 percent. sec. school pupils free.) Technical Education .. "University Education .. 442 2)5 St-at. Krauts', schns., . bursarie.':'. Dept.'s " Expend. Cd. Fund .. .. £7,000 £61,22J Teachers .. .. 1.92G 5,000 Pupil teachers .. ... 693 626 Teachers' salaries (public schools) .. .. X-270.G29£1,261,714 Training Collego .. Training Collego maintenance .. .. Depart. Examine. ... Head Office Stall ' .. 9 130 (excluding inspectors.) Cost Head Offico .. £3,127 £29.51;$ 1920. Medical Inspection Staff E.xi/end. by Dcpt. (inc. buildings) .. .. £127,904 £2.541,001 per head of pop. .. £2 3 4 Expend, ou Sec. Eden. (Cd. Fd.) .. .. ' £9,073 £184,681 Expd. Tech, Eden. (Cd. Fd.) .. .. - £118,720 E:;ucnd. New Public School Bldge. .. -. £109,932 Cost per pupil primary schools (excluding ne\v buildings) in 1918: New Zealand £7 fls fldj New South Wales, £7 14s lOd; Victoria, £6 10s Australia, £7 17s 3d; Commonwealth, £o 18s sd. Expenditure out of Consolidated Fund on education per head of population (ISMB-19) (excluding buildings): Xtew Zealand, £1 18s 8d; New South Wales, £1 2s 2d;, Victoria, 17s Gd; Commonwealth, £1 Is. Extension in tho work of tho Department: Free place 'system in sec ondary schools and technical schools; Bursary systems at university colleges; nationalising scholarships. Dominion scale of salaries —Primary school teachers, now secondary and technical. Grading of teachers—Primary, secondary, technical.- Direct supervision of grants for and planning of school buildings. More direct control of finances of education and seconda.ry school boards; control of staffing of secondary schools. Scliool inspectors attached to Department. Medical Inspection service. Total number of officers of Department, March 31st, 1920, 360. Industrial and Special Schools Branch. This branch which deals with all children requiring State care, with feeble-minded, deaf and blind children, and with infants maintained for payment apart from their parents: administrative (a) Industrial Schools Act, 1882 (Coff-sol. 1908); (6) Infant Life Protection Act, 1907. Latest ' 1886. Figureai. Staff Head Office .. 1 .39 No of children dealt with yearly •■ •■ a i 566 8>6&9 B > 6&9 New cases during year .. Maintenance recoveries from parents and others £I,OOO £35,000 How the Branch has Developed. The following notes show how this branch has developed along some of the more important llnea during the past six years:— Extension of probation and boardingout. systems whereby children are dealt with in their own homes or in selected 'foster homes. Appointment of juvenile probation officers (male) and boarding-out officers I (female) in all the larger centres of population. . Closing of large residential institutions established .under Industrial Schools Act—Burnham, Te Oranga Home, and the Boys' Training Farm, Nelson. Furtherance of scheme of "preventive'' Work: Probation -officers and managers are frequently enabled to so deal.with cases a-j to keep them from becoming charges on the State. Or 5636 • cases dealt with last year, 818 were such "preventive" cases which never reached the Magistrate's Courts, j Majority of latter would otherwise have been committed, and been -a more or less permanent charge, on the State. Establishment of 'small receiving homes or clearing-houses in the larger centres. These are for the reception or children when first committed, or when changing homes, or for service girls on transfer to situations, or other purposes of a more or'less temporary nature. Establishment of day classes (as adjuncts to the School for the Deaf at Sumner) in chief centres for children with defective speech. Establishment of system for dealing with feeble-minded children. Two institutions for boys and one for girls ate now in operation, catering for about 160 children, and many, applications tor admissions aro still coming iorwarcT. Care of infants under Infants Act, 1908 (introduced 1907): District agents and visiting nurses have been appointed to all of tlhe larger centres. They supervise and assist in placing infants up to six years of age maintained apart from their parents. Five hundred and twentysix infants were placed in foster homes during the year, «nd 807 /were under supervision at the end of the year. .Establishment of central stores in Wellington and branch stores in the various centres of population (stock carried in central store, Wellington, about £45,000). Supervision of -widows' pensions, paid out under the Pensions Department, to seo that money is expended for chil-, dren concerned, and to assist where possible in placing children properly wne.-x pension ceases. The branch, with its branch offices, has developed into a child welfare agency for all State-assisted children, and a vast amount of enquiry work has to be done by the district offices and the branch itself. Some people are only too prone to leave their childien to the State, and it is the business of this branch to see that this is not done without good cause, or as an alternative sthat the parents pay for maintenance. By the repeal last session of a certai?i section of tho Act, by which Hospital and Charitable Aid Boards were liable for maintenance of destitute children in their districts, it is certain that our officers will have a busy time shortly in enquiry work when such children are brought before the Magistrate for committal to 6ee that the general taxpayer is not unduly overburdened in this respect, and at the same time that tho children's interests are properly safeguarded. Besides all this, there 'has been for some time in contemplation a revision of the Acts to provide for a children's code more in accordance with the practice and developments of the last few years, both here and elsewhere. This would include: — (a) Special Courts for children, embracing a comprehensive scheme tor all dealings in which children are concerned. (b) Supervision of all children horn out of wedlock. > (c) Methods of dealing with children at picture theatres and engaged in street occupations. (d) Increased powers of a.ssistance to mothers during pre-natal period and afterwards. (o) increased powers ot collecting maintenance chatges, ©tc.j etc, g