EDUCATION REPORT.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2272, 14 July 1881, Page 3

EDUCATION REPORT.

[By Telegraph.] ["FROM THE OWN CORRESPONDENT OF THE “PRESS.”] WELLINGTON, July 13. The annual report of the Minister for Education was laid on the table this evening. It is a very bulky document of 140 pages, including copious appendices and tables. The principal portions of the report are as follows : The total number of different entries on school rolls during 1880 was 117,418, as compared with 109,499 in the previous year. The number of scholars belonging to sohools in 1880 was 83,401, and in 1879 and 1877-8 the numbers respectively were 75,566 and 65,040. The returns for 1880 give 62,234 as the average attendance for the year, as compared with 54,724 for the previous year, being an increase of 7510. The average attendance for the year was 53 per cent, of the total enrolments, and in the previous year 50, but no reliance can be placed on the number of recorded enrolments as indicating the number of different children actually in attendance, for many children change from school to school at short intervals, and their names are consequently entered in two or more school registers within the year. The average attendance (62,234) for the whole year was 76 6 per cent, of the average (81,248) belonging to schools during that period, the corresponding proportion for 1879 being 75 1. The rates vary from 72 per cent, in Taranaki to 81.8 per cent, in Otago. The following are the corresponding percentages for the principal towns of the several educational districts :—Auckland, 82 9 ; New Plymouth, 73 9 ; Wanganui, 73 2 ; Wellington, 77 9 ; Napier, 78 7 ; Blenheim, 76.8 ; Nelson, 80 ; Christchurch, 73 1 ; Timarn, 75 ; Hokitika, 74; Dunedin, 865; and Invercargill, 77. The average for the whole of these towns is 79.1. Payments to the Boards are neoessarly regulated by the average daily attendance, but the number of children really belonging to the school at any time, and not the bare average daily attendance, may be fairly taken as representing the children deriving benefit from the school. The attendance of a number of children, owing to causes frequently beyond their control, may be somewhat irregular, especially in rural districts, and yet they undoubtedly profit largely by their attendance at school, broken though it may sometimes be. The number returned as belonging to the public schools of the colony at the end o£ the last quarter of 1880 was 82,401; the corresponding number for the whole year ( i.e ., the average of the four quarters) was 81,248. The following is a summary of the ages of scholars attending the schools : —Under five years : boys, 1312 ; girls, 1309 ; five and under seven years : boys, 9302 ; girls, 8513 ; seven and under ten years : boys, 14,998 ; girls, 13,716 ; ten and under thirteen years : boys, 12,516 ; girls, 11,620; thirteen and under fifteen years : boys, 3924; girls, 3783 ; over fifteen years: boys, 682; girls, 726. Totals for 1880: boys, 42,734; girls, 39,667; totals for 1879: boys, 39,427; girls, 36,129. Increase: Boys, 3397; girls, 3538; total, 6835. Last year, the proportion of scholars under five years of age was 3.18 per cent., as compared with 3.68 in 1879. No children under five years were admitted to the Auckland schools last year. Taking the attendance for all the schools, the proportion over ten years of age has slightly increased, and those under that age are somewhat less. The total expenditure on school buildings within the year exceeded the amount received from the special vote for that purpose to the extent of £12,973 5s 2d. The excess was provided partly out of balances in hand at the beginning of the year and partly by payments from ordinary income by one or two of the Boards. The aggregate balances in hand have been reduced from £43,677 15s 2d at the beginning of the year to £35,113 Gs at the close. The moneys expended by Beards on management and school inspection are classified as follows:—Office staff, £5934 ; allowances to members of Boards, £636; office rent, furniture, repairs, &c., £716; fuel, light and cleaning, £202 ; law expenses, £164 ; printing, £811; advertising, £743 ; stationery, £539 ; sundries, £299; total on management, £10,037. Inspectors’ salaries, £5929 ; inspectors’ travelling expenses, £1954; pupil teachers’ examinations, £3BB ; total on inspection and examination, £8273 (shillings and pence omitted). The aggregate allowances to members of Boards increased from £463 18a 3d in 1879, to £636 7s 9d. No allowance was paid to members of the Auckland, Hawke’s Bay, and Marlborough Boards. Payments under the head in other districts range from £5 in Wellington to £203 16s in Wanganui district. Law expenses last year amounted to £164 3s 9d, as compared with £Bl7 10s 6d in 1879. No law costs were incurred by the Southland Board, and in other districts these ranged from £2 2s in Marlborough to £34 17s 7d in Nelson. Tbe expenditure by the Boards on printing, advertising, stationery, and sundries does not bear any strict proportion to the relative number of schools or teachers, or to the average attendance in different districts. It may be expected that as a rule the rate of expediture per scholar in management, inspection, and some other purposes, will be higher in more sparsely settled districts, with a number of very small schools, than in more densely peopled districts having a greater number of largely attended schools ; but the returns show that in some instances the rates have not followed any such rule, and that the business of some Boards has apparently been 1 less economically managed than that of others.

The number of public schools in operation during the last quarter of 1880 is 836. There were 44 half-time schools in charge of 22 teachers, reckoned as 22 schools. Otherwise the total number of schools would have been shown to bo 858. The number for the last quarter of 1879 were 807, reckoning every two half-time as one school, and 831, if halftime schools be regarded as separate schools. The schools open were as follows : —ln the education district of Auckland the number of schools open during the quaner was 193, and the average attendance for the quarter 11,839. In the Taranaki district there were 31 schools and an average attendance of 1147. In Wanganui there were 55 schools and an attendance of 3403. In Wellington there were 43 schools and an attendance of 4685. In Hawke’s Bay there were 36 schools, and 2334 attended. In Marlborough there were 16 schools and an attendance of 883. In Nelson there were 65 schools and 3008 attendance. In North Canterbury there were 122 schools and 12,233 attendance. In South Canterbury there were 29 schools and 2616 attendance. In Westland there were 34 schools and 2447 scholars. In Otago there were 150 schools and 16,047 scholars. In Southland there wore 60 schools and 3765 scholars. There were a total of 836 schools and 64,407 scholars. There were 59 “aided” schools started by private enterprise in outlying districts in 1880, as against 39 in 1879. The half-time schools were about the same as the previous year. This class is generally in disfavor with parents. Only two “itinerant ” teachers were employed, both in Auckland. Eight small schools were closed in 1880, os compared with 16 during the previous year. The number of teachers employed in public schools in 1880 was 1971, being 198 in excess of the previous year, classified as follows : —Masters, 687 ; assistant masters, 130 ; male pupil teachers, 139 ; mistresses, 373 ; assistant mistresses, 209 ; and female pupil teachers, 333. In addition there were 127 work mistresses, whoso duties were confined to lessons in sewing, knitting, &c., to girls during a portion of the school hours. They are employed almost solely in the smaller schools, which have not an attendance sufficient to warrant the employment of fully qualified schoolmistresses in addition to a master. The appendix contains a nominal return of the teachers employed during 1880. The proportion of female teachers is still on the increase. The addition to the number during the past year was 127, while only 71 additional teachers of the other sex were engaged. During the three years 1878, 1879 and 1880 the increase was 345 female and 226 male teachers. The relative numbers at the close of 1880 were 956 males 1015 females, including 139 male and 433 female pupil teachers. The increase in the number of male pupil teachers is satisfactory, because it promises that eventually the public schools will be to a large extent in charge of skilled and experienced masters educated and trained in the colony. Experience has proved, however, that similar expectation need not be entertained as to the permanent retention of young women who begin their course as public school teachers, because their services are frequently lost to the schools when they are beginning to prove of the highest value. The number of certificated teachers is increasing. Since the publication of the official list in June, 1880, now certificates to the number of 75 have been issued. The number of certificated teachers is now 1005, and 71 holding “ licenses to teach,” and they are 10 to whom a district license has been granted. The average total cost per scholar ranges from £5 8s in Wanganui up to £7 13s in Westland. It is £6 11s in Auckland, £5 17s in Canterbury, and £5 15s in Otago, the average for the whole colony being £6 3s, a decrease of £1 7s as compared with 1879. The expenditure of the Education Department on management and inspection, including the examination of teachers, was £I2OO, or at the rate of 4s 4d per scholar in average attendance. These charges being added, the total current expenditure for each scholar is £4 5s B]d, or £3 5s 7Jd, according as the calculation is based on the average attendance or on the numbers on the rolls. In addition to parliamentary grants, the gross income of the Boards from local receipts and Bank interest on current accounts amounted last year to £7522 15s 2d. The rates per scholar were lees in 1880 than in the previous year. The cost of management was £971 11s 4d less, though the average attendance has increased by 7510. The cost of inspection was only £538 9s 9d more than in 1879, the increase being less in proportion than the increase in the average attendance. The cost of the teaching staff has not increased in proportion to the attendance, many of the new pupils having been admitted to old-established schools that had reached or passed the point where additional members cease to entail proportionate expense. In all these respects the present year’s accounts will show still greater reduction, as the result of retrenchment which began to take effect near the end of the year. The expenditure on school buildings (£117,410 Is lOi) was necessarily much smaller than in 1879, in which year, on account of the unusual magnitude of the vote, the Boards were able to expend £172,867 14s 3d on buildings. The amount expended on buildings being less, while the attendance is greater, the rate has declined from £3 3s 2d for each child to £1 17s BJd. The following is the manner in which the reductions necessitated by the retrenchment resolution of Parliament were carried out; —The Auckland Board dispensed with a treasurer at £350 a year, engaged two clerks at £3XS Instead of £375, and deducted 10 per cant, from all other salaries except the two lowest. Taranaki, Wanganui, and Southland effected a saving of 7 per cent. No reductions whatever were made by Wellington, Hawke’s Bay, and Marlborough in the salaries of the official staff ; the redactions by North Canterbury, Westland, Nelson and South Canterbury were respectively, 9.6, 10, 14 6 and 16.1 per cent. A rate of 22 4 per cent, was secured by the Otago Board by the deductions of 7J per cent, on salaries over £2OO, and 4 percent, on salaries below that sum, and by the abolition of two assistant drawing teachers at £3OO, the visiting French tutor at the Normal School £3O, school buildings draughtsman £225, and clerk of works £240. The two last named officers were no longer needed, owing to the contraction of school building operations. The total reductions in the salaries of teachers during the year may be estimated at between £9OOO and £12,000. The grant on the average attendance in 1880 was about £32,000 a year. The total receipts for buildings amounted to £104,436, and the expenditure £117,410. £71,441 9s 5d was expended on new buildings, and £30,476 7s 4d on the enlargement and improvement of existing ones. The expenditure on the purchase of sites decreased from £12,801 in 1879 to £1832 in 1880 ; and the cost of plans, specifications, supervision of work, &c., was about 4 7 per cent, on the gross outlay. Thirty-four additional school residences were provided during the year, and nearly an equal number in course of erection on January Ist, 1881. The Boards’ available balances and liabilities under contracts amounted ]to £47.157 and £24,762 respectively, and the estimate of the necessary works in addition to those under contract, is £154,546. To meet this demand, there was £22,394, leaving an unsatisfied claim to the extent of £132,15114s Bd. The vote of £50,000 passed last year for school buildings was apportioned as follows: Auckland, £14,000 ; Taranaki, £750 ; Wan. ganui, £2OOO ; Wellington, £2500 ; Hawke’s Bay, £IOOO ; Marlborough, £750 ; Nelson, £1200; North Canterbury, £6030; South Canterbury, £2000; Westland, £4500 ; Otago, £6000; Southland, £2OOO ; Native schools, £7300. The departmental expenditure for financial year was £2482. The inspectors' reports for the year record progressive improvement, but do not deal in indiscriminate praise. The classification of pupils is as follows : —lnfants (too young for line next following), 21,723 ; preparing tor standard 1, 17,481; standard 2, 14,790; standard 3, 13,435 ; standard 4, 8846 ; standard 5, 4117 ; standard 6, 1570; passed standard 6, -439; totals for 1880, 82,401 ; totals for 1879, 75,275. Reference is made to various scholarships, to the training of teachers, to school penny banks, native schools, deaf and dumb schools, industrial schools, training schools and institutions for higher education, all are treated at great length, but more in the shape of general description and history than conveying any new information. Regarding the Sumner Deaf and Dumb School, it is stated that the number of pupils has increased from 10 to 21, 13 boys and 8 girls. Their ages range from 6 to 19. The following are the districts from which they wore received —Auckland, 4 ; Hawke’s Bay, 1; Wellington, 1 ; Canterbury, 7; Otago, 7 ; Melbourne, 1. ;The annual cost is £1245. At (he industrial schools there are 751 children in all, of whom 241 were admitted during the year. 123 were placed out under license, 53 being sent to service, 70 to relatives or friends; 48 discharged or absconded. The total number under legal control

at the close of 1880 was 807. The following ware the numbers receiving instruction at the Orphanages : St. Mary’s, Auckland, 50 ; St. Stephen’s, Parnell, 50 ; St. Joseph’s, Providence, Wellington, 51 ; St, Mary’s, Nelson, 45 ; Motucka Orphanage, 25 ; Lyttelton Orphanage, 82 ; Burnham, 160 ; Oavershatn, 226 ; total, 693. To these may bo added the following numbers included in the ordinary public schools returns :—Howe street Home, 87; Thames Orphanage, 31 ; and Dunedin Benevolent Orphanage, 30 ; total, 148. The above are the chief portions of this bulky report.