EDUCATION COSTS

Hokitika Guardian, 17 September 1929, Page 7

EDUCATION COSTS

*■ FEATURES OF YEAR’S WORK

large classes disappear.

WELLINGTON, Sept, 12,

New Zealand’s education expenditure last year equalled £.2 9s 3d per head of population,, making a total of £3,587,697, and also £375,282 on buildings. Tlie establishment of commercial classes in district high schools, and the difficulty of placing young people in suitable positions owing to the present unemployment, have resulted in a marked increase in the attendance in secondary departments of district high schools, • with the result that increased accommodation in a number of these schools was the subject of careful consideration. Consolidation of country schools has progressed, and the effect of open-air classrooms on the health of the children is being checked by careful records. 1

The total enrolment in public primary schools (including 'junior high schools conducted by tho Auckland Education Board) at the end of the year was 218,794, a decrease of 1151 when compared with the figures for the previous year. This is the first occasion since 1900 that a decrease in the number of pupils enrolled has been recorded. . Regularity of attendance has continued at a highly satisfactory figure, the average attendance for the year being 90.2 per cent of the average weekly roll number, an increase of 1 per cent. The Otago education district, .with 92.4 per cent had the highest degree of regularity, but the (figures for all districts are creditable, in no ease falling below 88.9 per cent. CLASSES AND TEACHERS. It is shown that very good progress has Ibeen made in the elimination of unduly large primary school classes. In February, 1928, G 7 per cent of classes in public schools, Grade IV. and over, had more than forty children, and 3 per cent had more than sixty. By February, 1929, the percentage of classes with over forty pupils bad been reduced to 64, and the percentage of classes with over sixty pupils had been reduced to 2.' Since the beginning of 1929, the Department has approved of the appointment of more than 109 additional assistants, so that there should now hr no class of more than sixty pupils in the Dominion.

During the past two or three years, the supply of teachers has exceeded the Dominion’s requirements. This position has arisen in consequence of admissions to teachers’ training colleges being increased for the dual purpose of replacing untrained and teachers by trained certificated teachers, and of supplementing school staffs in order that the number of large classes might be reduced, “'lt is confidently anticipated,”, states the report, “that the restriction now placed by .the Department on the numiber of (probation entrants appointed by Education Boards together with the gradual strengthening cf school staffs, will have -he effect in the near future of entirely doing away with unemployment among teachers, provided, of course, young teachers will go wherever their services are required. This has not always been the case in the past, and boards have experienced considerable difficulty in persuading some of the ex-training 'college students to accept appointments in remote country districts. In' fact, this reluctance to accept country service partly explains why some young teachers remain unemployed.”