Education Report for New Zealand.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4224, 15 July 1882, Page 2 (Supplement)

Education Report for New Zealand.

The annual increase ia the number of children attending the public schools has been much smaller in 1881 than in any other year since the Education Act now in : force was passed. The number belonging to the schools at the end of 1878 exceeded the corresponding number for the year 1877 by 9,352; for the next year (1879) the increase was only 1159ras about 131.3 per cent of the average annual increase of the three previous years. The average attendance of scholars for the last quarter of 1881 compared still less favorably with that of; former years, the increase for: tho year being only 337, whereas the average increase for each of the three previous years was 7545. The increase of average attends an cc for the whole year is not so much below the mean of other years, the number for the year being 1501, which is, 11 per cent of the mean for the three years preceding, 7132. It will be seen that the number of new admissions for the year was less by 3088 than in the previous year, while the number of children leafing the' schools was greater than in 1880.; The Usual increase in the proportion ; of. female teachers has not been maintained during the year, the additions ta*the number of teachers being 63 males, of whom 37 are pupil teachers, and 53 females, of whom 18 are pupil teachers. The amount expended by the boards on school buildings, including sites, teachers' houses, and school furniture is of necessity almost wholly limited to the amount voted by Parliament in each year for this purpose. Apart from this their ordinary expenditure on the maintenance of school* depends almost exclusively on the statutory capitation allowance of £3 15s, according to average attendance., During the year the Boards have opened 33 new; schools, and appointed 116 teachers in addition to those previously engaged, and the attendance on which their incomes depend was at the end of the year greater by only 337, than it was twelve months before It i 3 evident that they must have suffered some embarassment. The difficulty of'fhfir position was, moreover, enhanced by a permanent deduction of about 11-g- per cent from their ordinary, income, which look effect in the August of the preceding year, when the Parliamentary capitation grant of 10s per annum for the incidental; expense of schools was withdrawn. By this charge, and the; exclusion of children under the age of five years, the Parliamentary vote is reduced by probably not less than £40,000 a year. The Boards accounts show that money voted for buildings has in some cases been applied to other purposes than. the purchase of sites, the erection of buildings, and the providing of school furniture, and paid for fire insurance, for interest,, for rent of school buildings, and even as rent allowance to teachers of schools to which residences are not attached. In every district except that of Wellington there is sufficient accommodation for all the children on the school rolls if it were distributed with perfect suitability, but that there are about .1000 children, most of them being in Otago and Southland, in excess of the accommodation in a few crowded schools To make room for these children, and to provide for about 6500 others who are at present either unprovided for or taught in hired buildings, enlargements and new buildings are proposed with space for between 12,000 and 13,000 children. The districts that anticipate the largest probable additions of new scholars are South Canterbury, Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, and Otago. The proposal includes 135 schools altogether, new additions to 15 old ones, and new schools to take the places of 6 old ones condemned as unfit for use. The number of hired schoolrooms is 96, of which 43 are in Auckland district alone, and a large proportion in the districts of Marlboro' and Hawke's Bay. It is also proposed to build masters' houses in connection with 190 schools. At present there are 266 schools without residence, 105 of them in Auckland district, and a large proportion in the districts of Westland, Taranaki, Wellington, and Nelson. The estimate of capitation grants for the present financial year is the same as that for.the last financial year, which, from the causes that have been already stated, proved to be £12,000 in excess of what was actually paid.