SATURDAY, MAY 6, 1899.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Issue 50, 6 May 1899, Page 3

SATURDAY, MAY 6, 1899.

The subject of school attendance came prominently mto the business done at the lecent hvkiseholdeis' meeting for the election of a school committee for the W aim ate Di&triet Iligli School. The matter was brought up m the retiring committee's report and referred to by several ot the speakeis in the discussion on the motion' to adopt the repoit. Particulars •were gi\ en co\ ering {he past four years and fioui these it appears that the aveiaje at-

tendance has fallen from 459 to 417, and the roll number from 495 to 461. Compared with the roll number, the average attendance was better last year than four years ago, and should be considered high. Looking at the drop in the number on the school roll, the question arises, " are there fewer children of school age (5 to 15) in the area sened by the Waimato Public School than there were 1895 ?" We think not. A scrutiny of the data on which an opinion may be formed on the subject leads to the conclusion tint theie aie more children of school ago now in the Waimate School distuct and neighborhood than there were four years ago. Then why are they not at school ? For several reasons. Fust, w o boheve that a number of children who ought to be on the school rolls have ne\er been sent to school, and in a number of cases there is no way of compelling attendance, as the children are beyond the two-mile limit, though quite able to ■walk the distance. Some tune ago, the Boaid of Education appointed as truant officer, a gentleman who is ranger or dog tax collector or something of that kind for the county, but his distuct is too large to allow him to work it thoroughly. A much better plan, so lar as the Waimate School Distiict is concerned, would be to appoint and pay a special truant officer, s,i,v the Public School janitor, who knows the children. It was pointed out at the householders' meeting that if the decrease in the attendance continued to fall one of the teacheis would be withdrawn, and a speaker suggested that an intimation to that o'fect added to the absentee notes sent out bv the headmaster might have a good result. Experience teaches that the people who will not send their children to school lcgulaily lor their own sakes, are, as a rule, the very last to do so out of consideration for the school. We thmk, however, that the chief cause of the decrease m the school roll number is the high percentage of passes which has been the rule for some years past. At the meeting one gentleman mentioned this matter, and expressed the opinion that anything over 80 per cent, of passes indicated good work, so far as that particular is concerned. We do not believe that for the average child it is any undue demand on his powers to pass all the standards without failure, provided hd does not pass the first standaid at too early an age. A child who passes the lirst standard at eight years old, and continued to pass year by year would be through the sixth standard at thirteen, which is too young unless he is to continue Ins education for at lexst two years more. But the law allows a child to leave school when it passes the fouith standard and many parents take advantage of this fact and allow children to loave school at as early an age as ten or eleven. We understand there are pupils in the fourth standard in the Waimalo Public school at the present time who are not ten years old. This is hardly a matter which requires to be remedied by law. The law is right ; but common sense is wanted in the application ol it. While so many people are anxious to take their children irom school and send them to work, it w ould peihaps be well if no child weie allowed to loa\e school till the ago of 13, no matter if it had passed the sixth standard. Under present conditions, as we have said, many are taken away from or allowed to leave school two or three years too soon and sent to work. And the evil does not end there. It not infrequently happens that boys who ought to ba at school are working, while lads who should be at work are idle because the younger boys can be got for wages which would not be offered to older ones. There is very little hops of any improvement while the public show so much gratification at high percentages of passes, and judges the progress of a school by that sign. We hope the day is not far distant when individual passes will be done away with, when schools and teachers will be judged by their efficiency and

■when there will be a minimum exit age independently of attainments.