H.—2

12

vision existing for the inspection of the public schools is extremely unequal, and consequently unsatisfactory from a colonial point of view. In the large District of Auckland, with 193 schools and 379 teachers, there is only one Inspector ;'- while each of the comparatively small Districts of Wanganui, Westland, and Southland, with an aggregate amongst them of only 130 schools and 214 teachers, has an Inspector all to itself. The Boards of HaAvke's Bay, Wellington, Nelson, and South Canterbury, with a alcav to economy, have each conjoined the offices of Secretary and Inspector. The Boards of the large and populous Districts of North Canterbury and Otago employ two Inspectors each, but the schools are so numerous, and many of them so large, that these officers cannot overtake the work. The Board of Marlborough engages the occasional sendees of the Inspector of the neighbouring District of Nelson, and the schools of Taranaki are inspected by a gentleman whose interest in education has led him to give up a large portion of his time to the Avork for a salary of £100 a year. But the Taranaki Board some time ago, Avith the hearty concurrence of its permanent Inspector, engaged for a term of three months the services of a highly competent and experienced teacher as an organizing Inspector. 3 Prom that gentleman's report, Avhich is published along with the others, it will be seen that the expedient has proved very serviceable and satisfactory. It is evident that, if it Avere possible to apportion the work of school inspection throughout the colony someAvhat equally and fairly amongst the present number of Inspectors, the work would, on the AA'hole, be much more effectually and satisfactorily performed. As already stated, the General Assembly last year voted the sum of £4,000 Avith a vieAV to assist and encourage Boards to make sufficient provision for the inspection of the schools under their charge. The money is distributed at the folloAvlng rates per annum: To each of the three largest districts, Auckland, North Canterbury, and Otago, £500 ; to each of the two smallest districts, Taranaki and Marlborough, £200; and to each of the other seven districts, £300. It is very obvious that the distribution of this grant could not have been fairly made in strict accordance with the school attendance in the several districts. In se\-en of the education districts the schools have been, to a greater or less extent, and for longer or shorter periods, organized and examined according to certain fixed " Standards of Education." Table No. 6of the Appendix slioavs the number of scholars in tho several education districts who were classified according to standards at the close of last year, liitberto, hoAvever, these Standards of Education have been fixed by the Boards, acting for the most part upon the advice of their several Inspectors, and those referred to in Table No. 6 are of this character. In accordance Avith the requirements of the Education Act an Order in Council has been made containing regulations for the inspection of the public schools, and defining the Standards of Education. These regulations are not all equally stringent. The most stringent are those which relate to reading, spelling, Avriting, dictation, arithmetic, grammar, composition, geography, and English history. Tho examination in these subjects is to be so conducted as to enable the Inspector to say of any individual pupil that he has passed, or that he has failed to pass, a given standard. But this is qualified by the rule that " serious failure in any one subject shall not be so reckoned [i.e., as a failure for the standard] if it appear to be due to some individual peculiarity, and be not common to a large proportion of the class under examination." In the application of the standards great liberty is accorded both to the Inspector and to the teacher. The Inspector may decide for himself in what parts of the programme he will conduct a Avritten examination, and in what parts of it he will trust to oral examination by classes as a sufficient means of distinguishing the pupils avlio fail from those Avho deserve to pass. The teacher is not compelled to classify the children according to the standards which tbey ha\-e passed, nor to accept the programme as the laAV by which his teaching is to be controlled. He is adA^sed that " the standards shail (-) Since the above was written the Auckland Board has reported the appointment of an Assistant Inspector of Schools, as shown in Table No. 4 of the Appendix. ( 3) See Report by the Secretary to the Education Department, on a visit to the Taranaki District in November, 1878.