E.—lα.

Sess. 11.—1897. NEW ZEALAND.

EDUCATION: TEACHERS' AND CIVIL SERVICE EXAMINATIONS. [In continuation of E.-1a, 1896.]

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

The Inspectoe-Genebal of Schools to the Hon. the Ministee of Education. g IB _ Education Department, Wellington, 29th March, 1897. I have the honour to report upon the annual examinations of candidates for teachers' certificates, and for admission to, or promotion in, the Civil Service. The examinations were held in January between the 6th and 15th days of the month, at the thirteen towns which are the seats of Education Boards, and also at Whangarei, Thames, Tauranga, Whakatane, Gisborne, Westport, Oamaru, and Palmerston South. . The number of candidates was 1,311, made up as follows : For the Junior Civil Service examination, 446; for the Senior Civil Service examination, 101; for certificate examinations, 161 ; for drawing (pupil-teachers only), 33. The expenses of the examinations amounted to £805 7s. 5d., and the fees paid by candidates to £1 004 17s 6d Printing and clerical work are not included in the account of expenses. ' The results of the Senior Civil Service examination were made known on the 19th of February, the results of the Junior Civil Service examination on the 22nd, and those of the teachers' examinations on the 23rd of the same month. . _ , Of the 101 Senior Civil Service candidates, one applied to be examined in shorthand only, but did not sit for the examination; two had already passed the examination, but_ wished to pass m a seventh subject for the purposes of the Barristers' General Knowledge examination and one of these was successful; and 30 came up to complete examinations in which they had already been partially successful. Out of the 98 ordinary candidates, 55 passed the examination, three of them with distinction. (See Gazette, 25th February, 1897.) ~.,-,- < i The names of 298 of the Junior Civil Service candidates were published, in the order of marks, in the Gazette of the 25th February; the remaining 148 failed to reach the minimum required, which is one-third of the possible total. . Of the 33 pupil-teachers who availed themselves of the regulation which allows them to come up for one branch of drawing at a time, 27 satisfied the examiner. _ ■,-,,-. At the teachers' examination, 1 was a candidate for Class C (University status being taken into account) 205 were candidates for the whole examination for Class D, and 134, having been credited with " partial success " for Class D, came up to complete their examination ;_ 241 were candidates for the whole examination for Class E, and 150 came up to complete the examination for that class. Among these 731 candidates were 168 candidates who had already passed for Class E and were seeking promotion to Class D; and of the remainder—s63 in number—ll4 were teachers in the service of the Boards, 291 were pupil-teachers, and 53 were normal-school students in training; while 42 were persons who had ceased to be teachers, pupil-teachers, or normal students, and bd had never sustained any such relation to the public schools. ,„„._. ~,«,! ™ i Of the whole number of 731 candidates, 267 have "passed" (148 for D, and 119 for E), and 191 have achieved " partial success " (69 for D, and 122 for E), while 273 have failed to improve their status Of these last, 73 have been added to the list of absolute failures, the rest of the 273 being either absent candidates or candidates who were unsuccessful m attempting to complete " partial success." The names removed from the •' failure " list by this examination numbered 22, and as 73 names have been added to it, the list is increased by 51 (from 689 to> 740). This list contains the accumulation of nineteen years. As the result of tne examination, 192 new certificates will be issued (1 for Class C, 72 for Class D, and 119 for Class B), and 75 certificates of Class E will be raised to Class D. . . . , , The following table exhibits some of these statistics, and shows besides that the normal students are again the most successful class of candidates : — I—E. lα.