29

E.—l

The number of recognised classes for manual instruction in secondary schools was .. .. .. .. .. .. 159 The capitation on classes amounted to .. .. .. .. £861 18s. sd. The average cost per class was .. .. .. .. £5 Bs. sd. Technical Instruction. A review of the year's work indicates that satisfactory progress continues to be made by controlling authorities and managers of classes in the various education districts in providing and improving facilities for technical instruction. The organization of the technical schools, in the larger centres especially, is improving year by year, graded courses are becoming an essential feature of the curriculum, while every effort is being made to provide, as far as possible, courses of instruction adapted to local requirements. Considerable interest continues to be taken in the schools by local bodies and by industrial, trade, and other organizations, augmented in most cases by assistance of a practical nature in the way of monetary contributions, which, with the Government subsidy of £1 for £1 thereon, form an important source of revenue to the classes concerned. During the year over £6,000 was so contributed, indicating very clearly the attitude, generally, of local bodies and others with regard to technical education. The Government has, so far as available funds and other circumstances have permitted, favourably considered applications by controlling authorities for grants for new buildings or additions, and for necessary equipment. During the year grants for these purposes amounting to over £21,000 were distributed. New buildings have been erected at Feilding, Marton, Patea, Petone, Masterton, Napier, and Wakefield; necessary additions have been made to the technical schools at New Plymouth, Dannevirke, Nelson, Timaru, and Dunedin, and to the Christchurch Technical College ; while considerable additions have been made to the equipment of the technical schools at Wanganui, Wellington, Napier, and Dunedin, and the School of Engineering attached to the Canterbury College, Christchurch. Speaking generally, it may be said that good and useful work is, within the limits imposed by existing conditions, being done in the technical schools. Most of the instruction continues to be given by means of evening classes, and necessarily so, until it is found practicable to effect some change in the conditions under which the schools are at present working. That what is known as the evening technical class is not an altogether adequate means of training is now being recognised by an increasing number of employers in those countries in which the value to the community of technical education is acknowledged. The means adopted by employers to induce their workpeople to attend technical schools are many and various. Not a few, for example, find it in their interests to give their employees " time off," often without loss of pay, to enable them to attend day classes at technical schools. Other means adopted are—payment of fees ; refund of fees on condition of satisfactory attendance ; increase of wages and special privileges ; payment for, or loan of, books and apparatus ; scholarships, bursaries, and prizes ; increased prospects of promotion ; acceptance of time spent at the technical school as part of apprenticeship. If employers elsewhere find that it pays to place as few obstacles as possible in the way of the educational advancement of their employees, it should not be too much to hope that employers in New Zealand will be moved to follow their lead when and so far as local conditions permit. Some of them, it is pleasing to record, are already doing something in one or other of the directions indicated. It is to be hoped that their example will speedily be followed by others, for it is beyond question that the advancement of technical education in New Zealand depends to no small extent on the enlightened attitude of the employer towards the technical schools. That the schools would respond to the best of their ability to reasonable requirements of employers in the matter of providing suitable courses of instruction goes without saying. The question of the continuation of the education of young people after they have left the primary school—a question which is receiving an increasing amount of,attention in other parts of the^jworld — must also be regarded as an important factor in the solution of the problem of how best to provide for