E.—l

4

Schools with an average of 35 or under are sole-teacher schools. On referring to Table Ait will be seen that there were 1,318 such schools. But, as already stated, schools are in some cases maintained in a higher grade than average attendance would appear to warrant, while on the other hand a number of schools in charge of sole teachers at the beginning of the year had so risen in attendance as to be entitled to assistant teachers before the end of the year. Thus in Grade IV there were, in 1911, 27 schools the average attendance of which did not warrant the appointment of an assistant teacher, but in Grades II and 111 nine schools had the services of an assistant teacher. There were therefore altogether 1,336 schools in 1911 in charge of sole teachers, an increase of 45 over last year. In other words, in 1911 sole-teacher schools formed 62 per cent, of the total number' of public schools in the Dominion. The aggregate average attendance at these sole-teacher schools in 1910 was 22,793, or 167 per cent, of the total average attendance of the Dominion; in 1911 the aggregate was 24,579, or 17*1 per cent. The average per school was 17*8 per cent., or 23-76 omitting schools belov 16 in average attendance. The number of schools with two or more teachers was, in 1910, 805. In 1911 the number was 830. Of these schools there were, in 1910, 28 with an average attendance exceeding 600, and 31 in 1911. During the year 1911 85 schools were closed. Several of these schools, although reckoned as closed in their original form, were reopened in another : in some cases two schools were amalgamated ; in some, half-time schools became separate fulltime schools ; and so on. Including such reopened schools, the total number of schools opened during the year was 155. The following list shows the number of schools opened and closed in each of the various education districts : —

Increases and Decreases in Number of Public Schools.

The net increase in the number of schools open at the end of the year is thus 70. The total number of public schools in each grade is shown in Table A, the corresponding figures for the previous year being shown for purposes of comparison.

Table A.—Number of Public Schools in each Grade, 1910 and 1911.

District. Auckland Taranaki Wanganui Wellington Hawke's Bay Maryborough Nelson Grey Westland North Canterbury South Canterbury Otago Southland Number of Schools Number of Schools closed. opened. 41 70 3 5 2 7 1 10 6 11 6 11 5 9 5 2 2 3 3 9 2 4 6 6 3 8 Increase in Number Decrease in Number of Schools. of Schools. 29 2 5 9 5 5 4 3 1 6 2 r •i :: 85 155 155 85 Increase (1911) j 70 i

Grade (as in Education Amendment Act, 1908). Number >f Schools. 1911. I „.,._, . Number of Grade (as in Education Amendment Act, 1908). 1910. i f Schools. 1910. 1911. 0. (1-8) 1. (9-15) 2. (16-25) 3. (26-35) 4. (36-80) 5. (81-120) .. 6a. (121-160) °- "l 6b (161-200) „ I 7a. (201-250) '• 1 7b (251-300) ( 8a (301-350) 8. J 8b (351-400) I 8c (401-450) 155 372 469 284 443 126 51 37 35 24 20 15 12 162 393 480 283 462 127 58 33 34 27 24 13 16 i 9a. (451-500) .. .. 8 9. J 9b (501-550) .. .. 12 I 9o (551-600) .. .. 5 10a. (601-650) .. .. 9 10b (651-700) .. .. 8 10o (701-750) .. .. 2 10d (751-800) .. .. 2 10. 10b (801-850) .. .. 4 10e (851-900) .. .. 2 I 10o (901-950) . 10h (951-1,000) .. .. 1 ■lOl (1,001-1,050) .. Totals .. .. .. 2,096 7 12 4 12 5 6 3 2 2 1 2,096 2,166