E.—lB

3

and endowed schools, special schools, industrial schools, and orphanages). Schools found on inspection to be efficient will be " registered," and no school attendance will count if not at a registered school. No charge will be made for inspection and registration. G. —New Schools : Appointment of Teachers. The powers of the Boards to establish new schools are slightly limited. The Minister is given a voice, on the advice of the Council, in deciding the question whether a new school should be established. In regard to the appointment of teachers Committees are still to be consulted, but no choice is to be given them except in the case of equality of merit among the teachers who are candidates. Provision is made in clauses 156 and 157 for the grading of teachers : with the centralization of the Inspectors a Dominion scheme of grading will become possible. Provision is made for rules as to sick-leave on pay. H.—Staffs and Salaries in Public Schools. The scale of salaries is increased. It may be said that there is a general increase of over £10 to each teacher, and in some cases a great deal more. (See table at end.) The number of grades of salary is reduced -that is, for head-teachers and for assistants from ten to seven in each case— the grades being larger; hence the range of salaries within each grade is greater. The salaries of all grades are increased except for schools with sixteen to twenty pupils. (It is considered that these schools should be staffed by women or by single men looking for early promotion, and in such a case the salaries would be sufficient. None of the present holders would suffer.) Most male teachers would reach Grade 111 at least, and so would be assured of reaching £250 a year with a house or house-allowance. If a school falls in grade the teacher's salary is not to be affected so long as he remains in that position ; but the Department is given the power to send on his name as a candidate for transfer to the Board in any district where there is a suitable vacancy. (It may be pointed out that this presupposes that the Inspectors are under the Department and in a position to give it information on such points.) If, however, the teacher refuses transfer to any position the salary attached to which is equal to or greater than his original salary, his salary will be kept up for two years only. Not only does the Bill provide for a liberal increase of salaries, but it provides for a small immediate improvement of the staff, and ultimately for a considerable improvement. The Act of .1908 provided for the substitution of adult teachers for pupil-teachers, the provisions being brought into force gradually by Order.in Council; the process is not yet complete. (The Act of 1913 did not make any alteration in the scale of staffing, although Order in Council of December, 1913, additional assistants in lieu of pupil-teachers were provided in schools of Grades Vlb to VIIIa.) The scale of staffing under the present Act (1908 and 1913) is one teacher for each forty or part of forty children up to 200 in average attendance ; then one additional teacher for each fifty or part of fifty. The scale in the Bill would give one teacher for each forty or part of forty up to 400 in average attendance, and then one additional teacher for each fifty or part of fifty. A table attached shows the cost of the improvement in salaries and staff. I.—Secondary Education. The provisions relating to secondary education are rearranged in a more or less logical order. Grants are increased to the secondary schools having little or no endowments, so as to enable considerably better salaries to be paid to the assistants in those schools; conditions ensuring certain minimum, salaries, better far than the present average, are attached to the payment of the increased grants. All public secondary schools except one now give free places under the Act; the Bill makes it compulsory for all to give such free places. The cost of the increased capitation is, on the present numbers, £6,677 ; but, with better inspection under the centralized inspectorate, pupils not qualified for secondary education would nearly all be excluded, and probably at least two-thirds of this amount would be saved. Provision is made for the representation of Education Boards and of urban school districts on the governing bodies of secondary schools, and further safeguards are set up to prevent the use of the secondary endowments or Government grants for the maintenance of lower departments of secondary schools. With regard to scholarships tenable at secondary schools by pupils who have come from primary schools (public or private) the two chief changes afte as follows: — First, there are two systems of school scholarships now in existence- namely, the Junior National Scholarships and the Education Board Scholarships. The Junior National Scholarships are tenable for three years and may be extended to a fourth year, and are fixed in value. The Education Board Scholarships are divided into Junior and Senior, each series being generally for two years; they vary considerably in value in the different education districts. It is proposed to reduce these two systems to one system of scholarships, to be called Junior and Senior National Scholarships, each tenable for two or three years, but for not more than five years in all. The second point is the removal of the competitive element from the award of scholarships. Under the proposal any candidate who proved his fitness for a scholarship would gain a scholarship irrespective of whether he was beaten (perhaps by a few marks) by other candidates or not. The cost of the proposed system, if the maximum number of scholarships provided in the Bill were granted, would be about the same as at present, but the number of scholarships may be (and should be) somewhat increased so as to give a fair chance to a larger number of country children; this would increase the cost, but not to any considerable extent. (Note. The present Senior National Scholarships are not School Scholarships, but University Scholarships. Tt is proposed to call them University National Scholarships, and to remove the provision for them to the University Bill.)