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(c.) Technical High Schools. Number on roll at end of 1916 : Boys, 973; girls, 1,132 : total, ... 2,105 (d.) Registered Private Secondary Schools. Number on roll at end of 1916: Boys, 397 ; girls, 607 : total, ... 1,004 Number under twelve years of age... ... ... ... ... 9 Number between twelve and fifteen years of age ... ... ... 311 Number over fifteen years of age ... ... ... ... ... 684 (c.) Secondary Schools for Maoris. Number on roll al end of 1916 ... ... ... ... ... 457 The total number of children, therefore, receiving secondary education at the end of 1916 at the five classes of schools mentioned was 1.3,004, an increase of 746 over the number for the previous year 1 . Based on the estimated population in New Zealand in the year 1916, the proportion of persons receiving some regular form of day secondary education is 113 per 10,000 of the population. From figures supplied by the various educational authorities it also appears that 9,416 children left the public primary schools in 1915 after passing S6 : of this number, 2,851 entered ordinary secondary schools in 1916, 1,154 technical high schools, and 1,409 district high schools. Hence a total of 5,414 children, or 57 per cent, of those who had passed S6, or 35 per cent, of the whole number of children who left the primary school in 1915, entered upon an education of a secondary nature at one or other of the types of schools mentioned. It should also be stated in this connection that 2,095 pupils, in addition to those enumerated, proceeded from the primary schools to evening technical classes, these pupils including a certain number who had not passed S6 in the primary schools. The average length of stay of boys at secondary schools (group (a) above) is two years and eight months, and of girls two years and seven months, the figures being practically the same as those for the previous year. The following figures show the percentage of children leaving the secondary schools at the stages indicated : — Boys. Girls. (a.) Percentage leaving at end of first year or during second year- 25 27 (b.) „ second „ third „.. 31 26 (c.) „ third „ fourth ~ .. 15 22 (d.) „ fourth „ fifth „ .. 19 1.7 (c.) „ fifth „ sixth „ ... 7 5 (/.) Percentage remaining at end of sixth year .. . . .. 3 3 Attention must again be drawn to the regrettable fact that more than a quarter of the children in attendance at secondary schools leave before they can possibly have derived any real educational benefit from the teaching afforded in the secondary schools. The percentage remaining less than two years at district high schools is considerably higher, but as pupils frequently remain at these schools with little further object than that of finishing off their primaryschool course, the wastage-in this case is more to be expected. Curriculum of Secondary Schools and District High Schools. A classification of the courses taken by pupils of secondary schools indicates that 62 per cent, of the pupils take the general or professional course, which includes instruction in English, Latin, French, mathematics, and science; 8 per cent, take a similar course, with the exception of Latin; 20 per cent, take a commercial course, including instruction in book-keeping, commercial correspondence, shorthand, and sometimes typewriting; 6 per cent, of the boys take a definite agricultural coarse, and 12 per cent, of the girls a definite domestic course. Including those taking the full agricultural course, 764 boys, or about 19 per cent., receive instruction in agriculture or agricultural science, 86 boys learn dairy science, and 395 are instructed in woodworking. Similarly, including the girls taking a full domestic course, 445 girls, or 14 per cent., are taught cookery; 969, or 32 per cent., home science; and 743, or 25 per cent., receive instruction in needlework. In the large majority of secondary schools

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