E.—6

4

s recognized that pupils often attend merely with the object of finishing off their primary education, and that the number preparing for higher education or for the learned professions is small. Curriculum of Secondary Schools and District High Schools. (Tables Kl2 and L 3.) Although there are no departmental regulations directly governing the curriculum of secondary schools, the regulations defining the subjects of nstruction to be taught to free-place holders and the prescribed syllabuses of the various public examinations to a large extent control the character of the courses of work undertaken. The approved schemes of control of secondary schools also contain a provision for the programme of work of each girl to include adequate instruction in elementary domestic science and hygiene and in one or more of the domestic arts. No pupil is compelled to take Latin or more than one language besides English. The courses taken in secondary schools may be roughly classified as follows : (1) Ceneral or professional, (2) non-Latin, (3) commercial, (4) agricultural, (5) domestic. From returns received it appears that the following percentages of pupils took the various courses : Boys —Professional or general, 53 per cent. ; non-Latin, 19 per cent. ; commercial, 21 per cent. ; agricultural, 7 per cent. Girls—Professional or general, 48 per cent. ; non-Latin, 24 per cent. ; commercial, 19 per cent. ; domestic, 9 per cent. Including those taking a full agricultural course, 732 boys, or about 17 per cent., received instruction in agriculture, 126 boys were learning dairy science, and 339 took woodwork. Similarly, including the girls taking a full domestic course, 2,345, or 60 per cent., were instructed in home science, 992 were learning needlework, 748 cookery, and 41 home nursing. The number of pupils taking book-keeping was 2,060, or 25 per cent, of the whole number of students. The diminishing number of secondary-school pupils studying Latin is noticeable, only 57 per cent, of the boys and 44 per cent, of the girls including it in their course in 1918, while French was taken by 85 per cent, of the boys and by 93 per cent, of the girls. Courses bearing more or less on rural pursuits are taken in many district high schools, 70 per cent, of the boys and 39 per cent, of the girls studying agricultural science, 32 per cent, of the pupils taking dairy-work, 29 per cent, of the boys [earning woodwork, and 58 per cent, of the girls cookery or needlework. Latin is taken by only 34 per cent, of the pupils, and French by 46 per cent. The task of providing courses for pupils desiring tuition in subjects of a more or less directly practical and vocational nature, and also for pupils wishing to follow a more academic course, constitutes the peculiar difficulty of district high schools where the number of pupils and staffs are comparatively small. Free Secondary Education. (Table K4.) Free places are divided into two classes —junior and senior—both being tenable at secondary schools and district high schools, or, under somewhat different conditions, at technical schools. Generally speaking, junior free places are tenable for two years, with a, possible extension in certain cases to three years. In the case of their being held at district high schools they are tenable to the age of seventeen. The means of qualification are — (1.) For entrance to secondary schools and district high schools — (a) Special examinations for Junior National Scholarships, (b) the certificate of proficiency. (2.) For entrance to technical high schools the means of qualification named in (1), or the certificate of competency in 86, with a special endorsement of merit in handwork and elementary science, which for the purposes of technical schools is deemed to be equivalent to a certificate of proficiency. (3.) For entrance to technical classes other than technical high schools the means of qualification named in (1) or (2), or, under special conditions applicable to industrial courses only, a recommendation