5

E.—l

The expenditure of £2,627,000 on primary education represents a charge of £2 os. Bd. per head of the population, the corresponding charge excluding capital expenditure on new buildings being £l 15s. 4d. The cost per child on the roll was £ll Is. 4d., excluding expenditure on new buildings, and £12 14s. Bd. including the same. The expenditure on elementary education in England in the year 1921-22 was estimated at £12 4s. 4d. per child in average attendance. The salaries of teachers absorb two-thirds of the cost of elementary education, the remaining expenditure being in connection principally with buildings, training of teachers, administration, inspection, conveyance, and incidental expenses of schools. The expenditure on secondary education, which includes the expenditure on secondary schools and on the maintenance of secondary departments of district high schools, amounted to £370,000, of which sum £48,000 was met by income from reserves belonging to the various high-school Boards. Of the total cost to the Department £81,000 was capital expenditure on new buildings. The total cost of secondary education works out at £27 lis. 4d. per pupil; excluding the expenditure on new buildings, the cost to the Department was £17 19s. id. per pupil. In England the total expenditure on secondary education was estimated for the year 1920-21 at £26 per pupil; and in Ottawa (Canada), for the year 1919, at £25. The expenditure on technical education, which for the year under review includes the whole expenditure on technical high schools, amounted to £248,000, of which sum £101,000 was capital expenditure on new buildings, several of which were in course of erection. Towards the cost of University education the Department provided £78,000 for general maintenance and £39,000 for new buildings, while £22,000 was met by income from the reserves of the various colleges, making a total of £139,000, or 2s. 2d. per head of the population. 'I'he total expenditure was the same as in the previous year, although the number of students increased by 8 per cent. The expenditure on special and industrial schools and the probation and boarding-out system amounted to £137,000, the cost being about the same as in the previous year. In addition to the above expenditure controlled by the Education Department, £5,848 was expended by the Mines Department on schools of mines, and £2,100 by the Department of Public Health on dental and medical bursaries tenable at the University of Otago. PRIMARY EDUCATION. Number of Public Schools. (Tables AI and B3 in E.-2.) The number of public schools open at the end of 1921 was 2,498, or sixty-one more than in the previous year. In the following table the schools are classified according to the yearly average attendance, and the total number of children at the schools in each grade is shown.

Grade of School. Number of Schools. Total Average Attendance. Grade of School. Number Total of Average Schools. Attendance. 0 (1-8) 1 (9-20) II (21-35) IIIa (36-80) IIIb (81-120) IVa (121-160) IVb (161-200) IVc (201-240) Va (241-280) Vb (281-320) Vc (321-360) Vd (361-400) VIa (401-440) 203 1, 703 9, 542 13, 588 30, 132 12, 54 7, 10 7, 32 7, 21 5,' 33 10. 28 9,: 15 6, 8 3, 203 703 542 588 132 54 40 32 21 33 28 15 8 1,169 9,849 13,823 30,123 12,199 7,316 7,135 7,108 5,716 10.105 9,299 6,224 3,550 ,169 ,849 1 ,823 y ,123 "\ ,199 | ,316 ,135 A ,108 j "\ ,716 ! \ .105 j "\ ,299 A ,224 \ ,550 VIb (441 VIIa (481 VIIb (521 VIIc (561 VHd (601 VIIe (641 VIIf (681 VIIg (721 Villi (761 VIIi (801 Vllj (841 VIIk (881 VIIl (921 VIb (441-480) VIIa (481-520) VIIb (521-560) VIIc (561-600) VHd (601-640) VIIe (641-680) VIIf (681-720) VIIc (721-760) VIIh (761-800) VIIi (801-840) VIIj (841-880) VIIk (881-920) VIIl (921-960) 1-480) 1-520) 1-560) 1-600) 1-640) 1-680) 1-720) 1-760) 1-800) 1-840) 1-880) 1-920) 1-960) 15 16 10 14 13 12 8 5 2 2 1 1 7.609 7,640 5,480 8,181 8,155 8,083 5,637 3,613 1,506 1,663 881 902 Total, 1921 . . „ 1920 .. 2,498 schools. 2,437 „ Increase 61 „