E.—l

and aptitudes of the pupils. In the meantime, however, the public schools without any such change in organization have been given a curriculum which aims to secure the advantages already referred to —namely, better articulation with the work of the post-primary schools. During the year valuable surveys of the primary-school system were carried out in Taranaki at the instance of the Senior Inspector, and in other districts by an officer of the central Department. One of the conclusions arrived at merits special consideration —namely, that the method adopted in classifying pupils in primary schools is based on more or less empirical grounds, and not on any certain estimate of the intellectual capacity of the pupils. The class a pupil is to be placed in has from time immemorial been based on what may be called the average attainments of past generations of school-children of about the same age. The question arises whether such a method of determining classification is reliable. The probability is that the standard of attainment fixed upon in this more or less arbitrary fashion may not be a true measure of the child's mental capacity. In the course of years the standard may imperceptibly fall, or may not have kept pace with the normal racial increase in intellectual capacity. The question is a sufficiently important one to demand the closest investigation. If the pupil is proceeding through his primary course at a somewhat too leisurely pace, he has a correspondingly shorter space of time for his post-primary course, with the result that he is, on the one hand, ill-prepared to enter the University; or, on the other hand, insufficiently trained to make a good beginning in some industrial pursuit. It is not denied that even under the present somewhat rough-and-ready methods of classifying primary-school pupils a number do manage to reach the post-primary schools at sufficiently early an age to enable them to complete a good course of secondary or technical education ; and from this group we may expect to derive our University graduates and our leaders in industry. For many years there existed a marked cleavage between the secondary schools and the technical schools ; but the distinction was never so slightly marked as at the present time, when we find an ever-increasing desire on the part of the secondary-school teachers to provide a much broader curriculum than formerly. The conviction has grown that for many children it is waste of time to engage on purely academic studies ; and, consequently, there is an ever-increasing demand in secondary schools for manual-training equipment. In several of the secondary schools, too, an excellent course in agricultural science is provided. It is evident, then, that in New Zealand post-primary schools will soon be of one main type — namely, schools providing purely academic courses for the few, and broadly cultural courses with a leaven of manual training for the majority. One or more of such schools will necessarily be set apart for advanced technical instruction, but this is likely to be the only distinction in the future. During the year a select parliamentary Committee was appointed by the House to inquire into the education system, and to bring down a report and recommendations for improvement. The report will be presented to Parliament now sitting, and it is confidently anticipated that as a result of the searching investigations that have been made important changes will be made bearing particularly on the interrelation of primary, secondary, and technical schools. Considerable attention was given during the year both by the University and by the Department to the question of accrediting pupils for University entrance. The majority of members of the Senate appeared to favour the system as being less liable to error than the present selection of candidates by a written examination outside the schools. The University considered that certain safeguards were necessary, and finally decided to postpone the adoption of the system until further investigation had been made to ascertain how accrediting for matriculation was viewed by other Universities and by other examining bodies concerned. The Department is definitely of the opinion that the external examination for University entrance has had an unhealthy influence on the secondary schools,, inasmuch'.as it has dominated not only the curriculum, but the very methods of teaching. The removal of such an influence cannot but be for good both to pupils and teachers. In the meantime the Department is about to introduce the practice of awarding

3