E.—s

12

" The present low standard of work is not due to carelessness, but rather to deficiencies in the training of teachers. The teachers are anxious for guidance, their difficulty is to obtain it. The following three ways of reaching the primary teachers have been used : — " (1) Lectures to the teachers. " (2) Use of sets of work illustrating the needlework suitable for the different standards. These can be readily posted to different schools. " (3) Supervision of the sewing under usual class conditions. " The first and second of these ways are found helpful, in arousing the teacher's interest and suggesting fresh ideas on the subject, but it is the combination of all three which is most effective, as it is only by visits to the classes and by meeting the special needs of each teacher that the interest can be maintained and a high level of achievement reached. In all post-primary schools the needlework is undoubtedly handicapped through the inadequacy of the work done in the primary schools. In the junior high schools, given a better preparation in the lower standards, the schemes of work could well be expanded and improved. In the district high schools the actual teaching is often in the hands of specialists, either full-time teachers of domestic subjects or part-time teachers with business experience, and is usually very sound, the results in some cases being particularly good. In the technical schools effective work is done by specialist teachers, especially in dressmaking classes in which the girls learn to make garments for themselves and others in the home. Plain sewing is also well done, but sometimes lacks daintiness and finish. In the high schools the attention given to sewing and dress-making varies very considerably between the different schools, the amount and quality being low in some cases, but in others up to a very satisfactory standard." It appears from Miss Burns's report that the main problem in the teaching of needlework in the schools is that of ensuring that the teachers in the primary schools shall be competent, since weakness in the work in the elementary stages carries right through to the training colleges, and has led in the last few years to a cumulative deterioration in the work. The remedy would appear to be more attention to needlework in the teachers' training colleges, followed by careful supervision of the work of the young teachers by skilled practitioners after they have left the training colleges, at least until the present vicious circle has been broken.