E.—lb.

Examinations by the Head Teacher. —These have been faithfully carried out, and in the main due , care has been exercised in awarding promotions from class to class. Some teachers, however, have been so anxious to obtain what they call a "good pass" that they have given promotions where they were not deserved. In not a few cases we had, after very careful examination, to reverse the teacher's decision. It must ever be borne in mind that every weak pass granted tells as much against the district as against the school in which it is given; and where any doubt exists as to the child's fitness for promotion a pass should not be awarded. Under the new regime the words " pass " and " fail," so far as Standards I. to V. are concerned, will be abolished; but there is none the less need for teachers to be on their guard against promoting undeserving children. Every such promotion will sooner or later resolve itself into a "stripe for the teacher's own back." Frequently we found that the results of a single examination held immediately before the Inspector's visit were made the sole ground for promotion. This should not be. One of the chief reasons for laying upon teachers the onus of the classification of their pupils is that they are in a position to base their promotions on their estimate of the pupils formed from their work generally, and from the results they achieve in periodical examinations held during the year. Infant-room Work. —This department received extra prominence owing to the presence in the district, for a period of six months, of Miss Eva Hooper, whose services the . Board was fortunate to secure. Miss Hooper has had large experience in kindergarten methods, in giving instructions in various branches of manual work suitable for the lower classes, and in lecturing to teachers upon educational subjects. She conducted teachers' classes at Wanganui, Palmerston, and Hawera, and visited as many of our infant-rooms as she could in the time at her disposal. Those who attended the classes regularly, and who have striven to give effect to the instruction given by Miss Hooper, speak in terms of high appreciation of the stimulus and help they received. In her reports on the various schools, Miss Hooper emphasizes some defects in the teaching of our primer classes which all infant-room teachers, and, indeed, all teachers, would do well to ponder over. On the teaching of arithmetic, she says, "Very little concrete teaching is given. Scarcely any attempt is made to make the children realise the value of numbers. There is too much figurewriting before the children know the value of the numbers for which they stand. Too much time is wasted over the simultaneous repetition of tables. If children are taught the value of the early numbers well, there is no need for the continual singsong repetition which is done with no idea of the meaning at the back of the words." On the teaching of reading and writing, Miss Hooper has the following: " The common method of teaching reading is by pattern reading. The teacher reads the new work and the children copy. This is not reading at all, but learning by heart. It is a common practice also in word-building and writing to give children practice in sounds and in combinations of sounds and letters which do not occur in the language at all. When special practice is required in P. 111. for certain joins as 'gl,' ' &,' &c, why should not children be required to use the words beginning so in a sentence? Then writing, spelling, and composition would all go hand in hand." In her reports Miss Hooper continually emphasizes the need of more observational and conversational work; she condemns that antiquated form of object lesson which aims merely at giving instruction, and generally fails in arousing interest and in developing the pupil's powers of expression. Arithmetic. —Judged from the results of our examination, this subject is, in quite a number of schools, especially in Standards IV., V., and VI., in anything but a creditable condition. After making due allowance for out-of-the-way questions which not infrequently found a place on some of the cards, and for the interruptions which many of the schools suffered during the year on account of prevalent epidemics, we are forced to the conclusion that there is a want of thoroughness about the teaching of arithmetic in the upper classes. A realty good Standard IV., Standard V., or Standard VI. in this subject was a rare occurrence. The most striking feature, and the one which gives greatest cause for alarm, was that in a great many instances mistakes were made in straightforward questions The inference is that sufficient individual supervision is not given. Let a lesson be ever so well taught, it fails in its effect if the individual pupils are not made to master and apply its contents for themselves. It is possible to give too much blackboard demonstration. It is what the pupil does for himself that is of most value to him. We would indorse what Miss Hooper has said about the instruction in number given to the primer classes. It is here that foundations should be laid deep and strong; and it is here that they must be laid if good work is to be possible in the higher classes. Tables should be so thoroughly grounded and understood before children pass into the standards that inaccuracies in working of sums should be the exception and not the rule. Too often more than enough has been attempted. If as a rule the numbers up to ten were done thoroughly in the first year of a pupil's school life and up to twenty in the second year we should have more satisfactory results. Let every possible combination of these numbers be known, let addition and subtraction go hand in hand, and let the elements of multiplication and division be done concretely in such a limited range as we have prescribed, and we feel sure that more gratifying results will be achieved, and more interest will be kindled in what in the early stage is often an uninteresting subject. It is a matter for adverse comment that mental arithmetic does not hold the prominent place it should in the teaching of arithmetic. In fact, in some schools it is entirely neglected, and we find that the simplest operations are gone through laboriously on slates when they might easily be performed mentally. Mental arithmetic should form part of every arithmetic lesson, and children should be encouraged to dispense with slate working wherever they can. For example, in Standard VI. it is quite the rule to have such decimals as 0.25, 0.125, 0.625 put down and reduced on slate, and operations like i+i>t x i> & c -> treated in the same laborious fashion. Sufficient mental drill would alter all this, and the result would be more rapid and more accurate work. Reading. —This year, in a majority of the schools, the pupils in the various classes were tested from a book which they had not previously seen. The book used was in the case of each

2—B. Iβ,

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