E.—lb.

but on the ratio of the aggregate of the marks attained to the aggregate attainable in seventeen categories of work. No school is classed as good that did not gain at least 68 per cent., and none as satisfactory that did not gain at least 60 per cent., of the marks attainable. Many of the schools placed in the group " Satisfactory " presented a large amount of good work. It is gratifying to be able to say that a considerable number of small schools have a place- in the group " Good to very good." The reading lesson is often too mechanical to be of high educational value, the teacher making what ought to be an exercise in interpretation by his pupils only an exercise in imitation of his own interpretation of what is read :he works for his pupils, not with them. Now, co-operation is of the essence of good teaching; and, in reading as in other subjects, the work to be a real discipline must be shared by pupils and teacher, the former doing all they can do for themselves and the latter only what he must to help them over difficulties that, after trial, prove beyond their power. It may often be beyond their power to interpret the thought of what they read; but, if they have been well trained to help themselves, it will not be beyond their power, after due personal preparation, to read so as to express what they conceive to be the thought; and his pupils' conception of the thought is precisely what the teacher should get before he proceeds to read or to state his own. If he does not, the reading exercise must fail to realise its chief aim, which is to train the pupils to get for themselves facts and ideas from written speech. In a large number of schools due regard is not paid to this aim. Whether the pupils do or do not get the facts and ideas should be determined by two tests — (a) their power to express them in the language of the passage read, and (&) their power to express them in their own language. The bearing of the latter test upon composition is obvious. Greatly to the detriment of the mechanics of reading, phonic analysis is almost entirely disregarded in the standard classes. In the majority of schools spelling is very good; but this result is gained at too great expense of time and effort. Outside the infant classes, there is seldom any attempt made to associate sounds with the letters that usually represent them in written speech, seldom any attempt made to train the pupils to observe how, for example, a vowel following a single consonant affects the sound of a single vowel before the consonant; why the consonant is doubled in such words as dotting, beginning, stopped, bragging, begged, and so on; why k is inserted in mimicking; why c is dropped in changing and retained in changeable, and so on. A child who knows that in dotting, beginning and dropped, t, n, and p are doubled to keep the preceding vowel short, that in bragging and begged the second g is added to keep the first hard and the preceding vowel short, that in mimicking h is inserted to keep c hard, that in changing c is dropped because the vowel i is able to keep the g soft and the a long, and that in changeable c is retained because without it the a in able would make g hard, is in possession of phonetic laws that govern large classes of words and is able to do rationally what, without a knowledge of them, he has to do irrationally and by dint of hard grind. Spelling properly taught is a fine training to ear, eye, and understanding; but learnt as at present (for there is little teaching) it is merely a process of cram. Wfi remark further that, since spelling is learnt for purposes of written speech, the pupils should get abundant practice in forming written sentences that illustrate the use of the words the forms of which they have to learn. Knowledge is of value only when it can be applied; and, unless we use what we learn, we learn only to forget. We must again express our disapprobation of the ungainly attitudes the children are allowed to assume and of the uncanny ways in which they are allowed to hold the pen while writing. Most teachers, we regret to say, seem to regard these things as of no moment either from the hygienic or the economic point of view. It is quite refreshing to come upon a school or a class in which the majority of ihe pupils sit directly in front of the writing, the back straight, the shoulders level, the chest well thrown out but not touching the desk, the pen pointing towards the shoulder and held between the first two fingers and the thumb, the hand supported on the end of the little finger. Yet this is precisely what the experts recommend; but, unfortunately for the writing and the health of the children, it or anything approaching it is what is seldom seen in our schools. Composition remains the weakest of the pass subjects and grammar the' weakest of the class subjects. Properly understood, grammar is, as we have again and again urged, a department of composition, and we are glad to see that in the new regulations this is at last recognised. Much of the time hitherto spent in "full parsing" and minute "analysis of sentences" as ends in themselves will in future be given to the study and application of the art involved in the build and connection of the sentences. There will be parsing and analysis; but these exercises will be regarded only as handmaids to synthesis, the art of placing the elements of sentences in their most effective setting. Composition is largely a question of right words and word-forms in right places, and right word-forms in right places is entirely a question of grammar. If teachers rise to the occasion, nothing but good can result from the changed prescription of work in composition. In addition to the exercises written for us at examination-time, we examined a large number written for the teachers during the currency of the year, and found that in many cases they had been inadequately corrected. We found, too, that due regard had not been paid to accuracy and adequacy of expression in the children's written answers to questions in geography, history, and other subjects. Accurate and adequate self-expression is the chief end of education, and to strive to attain it in the formal weekly composition exercise and be indifferent about it in the every-day expression of the pupil is obviously not the way to attain it. With his limited background of experience, the pupil may misconceive what he is asked to speak or write about; but that is no reason for not exacting from him accurate and adequate expression of what he conceives to be right. One other remark is necessary—namely, that some teachers are too careless of diction and grammar in their spoken speech to their classes. Though in arithmetic the general result does not reach the level of " Good," much good work is done in this subject. There is still in many schools lack of concreteness in the illustrations of the

6—E, Iβ.

41