E.—2

16

If we take certain districts which probably contain a larger proportion of rural population than the rest, we find that, while the percentage of those who pass S4 remains nearly the same, the percentage of boys who leave without passing S5 is larger than for the Dominion as a whole : that is, in Taranaki, Wanganui, Hawke's Bay, Mariborough, Nelson, and South Canterbury, taken together, the proportion of boys who leave without passing S5 is 45 per cent., as against 37 per cent, for the whole Dominion; on the other hand the proportion of girls so leaving in these districts is only 36 per cent., as against 34 per cent, for the Dominion. Boys. Uirls. Per Cent. Per Cent. Left without passing 84 .. .. .. .. 12 10 Passed S4, but not S5 .. .. .. .. .. 33 26 Or, in other words, only 55 per cent, of the boys and 64 per cent, of the girls pass Standard V before leaving school. Comparison of the figures for the periods 1896-99 and 1905-8 respectively appears to show an improvement in the standard of education reached by those who leave the public schools ; probably this improvement is real, and is due to two main causes —first, the raising of the standard of exemption from the Fourth to the Fifth Standard ; and, secondly, the prize in the form of a free place at a secondary school, district high school, or technical school, now held out to those who gain a certificate of proficiency in Standard VI. It has been proposed that the standard of exemption should be raised to the Sixth—it would require no legislation, but merely an Order in Council to accomplish this. It is worthy of consideration, however, whether it would not be better to abolish the standard of exemption altogether, and to compel every child to remain at school until the age of fourteen years at least. If this were done, the next step (which should be taken at no distant period) —namely, to make attendance at some form of instruction (continuation, secondary, or technical) compulsory until the age of sixteen or seventeen —would be much easier. As has been already explained in E.-l, the proportion of girls leaving before reaching the age of fourteen is greater than the proportion of boys ; and, although the latter might be explained by the number of boys entering secondary schools or the secondary departments of district high schools. the number of girls leaving at that age is far too large to admit of a similar explanation. Possibly, if good courses of elementary practical domestic science played a greater part in the work of girls in the higher classes —S5, S6, and S7—there would be greater inducements for girls to stay on than arc now offered by instruction that is more bookish in character. The following brief summary shows at what age the principal leakage takes, place : — Age at which Pupils leave Public Schools, as shown by Percentage of Roll of Children between Ten, and Eleven Years of Age in 1904 who left at each Successive Year up to 1908. Boys. Girls. (i.) Percentage leaving school at about age eleven .. .. 1-2 1-6 (ii.) „ ~ twelve . . .. 4-5 5-4 (hi.) „ „ thirteen .. .. 14-6 16-4 (iv.) „ „ fourteen.. .. 38-5 38-3 . (v.) ~ over age fourteen .. .. 41-2 383 Hence it is easily seen that the number of boys leaving school at the age of thirteen or earlier is 20-3 per cent, of the corresponding enrolment of boys between ten and eleven years of age, and the number of girls so leaving is 23-4. A similar comparison for another set of years gave 17-6 per cent. of boys and 23-6 per cent, of girls leaving at thirteen or earlier ; we may take the mean of these figures, which is probably not far short of the truth—namely, 19 per cent, for boys, and 23-5 per cent, for girls. The average age of the pupils in the Standard V classes at the time of the annual examination is thirteen years one month : taking this fact into account, and comparing the number of pupils who leave at thirteen with the number who leave after passing 85, we may reasonably presume a connection between the two sets of facts, and say that 17 to 20 per cent, of the boys and 19 to 24 per cent, of the girls leave school as soon as the law allows them to do so, and a considerable number at a still earlier period—in spite of the law relating to school-attendance, which does not appear to be everywhere too strictly enforced. Another point to which attention has been called in the reports of several of the Education Boards is the growing practice of what has been called " legal attendance." The Act allows without penalty the absence of a child from school two half-days out of ten ; and if a parent takes advantage of this, as a certain number do, it is doubtful whether any excuse or explanation for the absence can be legally demanded. Serious harm results not only to the absentee himself, who really loses the benefit of much more than one-fifth of the instruction, but also to the rest of the class, the work of which must necessarily be disorganized by the irregular attendance of some of its members. The proposal to make attendance compulsory at every meeting of school, except in the event of illness or other unavoidable circumstances, is worthy of serious consideration. This is tile law—not merely as it appears in the statute-book, but as it is actually enforced and obeyed —in some countries, notably Switzerland, where the average attendance reaches nearly 98 per cent, of the roll, and the 2 per cent, or so of absentees are nearly all absentees with " legal excuse," as it is called—that is, absent from some such cause as personal illness or the dangerous illness of a near relative living in the same house ; and the districts where children have several miles to walk to school are included in the calculation. It is true that in many parts of New Zealand the children have long distances to go to school; but it is also true that there are Native village schools attended by young Maori children who travel still greater distances, and whose regularity of attendance comes very close to the Swiss standard. There would probably be no very great hardship incurred in reducing our percentage of absences, say, to half what it is at present. Geo. Hogbbn, Inspector-General of Schools.