E.—l

The total amount paid in salaries from receipts from Government for the secondary departments of district high schools, including the special payments to head teachers, was £18,618; in 1908 it was £20,097. The professional qualifications of the secondary teachers of the Dominion are shown below :— Status of Secondary Teachers (Regular Staff only), December, 1909. Distriot Secondary High Sohools Schools. (Secondary Departments). Principals,— Graduates ... ... ... ... ... 29 21 Holding certificates or other qualifications (excluding graduates) ... ... ... ... ... 2 41 Assistants, — Graduates ... ... ... ... ... 151 61 Certificated (excluding graduates)... ... ... 12 24 Uncertificated ... ... ... ... ... 30 3 Total ... ... ... ... 224 150 Further information in regard to the roll, and staff, and salaries of secondary schools is given in Tables Jl, J2, and J3 of E.-6 ; and further information of the same kind for district high schools is contained in Tables Xl and K2 of the same report. Free Secondary Education. At the end of 1909 the secondary schools giving free tuition to duly qualified pupils, and receiving grants therefor under the Act, were twenty-eight, as against twenty-seven for the preceding year. The total number of pupils on the roll of these twenty-eight schools, exclusive of pupils in the lower departments of the schools, was 4,088, and out of this total, 3,295, or 81 per cent , were given free places under the regulations. The total annual payment at the rate paid for the last term of the year would be approximately £34,629 ; the approximate average cost to the Treasury was therefore £10 10s. 2d. per free pupil. In addition, free tuition was given to 157 others who were holders of scholarships or of exhibitions granted by these schools, or by endowed secondary schools not coining under the conditions for free places, making the total number of free places held at secondary schools 3,452, or 74 per cent, of the roll of all these schools. Further information in regard to the free places and scholarships held at secondary schools will be found in Table J4 of E.-6. Moreover, in reckoning the amount of free secondary education in the Dominion must be included the pupils in attendance at the secondary classes of district high schools, 1,891 in number, all but a comparatively small number of whom were free pupils, receiving free tuition at an average cost to the Government of £9 16s. lOd. per pupil. There should be added also those receiving free education in Maori schools, 124 in number, and the holders of certain free places in technical schools, numbering 846. There is thus an approximate total of 6,313 pupils receiving free secondary education, exclusive of those holders of free places in technical schools who were art students, or were evening students, or were taking courses which may be more approximately described as technical rather than as secondary. The following table gives a summary of the various secondary free places at the end of the year for which payment was made by Government: — Free Places in December, 1908 and 1909. 1908. , 1909. (i.) Secondary schools— Boys. Girls. Total. Boys. Girls. Total. (a.) Junior free pupils ... 1,083 839 1,922 1,326 1,004 2,330 (b.) Senior free pupils ... 479 346 825 571 394 965 Total 1,562 1,185 2,747 1,897 1,398 3,295 (ii.) District high schools ... 1,017 1,125 2,142 944 947 1,891 (iii.) Maori secondary schools 43 65 108 51 73 124 (iv.) Technical day-schools ... 307 392 699 345 501 846 Grand total ... 2,929 2,767 5,696 3,237 2,919 6,156

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