E.—2.

[Appendix D.

Number of Training College Students who attended Lectures at Canterbury College during the Year 1910. Latin .. .. 25 \ Zoology .. .. 2 j Commercial geography .. 16 English .. .. .. 66 I Geology .. .. 2 j Economics .. .. 12 Mathematics .. 18 French.. .. 2 Mental science ;. .. 26 Chemistry .. .. 5 German .. .. 2 Education .. .. 45 Electricity and magnetism. . 1 Jurisprudence .. . . 1 Biology .... . . 9 Constitutional history .. 2

OTAGO. Report of Principal for the Year 1910. Sir, — Training College, Dunedin, 14th December, 1910. I have much pleasure in presenting the annual report of the College. We began with the maximum number of students, 100—32 of whom are men and 68 women. The College is open to every education district, and we have 1 student from South Canterbury, 73 from Otago, and 26 from Southland; and I should just like to take this opportunity of saying that Southland students show great interest in their work. I think highly of the way in which the Southland pupil-teachers have been trained in the primary stages of their work. Sixty-five of our students were admitted under Division A—that is, had served some time as probationers or pupil-teachers ; 33 were placed in Division B; and 2in Division C. The attendance at classes has been most satisfactory, and the students have, on the whole, enjoyed very good health. The Training College Regulations provide that all students shall attend at least one class at the University. The majority attended two or more classes, as follows : Six attended one class only, 13 attended one class and a half, 44 took two classes, and 37 three classes. The numbers attending the various subjects are as under: English, 77 ; education, 50 ; Latin, 45 ; French, 13 ; mathematics, 25 ; mental science, 14 ; chemistry, 1 ; mechanics, 1 ; physics, 3 ; geology and palaeontology, 3 ; political economy, 3 ; Greek, 1. Some 65 students kept terms — i.e., they passed in at least two classes of the University. Eleven of these were placed in the first class. In the junior Latin class only one first was received, and that honour fell to Miss Gwen Duncan, of the Training College. Miss McCorkindale obtained first in palaeontology and mechanics; Miss Janet Fisher, first in junior mathematics; Mr. Colquhoun, a first in mental science, and also in junior physics. Mr. Partridge, Mr. Morrison, Miss Laycock, Miss McNaughton, and Miss White were placed in the first class in education. Miss D.C. Farnie gained a first in senior mathematics, a first in mechanics, and carried off the University prize (Navy League). Of 49 Otago University students who passed the first or final section of the B.A. degree last year, 22 were students or ex-students of the Training College. This year we piesent 26 for the first section of the B.A. or B.Sc. and 1 for M.A. ; this is the record number in the history of the College. It is obvious that the College is a very important factor in the life of the University. We are laying the foundation of a work that may ultimately lead to a Faculty of Education, just as we have a Faculty in Law and a Faculty of Medicine. The course of learning at the College is of a twofold nature —first, a university course of teaching and instruction, to which I have referred ; secondly, instruction in professional or technical subjects by the Training College staff, to prepare the students to pass the Department's examination for a teacher's certificate. It is no exaggeration to say that our students have always been successful at the annual examination in the past, and there is no reason to suppose that they will not do well at the approaching examination. These examinations begin on the sth January, and continue for some three weeks. But, perhaps, more important than either university training or college classes is the daily practical class-teaching that is carried out in the auditorium in the practising school. How to apportion the time wisely and well to meet the claims of the University, the College, and the Normal School is not an easy matter. Practical training in the art and methods of teaching is not neglected. In the first year the training consists largely in observation and discussion of methods of teaching in the auditorium, followed by a certain amount of daily practice in method in the Normal School and in the kindergarten department. In the second year the conditions are different: there is less time given to observation, and more to practice and class-management. The practical course covers a period of thirty-six weeks, and every student who has had no previous training in teaching has to teach during the final year for at least nine weeks out of the thirty-six. When we consider that every student, in addition to this practical work, attends University or' College classes, it will be readily admitted that a student's life is not an easy one. It is an arduous course of training, and every year makes wider demands upon their time. The field of training for the modern primary-school teacher is year by year becoming more varied and more extensive. Fifty-seven students leave the College this year, having received a full two-years course of training. Most of them will secure a full teacher's certificate, and quite a number, I hope, the Training College certificate. The latter is given to those only who have spent two years at the College, have had a special training for competency certificate in gymnastics, have received at least seven satisfactory reports from members of the staff for their teaching in the practising school and in the auditorium of the College, and have taught for at least nine weeks in their final year. We are adding over fifty to the list of certificated teachers this year, and that is just about the number of uncertificated teachers at present in the service of the Board. We have made a very good beginning in training our students in kindergarten methods; and I hope soon to make arrangements for a more complete training for those of our students who have special qualifications for this kind of work rather than for the more strenuous work of public-school

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