E.—2.

Appendix C]

good. Thus, at Matamau, a bush district near Dannevirke, the average regularity for the year was 97 per cent, of the roll number, and for three years the same school has maintained a regularity of over 96 per cent. Other schools might be named, notably large ones like Napier Mam and Gisborne, where the regularity exceeds 90 per cent., and the small country schools would jshow even better results than they'usually do but for the bad state of roads during the winter months. . . The number of teachers in the service of the Board is 321. These include pupil-teachers, probationers, uncertificated teachers, holders of licenses to teach, and those holding certificates of qualification from the Department of Education. These latter number 185. The adult teachers in the schools number 250, of whom sixty-five are without teaching qualifications. The latter form the Ishmaelites of the teaching profession, and something ought to be done to bring them under more effective working conditions. The Inspectors require to be brought into much closer touch with this class of teacher than is the case at present, for school efficiency is an utterimpossibility where the Inspectors are so impotent as to be unable to effect any improvement under the present arrangements. ~ The annual returns, as representing the number of children attending school at the time oi the examinations, naturally show different results from those supplied quarterly. On the days fixed for the annual examinations there were 10,595 children returned as belonging, to the Board schools, and of this number 10,240 were actually present at examination, or 966 per cent, of the whole. . , .. The following tabulation gives grades of schools, number of schools in each grade, and pupils in each standard for all schools in the district. Information is also given with respect to Roman Catholic and private schools : — Table. 11. — Catholic Schools (Nine Schools). Roll. Present. Standard VII ... ••• ••• ••• ••■ ■•■ J 2 VI ...... 54 52 V 100 99 IV " "" 101 94 TTT ... ■•■ 124 114 TT " 98 105 *' i'" ;;; 99 78 Preparatory ... • ■ ■"' ■ ■ • ■ ■ ■ ... 334 265 Totals ... 912 809 Table 111 — Private Schools (Three Schools). Roll. Present. ij Standard VII ... ... ■■- ■■• ■■• ••• °. °. VI ... ... ••■ ■■- ■•• •■ ' ' V 9 9 IV ... ... ... ... 4 4 111 ... ... ... ■•■ ■•• •■• 6 6 " II 4 4 " j 14 14 Preparatory ... ... ••• ■-■ ••• ... 20 18 Totals ... - 64 62 Table No 1 Tnot reprinted], stating the number of schools and total attendance in each grade, shows there are twelve household schools with a total roll of 55 pupils, or + 6 pupils for each school and teacher; twenty-two schools with a total attendance of 312 pupils, or 14;2 pupils to each teacher ■ and if the three lowest grades of schools are taken, they include fifty-eight schools, with a total roll of 913 pupils, or an average for each teacher of 15"7 pupils. Including pupil-teachers, probationers and uncertificated teachers, there was one teacher for every unit of 324 pupils in the schools under the Board at the date of the annual examination. ....«, In a former report attention was called to the leakage that goes on in schools m the case of pupils between Standards IV and VI. Thus, Standard V is returned as containing 836 pupils. This was Standard IV for the year 1910, which then contained 1,034 pupils, showing a loss during the vlar of 198 Pupils In the same way Standard V, at the end of the year 1910, contained 947 pupils, but as Standard VI for the past year they have fallen to 646, or a difference during the year nf Noi In other words, over 30 per cent, of Standard V pupils left school without passing VI and over 19 per cent, of Standard IV pupils left without completing the Standard V course Results such as these cannot be deemed satisfactory, and unless action is taken to stay the withdrawal from school of so many pupils at the most important period in their training, a great waste of educational effort will go on and a serious injustice will be done to hundreds of children who cannot help themselves. The annual synchronous examination for proficiency certificates took place on Friday 15th December in fifty-six centres-viz., nineteen centres in North Ward, twenty m Middle Ward and seventeen in South Ward. All the necessary arrangements for candidates are made by each • + Pfl r-her of a school where an examination is held, so that supervisors have merely to them from the Board's office. Candidates presented themselves from 100 schools-viz., eighty-seven Board schools, eight Catholic, three private, and two high

schools.

XXIII