E.—'2

AI'I'ENDIX C

XII

Table II. In this table are shown the proportion of pupils in the various classes and the average age, both being compared with those for the Dominion.

A comparison with the figures given last year shows that the percentage of pupils in the preparatory classes is still on the increase, not only in our own district, but throughout the Dominion. In both cases, too, the average age of the preparatory pupils has increased by one month. These increases have given rise to much discussion among the teachers themselves, as well as among the Inspectors. The explanation offered by the Education Department is that the preparatory-class pupils are not being advanced rapidly enough. With respect to our own district, we do not think this is a sufficient explanation. In this district at the present time, when settlement is so widespread, a large number of children live long distances from school, and so are not sent until they are seven or eight years of age. It must also be remembered that many settlers have for years lived beyond the reach of a school, end their children, when eventually a school is established, are much above the usual age for preparatoryolass pupils. Again, where, as is common in remote districts in the North Island, the roads are, bad, children not only enter school at a late age, but attend Very irregularly, and so take longer than the average time to reach Standard I. No doubt, too, the advice of medical men and others that children should not begin school-work before they are seven is often followed by parents, and this contributes to a higher average age. The high percentage of pupils in the preparatory division is to some extent a natural consequence of children entering school at a late age, for in many cases they leave as soon as they reach the age of fourteen, and before they have gone through the complete primary course. Table VIII, below, shows that about 5 per cent, do not reach Standard VI. With further reference to the question of the average age of the preparatory-class pupils, we submit the following facts, derived from a special return furnished by the teachers at the beginning of this year (1913) : In 185 schools 1,059 pupils were admitted to the lowest preparatory class, and the average; age of these pupils was five years nine months. This age bears out our contention stated above— that in a district such as ours, where much pioneering in the way of settlement is being dono, the average age of the pupils on entering school is somewhat high. In the highest preparatory class there were (March, 1913) 1,523 pupils, with an average age of seven years six months. A proportion of these pupils will, the teachers inform us, be promoted to Standard I at the end of the first school term. Consequently the average age at the end of the year will be but little, if at all, in advance of what it is now. Again, if the 1,059 pupils noted above be followed through the usual two-year period in the preparatory department, it will be found that the average age over the whole department at the end of the second year is seven years, which is Very little less than the actual average age in our district —viz., seven years two months —the difference being accounted for by the few casts in which the pupils are either naturally backward or have been detained too long in the preparatory classes. Table III. [Table 111, being of purely local interest, is not reprinted.] Table IV. Here a comparison is made with the numbers given in 1910 and 1911 for the Stato schools of the district :—

Preparatory... Standard I II III IV V QVJ VII ( Classes. Dominion (1911). Wanganui (1912). I Per Cent. I Average Age. Per Cent. Average Age. Yrs. mos. Yrs. mos. 37-30 7 1 3757 7 2 12-34 9 1 12-39 9 5 11-90 10 2 12-28 10 5 11-59 11 3 1106 11 5 10-48 12 2 1039 12 4 8-72 13 2 8-58 13 2 6-21 13 11 6-24 14 0 1-46 15 0 1-49 14 11

Glasses. tandard VII VI V ... IV ... Ill ... II ... I ... Number on Roll, 1910. 266 947 1,269 1,488 1,592 1,727 1,749 5,363 Number on Number on Average Average Roll, 1911. Roll, 1912. Age, 1910. Age, 1911. Yre. mos. Yrs. mos. 254 227 15 0 15 0 919 954 14 0 14 0 1,261 1,311 13 0 13 2 1,488 1,588 12 3 12 2 1,774 1,691 11 3 11 3 1,656 1,877 10 1 10 4 1,923 1,893 9 3 9 3 5,552 5,742 7 2 7 1 Average Age, 1912. Yrs. mos. 14 11 14 0 13 2 12 4 11 5 10 5 9 5 7 2 'leparatory Totals 14,401 14,827 15,283 I