Appendix C]

E.—2.

being excellent. Instrumental drawing is not so satisfactory : carelessness and want of accuracy in execution are too often apparent. In such a simple problem as that of bisecting a straight line it is not uncommon to find the bisecting-line drawn outside the intersection of the aics. Badly sharpened and unsuitable pencils, as well as loose compasses, are also responsible for a good deal of slovenly work in this subject. Additional Subjects. —ln handwork over 70 per cent, of the schools, or practically all schools in Grade II and over, are earning capitation in one or more of the subjects —modelling, paper-folding, or brushwork. We have recommended that paper-folding should always form one of the subjects, for though modelling and brushwork are excellent means of encouraging in the child powers of expression and arrangement of form, they do not tend to that accuracy in measurement or close attention to detail which are characteristics of paper-folding. This occupation should, wherever possible, lead up to cardboard modelling, in which accuracy and neatness are essential, and which also can be utilized as an aid to the study of other subjects, such as arithmetic, mensuration, and physical measurements, and at the same time form a good preparation for the woodwork of the upper standards. The primary classes in woodwork under Mr. Howe are increasing in number, and showing a steady advance in efficiency. The practical work in cookery has been generally satisfactory, and, judging from the short time Miss Kilroe has been in charge of the domestic course, we have every reason to look forward to a steady advance in the theoretical side of this work, which provides excellent opportunities for attaining accuracy in experimental and in written work. In fact, with a carefully prepared programme there is no reason why girls should not receive as good a training in scientific method in a domestic course including cookery, domestic economy, hygiene, dressmaking, and laundry-work as in any other branch of science, and at the same time the practical knowledge gained should be invaluable, more especially in these times, when the unreliability and scarcity of domestic help render some knowledge of housewifery absolutely essential. With the Education Commission's recommendation that great prominence should be given to the domestic course we are in hearty sympathy, but to do this effectively less prominence would have to be given to examinations as conducted at present, and the competitive examinations for scholarships would have to be abolished. While there is a great deal of exaggerated talk about overpressure in our schools, we believe that the Commission's finding that " the present primary and secondary education-system presses with undue severity on girls " is correct, and the suggestions made for improvement are worthy of consideration. If in .Standard V and Standard VI arithmetic were simplified and kept in close relation to the practical problems of a domestic course drawing correlated with needlework, and science and handwork taken as part of the domestic course itself, there need be no further differentiation of work between boys and girls in such subjects as English, history, geography, and singing; and the requirements of the syllabus, with the exception perhaps of physical instruction, would thus be fully met by a programme very suitable for girls. It might be practically impossible at first to carry out such a programme in the smaller schools, but if to each of the largest schools a room for the practical and experimental work were attached, and a qualified teacher specially added to the staff, this programme might very well be adopted in the two upper standards. The extra expense would not be as much as appears at first sight, for at present the itinerant teachers employed are not on the school staffs, and in the cases of such schools their services would be no longer required. The Commission expressed surprise at the fact that while so many teachers had qualified by examination to give practical instruction in woodwork and cookery, the services of so few of them were utilized for this purpose. Had the members given further consideration to the question they might very easily have discerned the reason. Under the present scale of staffing, a teacher in a large school has to take a class ranging from fifty to sixty pupils at least, sometimes more. The regulations do not in general allow of more than twenty-four scholars in a manual class —a very necessary limitation in the case of practical work —and a headmaster finds it practically impossible to dispose of the remainder of the class satisfactorily if his staff teacher has to take the practical work, but an additional teacher added to the staff for the special purpose of teaching domestic science would remove the difficulty. This solution applies only to the largest schools, but the experiment of differentiation might be tried first in such schools, and if successful there the benefits might be extended to the smaller schools hy means of itinerant teachers or by concentration of classes at centres. District High Schools. —Nine district high schools were in operation during the year, and in the majority of them the programme of work for the first two years was based on approved rural and domestic schemes. In the carrying-out of this rural programme the teachers are becoming more efficient, and the practical work in the laboratory and in the garden is showing improvement year by year. The last competition for the Board's B Senior Scholarships —those reserved for scholars taking this course —was the keenest yet held, and the general average of marks given for practical work was very satisfactory. This course, however, labours under several disadvantages, one of which is the difficulty of obtaining teachers properly equipped for this particular work. In answer to the Board's last advertisement for vacancies in the secondary departments of these schools, only a few applications from graduates were received, and, while the literary attainments of some of the applicants were satisfactory, their knowledge of science was not such as to qualify them to give efficient instruction in a course largely scientific. A remedy for this is an increase in the salaries offered for this branch of the work ; but until the training colleges and the university colleges train more students in science, even this remedy will be only partial. Another disadvantage under which rural scholars labour is that in competitive examinations, such as that for positions in the Civil Service, many of the science subjects of the course are not marked as highly as some of the literary subjects, which scholars from institutions adopting mainly a literary or grammar-school programme can take in place of these science subjects in the competition. In the programme lately issued for the Civil Service Junior Examination, agriculture, a subject which should receive especial encouragement in a country like New Zealand, carries fewer marks than some languages, the teaching of which would be of little value to many of the scholars in

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