Appendix C]

E.—'2.

The past year has been one of increasing activity in educational work throughout the whole of the district. Applications for new schools have been frequent, and five new schools have been completed during the year —viz., Maraetotara, Twyford, Marakeke, Omakere, and South Makaretu. A new building has been completed at Woodville for the secondary department of the school, in which provision is made for manual and technical classes, and several contracts are now in progress for the erection of teachers' residences. At the present time the most pressing needs for school accommodation are at Hastings and Napier. The schools in each district are quite full, and the rapid extension of settle ment in Napier South and Mahora West will necessitate provision being made for nearly six hundred children. Marumaru and several other places in the Wairoa country are pressing for school buildings, and, judging by the rapid settlement now going on along the railway routes from Gisborne to Motu and from Gisborne to Napier, a large increase in school accommodation will shortly be required. At the close of the year 134 schools, including eighteen household schools, were in active operation. Tii is represents an increase of six household and three Board schools compared with the schools for the previous year. All the schools, other than those purely household schools, were visited twice during the year with a single exception, and much extra time has been given to teaching and inspection in the smaller schools, hut more particularly in those schools where untrained teachers are in charge. Of the 328 teachers in the service of the Board, 131 occupied the position of head or sole teacher, a head teacher being one having charge of an assistant or assistants ; forty-two of the seventy-three sole teachers possess no certificate of qualification, and thirty-five assistants out of 140 are also without qualification. In addition, there are forty-one pupil-teachers and sixteen probationers, who are equally untrained and inexperienced ; so that of the total number of teachers in the Board's service 134 are to be classed as " inefficients," and 194 as " efficients.'" The latter hold departmental certificates certifying to their teaching and academic qualifications. It will be apparent from the foregoing statement that two distinct classes of schools exist in this district, one where schools are controlled by trained teachers and one where the teachers are untrained and mostly inexperienced. Clearly, the plan of supervising the work in the two classes of schools ought to be different. The Department regulations assume the necessity of examining and inspecting each class of school year by year, but to do so the schools that really need careful supervision and guidance cannot get the attention they need. Many schools in this district are in charge of highly qualified teachers, and are in such good working-condition that they can be reasonably left without examination, an occasional visit from the Inspector being ample, unless special circumstances should require closer inspection. Were this possible under the regulations, attention could be gi"en to the improvement of the small country schools, where the teachers, from lack of training, great isolation, and absence of competition, find their work difficult, and make success well-nigh hopeless. Attention has been called to this important aspect of training on several occasions. It is quite useless to expect teachers who have had no training, and in many cases are totally ignorant of the school requirement, to train children along the lines set down for use in the schools. Visit after visit, inspection after inspection, go on, and teachers are seen to flounder hopelessly, but a visit of two or three hours to a school does not suffice to bring things out of chaos. Vet such schools are left so that other schools that are really efficient may be visited in order to conform with regulations ! To show how the small schools are handicapped, it is only necessary to point to the fact that not a step has been possible to extend the benefits of manual and technical instruction beyond the limits of the larger and more efficient schools. The small country school where manual and technical instruction would really be of value is out of the reach of trained instructors, just as it is of trained teachers. The number of children attending the Board schools shows a satisfactory increase for the year. Returns of school attendances are regularly made by Cathloic and two other schools equally with Board schools, and are of much value as showing the number of children who are attending school throughout the district. It is to be regretted that all schools do not send in similar returns, as by so doing the actual school population could be compared with the total population of the district. The following table gives the number of pupils in the Board, Catholic, and other schools that were on the roll and were present at school on the days of examination. The roll numbers for the previous year are also given : —

Board Schools.

XXI

1912. Roll. Present. Average Age. 1911 Roll. Standard VII VI V .. IV .. Ill .. II .. [ .. 122 624 953 1,229 1,360 1,405 1,456 117 620 932 1,205 1,334 1.375 1,422 15-5 140 13-0 121 11-2 10-3 9-1 105 646 836 1.114 1.241 1,404 1.376 Totals 7.149 3,994 7,005 3,760 7-1 (S.722 3,873 'reparatoiv Grand totals 11,143 10.765 9 yrs. 9 m< is. 10.595