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move to another centre in order to obtain promotion, as the expenses of his transfer will, as a rale, swallow up several years' increase in salary. Strangely enough, however, the remote schools find it much more difficult to obtain women teachers than to obtain men. It is obvious that the high cost of transfer expenses cannot be the determining factor in the case of the women, yet the fact remains that not even A grade salaries with an additional emolument for work as first woman assistant in a mixed school will, as a rule, tempt teachers away from the cities. The list of approved text-books continues to serve a useful purpose. In several instances publishers have agreed to reduce the price of a book in order to secure its retention on the list, and publishing firms, both Home and local, have displayed enterprise in revising old publications or in issuing new ones in an endeavour to have them retained or placed on the list. Several schools persist in using a few of the antiquated text-books of the last century. This tendency is probably more marked in the large boys' schools than elsewhere —and a few adhere to expensive books which might well be replaced by others of equal work and less cost. The special training of teachers for secondary-school work presents the same difficulties as it did when we discussed the situation in our, report of two years ago. It is gratifying to note, however, that there is evidence of a desire for closer co-operation between the Principals of the training colleges and the Heads of the larger city schools. The utilization of a large secondary school as a practising field for specially selected training-college students under the supervision of the Principals and capable Heads of Departments has produced very satisfactory results indeed during the past three or four years at Wellington College, and latterly a few other schools have been led to make experiments along the same lines. It is, however, unfortunate that except in the case of two large boys' schools the Heads of Departments cannot possibly be given sufficient free time to undertake supervision of the nature indicated. Should the practice of sending training-college students to selected schools become the recognized procedure, it would appear that some special staffing-allowance would need to be made for the schools so utilized. That our young secondary teachers are not as entirely lacking in training as some critics loudly proclaim is evident from the fact that 65 per cent, of the men and 40 per cent, of the women entering the secondary service last year had passed through a trainingcollege course. It must be admitted, however, that very few of these trained teachers know anything about methods of teaching secondary-school subjects, and it is just here where the weakness of the present system, or lack of system, becomes apparent. A practicable remedy, however, is not easy to formulate in a country such as ours with its widely scattered University and training colleges. The Dalton plan appears to have been definitely abandoned, and it is no longer a recognized feature of the organization of any of our schools. Sporadic experiments conducted along these lines by a few enthusiasts are still to be met with, especially in the teaching of history, a subject which lends itself admirably to the application of the plan. We fear, however, that the term " assignments " has become anathema to many teachers after their trying experience during the epidemic period, and there is certainly no widespread desire to repeat or extend Dalton experiments. It is well to point out here that our schools are, unfortunately, not as well equipped with libraries as they should be, and consequently the " laboratory " work which features so largely in the Dalton and similar plans is cramped for want of suitable material. The question of assistance for school libraries is one that will need to be faced in the near future. Both Mr. Tate's Commission on post-primary education arid the University Commission naturally evoked considerable interest in our schools, and many Principals and several assistants were given opportunities to voice their opinions on various aspects of secondary education. It is not proposed to discuss here the comments on our secondary system expressed in Mr. Tate's admirable report or the recommendations affecting the relationship of the schools to the University that were made by the Commission. Quite apart from the great value of their decisions and recommendations, the advent of the two Commissions has in itself been productive of much good in arousing among our teachers a spirit of inquiry into the aims and the efficiency of our existing system of education. Among other things, it has made us realize a little more clearly than before how much the Matriculation Examination has dominated our secondary-school courses in the past. It is very much to be regretted that Mr. Tate was unable, owing to the epidemic, to see any of our secondary schools at work. As in previous reports, we have again refrained from discussing in detail the teaching methods employed in the various schools, or their curricula, organization, or administration. These matters have been dealt with, often at great length, in the various inspection reports. In regard to curricula, however, it is interesting to note that the agriculture course, though not yet by any means popular, has held its ground in the past two years ; in several schools it has made some slight headway towards obtaining a reasonable measure of support. There is no doubt that the gradual return of more prosperous times for the farming community during 1923 and 1924 has helped considerably to swell the ranks of our agricultural pupils. When times are hard on the farm the farmer's son either does not enter the secondary school at all, or, if he does, he is naturally anxious to adopt any vocation but farming. If given a choice he will follow the educational course that leads him to other vocations in which there appear, perhaps quite erroneously, to be prospects of earning a competency with much less drudgery. Regarding the quality of the teaching in general, we feel that there has been great improvement in several subjects during recent years. Perhaps the advance has been most marked in the teaching of English. The old formal treatment of the subject has given place with most teachers to a more enlightened endeavour to cultivate the pupil's interest in literature, to teach him to write good English by the constant study and imitation of the very best models, and to encourage him to speak clearly and well by means of class discussions and debates. The study of grammar which formerly occupied so much of the time devoted to English has now been put in a subordinate position. The results are seen in the excellence of some of the composition work (prose and verse), particularly of

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