E.—2.

The amendment of the regulations referred to above makes it possible for a pupil who has gained a Primary School Certificate to enter upon a free place in any post-primary school, and also for any pupil over the age of fourteen and not possessing a Primary School Certificate to enter upon a similar free place. Under the previous regulations a pupil of the latter type could take up a free place in a technical high school only. Now the doors of every secondary school and of the secondary departments of district high schools are open. Add to this the facilities offered by the Correspondence School, and free post-primary education is at the service of every young person in the Dominion over the age of fourteen. The Education Act permits exemption from attendance at school to any young person over the age of fourteen, and to those over the age of thirteen provided they hold a Primary School Certificate. Unfortunately, there are a fair, though diminishing, number of parents who avail themselves of this right to terminate prematurely their children's education. Such children obviously have the capacity to profit by a further period at school. One interesting development in some schools has been the suspension of the ordinary time-tabe for one afternoon each week, or for an hour a day, to allow for the regrouping of the pupils not according to standards, but to the inclinations of the pupils. Thus, on such occasions, a school may reform itself into classes or clubs each devoted to some pursuit, such as the study and practice of literature, drama, art and crafts, popular science, and music. Apart from the gain to the pupil, this system offers distinct inducement to the teachers to make themselves specialists in some subject. A further enrichment of the school curriculum will be possible next year through the recent appointment of a Museum Educational Officer to each of the four Training Colleges. The salaries of these officers will be provided partly by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and partly by the Education Department. It will be the duty of these officers to reveal to college students and teachers the educational value of a museum, to arrange specimens for exhibition in the schools, to conduct pupils through the museums, and generally to ensure that the museums become, so far as children are concerned, a department of the school itself. Thus we hope to get an organized and rapid extension of work that has been slowly developing for some years in the education system. New Education Fellowship. An outstanding event of the school year was the visit in August of the New Education Fellowship delegates to New Zealand. The Department arranged with Education Boards to readjust their normal school holidays and close their schools for a week wherever teachers desired to attend the meetings. Teachers took full advantage of the opportunity thus afforded of hearing the lecturers. Such enthusiasm was a tribute to the knowledge our teachers possess of educational progress and to the work of our Training Colleges and University departments of education. It was a unique opportunity of hearing at first hand of the many interesting innovations in education systems or individual schools or school districts beyond New Zealand and of the aspirations of those who had made certain aspects of education their particular study. The addresses were an inspiration to teachers and administrators alike ; and those who were already working along somewhat similar lines will no doubt go forward with increased assurance, while all undoubtedly will experience a broadening in outlook and an improvement in technique therefrom. Already branches of the Fellowship are being formed in various centres, with a view to seeing in how far the ideas gained can be incorporated into our education system. Much, however, will depend upon the way in which we can equip our schools ; in this respect we suffer, as I have previously mentioned, under the disadvantage of having about two thousand five hundred primary schools, of which over one-half are one-teacher schools, scattered over an area little less than that of the British Isles, but with a population only equal to that of Liverpool and Manchester together. There are, in addition, over three hundred other Government schools. It is this dissipation of resources both in money and teaching power, that is one of the principal obstacles to educational development. One hopeful sign, however, is the rapidly increasing demand for the consolidation of small schools. In this respect it is very pleasing to note that one Education Board with an extensive system of pupil transport speaks of not a single casualty during the year. Further obstacles to a thorough-going reform in educational methods are lack of class-room space and lack of equipment. Up till recently each room of a school was supposed to accommodate so many pupils that these had of necessity to work almost entirely with books and writing-materials. This is certainly the cheapest method of education and in some respects the easiest, but it has serious defects. It keeps the pupils physically immobile for long periods at a time, and this alone is detrimental to the growing child. Modern ideas of education demand that a class shall every now and then be broken into groups for semi-independent work or for the gathering together of those who need special attention or have special interests they wish to explore and develop. A schoolroom, too, should be so equipped that it can be quickly rearranged or even cleared for many kinds of work —e.g., physical exercises and dramatic work, for these demand large clear spaces if efficiency or reality is to be achieved. The remedy, of course, is larger rooms or smaller classes, or a combination of both. Tables and chairs should be, and are now gradually being, substituted for the present desks. Education through the hand and eye working at the direction of the will is necessarily strictly limited under present conditions. The desks are too small, even if the material supplied were sufficient. Wo have for many years achieved a partial solution of the problem by sending the pupils of Forms I and II (Standards V and VI) to manual training centres for woodwork and cookery for two hours a week. But this occurs only where it is possible in general to keep an instructor employed full time. Very good work is done ; but, apart from the waste of time in travelling, which is often considerable, particularly in country districts, the scope of the work is too limited. Work in wood alone does not reveal to the boy anything like his full creative capacity. Craftwork, too, should proceed hand in hand with art-work. Much of the craftwork done should grow out of the daily work in other subjects. That

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