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It is opportune here to say that teachers are becoming more and more conscious of the fact that their own training is a continuous process of which their Training College course was only the initial step. The past year was marked by an unprecedented number of refresher courses conducted by Inspectors of Schools, Training College lecturers, and teachers of outstanding ability in certain subjects. The enthusiasm of those attending and the facilities offered by the various Education Boards were highly gratifying. Primary education is in a state of transition both in content and method, and nothing will so facilitate the passing from the old order to the new as the free association of all intimately connected with the educational process. A particularly interesting experiment in the training of teachers and the public generally in the development of children's art was initiated by the Wellington Training College and the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts and carried out with the co-operation, financial and otherwise, of the Education Department. Overseas countries were invited to send for exhibition carefully selected examples of children's free, unaided art-work. The response was very gratifying, and the result was an exhibition of children's art which was sent on tour through the principal centres of the Dominion and enabled all interested, particularly the pupils and the teachers, to see the latest developments in America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and in New Zealand itself. In art perhaps more than in any other aspect of school-work we see the greatest departure from methods so long traditional in our schools : instead of the pupils drawing in hard pencil outline from copies selected for them by the teacher, the pupils draw in mass, in appropriate colours, from direct vision or from memory or imagination scenes or visions of their own choosing. A natural development follows that is not possible when an adult conception of art is imposed on the child from the outset of his school career. As a further aid in the training of young children of school and pre-school age, there were appointed this year three women as advisers to infant departments and kindergartens. This work, which is peculiarly within the province of women, is being directed from Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch. There was during the year a very keen demand for the services of these advisers. Employment of Teachers. The policy initiated a few years ago of keeping all non-permanent teachers in continuous employment as supernumerary teachers was continued during the year, with the condition that no one was to be employed as a supernumerary teacher who was not prepared to serve wherever the need was greatest. Towards the end of the year Education Boards in some districts found that for a number of small schools teachers were unobtainable, a state of aflairs due partly to the small reserve of teachers and partly to the fact that some of these confined their applications to the more attractive localities. As a much larger supply will be available in 1939, steps are being taken to ensure that the privilege of continuous employment enjoyed by those unable to secure a permanent position is not abused by any restriction of service to certain localities only. The Schools at Work. The substitution for the Proficiency Examination conducted by an Inspector of Schools of a system whereby the pupils completing a course in Form II (Standard VI) are awarded a Primary School Certificate by the head teacher is working satisfactorily. To dispel any doubts as to the grounds on which the latter certificate should be awarded, teachers were informed this year that the recipient should have attended regularly, worked diligently, and acquired a reasonable knowledge of the course covered. There is no doubt that the change has been welcomed by both teachers and Inspectors of Schools ; the annual reports of the latter speak of the happier spirit of the senior classes, where the work has become more diversified and better adapted to individual aptitudes and needs. Just as the Proficiency Examination in the highest class unduly influenced the nature of the instruction in the lower classes, so the abolition of that examination has brought a great measure of freedom to the entire school. But by no means the majority of teachers can readily adapt themselves to the new system, for it is easier to work to definite specifications than to plan independently with confidence. The outlook, however, is promising. In many schools clubs have been formed, and the school at regular intervals abandons the usual classification according to standards and the pupils reassemble in various groups according to the educational activity —e.g., music, art, crafts, drama, history, science—in which they take most delight. By such means the pupil is led to feel that he has a measure of control over his own education ; the spirit of co-operation replaces that of passive acceptance, the urge to learn comes more and more from the pupil himself. Says the report of one Inspectorate : " Children make speeches followed by free discussion; they dramatize, prepare newspapers, sing, sketch, make articles from leather, wool, cotton, pewter, and brass, and carry out also the usual formal work." The February Curriculum. In February last year an interesting innovation in school practice was introduced by the issue of advice to all schools to suspend their ordinary time-tables and to conduct their schools primarily in the interests of the physical welfare of the pupils. This change was made not only because of the fact that February is generally the most climatically oppressive month of the school year, but also because of the opportunity which such a system afforded of giving the pupils intensive courses not otherwise possible in certain subjects. Thus swimming and resuscitation of the apparently drowned, the theory and practice of first aid, physical recreation and athletics, and the principles of safety-first on the highway and in the home were treated with a thoroughness and completeness hardly possible under the traditional time-table. An excellent opportunity was also afforded for the teaching outdoors of such subjects as art, nature-study, craftwork, and many of the practical aspects of arithmetic.

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