STATE EDUCATION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 165, 12 July 1894, Page 3

STATE EDUCATION.

The seventeenth annual report of the Minister for Education on the progress and condition of public education in New Zealand, which has just been laid on the table of the House of Representatives, is a voluminous publication, extending with appendix and other papers, over a hundred pages. Unlike the majority of reports submitted to Parliament, this contains a vast deal of information of interest to the general public. The document is of course too lengthy to bo quoted as a whole. Extracts from the more important clauses are all that can be given here.

Beginning with public achoole, we learn that the number of pupils on the school rolls at the end of 1893, was 124,686, the increase for the year being 2,066. The average annual increase in sixteen years, since the date at which the Education Act came into force, haa been 4,312, and there has been an increase every year. Until last year, there was always an increase in the average attendance as well, and accordingly an increase of 2,430 was estimated for 1893. Owing, however, to widespread epidemic of measles, the average attendance for the year fell short of that of the year 1892 by 455 In consideration of the derangement in the finances of Boards that was a necessary consequence of this unforseen diminution, the method of computing attendance on what ia known as the " working average" was temporarily revived, and this method was applied to the last three quarters of tho year, with tho result of a mean addition of 2,274 attendances (2$ per cent.) to the average attendances of tho three-quarters, the greatest addition being 3,345 for the quarter ending on the 30bh of September. The "strict" average for the year was 98,615, and with the addition made for three quarters by reverting to the working average the number on which the capitation payment "was made becomes 100,321, while the estimate for the year was the '• strict" average of 101,500. The contrasb made between salaries in cases of approximately equal responsibilities baa again been the main incitement to a movement in favour of a "colonial scale" of payment of teachers. The cause of these disparities ia attributed to the very unequal areas of operation of the several Boards of Education. Three Boards are responsible for the daily in-

struction (on.an average) of more than 16,000 pupils each, six others for about 6,000 each, the range being from 9,416 to 4,115, and the remaining four for less than 1,700 each, with a range from 2,415 to 1,364.

The number of schools in operation in December 1593 was 1,355 against 1,302 in December 1892. . The attendance having declined in the interval, the average size of schools has been diminished from an average of 77.5 pupils to an average of 73,7. The increase in the number of small schools is remarkable. - Of schools with an attendance of less than 25 pupils each, the number, rose in the year from 410 to 465. The effect that .this development must have on the average salary of a teacher is obvious, and must be seriously considered in its relation to proposals for the institution of a " colonial scale."

The increase in the number of teachers for the year is 86, and the average number of pupils for one teacher has fallen from 31.7 to 30.8. Pupil teachers constitute nearly one-third of the whole staff. The women largely outnumber the men, bub the difference (576) is all accounted for in the proportion obtaining between the sexes in the ranks of the' pupil teachers. The additions to tho staff above the rank of pupil teacher show thab women are being preferred.. The "qualifications of the teachers are reported to be steadily improving. In three years among teachers above the rank of pupil teachers, the number of those who have passed certificate examinations has been increased by 240, while the number of those who have only obtained a partial pass has boon reduced by 54, and the number of the remainder by 23. The increase in the number of teachers lies almosb wholly in those thab receive the smallest salaries. The whole increase is 86, and the increase in the number of teachers receiving less than £100 a year reaches 83. The average salary is declining.

Statistics of age and sex arc given to show that; the proportion of girls attending the public schools remains practically unchanged. In 1893 the proportion was, boys—sl'6 per cent.: giila—4B'4 ; and for a long series of years the proportion has been remarkably stable. With respecb to age, there is a tendency towards keeping children longer at school, though the number remaining at school after reaching tho age of 13 years is not large enough for any change in it to produce a very marked effect on the percentage of younger children. The percentage of children under 10 was 54*55 in 1889, and 52-8 in 1893.

With reference to industrial schools, the report shows that the number of cases admitted to industrial schools in 1893 was 209, less than number (225) for 1892, but larger than the number for any of the previous years back to 1887. Since the Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Act came into operation, the highest number of admission has been 238, and the lowest 158. The net expenditure on Government industrial schools for 1893 exceeded the corresponding amount for 1892 by about £40. The gross cost was £14,726 5s 2d, the net cost £6,794 8s 4d. The average number of inmates of all grades belonging to these schools was 1,122. The gross cost of the maintenance of each therefore was £13 2s 6d and the- net cost) £6 Is Id, but the average number of inmates resident in the schools and boarded out was 631, and if the salaries and rent are regarded as a fair equivalent for the work involved in the superintendence of inmates at service and otherwise out on probation, the remaining expenditure, amounting to about £12,000, is equal to about £19 each for the maintenance of really dependent children. The Government net expenditure on the private industrial schools is about £200 in excess of the corresponding amount for the preceding yearj ■ ' The report deals briefly with universities and1 colleges. The students at affiliated colleges in 1893 were as follows:—Auckland University College, 67 men (including 33 not matriculated) and 60 women (40 not matriculated); Canterbury College, 164 men (62 not matriculated) and 176 women (80 not matriculated) ; Otago University, 168 men (35 not matriculated) 'and 45 women (8 not matriculated).