WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN?

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 213, 7 September 1900, Page 4

WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN?

The figures relating to school attendance in the annual report of the Minister for Education disclose-1 a condition of things which one would not naturally look for in a young colony like this, and for which it is not easy to account. During ISO!),----the period covered by the report, there was a falling oft in the strength of the working average, as compared with 1898, which year, in its turn, also showed a decrease in the same' direction, as compared with 1897. It is explained in the report that though there was a decline in the roll numbers of* the public schools, the increase in those of the private schools converted the deficiency into an actual improvement so far as schools, of all kinds were concerned. This explanation, however, does^not greatly improve the position. That we should be under the necessity of borrowing, as it were, from the private schools to make good the shrinkage in the public school attendance indicates a weakness somewhere, and a weakness that certainly should not exist in a colony like this. Our schools should be over-flowing with pupils, and every year should show a large increase in the number of those attending them. Instead of that being the case, the average attendance "for the fourth quarter of last year was hardly greater than it was for the corresponding period four years ago. Now whether is this state of things due to the fact that the children do not attend school as they ought, or to the fact that there are not the additional children in the population to increase the roll numbers? The report suggests that irregularity in attendance, rather than absolute non-attendance, ia the fault we have to contend against, but whether that fault arises from laxity on the part of the parents or actual disabilities in the way of the pupils is a point not dealt with. In the Old Country failure of the parents ""O send their children to school, or of the latter to go, is one of the chief troubles of the authorities. It is calculated that fully a million children in England and Wales who should be at school do not go thore. There is certainly much more excuse here fot irregularity of attendance than in Great Britain, • The hindrances to the yoUng folk in the shape of long distances- and bad means of comnmnication are naturally considerable in a partially developed country. That argument, however, is scarcely available as an explana-^ tion of the present increase in irregularity, for it is obvious that at an earlier date the pupils must have had even greater difficulties on the whole to contend within reaching school. Are the parents, then, more lax in enforcing attendance than they formerly Avere? Parental authority, we are continually being told, is weak in the colony,'aiid probably this falling off in attendance, 01% at all events, absence of a normal increase in it, niay be attributable to that source. The authorities here are, we believe, vigilant ill enforcing, ijlie law in this matter, and truants and negligent parents are kept well under supervision. But, of course, there are very great difficulties in the way of a perfect system. In the Old Country it has been pointed out that while the occasional absentees can be got at, it is by no means so easy to reach the parents who deliberately set themselves to ke6p their children from school. Is it not possible that parental deeeptiorij or lack of parental control, may play a greater

part in this falling awfty of public school pupils than . k usually thought. We have had experience of country districts where the parents were'much to blame in this respect. To show that we do.not overstate the position, we would draw the attention of our readers to the fact that the Auckland Board of Education have just issued1 a circular on the point. Perhaps one is inclined to lay the greater stress on the above possible cause of the position we are discussing because it affords a refuge from a much more disagreeable conclusion, namely, that we have not got the children. Are the figures of the report but another evidence of that decreasing birth-rate with which every student of the Registrar-Gene-ral's returns is familiar? In the Education report previous to the one just published, we are reminded of the very marked decrease in the birth-rate of 1892, and it is suggested that that might.be expected to show a marked effect on the school roll five or six years later; which is precisely what it appears to have done. The birth-rate of 1893 was 27 83 per thousand of the population. In 1899 it had fallen to 85.12. It will surely be significant of much if future editions of the Education Eeport should show a decline in the school attendance corresponding to that decrease in the birth-rate.