THE EDUCATION REPORT.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7382, 7 August 1889, Page 5

THE EDUCATION REPORT.

[FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] WELLINGTON, August 6. The twelfth annual report of the Minister of Education is a bulky publication, occupied almost entirely with statistics. The average attendance at public schools during 1888 was 90,105. The strict average for 1887 was 85,637; so the increase for 1888 is 4471, In the decennial period, from 1878 to 188S, the strict average has risen from 45,521 to 90,108. There has been a marked improvement in the regularity of attendance, the average in 18S7 being 77 per cent, of possible attendance, and in 1888, 79J3 • per cent. There is a continued decrease in the number of children under seven aud ten years, and an equal increase in the proportion of children over ten years. The proportion of children who have not passed Standard 1 continues very high, but is declining ; for 1888 the per centage was 42.43 per cent. Compared with the last year 47 instead of 45 per cent, of the whole school roll passed at the examinations, and 19.5 instead of 20.8 per cent, failed to pass. The number of teachers, excluding teachers of sewing, has declined during the year from 2863 to 2839, but the number above the rank of pupil teachers has increased from 1867 to 1926. The gross amount of teachers' salaries in 1838 was .£277,000. This is a decrease of -£16,000 compared with 1887. The number of children admitted to industrial schools during the year was 190 (a smaller number than usual), and the number of inmates discharged was 159, the increase being 31, and the total number at the end of the year being 1554. Of the 190 admitted, 84 were simply destitute, 16 vagrant, 22 living in disreputable places and uncontrollable, and 56 guilty of punishable offences.