EAST CHRISTCHURCH SCHOOL COMMITTEE.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 10636, 21 April 1900, Page 9

EAST CHRISTCHURCH SCHOOL COMMITTEE.

The annual report of the East Christchurch School Committee, to be submitted at the meeting of householders on Monday night, states that the number of children on the roll at the end of the year was: —At the main school. 1194; Phillipstown. 265; South Belt, 86; a total of 1545, which means a further decrease of 43 since the beginning of the year. The average attendance, however, has been better by twenty than it was in the previous year. The report continues : -—'"The gradual decrease }-ear by year in the number of children attending the school is a matter to be regretted; but it must be noted that this decrease is not peculiar, so far as our schools are concerned, but is being experienced in the majority of schools throughout the province. The cause of this is, primarily, the decrease iv the birth-rate, first noted by the Registrar-General in 1895. and now making itself manifest in the school attendance. As the capitation grants are j fixed on this basis, the Board of Education have been compelled to effect a considerable reduction in the teachers' salaries throughout the province. This is a matter much to be deplored, as tending to impair the general efficiency of the service. If this policy is persevered in, the standard of the teachers, both as to ability and character, will in time be reduced, difficulty beinjr already experienced in getting smart- youths to offer themselves as pupil teachers, since other vocations of life offer greater inducements." With reference to the notice from the Board that the incidental allowance will be reduced by 5 per cent, next year, the report states that the reduction will amount to about £15, and this will considerably hamper tlie work of the new committee. The report reviews the circumstances of- the closing of the South Belt school, and the difference between the committee and the Board on the subject. As the result of the public meeting, at which papers were lead by Mr J. R. Brunt, in regard to the election of School Committees and Boards of Education, the Government were asked to introduce a Bill dealing with the matter, but nothing had been done. The report adds, that as the School Committees' Association*has been recently re-formed, something more may be heard of this and other important subjects I shortly. Satisfaction is expressed with the year's work of the headmaster and staff.