H.B. EDUCATION BOARD.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 113, 27 April 1912, Page 3

H.B. EDUCATION BOARD.

NOTES FROM THE CHAIRMAN’S

REPORT

The Education Board commence/ the financial year with a credit bal ance of £7029 6,'. The receipts were £63.502'18/4 and the expenditure £63.605/11/9, leaving a credit baJanci at the end of the year of £6.926/13/2

The board erected new schools a Kanakanaia, Te Hapara, Ngatapa Opcutaina, Ti Tree and Wanstead Residences were erected at Fraser town, Porangahan nml Takapau The following buildings are now ir course of erection :—New schools Makarctu South. Omokere, Marake ke; additions: Havelock, Mahora Mangapapa, Mangatereterc, Wai pukurau ; residence at Wanstead. The numbers of pupi’s in attend ance at the secondary classes of the District High Schoo’s in Hawke’: Bay at the end of the year were Hastings 28, Waipawa 38, Wocdvilh 15. Writing on the subject of attendance the chairman says : “At the enc of the year the number of scholar: cn the roll was 10,591, an increase o' 301 during the year. The average attendance for the year was 9,223 and the percentage of attendance was 88.4. When it is considered tha' during three-quarters of the yea: scarlatina, measles and whooping tough were rife throughout the dis trict, this percentage must be re garded as highly satisfactory. There were 353 Maori anel half-caste scholars in attendance at 50 schools During the year SGO warnings were sent to parents of irregular atten ders, 40 informations were laid convictions being recorded in ever case, while the defendants were mulcted in fines and costs amountinr to nearly £5O. The teachers employed in Decern ber, 1911, numbered 321. Of these 5f were pupil teachers and 13 proba tioners. Of the 251 adult teacher: 59 or 70 per cent were iincertificated. The board has continued to expert once considerable difficulty in procuring the service of teachers for the smaller country schools. EXTRACTS FROM INSPECTOR HILL’S REPORT.

During the past two years the number of children attending the board schools does hot show anj large increase. Household school: have increased in number, but there have been no marked increases ol pupils in the larger school centres. At the close of the year, 1909, the children belonging to the board schools numbered 10,19-1, and in December, 1911, the number had in creased to 10,595, an increase of 40) in two years, which is less than 4 per cent. There are no districts except Matawai, near Motu, in the Poverty Bay district, where new schools are likely to be required during the year, unless the projected Napier-Gisborne railway formation should cause an influx of workmen with their families, as in the case o'. Otoko and Matawai.

Attention is again called to the infrequency of good reading in the schools. There is an absence of precision, phrasing, naturalness and good enunciation among pupils ir the higher classes, which imply defective instruction in the earliei stages of preparation. In the infant schools at Home the mistress ir charge is a trained specialist. Particular methods of instruction are adopted in different schools, but everything is done to make as thorough as possible all the foundation work in essential subjects like reading and arithmetic. Writing continues to be well taught in the majority of schools, but less attention appears to be given to neatness and method than was the case of few years ago. The increasing number of school subjects may account for this. Geography in these days of commercialism is too important a subject to be neglected, and yet it does not occupy the prominent place it used to do in the school course. It is hardly the syllabus that is at fault, for in many respects it is intensely practical. but with so many subjects io prepare, the shadow of knowledge is more sought after than the substance. One might set down here some of the curious answers cf Standard VI pupils in the late ex aminations, but they all point to the same weakness, viz., too many subjects and insufficiency of time for preparation. In conclusion, I would add tha l . although during my absence fron New Zealand many public schools in various countries were visited, which were handsomer, larger, an: more luxuriously furnished than on-’ is accustomed to see in this country. I met no teachers more earnest or more able than are to be met wit 1 : in New Zealand, and I certairWy saw no better result s than one usually sees in this district and in othei parts of the Dominion. Comparisons are necessarily difir cult, because the social and indus trial conditions are so different ir Great "Britain and other co-relateo countries, including our own. Ou l children are brought up under bettc l and freer conditions than exist a< Home. Formalism and class distinc tions are less pronounced with us. but under a freer discipline the children of the Dominion are as manly as thoughtful, and as ant as in am of the countries visited. M hat u wanted just now is the broadening o the teachers’ aims and ideals, anc to do this something must be done to help them to visit other lands s< as to act as incentives to progressive thought here. Education is th' watchword in all civilized lands, bui that land will best succeed that anti cipates the world of to morrow nn< adapts the education of the future citizens to the coming change. TECHNICAL AND AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCTION.

Mr. Loten, Director of Technica Instruction, and Mr. William Morris Agriculural Instrustor. reported . considerable length. The following extracts mav be interest, but th< renort is mainly too technical to n of general public interest : Assistance of Staffs.- Man.' than>v w arc due to the staffs of the Distii.i

High Schools at the different centres for helping the A.A.I. in various ways. At Hasting the theoretical agriculture was taken by Mr. Atkinson and Miss Hodgson ; Miss Hodgson also directed the girls’ garden ; Miss Smith, of Waipawa, took the botany division in agriculture, and Mr. Keane, of Waipawa, and Mr. Holt, of Woodville, each gave help in various ways, that Cannot escape the gratitude of the instructors. In the lollectlon of papers, etc., the various staffs gave their whole-hearted attention. We also desire to thank Mr. Dandy for his assistance in allowing the nunils of Hastings. Woodville and Waipawa to make different nieces of furniture and apparatus for 'ihe laboratory and the garden : and Airs. Cross for allowing the girls ro look after the brasswork in the laboratory.

Garden Products.—ln the early part of the year the vegetables growing in the school garden at Hastings were placed at the disposal of Airs Cross. It was intended to keep up a supply for the cookery room, but owing to inclement weather and a late spring, the demand was greater than the supply. However, we expect to be able io set apart a portion of the garden for. the growth of vegetables for the cookery room, which we hope will meet some of the wants in that direr don, if not all. It would do well if the cookery mistress could keep an account of the vegetables thus used, charging them to the garden af ruling prices. It would then be pos sible to estimate the amount saved by such a proceeding. Establishment of Gardens. —At Hastings a girls’ garden has been 'established and beds laid out. and horded in. Miss Hodgson has charge of this, and so far has been very successful in raising annual and pro nagating plants of various kinds This garden is about 56ft x 36ft, and allows each girl in the High School to have a plot. It would be just ?s well to have a structure erected where germination could proceed as well as potting of palm§ and ferns carried on.

At Hastings centre, also, a garde? has been established behind the swimming baths, and is at present being worked by the fifth standard The garden is divided into plot= each 15ft x 6ft, and is capable f carrying nearly 40 boys. Cabbage, cauliflowers, beans, peas, turnips, carrots, beets and mangolds are the crops growing in the plots. The boys have half-an-hour per week (under the supervision of the A.A.1.) Pt garden work, and without doubt the garden is a credit to the boys. At Waipawa, a garden has been established in the Domain. The fencing has been done by Mr. Dandy. Owing to continuous inclement weather and also shortage ef boys, the garden has not been advanced to the stage that it should be. The ground is not of the best, but with the help of manures and tillage it is thought that something may be seen next year, and the labour this year is not expended in vain. This garden is 90ft x 61ft, and is divided into 12 plots, each of 22ft x lift. There is also a part for flower beds and grass plots. At Woodville, the establishment of a garden was being rapidly procee 1ed with, but the site of the Technical School was changed, with the result that the work in the garden was held over. Since then it has been impossible to go on with the establishment on the new site, but next year it is hoped that a start will be made.

Extra Area at Hastings.—lt might here be mentioned that the High School garden at Hastings is insufficient for present needs, because of (1) that smallness of the area, (2) the poorness of the soil. < It part of the garden has to be set aside for growing of vegetables for the cookery room, and also for experimental purposes as far as crops, grasses, etc., are concerned, then it will be seen that it would I e necessary to have at least twice the area. But this is not the only object of a garden. There should be nursery beds, seed beds, and an area for raising seedling fruit trees. This leads on to tree-plant-ing and finally to grafting, budding, pruning and spraying.