PRIMARY EDUCATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXXI, Issue 10309, 30 March 1894, Page 6

PRIMARY EDUCATION.

ANNUAL EEPOET. The annual report submitted to the North Canterbury Education Board yesterday stated that the total expenditure on buildings had reached .£4780, and the Board had still to report itself in need of larger supplies for building purposes. Through want of sufficient funds it was quite unable to undertake tbe work before ifci and was obliged to defer until anothor year several of the additions required by schools near Christchurch, as well as new schools, and enlargements and repairs needed in country districts. The expenditure on teachers’ salaries and allowances had amounted to .£56,291 15a 9d, and the grants to School Committees, with other incidental expenses, to J 56871 14s 10d, making a total of £63,163 10s 7d. The strict average attendance had been a fraction under 17,303, but as for the September and December quarters the capitation allowance had been calculated upon the working average, the average on which payment had bean actually made for the year was 17,403. The cost per head of teachers’ salaries had therefore been £3 4s Bsd, and the total cost of maintaining the schools, including all incidental expenses, had amounted to £3 12s 7d |)er head.. The total number of teachers in the Board’s service at the end of 1893 (besides 50 sewing mistresses) was 567. Of these, 212 (146 males and 66 females) were heads of schools or departments, or in sole charge; 164 (8S males and 126 females) were assistants; and 191 (57 males and 134 females) were pupil teachers. As compared with the number at the end of 1892, there were eight more certificated teachers and three more pupil teachers. The number of school districts at the close of 1893 was 160, and the number of separate schools (including the. practising department of the Normal School) was 180. Of the latter, those at Godley Head, Gough’s Bay, Lowcliffe and Porter’s Pass were aided schools. The attendance suffered very much during the second halfyear from the prevalence of measles. The strict average for the first six months was exactly 17,800, but for the following six months it fell to 16,809, which in ordinary circumstances would have involved a loss of income to the Board of £IBSB. It was agreed, however, to pay the capitation allowance for these months upon the working instead of upon the strict, average, which made a difference for the September quarter of 379, and raised the average for the half-year to 17,005. The actual loss was thus reduced to a little under £ISOO. The Normal School had taken a high position among the ’largest schools'of the district. . Forty-one students had been admitted in January, 1893—sixteen males and twenty-five females, five of whom had been second year students. The report also gave details .of the scholarship examinations. .