SCHOOL COMMITTEES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10428, 28 April 1897, Page 6

SCHOOL COMMITTEES.

to THE EDITOR. Sib,—The reports furnished by school committees at the annual meetings of householders give but meagre information on one important point, viz., the proportion per cent, of the average attendances at the schools to the roll numbers. From the data given in your paper 1 have made the following; calculations :— fast year. Previous year. City .. ~ «5 per cent, .. 86 per cent. Newton East.. 87 per cent. .. — Newton West.. 83 per cent. .. — ' Mount Kden .. 84 percent. .. 79 per cent. Itemuera .. 82 per cent. .. — Devonport .. 83 per cent. .. —

These proportions are on the whole fairly flood, that of Newton East being good. It appears from the figures that there has been a real, though slight, decrease in the average attendance at the city schools, and a very considerable increase at Mount Eden, Now the special duty of school committees is to secure and maintain the highest possible average attendance of scholar;. To fail here is to impair the general efficiency of the school, tor irregularity will nullify the best teaching and discipline. We see a good deal of stress laid on the number of passes. This is a mjstake. Given, a well qualified and zealous teaching staff and a high average attendance of scholars, and then the passes will be satisfactory. . There is another matter of the utmost importance about which school committees should have something to say. It must be within the knowledge of the local educational authorities that a majority of the young people who have passed through our primary schools manifest no strong desire for selfimprovement, and are consequently forgetting rapidly what they had learned. Even the mental training they had received is being effaced. What is being done to prevent and remedy this deterioration ? Is there not urgent need of some kind of continuation school for those who are no longer able to attend the primary school? As the people have taken the management of education into their own hands it is uecessary that they should think about these questions.—l am, etc,, ■ . ' Zirras.