THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1910. THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14473, 13 September 1910, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1910. THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS.

Educational matters necessarily { excite very widespread interest for the sufficient reason that the great majority of the rising generation are enrolled on the attendance lists of our primary schools. The Report of the Education Department for the year 1909, which has been recently compiled and presented to Parliament, shows a steady and satisfactory advance on the educational lines which have been developed since the establishment of the compulsory system, ancr are admittedly improving under the control of the present Minister for Justice. It is not to be expected that there will be unanimous agreement with all the proposals made by Mr. Fowlds, nor do they all survive the test of that independent criticism which is ensured to the country as long as the Education Boards remain in their existing form. But the hot discussion which greets every suggested change, with the commendable interest taken in the working of the schools by Minister, Boards, Committees, educational institutes and individual secretaries,

directors, inspectors, and teachers, give a strong vitality to the national system of education which is noticeably lacking in other departments. At the close of 1909 there were 2057 primary schools under the Department, an increase of 59 during the year. Of 120 new schools no less than 30 were opened in Auckland Province, where 15 were closed, this exceptional variation being illustrative of the peculiar difficulties under which the local Board labours. In Hawke's Bay, the only district where the net increase in new schools exceeded Auckland, 21 were opened and only five closed. The average attendance rose from 127,160 in 1008 to 132,773 in 1909, an increase of 5613. Otago justified its Scottish strain by showing i"he best regularity in attendance—9o.2 per cent. ; but Wellington Province was close behind with 89.6 per cent. ; and for the first time on record the North Island tied with the South Island in regularity of attendance, both having the commendable percentage of 87.8. Large schools with over 600 pupils increased in number from 24 to 28, but there is more real cause for congratulation in the sustained increase of small schools with an average attendance not exceeding 15, which class included 447 in 1907, 504 in 1908, and 569 in 1909. The Minister points out that these small schools are now more than a-quarter of the number of public schools in the Dominion, and we sincerely hope that they will go on increasing in number until there is a schoolhouse within reach of every settler's family. For only those who are intimately acquainted with the back blocks can appreciate the disadvantage imposed by absence of available educational opportunities, or can understand the value of the strenuous endeavours so long made by the Auckland Board to solve the difficulty. The Report calls attention to the fact that while the proportion of girls to boys in the census tables is 97 to 100, the proportion attending school is only 91 to 100, or 72,429 girls to 79,987 boys. Apart from the inclination to keep little girls at home longer than little boys, which is not wholly an evil, there is evidence in the smaller attendance of girls after the age of 12 that the burden of womanhood is imposed upon young shoulders. The suggestion is made that if it were an established practice in all schools to give practical domestic instructions to elder girls there would be less excuse for this -state of affairs, and it will be agreed that every effort should be made to remedy a disproportion not worthy of a democracy boasting adult franchise and sex- ; equality.

It is more pleasing to observe that the percentages of those who gained certificates of proficiency were: 59 in 1907; 01.96 in -1908; 67.54 in 1909; and this in spite of the raising of the standard in 1908. The Inspec-tor-General claims that this increase is attributable to " the unduly long time that pupils appear to be kept in the preparatory classes." We may, therefore, anticipate some lowering of the age at which certificates of proficiency are awarded, with a corresponding lowering of the age at which successful scholars arc eligible for the secondary schools. Whether this is advisable is a matter for expert opinion to decide, but many will doubt whether there is any true public gain in forcing youthful intellects. Incidentally it is interesting to note that £13,186 was paid in 1909 by the Education Department to the Railway Department for the free conveyance of scholars by rail, while £2755 was spent upon their free conveyance by road and water. Only £138 was paid under the new arrangement by which a child who lives beyond the practicability of conveyance may be granted half-a-crown weekly in aid of board ; but this arrangement may be more extensively made use of as it becomes known, and is to be commended as a laudable attempt to modify the isolation of the back blocks settler. Some abuses are inevitable when free conveyance and board allowance are to be obtained, but upon the whole it is very certain that the money spent in this way is exceedingly well-invested. An improvement upon the system would be to remove the existing barriers against general settlement; for the heart-breaking impediment to all progress, educational and otherwise, is to be found in the vast areas of Crown and Native Lands preserved against the settler as though he were a poacher. Moreover, the small country school will always be a difficult problem to handle, and only effective settlement can transform it into an institution which offers attractions to trained teachers. Mr. Fowlds explained, during the discussion on the Estimates, that the supply of teachers was still inadequate, that it was unwise to increase the staffing by means of uncertificated teachers, and that the Training Colleges were at work upon the future reinforcements. But beneficent and laudable as small schools are, under existing circumstances, they are necessarily not inducements in the adoption of the profession of teaching. The .teaching staff of the Dominion increased during the year from 3989 to 4310, of which number 696 were pupil-teachers. Female teachers are increasing faster than males, there being now 2208 women and 1406 men—a proportion of 140 to 100 on the adult staff, as compared to 1331 men and 2021 women for the previous year. Of .pupilteachers 530 are female and only 166 male, while in the training colleges

the proportion of female to male students is 280 to 100*; so that there appears to be every likelihood of women in New Zealand appropriating the primary school service as largely as they have already done in other countries. In England the proportion of women to men as teaehers in the primary schools is 326 to 100 ; in Scotland it is 252 to 100 and in the United States 388 to 100. The explanation is evidently to be found in the salary lists. The Dominion paid last year £570,254 to teachers and pupil-teachers. Excluding those teaching in schools having an average attendance of less than 16 and pupil-teachers, men received an average salary of £201 and women an average salary of £122. In practice, these averages offer much greater inducement to women than they do to men, and it is quite impossible to resist such a pronounced economic tendency when women have: proved themselves to be competent and capable teachers.