EDUCATION

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1802, 19 September 1906, Page 20

EDUCATION

INSPECTOR-GENERAL’S REPORT. SOME EXTRACTS. In the schools throughout the colony the total average attendance, Avhich in 1901 shoAved an increase of 3459 over the previous year’s return, rose in 1905 to 129,265, a number which exceeds the total for 1904 by 3759. The increase for the year thus shoAvn is greater than any occurring since the year 1894. The ratio of male to female teachers in Nsav Zealand remained the same for 1905 as for 1904—100 to 141. It is, lioavver, noticeable that whereas in 1904 the number of female teachers increased by 71 and the number of male, teachers by only 2, there was in 1905 an increase of 38 females and 30 males.

There has been a very considerable increase in the attendance of pupils ait district high schools. In 1905 there AA r as an increase of 561 qualified pupils, or, to put it in other words, the attendance at the secondary departments of these schools increased by 25 per cent. The amount paid by the Government on this account during the year exceeded that for 1904 by £3284 5s 2d. Fifty-nine district high schools Avere in operation, as compared Avith 52 for the previous year. >

The payments made to Education Boards for primary education out of the proceeds from education reserves in 1905 amounted to £49,348 tte 6d, as compared Avith £44.114 10s 7d for the previous year. The revenues of the Boards are not, however, increased thereby, as equal amounts are deducted from the grants payable by Government to the several Boards.

The payments for primary education were distributed among the several Education Boards as fallows:—Auckland, £3375; Taranaki, £IB9B 18s; Wanganui, £2866 2-s fid; Wellington, £3634 19s 6d; HaAvke’s Bay, £4975; Marlborough, £300; Nelson, £635 4s; Grey, £88; North Canterbury. £14,383 18s 7d; South Canterbury, £3392 9s sd; Otago, £9703 12s Id; Southland, £3983 2s 7d. The total cost of maintenance of the four training colleges in full working order Avill be for 1906 about £23,000 — £ll,lOO for alloAvances and fees of students, and £11,900 for salaries and house allowances of si'caff. This provides mot only for the efficient training of over trvo hundred teachers, but for the instruction of over sixteen hundred children in attendance at the practising schools. The total expenditure by the Government on manual and technical instruction for 1905 was £34,775 10s lid. There are signs (remarks the InspectorGeneral) that employers are beginning to realise here, as they are realising in the Old Country, that it is to their advantage to encourage their employees to avail themselves of the opportunities now being provided for systematic instruction in the principles that underlie the various trades and industries, and that those Avho have received such instruction compare not unfavourably with those avlio have not. To the realisation of these important facie is probably due the increased interest that many local bodies and associations are iioav taking in the institutions devoted to technical instruction. Further evidence of this interest is to be found in the steadily increasing amounts paid by the Government by Avav of subsidies on voluntary contributions to technical classes.