OTAGO EDUCATION BOARD.

Otago Witness, Issue 3195, 9 June 1915, Page 82

OTAGO EDUCATION BOARD.

ANNUAL REPORTThe following are sonic of the clauses in the annual report of the Otago Education Board for the year 1914: —• During the year the school at Taluroa Head was reopened, and new scTiooh wore opened at Concord, Eldersiio, JliU iSprmgcj Matca, Utanomoino, Post Oliiee Creek, Siihigle Creek, Spy Jaw Valley, and Waougu. Tao school at Stone bum was reopened in February unit closed at May 31. The number of schools in operation at December 31 was 255 —an incieaso of 10 tor the year. '1 hirtecn Roman Catholic schools, with a total attendance of 1516 pupils, were visited and reported upon by the uoaid’s inspectors. TEACHERS. On December 31 there were in the board’s service 706 teachers, classed as under: Head touchers —102 males,, 2 females; solo teachers—47 males, 103 females; assistant teacheis —56 males, 244 females; total _ of adult teachers, 2i5 males, 349 females. Pupil teachers —13 males, 2/ females; probationers —11 males, 37 females; teachers of needlework—29 females; manual and technical (special teachers) —16 males, 8 females; teacher of local music, 1 male; —totals for 1914, 256 males, 450 females; totals for 1913, 243 males, 429 females. For the past two years the ratio of male to female teachers was:—-Adult teachers —1913, 100 males to 165 females; 1914, 100 males to 162 females. Pupil teachers and piobationurs —1913, 100 males to 270 females; 1914, 100 males to 257 females. There were 113 appointments of adult teachers made. The monthly average of temporary teachers employed to fill relieving 'or casual vacancies was 33. in 1913 it was 25. The necessity of providing substitutes for those teachers who enlisted accounts partly for the increase. There were 28 pupil teachers and 24 probationers appointed during the year; 14 wore males and 38 were females; 29 of them had passed the matriculation examination; 22 of them had passed the public service examination or the senior free place examination; and one had passed the proficiency examination. The preponderance, of qualified female candidates for admission to the teaching profession still continues. The board records its gratification with the increased salaries which the Legislature has decided to allow 7 for almost all grades of teachci's’ positions, and it is hoped that the emoluments now offered may be the means of attracting to the teaching profession an increasing number of young men of character and ability. ATTENDANCE OF PUPILS. The weekly roll number for each quarter showed an increase over that of the corresponding quarter of the previous two years. The figures are as follow 7 : 1912. 1913. 1914. First quarter ... 20,515 20,659 20,971 Second quarter ... 20,622 20,765 21,148 Third quarter ... 20.703 20,971 21,422 Fourth quarter ... 20,869 21,422 21,802 Mean of the four quarters 20,679 20,857 21,336 The increase in the mean roll number for the whole district was 379, or 1.7 per cent. The average attendance was 19,776, which is 543 over that of the previous year, and 69 higher than has ever been attained previously in this district, the nearest to it being 19,607 in the year 1895. In the latter year there were some 2500 more pupils enrolled than was the case last year, and the higher average reached in 1914 was the result of greater regularity of attendance. The percentage of attendance for last year (92.7 j is easily the highest w 7 o have ever had in Otago. The average ages of the pupils in the various classes were: —Preparatory, 6 years 11 months; Standard I, 8 years 11 months; Standard 11, 10 years; Standard 111, 11 years 1 month; Standard IV, 12 years 2 months; Standard V. 13 years 3 months; Standard VI, 13 years 7 months; Standard VII, 15 years 5 months. These figures show a slight decrease in the ages for all the classes except Standard V and Standard VII, which show an increase of lg months and 4s months respectively. SCHOLARSHIPS. The amount expended on scholarships for the year was: —Board scholarships (junior and senior), £1370 Is 3d; junior national scholarships, £272 10s; —total, £1642 11s 3d. Of the 90 scholarships current at the end of the year, 12 wore junior national, 40 were junior board, and 38 were senior board. Thirty of them wore held by girls and 60 by lads. The periodical reports on their conduct and progress received by the board from the principals of the schools they attended w 7 ore almost without exception of a very satisfactory nature. FINANCE. The following statement shows the sums expended under the various headings during the past year:—Teachers’ salaries and lodging alloivanoes, £89,203 15s lid; payments to school committees for incidental expenses, £6224 12s 3d; school buildings, purchase of sites, house allowances, manual and technical buildings • and apparatus, £23,359 9s 2d. The receipts for school buildings include grant for maintenance, £13,353; special grants for new 7 buildings, £7363; hotise allowance to teachers, £993 5s 3d; rents, £3l 10s; local contributions, £714 3s lOd ; deposits on contracts,_ £SOO Is 10d ; deposits forfeited, £ls; special grants for technical school buildings and furniture, fittings, etc., for same, £1659 15s; —total, £24.629 15s lid. The main items of expenditure on buildings were: General maintenance (repairs, alterations, and small additions), £10,872 9s 8d; rebuilding. £IO3O 10s lOd ; new 7 buildings, £7874 10s Id ; purchase of sites, £1645 i4s Id; house allowances. £973 5s 3d; manual and technical purposes, £315 13s; rents of buildings, etc . £l7 15s 3d; refund of contractors’ deposits, £629 11s. GENERAL. Drill and physical exorcises have been •regularly practised during the year in all the schools under the control of the board. Instruction in elementary handwork (paper work, cardboard, and plasticine modelling, etc.) was imparted in all the schools in the district. Cookery and woodwork instruction w 7 as given to the pupils of 42 schools, the average attendance at the former being 1046 girls, and at the latter 1189 boys. Elementary agriculture classes were carried on at 19 schools, the average attendance being 2115. The full rural_ course embracing cookery, dressmaking, physics, chemistry, botany, physiology, woodwork, mensuration and surveying, and practical agriculture was provided at the District High Schools at Balclutha, Lawrence, Mosgicl, Palmerston, Tapanul, and Tokomairiro, and a partial-course at Alexandra. Wool-classing classes for adults were held

at Aw 7 amoko, Palmerston, Waikouaiti, Clydevalo, Outran), Clinton, Waitahuna, North Taicri, and Milton, and English, book-keeping, dressmaking, and painting classes at Milton. The total number of students receiving instruction at the Dunedin School of Art w 7 as 617, including 105 day students, 241 evening students, 122 Training College students, 78 pupil teachers and probabitioneis, 64 adult teachers, and seven spe.ial teacher-. The total expenditure on manual and technical instruction was:—Salaries, material, etc., for school classes £4023 17s 9d, and for special classes £1347 5s 3d; building, furniture, and fittings, school classes, £249 0s 8d; and special classes, £66 12s 4cl; —total, £5686 16s, being a decrease of £2639 14s 4d from the previous year, accounted for mainly by the decrease in the expenditure on buildings, furniture, and fittings for school classes.. TRUANCY. Six hundred and ninety notices wore served on parents and guardians for infringements of the Education Act (section 155). Nino notices were served on parents whose children were* not on the roll of any school. Two hundred and eighty-throe cases of irregular attendance were investh gated. Fifty-three penalty summonses were issued under section 153 of the Education Act, and convictions w 7 orc obtained in every case. The total lines for the year amounted to £2l 14s Bd. Of the 15 largo schools in Dunedin and suburbs, two attained an attendance of 97 per cent, for tha year, five attained 96 per cent., four attained 95 per cent., and four attained 94 per cent. This is a very fine record. CERTIFICATES. Proficiency certificates were gained by 1213 pupils (162 more than in the previous year), and competency certificates by 159 pupils (23 more than in the previous year). INCIDENTAL EXPENSES OF SCHOOLS. The sum paid to school committees to meet incidental expenses was £6224 12s 3d, equal to 6s 2-j.d per unit of the average attendance, and per unit _ more than the minimum the board is required to pay. The total amount raised locally by school committees for genera! school purposes during the 11 months ended February 28, 1914, was £5490 16s 3d. Under the provisions of the new Act, the board’s revenue to meet payments to committees for incidental expenses will be approximately £5836, and its expenditure according to its existing scale of payments will be £6282. If, therefore, the board were to pay to committees only the amount provided by the Legislature for this special purpose, a shrinkage in the committee’s annual revenue by the cum of £445 would result. As the board know 7 3 that many committees, of the smaller schools especially, find their present revenue inadequate and fools sure that any decrease ih the amount placed at their disposal would seriously embarrass' them, it has decided to continue to pay the allowances for the current year on the present scale, but has intimated to school commitecs that at the end of the year it will review the position and will, if necessary, modify its scale. This deficiency of £443 the board .must provide out of its General Fund. The board believes that the gradations of its. own scale are better suited to the requirements of the schools than is the scale adopted by Parliament, in that the former provides a considerably increased amount where there is an increase in the number of rooms in the school. When a cnc-roomod school through increase of attendance becomes a two-roomed school, the cost of cleaning and warming its rises at once very considerably. In such a case the board's scale provides an increase in the allowance of about £6 per annum, whereas Parliament’s scale, which is framed purely on the per capita system, provides an increase of only 5s per annum. SCHOOL LIBRARIES. Fifty-three school committees participated in the grants given by ivay of subsidy by the department and by the board for providing books for school libraries. • The amounts ranged from £lO to 5s 6d, totalling £175 18s lid, the department’s contribution being £lO4 6s lOd, and the board’s £7l 12s Id. ROLL OF HONOUR. The following members of the teaching profession and of the board’s office staff have answered the Empire’s call by enlisting for military service, and are now serving with the main body or are in the reinforcements for the front. Their positions arc being kept open for them : —Oke Barton, third assistant, Oamaru North; Cecil Robert Bell, Training College student; Alexander Bringans, fourth assistant. Albany Street; George Brown, sole teacher, Tuapcka West; James George Cowan, first assistant, Oamaru - Middle; John Elliott Cuthill, relieving teacher; Lyell Stanley Davis, Training College student; Ivan Henderson Findlay 7, Training College student; William Kennedy George, Training College student; Fred Grymcs, Education Board’s office stall); James Harper, Training College student ; Alexander Hoggans, head master, Dunback; John George Johnston, third assistant, Mornington; Alexander Smellie Kennedy, third assistant, North-East Valley; Joseph Bell M'Bride, Training College student; Walter Phillips Macdougall, sole teacher, Rongahcrc; Charles * Roderick M’Loan, Education Board’s office staff; John Harper Moir, head master Mosgiol D.H.; Outhbcrt Parr, first assistant, Balclutha D.H.; Herbert Morris Stevens, head master. Lower Harbour; David Barnett Waddell, sole teacher, Rae’s Junction; John Watson, third assistant, Oamaru South; Malcolm MThcrson Watt, first assistant, Tapanni D.H. ; Percy Henry White, sole teacher, Hyde. INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS. The inspectors’ estimate of the efficiency of the schools is as follows Excellent or very good, 27 per cent. ; good, 40 per cent; satisfactory, 26 per cent.; fair to inferior, 7 per cent. SWI3IJTING. During the year a course of 20 lessons in swimming was given at the Municipal Baths in Dunedin to the boys of Standard IV in 20 of the city and suburban schools. Some 500 boys of an average ago of about 12 y 7 oars took part, and tests at the conclusion of the course showed that at least half had learned to swim over 30 yards, about one-fourth over 12 yards, and all the others could swim a little or had mastered the nuh'monts of the art. It is intended this year to instruct similarly both the girls and the boys of Standard IV in the city and suburban schools.