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example, a district school, with an average attendance of nearly 250 children, had to manage for more than seven months with a single desk, capable of accommodating fifteen children. A class-room, 11 feet by 11 feet, belonging to the same school, was used for the training of between forty and fifty infants. "The building grants promised by the General Government will materially assist in providing numerous districts with schoolhouses and suitable appliances, and when these have been completed I hope to see tho dawn of a new era for the children attending the schools in the Hawke's Bay Education District. Condition of District Schools. —I have examined and classified all tho children attending the district schools. From the tabulated results already forwarded to you, it will be found that only about 5 per cent, of the children passed Standard IV.; 5 per cent., Standards 111. and 11. ; and 10 percent., Standard I.; thus leaving above 81 per cent, of the children in the district to be presented in Standard I. at the next result examination. Generally, I have found the work in the schools unsatisfactory. There are several very creditable exceptions to this statement, which will appear from my reports appended herewith. The great difficulties against which the teachers have had to contend may, in some measure, account for the indifferent condition of the majority of the schools, but, from what I have seen after oue, two, and in some cases three, visits to the schools, I am inclined to believe that it is mainly referable to the incompetency of the teachers themselves. By this, I would be understood to refer only to their want of practical skill, —the technical part of their work. Generally untrained and inexperienced, the teachers employed in the district schools have been called upon to perform their work under most trying circumstances. AVithout suitable buildings, without apparatus, without assistance, aud without system, they have been plodding on doing their best, and it is not my intention to blame them if they have uot been successful. My aim is rather to point out to the teachers the necessity of considering carefully what should be done by them in the future, if they desire to work successfully under the new system. The Education Act, aud the regulations for the examinations in the standards, require that discipline, organization, and classification shall be satisfactory iv every school. They require that certain results shall be shown amongst the children attending the district schools, whether the teacher be trained or untrained, certificated or uncertificated. It can hardly be expected that teachers who have never seen the working of a good school, and do not realize the value of organization aud classification, will produce equal results with the trained and experienced teacher. But this is exactly what the Government requires should be done, and the Inspector has no authority to modify the work on account of the capabilities of tho teachers. Although the standard work required by tho Education Department is very high, considering the educational disadvantages under which this district has been labouring, still I should be sorry to see it lowered, for I hope to find at no distant date all the teachers employed by the Board fully prepared to carry out the work which is required from them. It will be necessary for the teachers under the Board to bestir themselves, and seek for practical knowledge in school management. They must see a model school, and study it. School management, as found in books, will prove a useful aid, but it is tho machinery at work, and not a3 it might be supposed to work, that the teachers in this district require to see. To describe an imaginary model school is a very easy matter, but it is another thing to see one in actual working order. There are difficulties in schoolkeeping which the imaginative and the theorist never can conceive, but the true teacher knows the imaginary model school is only imaginary after all. AVhat is required by tho teachers in this district is to see a good public school in full working order, and to have an opportunity of noticing the methods employed in teaching the different subjects. It would create in their minds a picture of a reality and a possibility, and would afford them convincing proofs of the advantages to bo derived from due attention to discipline, organization, and method. With the permission of the Board, I intend adopting this plan in the training of the teachers employed in the district. In a new district, it seems to me that the Inspector must also be the organizing master, and 1 propose therefore asking those teachers who have received no special training for their work to visit Napier in the month of April or Slay for a fortnight's technical instruction and training in the Napier District School. AVith the help of the trained teachers in the school, together with that of Mrs. Hill, I purpose giving a series of model and criticism lessous on various subjects ; and untrained teachers will thus be able to receive instruction in the practical working of a district school, and obtain bints on how best to impart knowledge to the young. Without some such training the Board can never hope to see this district competing for educational honors with those districts where there has been for years past a system of standards in the public schools. The grant of £80, which the Education Department has so willingly placed at tho disposal of the Board for the special training of teachers, will go far towards covering all the expenses likely to be incurred in carrying out my proposal, but I hope the Board will consent to the work being carried out, even should it cost the district an extra hundred pounds. ■ I feel sure the opportunity of obtaining information in the practical part of their work would be gladly embraced by tho teachers, who are only waiting to be shown how to do the work which is required from them. Pupil-teachers.—ln making arrangements for the practical instruction of untrained teachers I am not forgetful of the junior branch of the profession, which has been introduced into the district during the past few months. I refer to the pupil-teachers. The short time which has elapsed since the first pupil-teachers were appointed is hardly sufficient to enable me to judge of their success. I have several times seen the pupil-teachers at work in tho Napier and Taradalc schools, and generally I was satisfied with their apparent progress in teaching. To the pupil-teachers the district must look for its future supplies of masters and mistresses; it therefore becomes very necessary to see that they are well trained and taught. Eegulations have been passed by tbe Board for the employment, education, and examination of pupil-teachers, and I hope the Board will impress upon District Committees the necessity of seeing that the regulations are fully carried out. As an incentive to promising boys and girls to become pupil-teachers, I think it would be advisable for tho Board to offer a bonus of £20 or £30 to each pupil-teacher who completed his or her apprenticeship with credit, and passed the examination for entrance into one of the normal colleges for teachers in the colony.