E.—lb
42
fifth of the schools visited to report omissions such as the following : " Totals not checked in column ' Times Present' for current quarter," " Daily totals not entered for last day of previous week," " Daily totals not summed for past three days," " Total not entered for morning of day of inspection, and spaces left blank,' " Summary not entered for two months," " Entries of progress not made for previous year in Eegister of Admission, Progress and Withdrawal." The most serious of these faults is, of course, the failure to enter immediately the totals of daily attendance, and teachers who allow themselves a little laxity in this respect may occupy a very awkward position, especially as the instructions do not, as they should, direct the filling up of blank spaces when children are absent. The instructions I refer to are printed on the back of the Eegister of Daily Attendance furnished by the Education Department. What authority these instructions have I know not— whether, for instance, the instruction that the register must be marked not less than one hour and a half after the opening of the school must necessarily be taken as a definition of the gazetted regulation that the attendance shall be registered at a convenient time within the school hours. At all events, teachers are supposed to obey them. Besides the Eegister of Admission, Progress, and Withdrawal, which gives the history of attendants from the opening, no record exists in our schools of a school's history—of changes of teachers, of alterations in the distribution of the staff, of summaries of examination results, of visits made, of books introduced or abandoned, of subjects chosen for instruction and examination for the year, as in elementary science, &c, or of the grouping of classes for examination, as in the geography of Standards IV. and V. The last two points are of considerable practical importance, as the form and estimate of the following year's examination depend to a certain extent on them, and an Inspector can scarcely be expected to keep the facts in mind or even to know them. The omission should be supplied by providing a log book.
Table A.—Pass Subjects, Table of Numbers Examined.
Table B.—Pass Subjects, Proportions in Percentages.
Eesults op Examination.—ln the tables here given the columns marked "(«)" stand for the schools examined with my colleague, and the columns marked "(b)" for those examined separately, the columns marked "(a) and (&)" standing for the joint result. Detailed and summarised results for the whole district are contained in the appendices. A comparison of the general return for the district with that of the previous year will show a very considerable advance in all but the Sixth Standard, which remains the same; and, as the results for 1887 were again in advance of those for 1886, we are doubtless justified in concluding a steady improvement in our schools, although something must be set down simply to greater familiarity with the requirements of examiners. The differences in the results for groups (a) and (6) above and the general return for the year may be regarded as due to the different proportionate influences of large schools. The relative positions of the standards for the third time since the introduction of the present Eegulations remain substantially the same, the only variation being interchanges of position in
Class. Presi lilted. Absi :nt. Exce i ted. Fai: led. Pas ised. S7 S6 S5 S4 S3 S2 SI P. (a) 43 182 389 765 1,032 878 831 2,066 (b) 7 76 160 288 493 543 523 1,387 (a) (b) («) (b) (a) (b) (a) (b) 13 14 30 53 40 28 2 3 J 2 27 19 27 3 9 21 38 29 6 3 9 17 28 23 9 26 109 147 233 92 18 21 63 91 125 65 40 140 257 567 708 717 779 50 85 168 313 436 447 6,186 3,477 178 90 106 89 625 405 3,168 1,449 Totals in schools examined 9,663 168 195 1,030 4, 167 Totals for district 19,727 555 476 2,490 9, 183
Absent of Class Roll, (a) and (6). Excepted of Class Roll, (a) and (b). Failed of Class Roll, (a) and (6). Passed of Class Roll, (a) and (6). Presented of School Roll, (a) and (b). Passed of Sum of ures : " Percent: b'asses ige cf Fi und Faililures." Class. School Roll,(») and ((;). (") (b) (a) and (b) Whole District S6 S5 S4 S3 S2 SI 5-8 3-1 4-0 5-2 4-2 4-1 2-3 3-3 3-6 4-3 3-7 1-1 18-2 31-3 22-6 23-5 11-0 4-3 73-6 62-3 69-8 67-0 81-1 90-5 2-7 5-7 10-9 15-8 14-7 14-0 2-0 3-5 7-6 10-6 11-9 12-7 15-7 29-8 20-6 24-8 11-4 2-3 29-6 42-6 35-1 28-5 13-0 8-2 19-8 33-5 24-5 26-0 12-0 4-5 23-08 36-20 29-26 29-73 13-55 8-19 Ss6-1 4-3 3-2 16-7 75-8 63-8 48-3 16-5 21-3 18-1 21-15