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2. EEPOET OF INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF SCHOOLS.

The Eight Hon. the Minister of Education. I have the honour to present ray report upon matters connected with secondary education in the colony. I regret that owing to ill health I was able to inspect during the year 1904 only a few of the secondary schools and district high schools ; but in any case the work of inspection has grown so much during the last five or six years that it is quite impossible for one man. within the limits of the calendar year, to visit all the secondary schools and district high schools, to say nothing of the chief technical schools, whose work, although somewhat different in character, should be regarded as forming part of the system of secondary education. During the present year (1905) I have visited about a third of the secondary schools and district high schools. The expansion that has taken place and the consequent need for thorough inspection may be to some extent gauged by the large increase of public money that is annually devoted to the purposes of secondary education. Five years ago, in 1900, the scholarship grants to Education Boards, which amounted to £8,424, represented practically the total expenditure out of the consolidated revenue upon secondary education, though perhaps we may add thereto £272 expended by the Victoria College Council, out of its statutory grant, upon Queen's Scholarships. In the present financial year, although the amount of the scholarship grants to Education Boards has not increased, yet the capitation paid to the governing bodies of secondary schools on account of free pupils will reach at least £16,000 ; the special grants paid to Education Boards for free pupils in the secondary departments of district high schools will probably exceed £16,000; the total cost of Junior National Scholarships (exclusive of examination expenses) will be about £1,200; so that the total annual expenditure on these items alone will be not less than, say, £42,000 during the current year. In addition, Victoria College now spends upon Junior Queen's Scholarships about £760 a year ; classes for manual instruction in secondary schools and district high schools receive capitation grants; special grants are being given for additional buildiugs rendered necessary by the large influx of free pupils and for science laboratories and school workshops. The question naturally arises: "Is the country getting an adequate return for all this money ? " Of course, it is difficult to measure the results of either primary or higher education by a money standard, but it is safe to say that the money that is being spent is by no means wasted —it would not be wasted if it served no other purpose than to give "an open career for talents," to train the best men for the service of the State ; to give an equal chance to the clever child of the poor man and the rich. But it would be idle to imagine that we are yet getting all that we might get in return for this expenditure in the direction of raising the general standard of education for the average boy or girl : it must even, I fear, be confessed that in some instances the grants given are being used in ways that are not calculated to produce any appreciable benefit to the community. Much strenuous effort must be put forth, many defects must be remedied, before the colony can say assuredly that it is getting the full value for its money. Without going into detail upon all of them, I shall endeavour to point out what appear to me to be some of the defects that mar our system of secondary education. First, in regard to scholarships : Although the number of scholarships has been greatly increased by the establishment of the National Scholarships and of the Queen's Scholarships (the latter of which are open to the pupils of eight education districts), and though the number of district high schools is four or five times what it was a few years ago, yet it can hardly be said that the clever child in a remote country district has the same chance of obtaining free secondary education as his more fortunate cousin in the town. This is due partly to the amount available for scholarships, but principally to the fact that the grant for each district is based in each year upon the average attendance, without taking any account of the possibility that there may, in any given year, be twice as many children qualifying for scholarships from country schools, and requiring therefore allowance for board in addition to the ordinary scholarship allowance, as there were in the previous year. The Boards of Education are doing all they can to meet the difficulty by allotting as much as possible of the scholarship grants to country candidates ; but it is out of their power to overcome the difficulty altogether so long as the grants are given on the fixed basis of average attendance. I estimate that to place country children in a position of equal opportunity with those children who live within reach of secondary schools or district high schools it would be necessary to give about forty or fifty more country scholarships than the Boards are able to give at present; this would involve an additional expenditure of about £2,000. But it would also be necessary to recast the system on which scholarship grants are made ; to give, somewhat in the manner in which the Junior National Scholarships are allotted, a certain number of scholarships to each district, according to its size, and to pay to the Boards the amounts required accordingly, which would be greater or less as the scholarships gained by country candidates were many or few in number. The Boards of Education should draw up regulations to be approved, as at present, by the Minister, and should award the scholarships, having power to modify the conditions to suit the circumstances of the several education districts; it would not, I think, be difficult to devise safeguards to prevent an undue increase in the total expenditure.