E.—lb

2

The total roll-number given above does not include the pupils of some half-dozen schools, including those taken over from the Taranaki Education District in the earlier part of the year. To these no annual visit was made, as the usual time for making that visit to the schools of the neighbourhood had already passed by. In Standard VI 1,395 certificates of proficiency and 338 certificates of competency were awarded by the Inspectors to pupils of the public schools. Certificates* of competency for standards below Standard VI were in many cases awarded on the recommendation of the head teachers of the schools which the pupils had been attending. At the Roman Catholic diocesan schools there were 2,216 pupils on the rolls: 2,019 were present at the Inspectors' annual visits, and seventy-two certificates of proficiency and twenty-eight certificates of competency in Standard VI were awarded. Early in the year Mr. William Burnside, M.A., joined the inspectorial staff. He took up his duties early in March. The considerable increase in the number of aided and household schools, all of them situated in districts more or less out of the way, has added to the work of inspection in a much higher proportion than the increased attendance would indicate. In a number of these very small schools, with an attendance not (infrequently below ten, the inspection and the annual visits have been combined in a single day. The promotions of pupils from class to class now rest with the head teachers. On the whole they are being made with satisfactory discretion. In the larger schools, with one or two exceptions, the classification is thoroughly sound, and promotion is withheld from all unworthy pupils. But in a considerable number of the smaller schools the soundness of the teaching is being impaired by the premature advancement of a certain proportion of the pupils promoted. A good many head teachers of such schools do not as yet sufficiently realise the weighty responsibility imposed on them by having the classification of their pupils placed unreservedly in their hands. Their treatment of this is a matter of fundamental importance for the success of their work as educators. All pupils who are promoted should be able to show considerable power and readiness in dealing with new work, and in particular they should be able to attack all new reading-lessons with ease and understanding. The examination of different sections of classes in different subjects, as now generally practised in the Dominion, does not give the Inspectors any deep insight into the suitability of the classification. More is learned about it at the inspection visits, especially in the smaller schools, and it then becomes evident that a minority of the pupils in a c»ass are in many cases unable to deal with the current class-work in an educative and intelligent spirit. This means that the teaching tends to become a routine of stuffing and memorising, instead of a continuous training of the pupils in habits of self-help and of original and intelligent effort. Unfortunately, in dealing with promotions, the head teachers of many of the smaller schools are often subjected to local pressure, which is not always easy for them to withstand. Parents, need to realise that the passing-up of their children from class to class does not mean progress in their education, unless the current class-work can be readily and intelligently dealt with. The ideas and wishes of their children, who are attending the schools, are but fallacious guides on such a question ; the head teacher's deliberate judgment is, as they should willingly recognise, an infinitely safer guide. The Inspectors, and I believe the Board also, will firmly support all head teachers who may be threatened with trouble through exercising an honest independence in dealing with promotions, and in keeping the classification of their pupils sound and healthy. The progress in the public schools has suffered to some degree during the year from the unprecedented train of interruptions of regular attendance caused by the wide prevalence of epidemic sickness and the protracted spell of rainy and stormy weather that continued almost without a break for four of the busiest months of the school year. The inclement weather made the work of the Inspectors in the country districts very trying, and they deserve very great credit for carrying it on without interruption. For some time past the most pleasing feature in the work of the public schools has been the good and often excellent work done by the pupils of the Standard VI class, who are preparing for the Certificate of Proficiency Examination. The application of the scholars and the progress they make during the year they pass in the Standard VI class are highly creditable both to themselves and to their teachers. Considering the relative difficulty of the examination, the quality and the number of the passes are highly satisfactory. In many of the larger schools nearly all the Standard VI pupils qualify for this certificate. If pupils in the lower standard classes displayed equal interest and application with those in the Standard VI class, we should have a notable and immediate advance in efficiency. Tn many smaller schools the example of the Standard VI class is not set in vain. " The mere fact," Mr. Burnside notes, " that a small school has one or more candidates for proficiency seems at once to raise the tone and standing of the school." Undoubtedly the prospect of gaining a certificate of proficiency is proving a powerful stimulus to good work. This experience does not countenance the depreciation of school examinations that has been so conspicuous a feature in our recent educational policy. Notwithstanding the unfavourable conditions above referred to, the work of the public schools for the year has been in most respects as satisfactory as in recent years. The larger schools, with very few exceptions, continue to be efficiently conducted, as do the majority of those with a staff of two to four teachers, while the rest are nearly always satisfactory. Of the sole-tencher schools many are well conducted and only a small number can be classed as unsatisfactory. While T consider this rough general estimate of efficiency warranted, there is scope for improvement in many directions, and the reports of my colleagues show that no very marked progress in remedying defects that have been dwelt upon in recent reports to the Board has to be noted. From these reports it is evident that the efficiency with which the more important subjects of study are taught in the schools of the different inspectorial districts varies more widely than might be expected, and that the variations cannot be adequately explained as the outcome of the personal equation of the Inspectors concerned. lam