E.—l

29

The total number of children, therefore, receiving secondary education in 1920 was 16,418. Of 10,026 children who left the primary schools having passed S6 in 1919, 1,528 entered the secondary departments of district high schools, 4,183 secondary schools, and 1,503 technical high schools : hence a total of 7.214 children, or 71 per cent, of the children mentioned, entered upon a course of secondary education. The number represents 47 per cent, of the total number of pupils leaving the public schools in 1919, of whom a third had not passed S6. In addition to the children enumerated 2,189 proceeded from the primary schools to evening technical classes; of these, 1,614 had passed S6, and 575 had not done so. The average length of stay of boys at secondary schools (group (a) above) is two years and nine months, and of girls two years and seven, months. The following figures show the percentage of children leaving the secondary schools at the stages indicated :— Boys. Girls. (a.) Percentage leaving at end of first year or during second year .. 22 28 (&.) „ second „ third „ .. 28 26 (c.) „ third „ fourth „ ..18 18 (d.) „ fourth „ fifth „ ..19 20 (c.) ~ fifth ~ sixth ~ . . 9 6 (/.) Percentage remaining at end of sixth year .. .. .. 4 2 The figures are not quite so good as those of last year, there being no apparent tendency to lengthen the period of stay at secondary schools ; little else can be expected, unless compulsion is exercised, while the age of the pupils remains as high as it is. It is found that the average age of entrants is fourteen, years, three-quarters of the entrants being between the ages of thirteen and fifteen years. At the beginning of the year one-thirteenth of the pupils in the schools are under fourteen years of age, three-thirteenths are between fourteen and fifteen years, four-thirteenths are between fifteen and sixteen years, and five-thirteenths are over sixteen years of age. It is clear that the most effective method of increasing the period of secondary education is to lower the age at which it is entered upon. This question, which involves the reduction of the primary-school syllabus, is at present receiving the study and attention of the Department. The opinion is expressed in a recent report of the English Departmental Committee on Scholarships and Free Places that the best age for transfer from the elementary to the secondary school is between eleven and twelve, and rather later if a junior technical school is going to be entered. The one year's instruction for which 25 per cent, of the pupils remain at secondary schools can be of little value, as it means that only a beginning is made in the study of several new subjects, if such pupils had begun upon a specially adapted secondary course at an earlier age it is most probable that they would have been able to leave school at the same age as at present with a much more efficient educational equipment. Curriculum of Secondary Schools and District High Schools. Although there are no departmental regulations directly governing the curriculum of secondary schools, the regulations defining the subjects of instruction to be taught to free-place holders and the prescribed syllabuses of the various public examinations to a large extent control the character of the courses of work undertaken. Instruction must be provided for junior-free-place holders in English, history and civics, arithmetic, mathematics, a branch of science, and in two additional subjects which may be one or two foreign languages, science subjects, or some such subject as commercial work, woodwork, drawing, &c. The study of home science is compulsory for every girl holding a junior free place. The Department's Inspectors of Secondary Schools visit all secondary schools inspecting the work, conferring with the teachers on teaching matters, and discussing with the Principals details of organization and method. The work of the pupils is also inspected —frequently by means of written or oral tests- for the a,ward of senior free places and of lower and higher leaving-certificates. Besides the general or professional course, special courses are now provided at most secondary schools for pupils not intending to follow an academic or professional career. The study of Latin is generally excluded from such courses,