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2. REPORTS OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION, AND OF THE INSPECTOR OF HOME SCIENCE. (ABRIDGED.) Sir, —- Education Department, Wellington, 21st June, 1926. I have the honour to report as follows in regard to certain aspects of technical education in the Dominion during the year 1925 :— Attendance. —The numbers of students in technical classes and pupils in technical high schools and day technical schools were lower than those enrolled in the previous year in the corresponding classes, besides which the total for 1925 is reduced owing to the omission of students in commercial, engineering, and home-science classes in three of the four University colleges, of whom 685 were included last year. The reduction in numbers was due mainly to the epidemic of infantile paralysis, which prevented the schools from opening at the beginning of the year, with the consequence that many who would have become day-pupils went to work. The evening classes were also adversely affected. Staffing. —The staffing of technical schools has improved considerably in recent years, and it has been found necessary to include in the regulations rules limiting the proportions of the more highly qualified full-time teachers who may be employed in any school. The average salary paid during the year 1925 to all assistants, men and women, was £323, as compared with £302 in the previous year. Buildings and Equipment. —The total amount spent on buildings, rent, and equipment by the Boards was £23,074, while £17,644 was the amount of Government grants and subsidies, and £4,569 that of voluntary contributions. There has been a tendency in recent years for schools to provide more liberally for trade classes in which specialized machinery and other equipment are necessary if the instruction is to be closely enough correlated with actual trade conditions. The question as to how far the Department of Education should make itself responsible for such training has not yet been settled. In view of the growing demand for purely trade classes a definite policy must shortly be adopted. Whatever such a policy may be, it should be possible for trade classes to be conducted by some competent authority, in at least some of the trades in which the training of apprentices is supervised by Apprenticeship Committees under the Apprentices Act, 1923. The general equipment of the technical schools for applied science, art, mathematics, engineering, &c., is in most cases suitable only for more or less elementary work up to a standard in these subjects about equal to that of the Matriculation Examination in its subjects. Character and Quality of Instruction. —As at present constituted the technical schools attempt to perform a considerable variety of educational services to students of all ages and of very varied attainments. The main object of the schools is to establish consecutive courses of a more or less directly vocational character in order to prepare young persons for more intelligent and efficient service as members of a trade or profession, and thereby for more complete discharge of their duties as citizens. For this purpose the schools have established both day and evening courses for the main branches of industry in which training is in demand ; the full day courses being pre-vocational, intended mainly to prepare the pupil for apprenticeship, but consisting partly of general cultural subjects and taken usually by first- and second-year pupils of post-primary rank ; while the evening courses are set to supplement the training of the workshop or office and provide the scientific basis on which the practice of workshop or office may be most satisfactorily built. Students coming to evening classes have often only a primary-school Standard IV qualification, and have rarely reached a higher standard than that of the Matriculation Examination or the lower leaving-certificate. Few students attend evening classes for more than five years, even when they come at the age of fourteen years with a low primary-school qualification ; and the average length of attendance is much less than five years. In these circumstances the schools cannot be expected to do more than deal with the elements of the scientific and mathematical principles underlying a particular trade or calling, and more attention is paid to the illustration of these principles in actual practice so as to utilize as directly as possible the real knowledge which the student obtains in the daily practice of his trade or profession. Besides supplying the demand for technical training, the technical schools also do a good deal of what may be called educational patching, through their continuation classes, which are attended to a considerable extent by persons wishing to make good deficiencies of their general education in order to qualify in some cases for the Sixth Standard Certificate of Proficiency, but more often for Matriculation or for entrance into a profession. The schools generally accept also students wishing to obtain a knowledge of some special branch of art or industry for their private enjoyment and not as a means of livelihood. The country technical high school also offers the usual secondary day-school course for Matriculation, since it is usually the only post-primary school in the district. Less than 30 per cent, of technical-high-school pupils, however, attend country schools. In spite of unavoidable difficulties the quality of the instruction is generally good, and the results, without doubt, are of considerable value to the students, and, through their increased efficiency, to industry and to the country as a whole. Courses in Technical High Schools. —In view of the probable recasting of the post-primary-school system, due to modifications of syllabuses, courses, and examinations, and especially to the establishment of junior high schools of one kind or another, it is convenient to examine in some detail the courses of the technical high schools.

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