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2. REPORT OF THE CHIEF INSPECTOR OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS. Sir, — I have the honour to present the report for the year 1932. As in the previous years, the field activities of the Inspectors have been considerably restricted by the calls made upon them to assist in administrative work during the still-existent shortage among the higher headquarters staff. This has particularly been the case with Mr. Caradus and myself. The programme of inspection accomplished, however, compares favourably with those of previous years. In the earlier part of the year sixteen secondary or combined schools and nineteen registered private secondary schools were fully inspected, as were also the secondary departments of twenty-three district high schools ; in addition, four of the smaller technical schools (Ashburton, Greymouth, Timaru, and Westport) were visited and reports on them submitted to the Superintendent of Technical Education. Later in the year all the departmental secondary and combined schools were visited in connection with the annual classification of teachers and the award of higher leaving certificates. The past year has witnessed the formal institution of four more " combined " schools. Nelson College, Nelson Girls' College, and the Boys' and Girls' High Schools at New Plymouth were at the beginning of the year brought under the new regulations referred to in my last report, and there are now six institutions classified as combined schools—that is, schools which provide instruction in all the courses and subjects hitherto taught either separately or in duplicate in the secondary and technical schools previously existing in the locality. The new type of school has many praiseworthy features and on the whole is functioning well. Some of the more apparent disadvantages are due to the comparative remoteness of two of the boys' schools from the centre of the towns in which they are situated and also to the lack of suitable buildings and equipment for manual work near the main school buildings, The latter difficulty will, of course, ultimately be overcome and is already being overcome at Napier. The number of departmental secondary schools has remained at forty-four, including the six combined schools referred to above. On the Ist March the aggregate roll for all these schools was 17,601, as compared with 17,070 and 17,127 in 1931 and 1930 respectively. The roll numbers at the close of the year offer, however, a more reliable basis of comparison, as these were not so adversely affected by the results of the earthquake in 1931 ; for the successive years 1930, 1931, and 1932 the December rolls have been 15,552, 15,876, and 15,421 respectively. It is evident that so long as the effects of the present financial depression and of the low birth-rate of the later war years are felt no great expansion of the secondary school enrolment can reasonably be expected. Indeed, the prospects for 1933 have been far from reassuring, and it is evident that not a few teachers must lose their positions during the year. As in the previous year, some of the schools have been able to maintain their rolls only by the'retention for a longer period than normal of pupils who were unable to obtain employment; but for this the diminution in the number of new entrants would have undoubtedly caused the schools to fall appreciably in grade. The number of new pupils commencing secondary-school education fell away from 6,134 in 1930 to 5,626 in 1931, and still further to 5,229 last year. _ The paucity of entrants in 1932 was in some districts a result of the reduced percentage of passes in the Proficiency Examination, but the chief contributing factor has undoubtedly been the financial stringency. The effects of this have been especially noticeable in schools drawing pupils from country districts. The numbers of pupils boarding in school hostels fell from 1,690 in 1930 to 1,390 in 1931, and again to 1,022 in 1932, a fall of approximately 40 per cent, in two years. During the year the Diocesan Girls' School, Hamilton, the Palmerston North Convent, and St. Mary's Convent, Westport, were added to the list of registered private secondary schools ; these now number fifty-two, with an aggregate roll (on the Ist July) of 3,832 (1,707 boys and 2,125 girls). The number of appeals lodged by secondary-school teachers against their classification was only two, the lowest on record. Both appeals were disallowed by the Appeal Board. 'For several years prior to this last it had been the practice to award senior free places in postprimary schools by a system of accrediting which varied considerably in its approach to a complete accrediting in the different types of schools —secondary, district high, or technical schools. In the secondary schools the Inspectors had been accustomed, after investigation of the general standard of the work in the second-year forms in each school, to accept as fit for further secondary education the majority, and in a few cases all, of the candidates recommended by the Principals ; the remaining candidates were required to sit the Intermediate Examination in November, and a pass in this entitled the candidate to a senior free place. The proportion of candidates accredited by the Inspectors naturally varied from school to school, but as a rule it ranged between 63 and 75 per cent, of the total number of candidates offering. It may be added that as a rule not more than 10 to 15 per cent, of the non-accredited candidates sitting the Intermediate Examination ever succeeded in passing it. This was not at all surprising, as practically all of these pupils had been regarded by the Inspectors as not fit to proceed with senior courses. Early in 1932 it was decided that the accrediting system should be suspended and that all applicants for senior free places in all types of post-primary schools should be required to sit the Intermediate Examination in November. The recommendations of the Principals of schools, based upon the school records and examinations, were not, however, to be entirely disregarded, and were to be considered in conjunction with the results of the examination. The examination was modified in two important ways. First, the number of compulsory subjects was reduced to three and passes in English and arithmetic were no longer required ; second, a large number of " practical "or manual subjects—e.g., typewriting, woodwork practice, metalwork practice, cookery, and craftwork—were added to enable pupils following vocational courses to demonstrate their proficiency in their chosen manual arts. Candidates from departmental schools were examined in their own schools under the supervision of members of the teaching staffs. In all schools where there were at least twenty candidates in a subject the marking of papers in that subject was entrusted to the staff of the school. All other papers were marked by external examiners. On the whole, the marking by the teachers was carried out carefully

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