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District. Towards the end of the year arrangements were made for further appointments in 1947, made necessary by the bringing of the secondary departments of district high schools into the post-primary field proper. Arrangements are in train also for the inspectorate in 1947 to work in one group over all post-primary schools instead of in two distinct groups, secondary and technical, as previously. (2) New Post-primary Schools Three new post-primary schools were established during the year, Whangarei Girls' High School (by the division of Whangarei High School into separate boys' and girls' schools), Matamata College, and Tauranga College (by the disestablishment of the respective district high schools). The total number of post-primary schools is now 72. (3) Secondary Departments op District High Schools For staffing, salary, and grading purposes these have been brought into the postprimary system proper, with a consequent very great increase in the duties devolving upon the post-primary inspectorate. The total number of secondary departments is now 103, 17 of which have rolls exceeding 150. (4) Endowed Schools and Registered Private Post-primary Schools During the year 5 additional private post-primary schools were granted provisional registration, making the total number 80 (inclusive of 2 endowed schools and 2 private post-primary schools registered as technical). This represents a remarkable increase of 17 in the number of such schools on the register three years ago. (5) School Rolls The increases which have taken place in recent years in the total rolls of all post-primary schools are shown in the following table, which gives the numbers enrolled on Ist March for the past four years. The numbers of schools in each year are shown in parentheses:— 1943. 1944. 1945. 1946. Secondary schools .. .. 16,218 (39) 18,573 (39) 20,042 (39) 20,255 (40) Technical schools .. .. 10,799 (21) 12,530 (21) 14,295 (23) 14,943 (25) Combined schools .. .. 3,276 (7) 3,639 (7) 3,843 (7) 3,839 (7) Secondary departments of district high schools .. 6,320 (98) 7,356 (101) 8,708 (104) 8,375 (103) Registered private post-primary schools (including two endowed schools) .. 7,002 (63) 7,978 (67) 9,146 (75) 9,621 (80) Totals .. .. 43,615 50,076 56,034 57,033 Increase over previous year .. .. 6, 461 5, 9J58 999 (6) Improvement in Staffing of Post-primary Schools The Education (Post-primary Teachers) Regulations, which came into force on 31st March, 1945, made for an improved staffing of post-primary schools, but owing to the shortage of teachers arising largely as a result of the war it was impossible to bring the new staffing ratio into operation until the beginning of 1946. Approval was, however, given for it to operate as from the beginning of 1947, the change necessitating about 50 additional teachers in secondary schools and about 70 additional teachers in technical schools—an average increase of some 8 per cent, of the total number of teachers engaged. This increase should go a long way towards enabling schools to cope with their new responsibilities under the new post-primary programme.

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