Auckland Education District.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXII, Issue XVII, 23 April 1904, Page 57

Auckland Education District.

f'HIEF INSPECTOR’S REPORT. At the meeting of the Education Board last week the annual report of the Chief Inspector (Mr. D. Petrie) was presented. The report stated that the number of schools in operation at the elose of the year was 421, including 74 half-time schools, showing a net increase of seven schools since the close of 1902. Of these 379 were inspected, one of each pair of half-time schools being visited for this purpose, as well as 21 Roman Catholic Diocesan schools. In all 438 schools had been examined. The examination statistics of the public schools showed that the roll number of pupils was 29,817, the number present 27,901, the number passed 16,115, and the mean of average age 11 years 3 months. In the Roman Catholic Diocesan schools there were 1723 pupils on the rolls, 1613 were present at the inspectors’ examinations, and 825 passed in one or other of the standards. The public schools showed for the year an increase of 465 in the' roll number, of 319 in the number presented, and •f 218 in the number of pupils who passed one or other of the standards. In Standard VI. 75 per cent, of pupils examined passed. With regard to the promotion of pupils, Mr. Petrie says: “The promotions of pupils from class to class have for some years past been in the hands of head teachers, and are being more generally made with satisfactory discretion. Specific mention of injudicious promotion is rarely met with in the inspectors’ reports for the year, but it is very noticeable that promotions are relatively less numerous and more strictly earned in the most efficient schools. The superior efficiency of these schools is no doubt largely due to the care with which head

teachers deal with this matter. In judging of the discretion displayed in the granting of promotions, the inspectors have regard chiefly to the ability of the pupils to take up the studies of the next higher class, and more especially reading, with reasonable readiness and intelligence. Unless pupils are really prepared for taking up the more advanced work of a higher class in the spirit here indicated, they should not be promoted, for the kind of work they can do will be so mechanical as to be practically barren of educative effect. Our system of elementary education no longer holds out any stimulus to premature promotion, and the mechanical and unintelligent work that is its almost unfailing consequence should become more and more rare. Under the new regulations for the inspection and examination of public schools, their efficiency will depend on judicious promotion in the classes below Standard VI-, more largely than on any other factor. That head teachers will use a wise discretion in this important matter I have little doubt, but it may still be well to insist on the weight of the responsibility resting on them.” Passing on to the consideration of the work done in the various subjects, Mr Petrie says that while improvement in the teaching of reading is noted by most of the inspectors, some of them remark a deficiency of expression as the commonest failing. It is time, says the report, that public school teachers recognised that failure to train pupils to read with fluency, accuracy, good phrasing, and reasonable expression is evidence of unskilful teaching. “In the higher divisions of the primer classes and in standards I. and If. more reading than is now done might be overtaken* with advantage,” says Mr Petrie, “and the Board should authorise the use of additional readers for these, and, indeed, for the higher classes too, as a wider course of reading can be occasionally overtaken in the latter. ... I am of opinion that it would be a great gain to real education if the chief reading books in the higher classes were changed every three years. It is a mere bogey to suppose that this change would involve any serious extra

expense to parents, for the life of an ordinary school reader seldom reaches three years. Even were some extra eost involved, it would be amply compensated by the educational gain.” Spelling was on the whole well taught. Writing still improved, though slowly; it was good in a large number of schools of all grades. Mr Petrie said he had good authority for saying that in writing and in neat and methodical arrangement the papers done by the Auckland pupils at the recent National Scholarship examination were not surpassed by those of any other district of the colony. Freehand drawing was on the whole very satisfactorily taught, and in many schools the exercises were well done. The geometrical exercises, the scale drawing, and the solid geometry were also in general satisfactory, more especially in the larger schools. Books containing definite suitable courses of work for the guidance of teachers, and for use by the pupils in at least the smaller schools, would be of service in connection with brush drawing and colour work. In arithmetic good and frequently excellent work had been done in standard HI. and the lower classes. In the upper classes little or no improvement could be noted, and there were in some schools indications that the teaching of it in standards V. and VI. was going back. In particular, problems were less intelligently dealt with than in the past. This was no doubt partly clue to the very easy examination tests given of late years by the department in standard 111. and upwards, and especially in standards 111., IV., and V. It was, however, partly due to faults of teaching, chiefly to insufficient blackboard drill in explanatory work, and io the giving of injudicious or unnecessary assistance in solving problems and typical examples. The class-books in arithmetic in general use did not answer the purpose as well as could be wished. With regard to composition, Mr. Petrie says: "As to the teaching of composition, Mr. Grierson notes a decided improvement in the schools of his district (the Southern). The other in-

spectors find it on the whole satisfactory. In most schools little fault is to be found with the grammatical accuracy of the exercises, or the division of the matter into sentences, but in fulnesa and natural sequence of suitable matter, in clearness and force of statement, and in alternation of shorter and longer sentences there is still much room for progress. The lack of intelligence that shows itself in connection with the explanation of the language and matter of the reading lessons produces its effect in the sphere of composition also, and of course it is not a favourable one. It seems to me that many of our teachers have not given sufficiently serious thought to their methods of teaching this subject, and that they do not adequately avail themselves of the variety of exercises that are open to use.” Good work was being done at thd manual training centres, and in general the classes were popular and well appreciated. Owing to the conditions imposed by the Education Department for the earning of grants in aid of handwork and manual training,” said tie chief inspector, ‘classes 8. 5 and 6 of the larger schools, that have sent all their pupils to the manual training centred, have been disturbed and disorganised to an extent that is most undesirable, if not actually intolerable. This has elicited earnest and well-grounded complaints from head teachers, for during most of the year drafts of their two highest standard classes have been absent, at manual training classes, during three and in some instances four half days each week. This is clearly a very serious interference with the conditions of instruction in these classes, and may very well involve bad consequences, which even the real and the imaginary virtues of manual training may fail to counterbalance. I am of opinion that this interference should in ail cases be restricted to two half-days a week, and I would recommend the hoard to urge, on the Minister the alteration of the manual training regulations sc as io reduce the interference to this as a maximum.”