QUEENSLAND. FOURTH REPORT OF THE SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, FOR THE YEAR 1879. PRESENTED TO BOTH HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT BY COMMAND. BRISBANE : BY AUTHORITY: JAMES C. BEAL, GOVERNMENT PRINTER, WILLIAM STREET. REPORT AND ADDRESS OF THE HEAD MASTER OF THE BRISBANE GRAMMAR SCHOOL 64 FOURTH REPORT OF THE SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC INSTRUCTION To His Excellency The Honourable JOSHUA PETER BELL, President of the Legislative Council of the Colony of Queensland, and Administrator of the Government thereof. MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY, I have the honour to submit to your Excellency the following Report of the proceedings of the Department of Public Instruction during the Year 1879. ADMINISTRATION. 1. In April the offices of the Department were removed from Poole's Buildings in George street, to Wakefield's Buildings in Edward street, with great advantage to the comfort of the officers, and to the convenience of everyone interested. A lease of the latter buildings was entered into for three years. 2. The establishment of a Works branch within the Department was effected in March, and has proved to be beneficial. A superior class of wooden building has since been introduced, and although the expense in the first instance may be greater than it was formerly, the quality of the material, mode of erection, and special precautions provided against the inroads of white ants, afford abundant grounds for confidence that the new style of building will in the end be very much cheaper than that which preceded it. A large part of the expenditure on buildings for the year has been due to repairing the injuries caused by white ants. 3. The Second Book of the Australian series of Reading Books was submitted by the publisher in the course of the year. It was found to be inferior to the earlier numbers of the series, and to come so far short of a fair standard of literary merit that its introduction, in its present form, could not be authorised. A clause of the contract with Messrs. William Collins, Sons, and Co. has been taken advantage of, whereby arrangements have been made for the issuing of an amended edition. The delay, though unavoidable, is to be regretted, as there is now no prospect of the new Second and Third Books coming into use before the year 1881. 4. On assuming Ministerial charge of the Department, in January, I found the eighth clause of the Regulations to read as follows:-"The Minister will make provision for ordinary maintenance and repairs of State schools, and for all necessary additions thereto." This clause was amended, as proclaimed in the Government Gazette of the 15th March, 1879, by the omission of the words following "schools;" and for the greater part of the year one-fifth of the cost of such additions to school buildings as were carried out has been provided by local subscriptions. There has been no other material change in the administration of "The Education Act of 1875," which continues to prove itself well adapted to the circumstances of the colony. The people show great willingness to avail themselves of its provisions, and there is no considerable community unprovided with a school, except a few small mining centres on the northern gold-fields, and a few of the camps along the lines of railway in course of construction,-in both of which cases the instability of the population has made it impossible to obtain the local action required by the Act. year. 5. The field of the operations of the Department is widening from year to A State school was opened at Port Douglas; State school buildings are in process of erection at Aramac; and applications for the establishment of schools have been received from Normanton and Muttaburra. There has been an unavoidable increase in the number of Provisional schools. As a rule the education given in schools of that class is inferior; but, such as it is, it is better than none at all. SCHOOLS SCHOOLS IN OPERATION. 6. In Table A is given a comprehensive statement of the Statistics of State Education, for each of the last eleven years, as regards the number of schools in operation, the number of teachers employed, the attendance of pupils, and the expenditure. 7. In Table B is shown a comparative statement of the number of schools in operation during the years 1978 and 1879. At the beginning of 1878 there were 276 schools in operation, while at the beginning of 1879 there were 291-an increase of 15. At the end of each year the numbers were 292 and 314 respectively, showing an increase of 22. During 1878 there were 305 schools in operation, and during 1879 there were 319, the increase being 14. 8. During the year 1879 fifteen State schools were opened, 5 of which superseded Provisional schools. There were also 16 Provisional schools established; and 4 were re-opened after having been closed for some time. Six Provisional schools in operation during 1878 were not open during 1579, principally owing to paucity of attendance. Seven schools open during part of the year were closed before the end of it, either on account of diminished attendance, want of suitable teachers, or because the educational necessities of the locality were otherwise supplied. 9. The education of the boys on board the Reformatory Hulk "Proserpine” was placed under the direction of the Department on the 22nd July. 10. The Non-vested schools in operation during 1879 numbered 21-the same schools as were in operation at the close of 1878. They are all connected with the Church of Rome, except the non-denominational school at Dundathu. 11. Seven part-time schools were open in 1879 under the charge of 4 teachers; of these schools 4 were taught on alternate days, and the other 3 on alternate half-days. DISTRIBUTION OF SCHOOLS. 12. The manner in which the schools are distributed over the colony may be shown as follows: These percentages show but slight divergence from similar figures for 1878. TEACHERS EMPLOYED. 13. In 1879 the number of teachers employed was 858-viz., 223 classified teachers, 202 unclassified teachers, and 363 pupil-teachers. In 1879 there were employed 924 teachers-viz., 312 classified teachers, 230 unclassified teachers, and 382 pupil-teachers-an increase of 66 over the year 1878, nineteen of the 66 being pupil-teachers. 14. The following is a comparative view of the number of teachers employed in the various classes of schools during 1878 and 1579: 15. The distribution of the teachers may also be summarised as follows: The school at the Reformatory Hulk is here included with the State schools. 16. There was an increase in the number of teachers on the staffs of State and Provisional schools, and a greater number of male pupil-teachers were employed. The staffs of the Non-vested schools show an increase of 2, and the number of female pupil-teachers was exactly the same as last year. 17. Notwithstanding the increase in the number of classified teachers, there is still a scarcity of suitable trained head teachers. For this reason 33 of the small State schools were in the hands of unclassified teachers. One unclassified male teacher and 4 unclassified female teachers were in charge of Non-vested schools. Most of the unclassified teachers in charge of State and Non-vested schools, however, have passed the examination for admission as temporary teachers, or an equivalent examination. 18. Of the total number of teachers 81.9 per cent. were employed in State schools, 9.3 per cent. in Provisional schools, and 8.8 per cent. in Non-vested schools. These percentages differ little from similar calculations made for 1878 19. In State schools pupil-teachers constituted 45.3 per cent. of the numerical strength of their staffs, as against 46.1 per cent in 1878. In Non-vested schools, during 1879, 45.7 per cent. of the numbers on their staffs were pupilteachers, and in 1878 the percentage was 45.8. Two pupil-teachers were employed in Provisional schools in charge of competent men. PROMOTIONS. 20. The details regarding the number and status of teachers promoted are given in Table G. There were 373 promotions altogether-160 of males and 213 of females. Of the classified teachers, 54 males and 57 females were promoted a step, either on account of successful examination, or of success in managing their schools or classes. Among the unclassified teachers 14 males and 9 females were promoted, either to the rank of temporary teachers after successful examination, or to somewhat better positions. Of the pupil-teachers, 98 males and 147 females were promoted a step in ordinary course, having successfully passed the usual annual examination. TIME DEVOTED TO TEACHING. 21. Of the 319 schools in operation during 1879, 268 were open during the whole year and 51 during only a part of the year. 22. The number of ordinary school days in the year was 226, but, on account of various exceptional holidays and other special circumstances, those schools which were open throughout the year maintained an average of only 218 working days. Taking all the schools into consideration, the number of days on which instruction was given averaged 2008 In 1878 the first two of these numbers were the same as those given for 1879, but the last is increased from 198.1-an increase of 2.7 days of teaching work in schools all over the colony. ATTENDANCE OF CHILDREN. 23. The annual enrolment was 41,380, showing an increase of 719 over the year 1878. The mean quarterly enrolment was 31,711-increase, 954. The average daily attendance was 21,418-increase, 424. 24. State schools show an increase, as regards the annual enrolment, of 954; as regards the mean quarterly enrolment, of 809; and as regards the average daily attendance, of 440 over the figures of the previous year. 25. The Provisional schools show a decrease of 4 in the annual enrolment, 24 in the mean quarterly enrolment, and 48 in the average daily attendance. 26. In the Non-vested schools there is an increase of 139 in the annual enrolment, and of 61 in the mean quarterly enrolment, but a decrease of 21 in the average daily attendance. 27. The |