A. ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS.

1. School Supply and Number of Pupils.

181. During the year 1926-27 there was a further decrease in the number of proposals sanctioned under Section 18 of the Education Act, 1921, for the provision of new schools, only four new schools being sanctioned as compared with thirteen in 1925-26, although the proposals for the enlargement of existing schools numbered four as against three in the previous year. All the proposals were in connection with council schools. The number of additional places to be provided by new schools and enlargements amounts to 1,769 as compared with 4,654 in 1925-26 and 11,974 in 1924-25. The total number of schools in 1926-27 remained at the same figure as in the previous year, namely 1,906. Of these, 1,308 were council schools and 598 voluntary schools, an increase of five in the number of council schools being set off by a decrease of five in the number of voluntary schools.

182. The accommodation in council schools amounted to 479,293 places, as compared with 474,585 in 1925-26, and in the voluntary schools, 99,803 places as against 100,394 in the previous year. The total school accommodation for the year 1926-27 amounted to 579,096 places as compared with 574,979 in 1925-26. The figures for 1925-26 are those arrived at after reassessment. For purposes of comparison it may be remarked that in 1903 the accommodation in council schools amounted to 311,404 places and in voluntary schools to 150,892 places, a total of 462,296. These figures, it should be noted, were calculated before reassessment on the basis of 10 square feet for older children and 9 square feet for younger children.

183. The total numbers in average attendance have continued to show the improvement which followed the recovery noticed in 1924-25, when the number increased by 1,231. In 1925-26 there was a further increase of 1,276, and this was followed by a further increase in 1926-27 of 444. In that year the average number of pupils on the registers amounted to 462,510 and the average attendance to 405,753.

2. Staffing.

184. The number of teachers employed in Wales in public elementary schools increased from 15,665 on the 31st March, 1926, to 15,713 on the same date in 1927, while the number of teachers to every 1,000 pupils was 37.2 on each of these dates. There continued to be one certificated teacher to every 43 pupils in average attendance. Taking the types of area separately, on the 31st March, 1927, there was one certificated teacher for every 49 pupils in the areas under County Councils (the same proportion as in the previous year); for every 37 in Boroughs and Urban Districts (as against 38

in 1926); and for every 37 in County Boroughs, with no change from the previous year. Wide variations among areas of the same type are covered by these average figures.

3. Practical Instruction.

185. In 1926-27 there were 259 centres for instruction in domestic subjects, an increase of twelve over the previous year; and 120 courses in those subjects were provided in the public elementary schools, as against 112 in 1925-26. There were 137 centres for handicraft, eight more than in the previous year, and 51 school courses in this subject, two less than in 1925-26. For gardening there were ten centres, as in 1925-26, and 509 school courses in the subject, an increase of seven on the previous year. In addition, there was, as in 1925-26, one school course in engineering.

The various centres were attended by pupils from contributory schools, the number of contributory schools in the case of domestic subject centres being 784, handicraft centres 454, and gardening centres 29.

B.-SECONDARY SCHOOLS.

1. School Supply and Number of Pupils.

186. The number of secondary schools in Wales (including Monmouthshire) recognised for grant by the Board in 1926-27 was 142. Of these 142 schools, 33 were controlled by local authorities, 6 were endowed schools or schools of a similar type, 101 were Welsh Intermediate Schools, and two were controlled (without a formal educational trust) by a Roman Catholic Community. The number of pupils, which increased during the war from 18,377 in October, 1914, to 23,697 in October, 1918, grew rapidly to 31,553 in 1921, and more slowly to 31,897 in 1922. In 1924 the numbers rose to 32,273, in 1925 to 33,370, in 1926 to 35,065, and in 1927 to 35,535 (18,570 boys and 16,965 girls), or about 13 per 1,000 of the population.

187. In 1925-26 there were 20 secondary schools recognised by the Board as efficient, but not as eligible for grant, and in 1926-27 there were 21. These schools contained 2,636 pupils (619 boys and 2,017 girls) according to returns furnished in October, 1927.

The total number of pupils in secondary schools recognised as efficient, whether grant-aided or not, was 38,171, or about 14 per 1,000 of the population.

2. Free Places.

188. Of the 142 schools on the grant-list for the year 1926-27, 141 were in receipt of grant on the full scale, one condition of which is compliance with the requirement of the regulations as to the provision of free places. The total number of free places held on

1st October, 1927, was 18,857, an increase of 775 over the figures of the previous year. The percentage of free places to the total number of pupils in the schools was 53, as compared with 51.6 in the previous year.

3. Ages of Pupils and Length of School Life.

189. Of the pupils in attendance at grant-earning secondary schools on 1st October, 1927, 74.8 per cent. were between the ages of 12 and 16. The number of children under 10 years of age has been less than one hundred in each year since 1921, the number in the year under review being only 69. There has been a steady increase in the number of pupils between 10 and 12 years of age, with the result that the number of pupils below the age of 12 is now 10.9 per cent. of the total. The percentage of pupils who remained up to 16 years of age before leaving shows a satisfactory increase. In 1920-21 nearly one-half of the pupils who left after reaching the age of 14 were under 16 years of age, but in 1926-27 the proportion was reduced to a little over one-third. There has also been a small increase in the number of pupils between 16 and 18 years of age, but the proportion of such pupils is still less than 15 per cent. of the total.

190. The Board have for a number of years, in their annual reports, drawn attention to the importance of prolonging the school life of pupils in secondary schools. Premature withdrawal aggravates the evil of overcrowding in the lower Forms, and makes it difficult, if not impossible, to admit other pupils who might stay longer at school and derive more profit from the education given. There is a danger, too, of diverting the secondary school from its proper function of providing a progressive course of general education of a kind and amount suited to an age range at least from twelve to seventeen.

The growth and development of central schools and of other methods of providing post-primary education, have a clear and definite bearing upon the place occupied by the secondary school in the organisation of public education. It becomes all the more necessary, therefore, to explore every possible avenue which promises to lead the secondary school to the fulfilment of its own proper work. Every effort should be made to ensure that parents and pupils alike appreciate the value of a course of instruction extending continuously over a period of at least four years. They should be helped to see that, when a course is carefully and deliberately designed to cover a minimum of four years, it is only in the fourth year that the keystone can be so inserted as to secure the stability of the whole. One undoubted reason why many boys, at the age of fifteen or even earlier, want to leave the secondary school is that they find the work too academic and too remote from the interests of practical life.

Experience has shown that a wideawake Head Master, by providing facilities for the pursuit of other interests, has been able not only to retain such boys, but to stimulate them to appreciate the value of the extended course.

191. In order to give the School full and ample opportunity to do what it can for the pupil, it is important that the pupil should enter at an earlier age than 12+, which is at present the usual age of entry in many parts of Wales. It is now agreed that the most appropriate age to transfer a child from a primary to a secondary school is 11+. Local authorities could do much as indeed some of them are already doing—to promote earlier entry into the secondary schools if they so arranged their Entrance Scholarship examinations as to allow only those to compete who are not less than ten and under twelve years of age on the 1st of January preceding the date of the examination. This would give an average age of entry into the secondary school in the following September of about 11 years 6 months.

The average length of school life of pupils in grant-earning secondary schools who left school during the year ending 31st July, 1927, was, in the case of boys, 3 years 5 months, compared with 3 years 6 months in 1926, and 3 years 5 months in 1925, and in the case of girls, 3 years 6 months, as against 3 years 7 months in 1926 and 3 years 6 months in 1925.

4. Staffing.

192. On 31st March, 1927, there were 1,624 full-time teachers employed in grant-earning secondary schools; of these 54.4 per cent. were men, and 45.6 women. The proportion of graduates employed has increased in the case of men to 85.1 per cent., as compared with 83.7 per cent. on 31st March, 1926, and in the case of women to 75.3 per cent., as compared with 74.8 per cent. on 31st March, 1926.

5. Advanced Courses.

193. During the year 1926-27, 37 advanced courses were recognised in 32 schools on the grant list, an increase of two over the previous year. This is the first increase in the number of recognised courses since 1922-23. Of the 37 courses, 23 were in Science and Mathematics, 8 in Modern Studies, 2 in Classics, and 1 in Classical with Modern Studies.

6. Pupils proceeding from Secondary Schools to Universities.

194. In 1926-27, 4,677 pupils left grant-earning secondary schools after reaching the age of 16, and of these 470 (286 boys and 184 girls) are known to have proceeded to universities. This represents a proportion of 10 per cent.; 84.9 per cent. of the 470 were ex-public elementary school pupils.

7. Examinations.

195. The number of pupils entered for the First and Second Examinations approved by the Board, which were first held in 1918, continues to show a steady increase so far as the First Examination is concerned. During the school year 1926-27, 5,321 pupils from 139 schools were entered for a First Examination. Of these, 5,175 actually took the examination and 3,470 or 67.1 per cent. passed. 585 pupils from schools were entered for a Second Examination, and of these 569 took the examination and 374 or 65.7 per cent. passed. The entries for First Examinations in 1926-27 showed an increase of 5.4 per cent. over those for the previous year, and those for Second Examinations increased by 10.2 per cent.

8. Welsh Intermediate Schools.

196. The schools which form a part of the Welsh Intermediate School system are at present 101 in number, and are all included among schools recognised by the Board of Education as efficient. A separate report on the proceedings under the Welsh Intermediate Education Act, 1889, is presented to Parliament annually by the Board pursuant to the provisions of that statute.

9. Abolition of Duplication of Grant.

197. Circular 1381, the issue of which on 23rd July, 1926, was dealt with in Chapter III of last year's report, gave to the governing bodies of secondary schools then in receipt of grants under the Regulations for Secondary Schools the option of deciding whether they should continue to receive direct grant from the Board, in which case any aid from a local education authority would not be taken into account in assessing the Board's grant to the authority, or should cease to receive direct grant and receive the whole of their aid from the authority. As a result of the consideration of the circular by school governing bodies and local authorities, seven secondary schools in Wales and Monmouthshire have elected to continue to receive direct grant from the Board. Generally speaking, these are schools which receive no financial aid from the local authority or in the case of which the amount of such aid is comparatively small. All the remaining schools, including the County Schools established in accordance with schemes under the Welsh Intermediate Education Act, 1889, will in future receive the whole of their aid from the local education authorities. As was explained in last year's report, the fact that a school receives the whole of its aid from the local authority does not in itself convert the school into a maintained school or abrogate the provisions of any scheme under which it may be conducted. It will, of course, be open to the authority to attach to their aid such conditions as they think fit, but this applies equally to cases in which the authority's aid is supplementary to the Board's grant.