grow more trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials than are needed on the grounds. This year more than two thousand of these were distributed through the agency of the provincial director of agriculture and gardening to the rural schools of the province. This work is capable of considerable extension and a start has been made in providing a permanent supply of plants for distribution. Next year the number available for this purpose should be much larger.

While conditions for the last year have been very much better than heretofore, there are some things still in need of improvement. The library is too small and not sufficiently varied, the laboratory equipment meagre, and the furnishing of the household science department not complete. The greatest need at present, however, is that of some form of model school for observation and demonstration purposes in close connnection with the Normal School. The city schools can only be made to partially meet this need. They are too far away and the Normal School teachers are not in sufficiently close touch with them to be able to know just what classes are suited to demonstrate the work in hand. The fulfilment of the contemplated plan of erecting on the ground a model one-roomed rural school would go a long way toward meeting this need. The students would be able to observe an ungraded school at work in a condition not too ideal to be reproduced in any rural district, while the methods employed and the standing of the pupils would be known by the Normal School staff. Classes from this school could be easily obtained for demonstration purposes in Normal School and in this way much could be done to keep the instruction practical.

The closing of the year marks the closing of an epoch in the history of the school. Up to present only third class work has been done, and the addition of second class work next year materially increases its responsibility. While those in charge have no reason to feel that their efforts in the more limited sphere have not been productive of good, they look forward to the wider field with the determination that greater opportunity will be met with increase of effort.

Respectfully submitted,

B. J. HALES, Principal.

Report on Secondary Schools

HON. R. S. THORNTON,

Minister of Education, Winnipeg.

Sir, I have the honor to submit the annual report on the secondary schools of the Province for the year ending June 30th, 1915.

There are at the present time some 34 schools of secondary grade employing two or more teachers: Boissevain, Carberry, Deloraine, Elkhorn, Gladstone, Hamiota, Holland, Manitou, Oak Lake, Roland, St. Joseph's, St. Norbert, Swan River, Tache, Teulon, Treherne, Wawanesa, are high schools; Carman, Killarney, Melita, Minnedosa, Morden, Russell, Selkirk are graded as collegiate departments. Four or more teachers are employed in secondary school work in the following places, Brandon, Portage la Prairie, Dauphin, Neepawa, Virden, Souris, Stonewall, Winnipeg. The Winnipeg system includes the Central Collegiate Institute, the two Technical High schools, Kelvin and St. John's, and several overflow classes housed elsewhere. In some fiftyfive towns and villages throughout the province there are schools employing one teacher in charge of 1,145 students of secondary grade and from one to five assistants in the elementary grades. The term intermediate is ordinarily used in referring to the last mentioned type, but it would be more convenient if all schools of secondary grade, large and small, were called by the simple title of high school.

In the high and collegiate schools there are employed one hundred and sixty-seven teachers. Seventy-six of these are in Winnipeg. When the intermediate schools are included, the whole number of teachers engaged in public secondary schools within the province stands at two hundred and twenty. The following table gives the sex and scholastic standing of the teachers in the high schools, collegiate departments, and collegiate institutes.

The whole number of students enrolled in the high schools and collegiates is 4,385. Nearly one thousand, or about one-fourth of these young people are studying with a view to passing the University Matriculation examination; about twelve hundred and fifty, or nearly 30%, are in the teacher's course; another 30% are pursuing the combined course, so-called because it secures both

matriculation standing and a teacher's certificate; some 400 students take a two years' commercial course; and 500 students are engaged in industrial, domestic, and agricultural courses of study. In the above enumeration some 320 in the domestic science (practical arts) course which is taken as an equivalent to the teacher's course, are counted twice. The supply of prospective teachers is farther augmented by the intermediate schools whose students number 1,145.

The grading of the work of these schools by means of annual examinations, hitherto conducted partly by the university authorities and partly by the Department of Education, is now wholly under the charge of the latter. In 1914 the Department of Education for the first time conducted the examination of all the students. Eighty per cent. of the papers written received a pass mark, the average mark standing at 53.7. The highest average mark obtained by any school was 61 and the lowest 45. The highest percentage of passes recorded is 95, and the lowest 63. These figures apply to the 28 high schools and collegiate institutes outside of the Winnipeg system, and may be taken as indicating with fair accuracy the general efficiency of our provincial secondary schools. The average figures for each subject and each grade for 1914 may also be set down. Grade IX

Geogr. Arith. History Draw. Average mark(%) 50 58.4 52.5 50 Percentage of

Comp. Gram. Spell. Bot. Arith. Hist. Music Latin Fren. Total

Average

mark (%) 63.8 63.8 78.5 45.7 52.5 52.5 70.6 38.7 35.8 56.5

Percentage

of passes

Grade XI

81 78 81 80 74 88 96 59 59 78.4

Liter. Comp. History Algebra Geom. Phys. Chem.

Average mark (%) 56.5 71.3 49.6 43.6 43.8 50.3 51.1

In interpreting these results it must not be forgotten that the general efficiency of a school or a school system is a product of several factors. Wide awake and progressive school boards and an enlightened public opinion and sentiment in favour of education cannot fail to exert a great influence upon the work