and success of the schools. The school staff is the chief factor in the situation; but it may be powerfully aided or greatly hampered by the others.

At Easter, 1914, the Manitoba Educational Association appointed a committee to undertake a revision of the secondary school course of study with a view to bringing it closer into line with the educational needs of the Province. The task of the committee was to arrange a programme of studies which, as regards subjects, should be fairly representative of the whole range of useful secondary school disciplines, and at the same time furnish a fair proportion of work in each; and, as regards students and courses, should provide for an equitable division of time so as to remove the disability under which students in the teachers' courses have been laboring; while, as regards the teaching staff, it should simplify the time-table, and so increase economy and efficiency all round.

Without entering too minutely into details, it may be well to indicate in broad outline some of the principal features of the new course of study as proposed by this committee and laid before the Educational Association at its annual meeting in 1915. It was proposed that the division of time among the various courses and subjects of study should be as follows:

University Course. Teachers' Course. Combined Course

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9. Educational handwork 2.65%

It will be observed that in the above allotment of time (1) more than half of the branches (56%) namely English, Mathematics, History, and Physical educaeion occupy the same proportion of time on all three courses; (2) the time given to foreign languages (24%) in the university course is balanced in the teachers' course by a considerable increase in science and a very considerable addition in the review of elementary branches, the school arts, the fine arts, and educational handwork; (3) the time proposed for foreign languages in the combined course is just half of that in the university course, the proposal of the

committee being that the requirement for the combined course be one foreign language (Latin). Under these arrangements it would be possible in a small high school where all three courses are represented to cover quite 75% of the work in classes composed of students of all three courses, and in schools where the combined and teachers' or the combined and university courses are given, nine-tenths of the studies could be taken up without separating the classes.

The report was very fully considered and discussed in detail by the various subsections composing the secondary section of the association and the high school committee was finally instructed to make representations to the Advisory Board and the University Council with the view of having the revised course adopted by these bodies. Negotiations were accordingly opened with the Board of Studies of the University Council. That body was asked to modify the entrance requirements so as to allow students holding second-class teachers' certificates to enter the university on the basis of one foreign language (Latin), the French or other modern language now required for entrance to be taken up during the university years after matriculation.

The matter is still under consideration. Meantime it may not be amiss to mention some of the advantages which would accrue to the high schools and to educational interests generally if the proposed arrangements were carried out.

Under present circumstances in providing instruction for the students in the matriculation and combined courses as well as for those who are studying for teachers' certificates, the teachers in the smaller high schools especially find it extremely difficult to adjust their time-tables so as to employ their time and energy to the best advantage. The work of the high schools could be carried on much more economically and effectively as a glance at the figures given above will show, if the combined course, which gives both university and departmental standing were arranged on the basis of one foreign language. The revised programme would enable the high schools to send forward to the university a larger number of students than at present and the students generally would go forward to the university much better prepared than at present.

It has often been pointed out and it will not hurt to say again that the chief interest of the Department of Education in the work of the secondary schools is in the fact that these schools are expected to supply the elementary schools with teachers. The proposals of the high school committee if carried into effect would make for marked improvement in the supply of teachers. Many young people complete a teacher's course in the high school, but later on, feeling that progress and advance

ment in teaching depend on further study and higher standing seek to enter the university. If at the beginning of their high school career these students could enter upon a course which should secure for them a teacher's certificate and university matriculation on the basis of one language, a very large number would do so. This arrangement would greatly assist in improving the character of the training for service in the elementary schools. It is sometimes said that the high schools should devote themselves exclusively to secondary school studies and that prospective teachers of elementary schools when they come into grips with their actual work in their schools later may be depended upon to acquire for themselves all necessary skill in the school arts and all necessary knowledge in other elementary branches to enable them to do their work effectively. This argument may very well apply in communities where teaching is a permanent occupation. It will begin to have serious weight here when we have at our disposal a practically permanent supply of teachers for our schools. Under the conditions which have obtained hitherto the teaching force has been of a very shifting and indeterminate character. The average young man or woman who does not intend to teach for more than two or three years is not likely to become letter-perfect in the school arts or to aim at any very high degree or extent of scholarship generally. We may perhaps look forward to a time when the teaching force will have greater permanence, but meantime the duty of training prospective teachers in the rudiments, the fundamentals of conventional knowledge, must be charged up to the high school.

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The problem of equitably adjusting the burden of financing the high school still awaits solution. This burden weighs heavily upon the districts where high schools maintained. There are large areas in the province which have never given any direct assistance towards the support of the high school system. At the present time as a general thing the rural school board seems to turn a deaf or at any rate an unsympathetic ear to the proposal that everyone should pay his full share towards the maintenance of an institution which is necessary to the educational well-being of the province at large. As far as I am aware no serious attempt has been made to refute the argument that everyone should do his part and pay his share in a project in which every citizen of the province is vitally interested, the preparation of teachers for service in the elementary schools of the province. As a matter of fact no one has yet come forward with any reasonable excuse for exemption from this duty. Plans have been suggested and discussed at trustees' conventions and elsewhere looking to a proper adjustment. One of hese inv.ives the establish

ment of high school districts and high school boards of trustees. Another plan contemplates the establishment of a high school fund supported by a levy on the whole province. For a number of years there has been a growing body of opinion favourable to the formation of Municipal School Boards to take the place of the small rural school boards through which local educational effort is now directed. The establishment of municipal school boards would solve a number of pressing educational problems. The interests of secondary education would be greatly served by the substitution of the larger for the smaller unit of administration.

I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your obedient servant,

(Sgd.) S. E. LANG.

City of Winnipeg-Report of Dr. D. McIntyre

HON, R. S. THORNTON,

Minister of Education, Winnipeg.

Sir, I beg to submit for your information the following statement of the operation of the schools of the City of Winnipeg, for the year ending 18th June, 1915.

These schools opened on 24th August, 1914, with 442 teachers and 19372 pupils in the elementary classes, and 76 teachers, and 1,721 pupils in the high school classes, and closed on 18th June, 1915, with 481 teachers and 20,766 pupils in the elementary, and 77 teachers and 1,740 pupils in the high school department. The daily average attendance was 20,369. The enrolment and attendance from month to month in all classes was as follows:

The total number enrolled within the year was 27,514; 14,144 were boys, and 13,370 girls. 5 pupils were under 5 years of age, 17,231 were from 5 to 11, 9,083 from 12 to 16, 1,036 from wards of 150 days. These were distributed among the grades as follows:--

Of the total enrolment, 18,005 were advanced a grade. The relation of attendance to progress may be seen by comparison of the number of pupils who attended upwards of 150 days with number promoted.

Pupils included in the total enrolment were withdrawn during the year as follows