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ORGANISATION AND DISCIPLINE.

School Organisation is divisible into two heads: external arrangements by the Local Committee and other authorities; and internal by the teacher, subject to the former.

The external organisation relates to the work of the promoters, in the establishment and government of the school.

The internal organisation, relating to the work of the teacher in his school room, is more intimately connected with school discipline, and more particularly concerns this report.

The duties of the teacher, in this respect, are:

The best arrangement and disposal of the appliances at his command, according to generally established principles and local rules.

The proper classification, or subdivision of the school into classes, according to the number of children, and the instruction of which they are collectively and respectively capable.

The equable allotment of his time, as to the subjects of instruction, and the number of classes, and according to a suitable time table.

The arrangement and maintenance of a punctual and regular attendance of orderly children; and a correct account of the same.

Such schools as—having suitable appliances, and efficient teaching power—have been enabled to secure a good attendance, are capable of becoming good models of internal organisation. These combinations are, however, very rare; and hence the difficulty of exemplifying a well-organised school. The two former of the above conditions are essentials to the latter; but an attendance well proportioned to the number of children who should attend school, in the district, depends upon other causes, the chief of which are, the lively interest and judicious management of the Local Committees in the external organisation.

And this is most effective where a yearly election, from among themselves, of persons to serve on the Local Committee enlivens public interest, and opens matters affecting the welfare of the school to the periodical discussion of the community. Great advantage also results from the monthly Committee Meetings held, as at Courtney and elsewhere, to consider the wants, progress and condition of the school; and to receive any suggestions or reports from the teacher.

School hours, vacations and fees, so adapted to the circumstances of the district as to help to secure a good attendance, are essential; for, irregular attendance hinders good organisation. It disconnects the course of instruction; and thus is not only injurious to the absentees, but also to their more regular classmates. Such irregularity is a painful and dispiriting clog to every efficient teacher, while it affords a plausible excuse to the inefficient, who readily confuse the cause and consequence of it.

There is happily little to be said against the present school hours and vacations. The hours are fairly adapted to the requirements of both the teacher and the children. Dulness rather than greater progress results to both, if the school day is protracted. A long interval in the middle of the day unfits children for their afternoon work in hot weather; and makes it too late for country children to return home in winter.

The vacations are also, for the most part, well-timed and not too long. It is important to avoid, in them, both the frequency and the length, which dissatisfy parents and break up the interest of the pupils. The vacations generally amount to about six weeks in the year, and in agricultural districts the longer vacations occur at harvest time.

With regard to the effect of the school fees upon the attendance; it appears that weekly fees, even when allowed to run into heavy arrears, are disadvantageous; for interruptions of a day or two, from weather and other circumstances, often cause the children to be detained at home for the remainder of the week; and even for longer periods, after the interest in the school has become broken by irregularity. Inability to pay arrears, and unwillingness to increase them, also cause parents to keep children from school. Daily fees would obviously render the attendance more casual than weekly ones. So far as the fees affect it, a more regular attendance might be secured by a rule of quarterly entrance, and a low quarterly rate of fees; any fraction of a quarter to be chargeable for the whole quarter, and the fees payable in advance.

The value of children’s labour is, however, a more real cause of the detention of children from school at long intervals, and frequently at an early age, than in any consideration of the cost of fees.

While the efficiency of his school is the result of the good organisation and discipline of a competent and careful teacher, inefficiency is the result of an unsystematic and negligent course.