department thereof shall be found by adding together the average daily
attendances thereat for the four quarters ending 31st December, as ascertained at the end of each quarter, and dividing the total by four; and for any district it shall be the total of the yearly average attendances of all the schools in such district; the result in each case shall be expressed as a whole number correct to the nearest unit, one-half being reckoned as a whole.

(b.) If the average attendance at any school for any quarter is less than two-thirds of the average weekly roll-number for such quarter, or if there be in any quarter less than thirty half-days on which the average attendance is at least half the number of the children on the roll, then, in order to find the yearly average attendance, there may, at the option of the Board, be substituted for the average attendance for such first-named quarter either the average attendance for the corresponding quarter of the preceding year or the average attendance for the quarter ending 31st December of the preceding year, and the yearly average attendance thus found shall be in lieu of the yearly average attendance as defined in sub-clause (a) hereof.

(c.) Further, for the average attendance of any two quarters a similar substitution, on the application of the Board, may, mutatis mutandis, be made in the case of any school in regard to which it is shown to the satisfaction of the Minister, on the certificate of the District Health Officer, that an infectious disease of an epidemic character has during the period or periods concerned been locally prevalent to the extent of affecting 10 per cent. or more of the children of school age.

2. On 1st January in each year the schools in each education district shall be classified by the Board in the grades and subgrades named in Part I of the First Schedule to the Education Amendment Act, 1908 (hereinafter called “the Amendment Act”), according to the yearly average attendance for each school for the year immediately preceding:

Provided that the grade of a school shall not be reduced unless such attendance, or the mean of the attendance for the two years or for the three years immediately preceding the said 1st January, is as low as is indicated in Table A.

Table A.

Showing Decreased Yearly Average Attendance necessary for Reductions in the Grades of Schools.

Nevertheless, the subgrade to which a school belongs within such grade shall be determined in accordance with the yearly average attendance for the year immediately preceding, as hereinbefore provided.

3. (a.) Notwithstanding the grade in which any school is placed, if at the beginning of any quarter it appears that the attendance at such school has increased so that the mean of the quarterly average attendance for the three quarters, or for the two quarters, or the attendance for the quarter immediately preceding is as high as that shown in column (2), or column (3), or column (4), as the case may be, of Table B hereto, the number of teachers and pupil-teachers shall be the same as if the school were placed in the grade shown in column (5) of that table; or if in any other respect the staff of such school is, at the beginning of any quarter, less than it would have been had the Amendment Act not been passed, the Board shall, in the same way as if the grade or subgrade were that shown in column (5) of Table B, appoint the additional teachers (if any) required in accordance with subsection (5) of section 5 of that Act, and in either case the salaries shall be as therein mentioned: