A third responsibility arising out of the Department's role as the source of the curriculum concerns the quality of work in the schools. Here the regular inspections of schools are part of the process. Standards of school work are, of course, relative and they bear a direct relationship to what children are capable of scholastically, to the quality of teaching in individual classrooms, and to the resources of the system to help teachers. There is often a temptation to simplify what is a complex matter. A comprehensive comparison of standards in English and arithmetic carried out in 1958 showed no marked losses, but considerable gains in reading for meaning and in oral English; while comparisons between the scholastic attainments of New Zealand children and those in England and Australia, summarised in 1958, revealed little difference between levels of attainment in the fundamental processes of arithmetic and spelling, but considerably higher achievement in reading by New Zealand children.

The interest of parents in the quality of children's school work is evinced in the discussions of home and school and parent-teacher associations which are active almost everywhere in the country. It is rare indeed to find a school that has not some means of letting parents know what it is trying to do for their children, and how it is going about it. Points of contact between school and home are many, and the local parent-teacher meeting is a continuing link. Among the important topics of joint concern that are often discussed at these meetings are school reports to parents on children's progress, and homework.

In describing the primary schools, one has to make it clear that most of the statements cover the work of some 11,000 classrooms in a large school system; hence generalisations on such a scale will always need to be qualified. Teachers differ in ability, in background and in their approach to children. Every classroom has some characteristics of its own. It can be said, however, with some confidence that nearly all teachers plan their work so as to give children a well balanced education in which scholastic, aesthetic, and practical subjects have reasonable portions of school time; and that most are successful in carrying out what is planned. Teachers today as a body also understand children better than did many of their predecessors. This has led to better relationships and a better working atmosphere in the classroom. Our primary schools have vindicated their place as the common schools of the New Zealand community.

by John Lithgow Ewing, M.A., DIP.ED., Chief Inspector of Primary Schools, Department of Education, Wellington.