XV. THE EDUCATIONAL MUSEUM. The Educational Museum forms a valuable part of our system of popular education. It consists of a collection of School apparatus for Public and High Schools, of models of agricultural and other implements, of specimens of the natural history of the country, casts of antique and modern statues and busts, &c., including busts of celebrated characters in English and French history, also, copies of some of the works of the great masters in Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, and especially of the Italian Schools of painting. It also contains many objects of improved School appliances and architecture, as well as collections for promoting art, science and literature. CONCLUSION. The Report for the year 1876 mentioned that in February of that year a responsible Minister had succeeded the former Chief Superintendent in the administration of the affairs of the Education Department, and that the functions of the late Council of Public Instruction had been vested in a Committee of the Executive Council. In order to meet the wants of the Public and High Schools, as well as to improve the facilities for training Public School Teachers, amendments to the law in several material particulars were passed by the Legislature in its next ensuing session, and Regulations to give these amendments practical effect, as well as to further improve the efficiency of our Schools, were considered and adopted by Your Honour in Council, so as to take effect at the end of the summer vacation of 1877. The amendments in the Law were incorporated in the Revised Statutes of the Province, and by the liberality of the Legislature, a compendium containing all the Laws and Regulations respecting the Public and High Schools of Ontario, has now been placed in the hands of all the School Boards, Corporations and Officials in the Province. The important changes and revisions which, in 1877 were made in the Law and Regulations, can be best understood by reference to the text contained in the compendium, but the results may be concisely stated here. The principal changes made in the Law were as follows: I. The Education Department was authorized: 1. To grant equivalents in the examination of Public School Teachers for passing High School Examinations. 2. To establish County Model Schools. 3. To prescribe regulations as to Elementary teaching, and to make certain subjects optional. 4. To require as a further condition for Teachers' Certificates, that they should also possess a knowledge of teaching to be gained in County Model Schools or in the Normal School. 5. To grant Second, as well as First-class, Certificates to Teachers, after examination by the Central Committee, the power of County Boards being limited in future to granting Third-class Certificates. 6. To restrain the granting of Permits and of renewals of Third-Class Certificates. 7. To regulate and encourage Teachers' Associations. 8. To pay the travelling expenses and one-half of weekly maintenance of students at the Normal Schools, being candidates for Second-Class Certificates. The Public School Law was amended in many important particulars, amongst which may be mentioned : : 1. Power given to Trustees of Rural Schools to require Township Councils to pass the requisite By-law for borrowing money on time. 2. Special provisions for facilitating the formation of Township Boards, and for their dissolution, if found unsatisfactory. 3. Full power given to Township Councils in the formation, dissolution, and alteration of School Sections in the same part. 4. Also as to unions between parts of one Township and another Municipality or Municipalities, by which to secure this in a more just and equitable manner, and in which the authority of the Township Councils has been restored. 5. School Trustees can pay their Teachers quarterly and borrow money in anticipation of the annual rate therefor, and the County Council is similarly authorized. 6. The Municipal Councils are now bound, through their Municipal officials, to assess and collect all school rates, both for Public and Separate School purposes. In regard to High Schools their position was permanently secured by preventing High School Districts being formed in the future, by giving the County Councils the power to discontinue existing Districts, and by making all High Schools, County Schools; and by requiring the County Council to raise towards the annual maintenance of the High School, at least an amount equal to that received from the Legislative Grant, and by requiring the Town or other Municipality in which the High School was situate to meet the whole cost of building and other school accommodation, as well as further sums for maintenance. II.—The Regulations as revised and amended introduced the following amongst other improvements:- 1. Those as to Rural School accommodation were modified and declared to be recom mendatory rather than obligatory, except in cases of wilful omission or neglect, and to be carried out so far as the circumstances of each section might enable them to be complied with, without pressing unduly upon its resources. 2. The conditions for obtaining Certificates to teach in the Public Schools now require : (1) For Third-Class Certificates, the age of eighteen for males, and seventeen for females, a wider range of subjects for the non-professional examination, including Euclid and Algebra, and attendance upon, and successfully passing in, the County Model School. (2) For Second-Class Certificates, to pass not only the prescribed non professional examination (in which the subjects of the Intermediate High School examinations are taken as equivalent), but also to have attended one session at one of the Normal Schools, and having passed the professional examination on the theory and practice of teaching. (3) For First-Class Certificates, opportunities are afforded in the Normal Schools for obtaining instruction in the prescribed literary and scientific subjects, as well as in those which are professional, and a higher standard has also been imposed. 3. The powers of management by School Boards and Trustees have been made more flexible, especially by abolishing the General Time or Limit Table, and leaving this to be regulated by the Trustees and Teacher. The Programme or Course of Study is to be subject to the circumstances of the particular School, and the Inspector is instructed to permit of such mcdifications as thereupon may become necessary. 4. The list of Text Books has been extended by such additions as were urgently demanded by the Schools, while others, which experience had proved to be unnecessary, have been omitted. The Schools should now be able to supply themselves with books satisfactory in quality as well as reasonable in price, and properly printed and bound. 5. The work of the Normal Schools being now confined to the professional training for Second-Class Certificates, and candidates for First-Class Certificates, is governed by special regulations, while that of the County Model Schools is similarly regulated. 6. The uniform examination and classification of all Candidates for Teachers' Certificates is fully secured by the regulations under which every detail is provided for, and by the assistance of sub-examiners the Central Committee is able to report promptly upon the results of the Half-Yearly examinations for Second Class Certificates and the Intermediate, at the High Schools. All Examiners are instructed that the examination tests are applied to ascer tain, not the comparative merits of individual candidates amongst themselves, but whether the candidate possesses a satisfactory amount of knowledge in the prescribed subjects. 7. Increased efficiency has been given to Teachers' Associations in their valuable work of self-improvement, and encouragement in educational progress. The amendments in the Law and Regulations only came into operation during the last half of the year 1877, and the results cannot well be ascertained until after the experience of a complete year, in 1878. I have the honour to be, EDUCATION DEPARTMENT (ONTARIO), TORONTO, October, 1878. Your Honour's obedient servant, ADAM CROOKS, Minister of Education. |