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6. That before the principle of "payment by results" be applied to High Schools, their status and classification, (as a starting point), be ascertained by a written examination of the Pupils in one or more Classes of the School.

7. That, in all cases, the Council of Public Instruction shall have the right, through its Inspectors, to determine whether the Answers given in a written examination come up, or not, to the minimum standard.

8. That an additional High School Inspector be appointed, in order that effect may be given to the new system of "payment by results;" and that the three Inspectors be authorized and required, in places where there are High Schools, or Collegiate Institutes, to enquire into the condition and efficiency, of the Public and Separate Schools, which are entitled to prepare and send Pupils to the High Schools, or Collegiate Institutes.

9. That Masters of High Schools should, before appointment, be required to furnish some evidence of a knowledge of the Art of Teaching.

PAYMENT BY RESULTS TO BE EQUITABLY DISTRIBUTED.

A writer in The Globe Newspaper having erroneously stated that in effect the system of "payment by results" would be acted upon before some of the High Schools were classified, I, as Deputy Superintendent of Education, replied to his statement as follows:

In reply to a Letter signed "Fair Play," in Saturday's Globe, I desire to say that there is not a shadow of foundation for his unjust statement that the Education Department is about "springing a sudden change upon High School Teachers in the middle of the year," in the adoption of a System of "payment by results." The Department has not "concluded" to do anything of he kind, nor has it ever given the slightest intimation of its intentions on the subject, except to the effect that full and ample notice will be given to all parties concerned before that system is put in force.

The system of "payment by results,"-the principle of which is the only just and equitable mode of distributing the High School Grant,-has been maintained by the Department for years. It was under consideration in 1865; and the principle would have been incorporated in the Grammar School Act of 1865, had it not been thought that the important reform effected by the Bill of that year in the mode of paying the Grant to High Schools, was about as far as it was prudent to go at that time. I was deputed by the Chief Superintendent to take charge of the Bill at Quebec in that year, and I took pains to prepare a scheme on which to base a system of "payment by results" from the English Education Reports and other information which I obtained in the Parlimentary Library. But the Chief Superintendent thought it, on the whole advisable, to defer its adoption for the reasons which I have given. The matter was not lost sight of, however, and, in that same year, (1865), the Reverend Mr., (now Bishop Fraser, who was in Canada at that time, as an English Education Commissioner, was consulted on the subject. In 1868 the matter was referred to the Reverend Professor Young, then Inspector of High Schools, for his report on it, which he made in 1869. In 1871, the principle was adopted and embodied in the Act of that year. It involves payments to High Schools according,

1. To the average attendance of Pupils;

2. Their proficiency in the various branches of Study;

3. The length of time each High School is kept open, as compared with other High Schools

As it was clearly impossible equitably to apply this new principle of "payment by results" until a classification of the High Schools was made, the Inspectors were requested to make such classification and report the result to the Chief Superintendent. This was done, but it is still felt to be impossible to do full justice to each of the Schools until the whole of the Pupils in them are subjected to a uniform test exam

ination on questions prepared and printed for that purpose. With that view further legislation will be required before the new system can be adopted, and this is proposed and recommended in the Chief Superintendent's last Annual Report. That Report, among nine recommendations relating to High Schools, has the following, and it is the only authoritative opinion which the Department has given on the subject: —

"6. That, before the principle of 'payment by results' be applied to High Schools, their status and classification, (as a starting point), be ascertained by a written examination of the Pupils in one or more, if not all, of the Classes."

Such a recommendation does not look like "springing a sudden change upon High School Teachers."

TORONTO, March 8th, 1873.

J. GEORGE HODGINS, Deputy Superintendent.

CHAPTER XX.

REORGANIZATION OF THE HIGH SCHOOLS AND COLLEGIATE INSTITUTES 1873.

I. CIRCULAR TO HIGH SCHOOL BOARDS THROUGHOUT THE PROVINCE.

I have the honour to transmit herewith the Programme of Studies, General Rules and Regulations for the government of High Schools and Collegiate Institutes, which have been prescribed by the Council of Public Instruction, and approved by His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council.

This is now the third year since the Programme itself and some of the Regulations have been published. For various reasons, I have preferred leaving that Programme, at least during a portion of that time, optional with the Boards of Trustees. This was the more necessary owing to the fact that the Programme itself could not go into effect until the Regulations for the Admission of Pupils to the High Schools had been definitely decided upon. These and the other General Regulations affecting High Schools having now been approved by the Government, no further time should be lost in carrying them into effect, and giving the High Schools and Collegiate Institutes that definite status which the Legislature designed they should have in our System of Public Instruction. I have, therefore, to intimate to your Board that, on the re-assembling of the High Schools in August, the accompanying Programme, Rules and Regulations will take affect.

Your Board will observe, by reference to the High School Act, that the Legislature has confined the functions of the High Schools, as relates to English education, to the teaching of "all of the higher branches of a good English and Commercial Education." A misapprehension of this provision of the Law has led to innumerable evils in our High Schools. The tendency, and, indeed, in many cases, the effort has been, to divert the High Schools from their legitimate purpose, and to make them little better than mere elementary Common Schools, the unjust and unlawful rivals of the Public Schools. So strongly, indeed, has the pressure in this direction been brought to bear upon the Council of Public Instruction, that it has reluctantly been induced to lower the standard of admission to the High Schools to a point little beyond that of the Third Class, (out of six), prescribed for the Public Schools.

The Legislature has already made ample provision for the teaching in our Public Schools of all the elementary branches of education. To teach them, therefore, (as is done in some High Schools), is a violation of Law, and an interference with the legitimate province of the Public Schools. The Legislature has wisely restricted the teaching in the High Schools to the "higher branches of a good English and Commercial Educa

tion." If the Council has erred at all in this matter, it has erred in making the standard of admission to the High Schools too low, instead of too high.

I trust, therefore, that each High School Board will see that, in the instruction given in their School, none but the subjects prescribed in the Programme shall be taught, and that no effort will be made, or suffered, either to evade the wise provisions of the Law, or to lower the reasonable standard of High School instruction which the Legislature itself has set up.

There is another aspect of this question to which I desire to call the attention of High School Boards. Up to 1871, it was urged with some force that, while the Legislature required the High School Boards to do certain things, it left them powerless to provide the necesasry means to enable them to do so. This was doubtless true, to a certain extent, up to 1871, although I had sought in past years to have it otherwise. However, in 1871, the Boards of Trustees were left without any excuse on that ground. In that year, while the Legislature prescribed one, or two, additional subjects of instruction in the High Schools, (which gave a symmetry and completeness to the Course of Study in them), it also provided most liberally for enabling Trustees to support their Schools and pay their Teachers. Not only did it in that year increase the High School Grant from $57,000 to $70,000, but it also required the County and City Councils to provide by Assessment, (for the first time), and to furnish the Trustees with $35,000 more, making a total High School Grant from that time of $105,000 per annum,or, on an average, $1,000 for each High School and Collegiate Institute,-besides $750 additional for each of the Collegiate Institutes.

Farther, for the first time, the Legislature authorized each High School Board to call upon the Council, or Councils, concerned, to provide by Assessment whatever additional sums it might require "for the School Accommodation and maintenance" of the High School; and it made it an imperative duty of these Councils to provide these sums. It might be well, in regard to this matter, to call attention to the comparative amount of the Grants made to the High and Public Schools. I have already shown that the Legislature has provided a preliminary High School Fund of $105,000, to be divided among about 105 High Schools and Collegiate Institutes, independently of the $750 additional paid to each of the latter Institutions. This sum allows of an apportionment of from $25 to $30 per Pupil in average attendance at each High School and Collegiate Institute.

To the Public Schools the Grant, including the County Assessment, did not last year amount to more than eighty cents per Pupil, and this year that sum will not exceed one dollar per Pupil in average attendance at each Public School. It may be left to the judgment of any candid man, therefore, whether it is reasonable or just to allow High Schools to do Public School work, and yet receive between twenty-five and thirty times as much as the Public Schools for doing it!

If the High Schools do any Public School work, then should the High School Fund be made a Public School Fund, and be equitably distributed among all the Public Schools. If there is no High School work in a neighbourhood, then there should be no High School there. Every true friend of High School education is, therefore, concerned to see that no abuse shall be practised upon the High School Fund, and that it shall be faithfully employed in the legitimate work prescribed to High Schools by Law.

It will be seen, by the authorized Regulations, as well as by the provisions of the School Law, that the local Boards of Examiners must see that the uniform standard for the Admission of Pupils to the High Schools must be observed; that these Regulations apply to all Pupils admitted to the High Schools since August, 1872; and that the Inspectors are to see that these Regulations are duly observed.

No branch of our System of Public Instruction has thus far been comparatively so defective and inefficient as that of the High Schools,-the intermediate branch between the Public Schools and the University, and between the Public Schools and the Manufacturing and Commercial employments of life. I trust the exertions of your Board will tend to promote this important branch of the proper education of a people,

and to make the High Schools as honourable to the Country, and as much and as generally prized as are the Public Schools.

TORONTO, 2nd July, 1873.

EGERTON RYERSON.

II. CIRCULAR TO THE INSPECTORS OF HIGH SCHOOLS.

The inspection of High Schools and Collegiate Institutes having now become a settled organized system, I have submitted to the Council of Public Instruction, in a condensed form, the various Regulations and Instructions under which that inspection has hitherto been conducted. The Council has also added a few additional Regulations which have been rendered necessary, in consequence of the additional duty which now devolves on the High School Inspectors, provision having been made by the Legislature for increasing their number for the purpose of visiting and reporting upon the Public and Separate Schools in those places where High Schools are situated. These Regulations have been incorporated in the General Regulations for the government of our High Schools and Collegiate Institutes, and have received the sanction of His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council. They will go into effect on the reassembling of the High Schools after the Midsummer Vacation.

In order to give a definiteness and uniformity to the inspection and examination of each High, as well as Public, and Separate, School which you may visit, I have prepared, as authorized by the Regulations, certain forms of report which will be found useful and suggestive in carrying on the inspection of these various Schools. These reports, as before, will be confidential, and I trust they will be fully and carefully filled up, and that the report of the inspection of each School will be transmitted to this Department without delay, as you proceed from County to County, or from School to School. When the report of the inspection of each School is transmitted separately, as requested, I shall be able to examine it carefully, and learn what is being done in the Schools, as well as in the inspection of them; which I cannot do conveniently when the Reports of the whole half year's inspection are sent in at once.

I hope that the efficiency of the High Schools and Collegiate Institutes will be greatly advanced by the revised Programmes and Regulations, as well as by the improved system of inspection.

TORONTO, 2nd July, 1873.

EGERTON RYERSON.

REVISED GENERAL REGULATIONS FOR THE ORGANIZATION, GOVERNMENT, AND DISCIPLINE OF HIGH SCHOOLS AND COLLEGIATE INSTITUTES IN ONTARIO, 1873.

Prescribed by the Council of Public Instruction on the 31st day of March, and 20th day of May, and Approved by His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council on the 24th day of June, 1873.

NOTE. The former general Regulations, relating to High Schools and Collegiate Institutes, have been fully revised, and, as such, are now issued for the guidance of the Head Masters and Teachers of these Schools, and the Collegiate Institutes.

I. Terms, Hours of Daily Teaching, Holidays and Vacations.*

1. Terms. There shall be four Terms each year, to be designated the Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn Terms. The Winter Term shall begin on the 7th of January, and end on the Tuesday next before Easter; the Spring Term shall begin the Wednesday after Easter, and close the last day of June; the Summer Term shall begin the 16th day of August, and end the Friday next before the 15th of October; the Autumn

* High and Public Schools united are subject to the following Regulations affecting Holidays and Vacations in High Schools. In order also to enable the Education Department to make an equitable Apportionment to Roman Catholic Separate Schools in Cities, Towns and Villages where united High and Public Schools exist, it is required that both the Public and Separate Schools shall observe the Regulations affecting Holidays and Vacations in High Schools.

Term shall begin on the Monday following the close of the Summer Term, and shall end on the 22nd day of December.

2. Hours. The Exercises of the day shall not commence later than nine o'clock a.m., and shall not exceed six hours in duration, exclusive of all the time allowed at Noon for recreation, and of not less than ten minutes during each forenoon and each afternoon. Nevertheless, a less number of hours of daily teaching may be determined upon in any High School, at the option of the Board of Trustees.

3. Holidays. Every Saturday shall be a Holiday; or, if preferred by the Board of Trustees and Head Master of any High School, the afternoons of Wednesday and Saturday in each week shall be half-holidays. All days declared by Law to be Public Holidays, shall be Holidays in each School. The anniversary of the Birth of our Sovereign, Dominion Day, any local Municipal Holiday, and such day as may be appointed by the Governor, or other competent authority, for Public Fast, or Thanksgiving, throughout the Province, shall be Holidays in all the High Schools of Ontario. 4. Vacations. There shall be three Vacations in each year; the first, or Spring Vacation, shall begin on the Wednesday next before Easter, and end on the Tuesday next after it; the second, or Summer Vacation, shall begin on the 1st day of July and end on the 15th day of August, inclusive; and the third, or Christmas Vacation, shall commence on the 23rd day of December, and end on the 6th of January.

NOTE. No time lost can be lawfully made up by any Master, or Teacher, on any Holiday, or during the Vacations.

5. All Agreements between Trustees, Masters and Teachers shall be subject to the foregoing Regulations; and no Master, or Teacher, shall be deprived of any part of his Salary on account of observing allowed Holidays and Vacations, or for sickness, as provided in Regulation 5 of the "Additional Duties of Masters and Teachers." Masters and Teachers shall be entitled to the Holidays, or Vocations, immediately following the close of their period of service.

6. Examinations.-The public half-yearly Examinations required to be held in each High School, [by the eighth clause of the twenty-fifty Section of the Ontario Consolidated High School Act], shall take place, the one immediately before the Christmas Holidays, and the other immediately before the Summer Vacation. (Examinations for Scholarships, etcetera, shall be conducted as prescribed in Regulation fifteen of Chapter Seven of these Regulations).

[NOTE. See General Regulations, and Note, in the "Additional Duties of Masters and Teachers," (Number Nine), in regard to Masters aid Teachers visiting other Schools].

II. Religious and Moral Instruction in the High Schools and Collegiate Institutes.

1. As Christianity is the basis of our whole System of Elementary Education, that principle should pervade it throughout.

2. The High School, or Collegiate Institute, being a day, and not a boarding School, rules arising from domestic relations and duties are not required, and as the Pupils are under the care of their Parents and Guardians on Sundays, no Regulations are called for in respect to their attendance at Public Worship.

III. Opening and Closing Exercises of each Day.

With a view to secure the Divine Blessing, and to impress upon the Pupils the importance of Religious Duties, and their entire dependence on their Maker, the Council of Public Instruction recommends that the Daily Exercises of each High School and Collegiate Institute be opened and closed by reading a portion of Scripture, and by Prayer. The Lord's Prayer alone, or the Forms of Prayer hereto annexed, may be used, or any other Prayer preferred by the Trustees and Head Master of each School. But the Lord's Praper shall form part of the Opening Exercise, and the Ten Commandments be taught to all the Pupils, and be repeated at least once a week.

But no

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