Mr. Speaker:—In moving the second reading of this bill, I propose to explain to the House the distinguishing principles of the Educational system of this Province, which has gained so much credit amongst other communities alike engaged in the important work of national Education. It was upon consideration of the principles and practical results of the Ontario system that the Commissioners at the Centennial Exhibition, in 1876, gave to the Education Department such high commendation, and at the Paris Exhibition last year the Department was awarded, upon the same grounds, a position no less satisfactory. We adopted at Paris the same method for the illustration of our system as we had adopted at Philadelphia, though, of course, on a smaller scale.

This success shows that our system possesses distinguishing principles, which will be best understood when their practical results are shown. I propose now to mention the most prominent of those principles. The first is, that all our Public Schools are free; the second, that our schools are supported by local rates chargeable upon all the asssessed property of the locality; the third, that the ratepayers themselves manage and govern the schools through their own chosen trustees; a fourth—and very important—consists in the municipal organizations of the Province being taken advantage of, so as to furnish aid and strength to the School Boards and Trustees; and a fifth, is economical expenditure in the maintenance of the schools. We have also a guarantee for satisfactory attendance of all the children without the necessity of extreme and stringent compulsory enactments. In England the power of compelling attendance is optional with the School Boards, while the Education Act passed in 1872 makes the attendance universally compulsory in Scotland. We recognize in our system the religious principle, but at the same time the fullest liberty of conscience is preserved. We also appreciate the advantages, and in fact the necessity, of proper opportunities for training teachers professionally as well as generally. And we have an element of great importance in maintaining a proper standard in all the schools, and, in giving coherency to the system, in having a central supervisory authority in the Education Department. I have thus mentioned some nine of the essential principles which form the basis of our elementary system, and if the House will bear with me I will point out some of the practical advantages which result from such important factors in accomplishing the end of any system truly national—the educating to a satisfactory standard of the whole of the youth of a country. Through the principle of perfect freedom we have, out of a total school population (from the age of five to twenty-one years) amounting in the year 1877 to 494,804, a registered attendance to the number of 490,860. This would show a deficiency of less than 5,000, but from other returns the number not attending any school would appear to be 15,974. But in either case it presents the satisfactory feature that, under our system of free schools, there is nearly a universal attendance of the school population of Ontario. The nature and extent of that attendance will be found fairly satisfactory. Our school year contains two hun- page 5 dred and twenty teaching days, and having regard to this the average attendance is greater than in any of the States of the American Union, except Massachusetts, amounting to 217,184, and the percentage of the yearly average attendance being 44. It is gratifying to find that our youth are deriving so much benefit from our schools. And it is a significant fact that there is a difference of only one-quarter of one per cent, between the percentage of the number attending school and the whole school population. If the attendance is considered according to ages, we find that there is a small fraction under five years, while more than one-half—51 per cent.—are between five and ten years, and 43 per cent, between 11 and 16, and 4 ½ per cent, between 19 and 21. In speaking of the question of attendance it is wise to be content with present results rather than to assume a more stringent principle of compulsion. It is also to be remembered that a large proportion of the total school expenditure is incurred in giving instruction in the ordinary elementary subjects, as will be seen when more than eighty per cent, of the pupils are in the first, second and third classes, viz., 32 per cent being in the first, 22 in the second, and 27 in the third class, and the subjects in these classes are chiefly reading, writing and arithmetic. In the fourth class there is found 15 per cent., in the fifth 4 per cent., and in the sixth, or highest class, only one-eighth of one per cent. This shows that the work of secondary education is now being done by the High Schools, which can give advantages which the Public Schools are not intended to undertake. I find that 2 per cent, only of the whole school population are pursuing a course of secondary education in the High Schools, while about the same proportion is to be found in Private Schools and Colleges. From tables I have prepared it will be seen that this principle of free schools supported by local rates, managed and governed by local officials, and sustained by our municipal organizations has had the effect of developing and stimulating our system until results of a high character have been reached. The impetus given to this Province after Confederation in material respects was remarkable,—in the construction of railways and other public works, in additions to banking capital, in deposits in banks and savings societies, and in other particulars. The progress in Educational matters has been equally great. Here are some de- page 6 tails:—In 1868 the total expenditure upon Public Schools was $1,588,000, in 1871 it was $1,803,000, and in 1873 $2,604,000, and increasing gradually in 1874 and 1875, until in 1876 the amount was $3,000,000, and in 1877 $3,073,000. There has been a decrease since 1875 in expenditure on capital account. It would appear that there had been much pressure on the various school corporations by the Department and Public School Inspectors owing to the general need of an improved class of school-houses, and we therefore find in 1874 that $699,000 was expended on capital account, in 1875 $702,000, in 1876 $630,000, and in 1877 the much smaller sum of $477,000. Much of the falling off in 1877 may be attributed to the large expenditures in previous years and also to the circumstance that since I took charge of the Department, Public School Inspectors have been instructed to take into consideration the resources of the school section when urging any such requirement. While I am upon this subject I may also refer to the average cost per capita of pupils and it will be found to have increased in the like proportions as the sums levied year by year in support of the schools. In 1868 the cost per capita was $3.34, in 1871 $3.42, in 1875 $4.83, and in 1877 $5.29. The principle of local management is very important in securing requisite knowledge upon matters of local concern which no central authority could possibly possess. Our local school corporations also receive valuable aid from the municipal corporations being bound to raise and collect through the municipal machinery the necessary funds for the requirements of the schools. Again, owing to the schools being managed by the representatives of the ratepayers, every ratepayer paying a direct tax for school purposes will understand whether he is deriving full benefit from this expenditure in his children obtaining proper school advantages. This consideration has a marked effect upon improving the attendance, and, indeed, in securing fairly satisfactory results without stringent compulsory enactments. While the Educational system of the Province is connected and bound up with our municipal organizations, the functions of each, as a rule, do not conflict, except in the particulars in which, by the Bill before the House, I propose to place some check on School corporations in their expenditure of money on capital account, and their power of calling upon municipal corporations to furnish such sums as they might demand. Antagonisms have arisen from School Boards page 7 being inclined to carry their legal power to an extreme, and a want of harmony has resulted between the two bodies representing the interests of the ratepayers, to their injury. The difficulty is to draw the line so as to prevent unreasonable expenditures without prejudice to those which are absolutely necessary for the efficiency of the schools. The tenure of office of school trustees is not one which I am disposed to disturb, but being for a period of years, and the annual changes in the boards being only of a portion, it is more difficult for the public opinion of the ratepayers to assert itself as rapidly as in the case of municipal corporations. The responsibility which all local officials owe to the ratepayers whom they represent should always be one of true economy, and especially in expenditure for current maintenance. It is as much an essential principle of a proper system of popular education that it should be economical in cost, as universally applicable, so as not to exclude any child, and that system will fail to give satisfaction, if the people are called upon to pay too much for it. The necessary checks upon extravagance should therefore exist, and every means be employed for securing that economy with due regard to efficiency which should be found in our system. I have figures to show the cost of our system, from which you can see that the people of Ontario cannot be said to be paying too much for their school advantages. I will first give the figures which represent the cost per capita for current expenditure in some of the American States. The following will be found in Commissioner Eaton's report to the Secretary of the Interior, United States, for 1876—7.

In cities the expenditure for current maintenance, is as follows:

The cost in Ontario per capita of school population, according to the Minister's Report for 1877, the school age being from 5 to 21, was for current expenditure and excluding any on capital account, $5.29.

The cost per registered pupil for current expenditure in the several cities of the Province, and the cost based on the average daily attendance was as follows:—

These figures show a much larger cost per capita for the instruction of children in the States mentioned as contrasted with our own. This also suggests another difference in our system and theirs in there being a nearer equality in the standard of our schools in cities or towns, and in the rural districts. If the cost in each inspectoral district is examined, it will be found to be near this average. For instance, take the report of the Inspector for South Hastings, and it shows that in his district the cost per pupil was 85.60. Under our system we find schools in the rural districts occupying a satisfactory position as compared with the city or town school in possessing efficient teachers with good qualifications, while the best illustrations of the free school system of America are to be seen in such schools as those of Boston or New York, and it would not appear that the schools in the rural districts of many of the states would equal ours, especially in the qualifications of the teachers. There the best teachers are secured for the cities and towns, while in the rural districts they are content with hiring teachers by the month, and at low salaries, and this brings down the average cost in the whole state.

If we refer to other colonies, in New Brunswick, the cost per capita is $4.15; in Nova Scotia the cost is $7.67; and in British Columbia it varies from $13.77 to $30.64.

In the management of public business in England we have illustrations of sound economy, and we find there that value is obtained for expenditure by securing efficiency at the same time. Among the problems which the people of England have been called upon to solve, and which they are sucessfully doing, is that of national education, and in this attention is specially directed to the training of efficient teachers. Now, in England the cost of current expenditure per pupil in schools aided by parliamentary grants was, in Board Schools, £2 1s. 4 ½d., of that amount £1 2s. 2d. is paid by the ratepayers, and by the children £0 9s. 1 ½d., and the Government grant per pupil is £0 11s. 5 ¾d. The cost per pupil in voluntary schools is £1 13s. 5 ¼d., as contrasted with the larger amount £2 1s. 4 ½d. per pupil in the Board Schools. In Scotland the cost is £1 19s. 3 ¾d.

As to the question whether under our system a satisfactory attendance of all the children is secured, the figures which I have already given may be taken as satisfactory, when our long school year is considered, and that the average attendance amounts to page 10 44 ¼ per cent, of the total registered school population. In the Report of the Special Commissioner appointed last year by the Colony of Victoria our position is referred to as a highly developed school system, under which the standard of attendance is second only to Scotland and the State of Massachusetts. While the tables which were before the Commissioner only shewed 41 per cent, as the average attendance, it has since increased, and in 1878 was more than 44 per cent. There may be occasion in the future to consider whether the Legislature may not remove some obstacles to the attendance in the Public Schools of certain classes of children. The present compulsory clauses in our law are more formidable in sound than in reality, for it is only after default in neglecting to see that his child has attended a public school for four months in the year that a parent can be made liable to a fine or penalty. In comparison with the Imperial Act of 1871, Lord Sandon's Act of 1876, and also the Scottish Act of 1872, the provisions in our law are mild indeed. In Scotland the clauses apply to every parent who neglects to see that his child puts in a reasonable amount of attendance, and can on any default be immediately enforced. We can readily understand that any such system would not be acceptable to the people of this Province, but there will be a time for the people, through their representatives, to protect themselves from the evils of that ignorance which will arise, if children of tender years are to be constantly employed in our manufactories; we then must consider whether a measure such as that which Lord Sandon introduced in 1876 might not be adopted with advantage. Lord Sandon's measure of universal application, and embodied in the Act of 1876, provides that no child under ten years of age shall be employed in any description of labour, in order that he might be free from five to ten years of age to obtain an elementary education. And as to children between the years of ten and fourteen this further security was thrown around them, that after the year 1881, no employer of labour should be allowed to employ a child between those ages unless that child possessed a certificate to show that he has been educated for at least five years continuously, and had satisfied an attendance of at least 250 out of a maximum of 400 in each year. In this way England is endeavouring to educate the whole people, while in this Province we are accomplishing this without the necessity as yet of such penal page 10 clauses. Without dwelling longer on this question, the next is an important one. It has been sometimes remarked that this effort of educating the whole community may result in making clever scoundrels without improving their moral nature. Dr. Ryerson in discussing this question has expressed his views that the religious element was parcel of our system, and that while it was non-denominational it was not secular. It has been a difficult question everywhere. In our Province, however, we possess in the Statute and Regulations a well defined basis for recognizing in our schools the great principles of our common Christianity, while, at the same time, the fullest liberty of conscience is preserved to every one; and as an illustration the existence of our Separate Schools may be taken as a testimony of this liberty of conscience. While it is in the public interest that the children of all denominations of Christians should be educated together, and with beneficial results to all, yet the principle of Separate Schools has been allowed to Protestants and Catholics equally, but it has been accepted chiefly by the latter class. In some of the provisions of the present Bill I propose to improve some of the machinery in which experience has shown defects, and to enable these schools to carry on their operations in a similar manner to the improved conditions of our Public Schools. In view of these difficulties my endeavour will be to assist their efforts in discharging their part in the work of elementary education. One difficulty has been overcome by enabling Separate School Trustees to take advantage of the Municipal Assessment Roll for ascertaining their supporters and collecting their school rates. This was effected by adding another column to the assessment roll and carrying on the process through the other official steps till the school moneys, both public and separate, are collected and paid into the Municipal Treasury, and are thence distributed to the respective school corporations. This machinery has been found so satisfactory, the expense so small, and the security so much better, that I intend, in the case of rural Public Schools to do away with the powers under which they may collect their own school rates, and leave this in future to the municipal officials. Under this system no ratepayer can escape the payment of his proper school tax.

From the time I first took charge of the Department I have been impressed with the importance of possessing efficient teachers for our page 12 schools, so that the large expenditures which we annually undertake therefor might receive a corresponding return in the valuable quality of the teaching True economy, in any school system, means the securing of efficient teachers. Their remuneration should be gauged according to their efficiency, and the amount regulated by what is paid in other employments which involve similar duties and capacities. The necessity therefore arises, in every elementary educational system, that the requisite means for producing efficient teachers should exist, and this involves a process of special training, the same as is required in any mechanical or professional occupation. In the different States of the Union we find Normal Schools established for this purpose, but these have been able to supply only a very moderate proportion of the schools with efficient teachers. The English system, which is also adopted in the Australian Colonies, is no doubt thoroughly effective in producing the desired results, and especially a high professional standard of training. There the pupil teacher is gradually developed into the teacher-in-training. The school managers are allowed to engage two or three pupils of the age of 14 as teachers in their schools, paying them a stated salary. The pupil teachers continue as such for five years, when they are admitted into training Colleges, and undergo a two years' course of professional education, while all expenses for instruction and maintenance are borne by the Government. The expense per capita in these training Colleges is large, being, according to the Education Report for 1876, £53 10s. in that year for each male student, and about £39 for each female student, making in the two years' course the cost of each trained male teacher £107, and of female £78. In this matter of obtaining trained teachers there is a disturbing element in the short duration of the school life or service of the teacher. The declaration imposed in England upon the students in the training Colleges binds them to continue teachers for only two years, notwithstanding this large expense in their training.

We have tried in Ontario several experiments towards providing trained teachers at a moderate expense, and in sufficient numbers. Our only means of professional training was, as in Massachusetts, New York, and other States of the Union, the Normal School, whose advantages were enjoyed by very few out of the whole number of teachers. In taking office in 1876 I found that much of the time of page 13 the principal and masters was occupied in educating the students in general subjects, rather than in giving them professional instruction, and that while inexperienced and untrained third-class teachers were entering the profession at the rate of fifteen hundred a year, the number of second-class teachers from the two Normal Schools in 1876 was only twenty-seven, and the first-class only eight. The following table will, I think, demonstrate the pressing necessity there was of some effective method for giving every teacher in the future some amount of professional training. The number of teachers employed in 1877 was 6,468 in 5,140 schools, the males being 3,020, and the females 3,448. The number who applied for certificates from 1871 to 1877 inclusive was:

The remedies applied in 1877 for improving this condition of our teaching staff, were to confine the work of the Normal Schools to the professional training of candidates for first and second-class certificates, and to rely upon the High Schools for their instruction in literary and scientific subjects, and to afford some opportunity of acquiring teaching knowledge and experience to the numerous body of candidates for third-class certificates who were yearly presenting themselves. The curriculum of our High Schools is sufficiently comprehensive for furnishing instruction in the subjects of secondary education, as well as affording the like, if not better opportunities than page 14 the Normal Schools in the literary and scientific subjects prescribed for second-class teachers' certificates.

The special value of the Normal School at Toronto, as a training College for teachers, lay in the Model School attached to it, when by the daily inspection of classes under properly trained teachers, and by practice in teaching those classes, that experience is gained which makes the teacher of value. A Model School was accordingly proposed to be established in every County in the Province by utilizing a graded Public School therein as the first step in the process of training candidates for third-class certificates in the proper methods and principles of teaching the elementary subjects in our Public Schools.

It can be justly said that in this work of training teachers we possess in our institution of County Model Schools, not only a most economical, but efficient mode for their professional instruction.

The number of subjects in the Public School course of study has been diminished, and in the County Model Schools teachers are all taught in the best methods of teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic, and in school discipline and government. All the County Councils (except in two instances,) have come forward spontaneously and have contributed to the maintenance of the Model Schools in sums at least equal to the Legislative grant, while some Counties in their appreciation of their benefits have liberally gone farther. These schools are now supplying the country with a much better class of teachers than in 1876, and in sufficient numbers for the wants of the page 15 several Counties. In fact I can now with confidence say that the working of these schools has proved so satisfactory that the Province will be relieved from the demands for erecting any more Normal Schools, such as at Ottawa, for many years to come. While the teacher gains his first lesson in professional experience in the County Model School he is afforded an opportunity of obtaining much higher qualifications in our two Normal Schools, as these are now confined solely to professional instruction. The Ottawa School is yet without a Model School, being generously allowed by the Public School Board the use of Public Schools for this purpose. With this want supplied we will have two Normal Schools fully equipped, and discharging the work of instructing teachers so as to acquire the highest qualifications in their profession. With these two institutions, and the Ottawa one fully equipped with Model Schools of its own, we will possess the means of turning out highly trained teachers in sufficient numbers to supply the demand, and with a considerable reduction in the expense per capita of Normal students to the Province. Having regard to the current expenditure for salaries and contingencies in 1877, the average cost per student at Toronto was $100.59, and at Ottawa $176.03, the difference arising in part from the want of Model Schools, by means of which an increased number could be trained. Any system of training teachers, so as to possess high qualifications, must be attended with considerable expense, not only for current maintenance, but on capital account, and any educational return to compensate for this must be looked for in the improved qualifications of those teachers who have been subjected to this higher kind of professional training, and the efforts of the Normal Schools should be altogether devoted to work of this nature.

The last subject to be noticed is the jurisdiction of the Department and its functions in school matters, as compared with those entrusted to Municipal and School Corporations, and it is desirable that this should be explained, lest there should be any misunderstanding as to the responsibility which attaches to myself as Minister of Education, and to the Government as the Education Department.

The tendency in former times to administer public affairs by irreponsible Boards has disappeared, except in the Federal and State systems of the United States of America, and their experience should tend to confirm the people of Ontario in accepting all the legitimate page 16 consequences of the principle of responsibility of their administrators to them through their chosen representatives.

In the early years of educational effort in this Province the people were inexperienced in the management of local affairs, and our Municipal system had not been long in operation. There was besides much ignorance as to the true interests of the people in education. It required much discussion and experiment to mould and develope a system which is now found so symmetrical in its principles, and satisfactory in its practical workings. It was the necessary consequence of this development that the Chief Superintendent and Council or Bureau of Education should disappear, and that a Public Department, and a responsible Minister, should take their place, and which, in the exercise of their authority, could only act with reference to their responsibility to the people. There is, therefore, now no room for misapprehension as to where the responsibility lies for any measure of legislation or acts of administration in Educational matters; but it is difficult to draw the line where that responsibility ceases, and the duties of the local organizations and other agencies begin. These duties have to do chiefly with the practical operations of our system. The School Boards are amenable to the ratepayers who periodically elect them; and in the important duties which are assigned to School Inspectors, or to Municipal Councils, under the Law or Regulations, they are also responsible to the ratepayers. The duties to be discharged by the different Municipal Councils are so clearly defined in the Public Schools Act, that it is unnecessary to mention them here; but so far as the Regulations of the Department concern the School Corporations and officials, they may become ineffectual or less beneficial, according to the way in which they are assumed to be discharged.

The Regulations are intended to guide the local trustees in their management of the schools, and the Inspectors in ascertaining and reporting upon the practical results. The County Councils appoint the County Inspectors, and while all School Inspectors are responsible to the Department for the efficient discharge of their duties, they are only in a secondary sense officials of the Department.

It will be seen, therefore, that the principal functions of the Education Department are those of supervision, in order to secure the satisfactory discharge, by the various local bodies and officials, of page 17 their respective duties, and that the Department should not only confine itself to these functions, but strictly refrain from taking upon itself, or interfering with powers and duties entrusted to local management, and which local experience can more intelligently deal with than any central authority at a distance, such as the former Council of Public Instruction, or the present Department. This duty of supervision can always be made effective through the non-payment of the appropriation from the Legislative Grant to any School Corporation, and by similar means in the case of Inspectors. The Minister, however, has now, as the Chief Superintendent formerly had, amongst his many duties, the important one of assisting School and Municipal Corporations and officials, by explaining and interpreting the Law and Regulations, in counselling them on occasions of difficulty, and in several matters, on their being appealed, deciding them. In fulfilling this duty, I have called their attention to the distinction between the positive enactments of the Law and the Regulations of the Department. Thus, on the question of school accommodation, the Regulations were considered by me as recommendatory, and to be fulfilled without unduly pressing on the resources of the school, when in many instances Inspectors had insisted upon a rigid compliance with them, under threats of forfeiture of the appropriation coming to the school from the Legislative Grant. In revising these Regulations, I have made their effect quite plain as being recommendatory, except where the Statute itself has imposed any particular condition, the principal one being as to rural school sections, that the accommodation should be for two-thirds of the children in the school section. It will be seen that the Regulations, as revised, do not authorize any Inspector to oppress the ratepayers of a school section with an undue demand for school accommodation. It is the first duty of an Inspector to consider how he can best promote the interests of the schools in his charge, but in all his efforts to exercise the wise discretion of a prudent man. I am glad, however, to bear testimony to the efficiency, zeal and good faith with which I have observed many County and other School Inspectors discharge their important duties, but cannot too strongly impress upon them that an essential qualification of efficiency is, to be proved to be strictly impartial and divested of all political partizanship. While the Inspector enjoys all the rights of citizenship, he should be careful in any election contest, or page 18 otherwise, to so conduct himself that predilections in favour of either political party should not destroy that general confidence in his impartiality, which is so necessary for his efficiency as an Inspector. I have also been ready to say that most valuable results were secured by the change in the Law in 1871, under which the present mode of school inspection took the place of the old plan of local superintendence. Inspectors now must possess high qualifications, both as teachers and in scholarship, while the emoluments of the office make it an object of ambition to every school teacher; and we have many teachers in the Province who possess qualifications of the high standard prescribed for Public School Inspectors. The tenure of the office of County Inspector is such as should secure their impartiality. So long as an Inspector discharges his duties efficiently, he can be removed, only by a two-thirds majority of the County Council. It is unlikely that such two-thirds majority would be found unless the Inspector had given reasonable cause for his dismissal. It would not be wise therefore to alter the tenure by which County Inspectors hold office. It may not be generally understood that it is to the County Council, through the Committee of Appeal (two of the members now being the County Judge and County Inspector), that the decision of any Township Council, as to the formation, alteration or dissolution of School Sections can be appealed, and this should secure more stability, and remove some of the difficulties which attend this system of rural school sections, through the frequent attempts of ratepayers to gain special advantages for themselves. The late Chief Superintendent derived this form of school district from the State of Massachusetts, but in the year 1868 Massachusetts, after 80 years of experience, found this system so injurious to the educational interests of the schools, that its Legislature passed an Act, under which the township now constitutes the school district. In our Law it is optional for school sections to form themselves into Township Boards. If this was taken advantage of generally, I am of the same opinion as the late Chief Superintendent, that many bf the evils inevitably connected with school sections would, be remedied, and one of the strong arguments for a Township Board is that it would be a more economical mode of educating all the children of the township. However, this is a matter altogether for school sections to determine for themselves, and should not be imposed by any, page 19 imperative Act of the Legislature. The evil of frequent alterations in the boundaries of school sections in a township is a question demanding the greatest attention and careful consideration of the Township Council. It should only be on the clearest case of hardship or injustice that the Township Council should assume to disturb its school sections: a case of more or less inconvenience would not justify any alteration; and the Committee of Appeal of the County Council should be still less inclined to favour the frequent efforts which are made for selfish and interested reasons to interfere with school sections as they are found to exist, and the Township Council and Appeal Committee are bound to take no step without calling before them the parties likely to be affected.

County Councils are required by Law to take an active interest in the practical and satisfactory working of our school system. It is upon them that the responsibility of appointing efficient Inspectors rests, and also of seeing that he, as a County officer, properly discharges his duties, and it is to them that he is directly responsible.

The Education Department is also entitled to require from School Inspectors the judicious and efficient discharge of their duties, and, as occasion arises, to instruct them thereupon. The following will be an illustration: