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REPORT.

To His Excellency the Governor, and the Honorable the General Assembly:

GENTLEMEN :-In conformity with law and usage, I present the NINETEENTH ANNUAL REPORT on the state and condition of the schools, and of education, in RHODE ISLAND, with plans and suggestions for their improvement.

The friends of education in this State have much reason for encouragement, at the manifest improvement in the standard of our District School instruction. School officers and teachers are becoming more and more alive to such a necessity, and the same spirit is gradually infusing itself into all our districts. Parents and guardians are responding to it, and are inquiring how they can best educate those who are committed to their care. "Sending children to school" no longer satisfies; there must be evidence that they are becoming wiser and better.

Since the last report, twelve additional schools have been established in the State, and fifteen more teachers have been employed. The number of male teachers is thirty-four less than the year previous, and that of female teachers fortynine more. The increase of appropriations by the several towns, for school purposes, is nearly six thousand dollars

SCHOOL COMMISSIONER'S REPORT.

above those of last year; and the increase of expenditures for school houses is nineteen thousand dollars over those for the year previous. There has also been an increase in the number of scholars, in both the summer and winter schools, as well as an improvement in the average attendance. Indeed, upon examining the returns, I notice that in one district, No. 18, South Kingstown, - the whole number registered and the average attendance is the same. All this is encouraging.

By law, the appropriation of $15,000 is apportioned equally among the districts, each district receiving $37.50; and the appropriation of $35,000 is divided among the sev eral towns in proportion to the number of children therein, according to the last census, under the age of fifteen

years.

The following tables show the number of school districts in Rhode Island, the division of the annual appropriation by the State of $50,000 among the several towns, the time at which it is paid, and the number of children in the sev eral towns under fifteen years of age.