Nova Scotia.— In the public schools of Nova Scotia there are 12 grades, 9, 10, 11 and 12 being high school. Very many of the rural elementary schools have superior grades which do the first and the second year and even the third year work of the high schools. In .the towns and larger villages the high school de partments are separate. The law allows one high school, called the county academy, in each county, to share in the $10,000 which the legis lature grants for secondary education, in addi tion to the other grants to which they are en titled in common with the high school grades generally; provided the county academy is free to each pupil of the county who passes the uniform departmental entrance examinations.
Should, however, the shire town fall below the standard in equipment and accommodations, another may be made the county academy by the council of public instruction. Be sides the uniform entrance examinations the education department holds uniform examina tions in the courses of all the high school grades, and the universities and colleges of the provinces accept for matriculation the certifi cate of having passed grade 11 when it indi cates a high pass in the subjects they prescribe, or of grade 12 with a 50 per cent pass on the essential matriculation subjects. The grade 12 pass is expected to displace eventually the old grade 11 pass. There are 18 county academies with 59 teachers, of whim 39 are university graduates, class academic being the necessary professional qualification for the high school teachers drawing academic grants. In 1917 the total enrolment in all high schools was 9,088. Of the total attendance 1,853 belonged to the county academies. There were 2,949 pupils in the technical schools. Nova Scotia has a num ber of private schools which report an attend ance of 450 as doing high school work.
Academic teachers must henceforth be grad uates of recognized universities, who must after graduation have passed the provincial univer sity graduates' testing examination in six sub jects, one of which (the major) must be of the standard of university honors distinction. After 30 or 35 years' service they can retire with an annuity not exceeding $600 per annum.
So far, except in some progressive centres, very little special attention has been paid in the secondary schools to vocational education. Art is an optional subject in the high school course and in the Halifax County Academy there is a three years' commercial course. In the Nova Scotia Technical College there are two sets of courses, the long course being of university grade and the short course partly of secondary grade. There were also in 1917 local technical schools in seven cities and towns and coal mining and engineering schools. For the school year ending July 1917 the following was the attendance at the different classes of schools: Rural Science School, 148; Agricul tural College (regular), 63; Agricultural Col lege (short course), 290; Nova Scotia Technical College, 67; evening technical schools, 1,643; coal mining schools, 536; Normal College, 263; total, 2,949.
Alberta.— The administrative unit of the educational system of Alberta is the school dis trict. Any district, when conditions warrant, may, in addition to providing for the elemen tary or public school grades (1-8), provide for any or all of the high school grades (9-12), with the usual secondary school courses, all being under one school board. The govern ment provides an increased grant for the sec ondary grades. Grade 11 gives university ma triculation standing and admits to a normal school for training as second class teacher, while grade 12 gives first year university stand ing and admits to normal school for training as first class teacher.
Provincial normal schools containing large practice schools are located at Calgary and Camrose. The other educational institutions which take up secondary school work are the Alberta (Theological) Collee, the Robertson (Theological) College, the Jesuit College, all of Edmonton; Mount Royal College; Western Canada College; Saint Hilda's College, all of Calgary; Alberta Ladies' College at Edmonton; and Knight's Academy at Raymond.
As in most of the other provinces, the voca tional side of education is emphasized in Alberta. The board of every district has power to make provision for instruction in both the primary and secondary grades in manual training, domestic science, physical training, music and art, and courses are given during each summer vacation for teachers of these subjects. An optional commercial high school course of two years has also been established. As to agriculture: The subject is taken up in the last two years of the elementary school course and is supple mented in the higher grades after a course in elementary science; and summer schools are provided for both teachers and inspectors. Moreover, in order to provide for very many young men and women who in their earlier years were deprived of school facilities, three schools of Agriculture, managed by the Department of Agriculture, have already been located on three of the demonstration farms of the Department of Agriculture. The courses include scientific and practical agricul ture and household science and art, along with the more essential subjects of the ordinary pub lic and high school grades. Pupils who take the two years' course offered, and who possess the necessary academic standing, may continue their course for a degree in agriculture in the University of Alberta.