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Show 1 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOH 9 1 The nursing service was increased numerically during the year. Changes made in the organization of the nursing personnel will improve the conditions under which the work must be done and will i have a tendency to attract a high type of nurse to the Indian Service. Inquiries concerning 'the positions were received from a greater number of nurses than during the prior year. The public health nursing work has been better organized and the qudity of work'is improving steadily. New positions of this nature have been estab-lished in five places. I EDUCATION \ Plans for introducing the platoon system in Indian boarding schools were extended to only eight schools because of insufficient funds. The schools so selected are at Carson, Nev.; Cheyenne and I Arapaho, Okla.; Fort Sill, Okla.; Mount Pleasant, Mich.; Pima, Ariz.; Rapid City, S. Dak.; Seneca, Okla, and Wahpeton, N. Dak At several of these scbools money was not available to secure the necessary teachers. While the system properly applied utilizes during classroom hours all available school space, including the auditorium, effecting an economy of space and time for the pupils, yet a sufficient number of teachers must be employed to give the continuous instruction involved. The stringency in the amounts appropriated for the schools has sometimes prevented the purchase of essential food and other supplies. As these expenses and other overhead expenses must be first met, sufficient funds may not and have not always remained with which to employ the additional teachers or employees to give the instrnc-tion required under the platoon system. Reports of examinations from nearly all of the schools have shown a high percentage of promotions earned to the next higher grade. The service has looked foxward to morning and afternoon class-room sessions for all pupils of the first, second, and third grades, and eventually of all six elementary grades, in lieu of the long con-i tinued practice of one-half day only of instruction proper and one-half day work detail. In many schools, however, there have not t been enough teachers to conduct all-day classes, even for the first three grades. It has been, recognized in the past that too much institutional routine labor, detrimental to educational advancement, has been required of the pupils. The three-fourths-one-fourth day plan announced in the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the fiscal year 1926 was intended to alleviate this condition to some extent. In May of this year further steps were taken to provide additional free time for the pupils, without employment other than their own pursuits, or perhaps supervised but nondirected pastimes. |